Alex paced her hotel room, wearing a park on the floor from the front door to the window that overlooked historic Vienna. Her face was clouded with mixed emotions. Finally, she stopped and sat down at the table by the window and pulled a cell phone out of her pocket.
"It's done. She's alive," she told the person on the other end.
"Good," the person replied without emotion.
"Are you going to make me sorry that I betrayed my father… for you? A man who's too foolish to have told my - sister - and I apart?"
The man sighed. "That was the first time we met, Alex. And there was that other factor to consider."
"Yes, I know that," she groaned. "But enough of your sob story. I want to know what happens next."
"You let her go."
"That's succinct, even for you. Really, what's next?" Alex rubbed her eyes. She didn't have time for this.
"I mean it. Let her go."
"You're crazy. Or has the unnamed situation come back to haunt you?"
"Very funny, Alex. Marissa might have asked me the same thing," the man replied with a hint of amusement.
"Then it proves that I'm doing well as an operative in the field, as opposed to being virtually locked up in headquarters."
The man said nothing.
"I'll contact you later," Alex said before pressing the disconnect button.
"Marissa?" Hanna called in a gentle tone as she knocked lightly on the hotel room door. "Can I come in?"
The agent didn't answer, but the door opened anyway.
Hanna studied the other woman's features for a sign of what had happened on the phone call, but found nothing.
Marissa sighed and gestured for Hanna to come in.
"Are you all right?" Hanna sat down on one of the beds.
Marissa shook her head. "No. Maybe. I don't know." She joined Hanna on the bed and lowered her voice so Hanna could just make out her words. "I called my mother. She confirmed that Alex is my twin sister and… that we're not hers. Gordon was our father, but he had an affair somewhere in Europe and that's where we came from. I trusted my mother, Hanna, as much as I could trust anyone as I was growing up. I'm not even her daughter."
"I'm not Erik's biological daughter but he was a father to me in every way that counted," Hanna said.
Marissa looked at Hanna with the respect that she would give to an equal, as she now considered Hanna. "Good point. So Alex, according to my mother, was left behind here, wherever we were born, to be turned into some kind of a soldier."
"Like Utrax," Hanna commented.
"I thought you were it's beginning," Marissa continued, "but could it really have started over twenty years earlier? Only my father knew the answer to that."
"Or Alex," Hanna suggested. "Maybe she knows why she was trained."
"Or what she was trained for," Marissa added. "It's not going to be easy to get answers, but I won't stop until I have them." Her face hardened into the resolute, unfeeling expression that Hanna had known when she had still been in pursuit of the young woman across Europe.
Hanna thought it best to say nothing. She and Marissa knew one another well enough for her to understand that the agent would do things her own way, implicitly relying on Hanna to back her up while taking the initiative to do what she could on her own to help. It was how they worked together best, the dynamic that had led them this far.
"I am so tired," Marissa said, as if suddenly discovering the fact that the past few days had been exhausting.
"I'll stay awake if you want to get some rest," Hanna offered.
Marissa stared at her with gratitude. The right thing would be to refuse Hanna's offer because the blonde had undoubtedly been through as much turmoil as she herself had done, but she felt as if she could not go on for another minute without sleep. "That would be great. I wish you didn't need to be a lookout, but I don't trust Alex at all."
Hanna shook her head. "Me either."
Marissa allowed herself to fall backward into the best of pillows. She kicked her shoes off and curled up on her side.
"Are you cold? I'll get you a blanket," Hanna shivered a little as the room was chilly.
"Yes," Marissa's reply was barely perceptible as she was nearly asleep. "Thank you, Hanna. For… everything."
The agent was sleeping soundly by the time Hanna returned with two blankets from the small linen closet next to the door, one for Marissa and one for herself. She covered the sleeping woman and marveled at how peaceful Marissa could appear when unburdened by the worries of the conscious world. What if she'd been allowed to live a normal life?
Hanna sat in the chair by the table and gazed through the window at the city below. Vienna was beautiful and foreboding all at once because she knew very well that it was a longtime haven for spies. She was interrupted by Marissa tossing and turning on the bed, her previous peaceful state very short-lived.
"No!" She nearly shouted in her sleep. "You can't have that! Tell me why you stayed!"
Hanna sprang to her feet and didn't know whether she should awaken Marissa. But the agent suddenly sat upright and opened her eyes.
"If Alex never lived in the States, how did she get a locket like mine?"