Chapter 5

Michael couldn't sleep. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was Fiona with Kira. He couldn't forget the look of contentment on her face when she held that baby in her arms. She was getting too close, even though she knew better. Every moment that child was awake, either Fi or his mom carried her around or sat and held her, spoiling her with attention. They played and kept her entertained, which was fine, because it kept him from being concerned about their small client. He just wasn't looking forward to the aftermath when she was gone and Fiona's arms would be empty again.

Then he began to think about a future and what it would be like with children in it. She knew it was dangerous. After all, look at the situation that Kyle and Andrea were in, and they weren't even spies! He could't imagine Fiona and himself taking on cases that would put his family in danger, or his going off on a mission that the CIA called him to do, leaving her home alone. Yet he knew this was what she wanted more than anything. If he failed her and didn't give her the desire of her heart, he risked losing her forever. She meant too much to him to let that happen, because he knew that without Fiona, he was only a piece of himself.

He got up and went downstairs when he noticed that both Fiona and Kira were not in bed. She sat in the middle of the couch, and Kira lay to her right sleeping. He watched in the shadows from the one lamp shining across the room as Fiona stroked the little girl's hair.

Fiona heard him breathing and looked up with astonishment. "Michael!"

"Hi, Fi." He smiled and took a seat next to her. "Why are you up?"

"Kira was fussy. I tried feeding her some new food today, and I don't think it agreed with her."

"Food allergy?" He glanced at the sleeping baby with concern on his face.

"Maybe. She only had a little bit. I've been careful about introducing too much to her at one time. I don't know what she'd been eating before..." She let out a breath. "Honestly, Michael, sometimes when I think about how abruptly they left her, it makes me want to scream. No instructions, no supplies... It's criminal."

"Fi, I understand."

"Do you really?"

He could tell that she didn't believe him, so he kept his mouth shut rather than raise her temper even more.

"I've been starting to think that maybe it would be best if these parents are caught and prosecuted, not just for stealing those secrets and the car, but for child abandonment. They should have found someone they knew to leave Kira with. Like that Rob fellow."

"And then those people would also be in danger." He enveloped her in his arms and she readily sank into them. He lightly caressed her back and spoke softly. "I understand your anger, Fi. I don't like it any more than you do. But I'm thankful that she wound up where she did. Just think about that. She's in the best place she could be right now."

"You're right." She pulled back and looked into his eyes. "You're absolutely right. I'm scared, for Kira and her future, for us and our future..."

"What's there to be scared about? I love you, Fi. I'm not letting you go, ever again."

"Can I get that in writing," Fiona asked with a serious tone.

With a slight smile on his face and a sparkle in his eyes, Michael reached out with his index finger and drew an 'x' over her heart. "I promise." Then he lifted his hand to her face, cradled it, and closed the gap between their lips as he kissed her deeply. She melted into him and would have gotten lost in his love, but the baby stirred.

Kira made a soft noise and rolled to her side. Michael broke contact with Fiona and looked down at her. "She can do that?"

"Of course, Michael. She's six months old. She's been creeping around the floor, trying to crawl. She's so close. It's amazing to watch her, how every day she picks up a new skill or develops another one slowly. I'm going to miss that when she's gone."

The baby whimpered, and Michael reached out to touch her shoulder. She twitched at the contact and her thumb popped into her mouth. He smiled at the picture she made. "She must be dreaming." Then he turned to Fiona. "Can she do that?"

"Oh, Michael, you have so much to learn!" She turned out of his grip and picked her up. Kira's eyes opened briefly, but when she settled on Fiona's shoulder she went back to sleep. "I should put her in the crib, and we should get some sleep."

"I couldn't agree more." Michael turned off the lamp and followed her and the baby upstairs. He watched as Fiona lay Kira in the crib, and when she turned around he was there with his hands on her shoulders and his lips waiting for hers. Between kisses, he spoke. "I love you, Fi. And I love what this baby has done to you." He pulled her down onto the bed. "Don't ever forget this time, and don't ever change."

"There's a way to make that happen," she whispered.

"We'll talk about that." But right now, he had more important things on his mind.

Jesse knocked on the screen door and announced his arrival. "Hey, it's me!"

"Come on in, Jesse," Michael said as he let him inside. "Want something to drink?"

"Maybe later. I just got out of a two-coffee meeting, so I'm running on caffeine right now." He entered the dining room and heard a noise. "Hey, that sounds like a baby."

"It is a baby," Fiona replied with a smile as she brought Kira with her from the living room. "This is Kira. Kira, this is Jesse. He's going to help us take down those big bad men that are after your mommy and daddy." She snuggled the baby in her arms.

"You didn't mention there was a kid involved," Jesse said to Michael, who stood watching the scene. Jesse moved to the dining room table and sat. "I think you all better start at the beginning and tell me what's going on."

Michael sat across from him and explained. "In a nutshell, the baby's father, Kyle Rollins, wanted to sell secrets that he worked on for his employer at Aerocorp. He approached The Harding Group and they were interested. But somewhere along the line, Kyle must have gotten cold feet and reneged on the deal."

Sam suddenly entered through the back door. "It's just me! Hey Jesse, how's it goin'?"

"Michael was just getting me up to speed on this situation."

Sam laid his computer on the table and approached Fiona and the baby. When she saw Sam, Kira let out a squeal and grinned at him, and her hand reached out. "Hey there, sweetie!" He plucked her out of Fiona's arms and gave her a hug, and then took her to the table. She sat on his leg and banged her hands on the surface and babbled.

Jesse smiled at her. "I guess she kind of likes you, huh, Sam?"

"Hey, what can I say? It's the Sam Axe charm." He chuckled. Fiona gave Kira a toy to play with in place of the table top, and then Sam got down to business. "Okay, how far did you get, Mike?"

"To the point where we think Kyle changed his mind about this deal," Michael answered, then continued. "After that Harding's men pursued him and his family. We think they ditched their car at some point, either stole or borrowed another vehicle, and drove around looking for a safe place to leave their daughter."

"Rollins and his wife dropped her off at Fi's apartment and took off," Sam said. "At some point, they parked their vehicle at the airport, but after that, who knows."

Michael continued the briefing. "From what I heard after bugging Harding's office, his men lost them, and they just disappeared. I've been monitoring that bug on and off, but there's nothing new. Harding is ready to go ballistic if they don't find him soon. He's afraid that the cops will find him first and he'll spill what he knows about The Harding Group's seamier side."

"So what do we do about the couple?"

Michael shrugged. "Not much we can do, Jesse. He's probably dug in somewhere until they stop pursuing him or..."

"Or we take Harding down," Jesse finished. "I got it. How do you propose to do that?"

"We make him an offer. I'll tell Harding that Kyle sold the secrets to me because he didn't want to deal directly anymore. I'll set up a time and a place for the exchange, and we make sure the cops are around to arrest him." Michael turned to Sam. "Did you talk to Paxson?"

"Yeah, I met with her this morning. I gave her that plate number, the one on the car Kyle was driving, as well as the one from Harding's men. She's promised that they'll put an APB on Kyle's car, but if they find him, they'll treat this with extreme care. The other guys, not so much." He smiled.

"Good. What did she say about support for a meet?"

Sam's smile grew. "Mike, her department has been trying to get something on Harding for a long time. He's been a bad boy, and buying and selling government secrets is just the tip of the iceberg. She was only too happy to offer us whatever assistance we needed. Of course, she would have rather taken over the whole operation herself, but with the CIA involvement, it was kind of out of her hands."

"Perfect. No doubt a few cop snipers would come in handy," Jesse said.

"That's what I'm thinking." Sam agreed. He looked at Michael. "Where are we going to do this?"

"I need to meet with Harding again, let him know what I've got. Otherwise, I won't be able to convince him that I'm serious." Michael's fingers tapped on the dining room table. "Sam, is there a way to find out what Kyle was working on and get some copied files? I know you were able to find out it was something for the Air Force, but unless we know exactly what it is, I don't think I can sell Harding on the fact that I have it." He paused and grinned. "Even though I don't have it."

"I can go see his boss, Rob Lennox, and see if he can give up something that's not exactly classified, but legit enough to make this appear real."

"Okay, Sam. Go for it. In the meantime, Jesse, can you hang around here?"

"I'm free all day." Jesse said as he spread his hands out wide. "I wouldn't be dressed like this otherwise." He wore jeans and a casual shirt.

Michael smiled. "Great. Let's pick some areas and go scout them out, figure out which ones would be good for having this meeting."

"Alright, sounds good."

"Sam, when you get the info, bring it back here and I'll give Harding a call. See if we can lure him in."

"You got it." He picked up Kira, who all that time sat quietly on Sam's lap playing with a little stuffed dog. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and handed her to Maddie. "Time for me to go, Princess. You be a good girl!"

"She's the best baby I've ever sat with," Maddie said, her cheeks reddening as she glanced at Michael. Then she grinned and patted his cheek, adding, "Except for you, honey."

He looked up into her eyes. "Mom, don't BS me. You know Nate and I were probably the worst babies on the planet!"

"No, just when you got older." Her eyes crinkled as she bounced Kira and took her to the kitchen. "Come on, honey, let's get you a snack!" Fiona was already in the kitchen preparing a small bowl of cereal for her.

"You set yourself up for that one, Mikey," Sam said as he left the room. "See you later!"

Sam called Rob Lennox on his way to Aerocorp, and he was only too happy to see the man helping to find his star employee. When he arrived, Rob waited in the lobby with a badge for him to wear and he signed himself in.

"Come on, Sam, I want to show you Kyle's work area. Maybe there's something that will help your investigation."

He led Sam past the smiling receptionist across a wide open area and down a long hallway that was all glass on the left side, giving them a view of the parking lot and a large parklike setting. To the right were a series of closed doors with windows beside them that were closed off by blinds.

"What's the status on Kyle's job, since he hasn't called in," Sam asked. "At least, I'm assuming he hasn't called in."

"Actually, I want to talk to you about that, later. But as far as his employment, management has decided that Kyle is too valuable to lose, so they're keeping him on for the time being." Rob looked uneasy. "However, if it's true that he conspired to steal this project, I'm afraid they'll have no choice but to fire him and take action."

"Prosecute, you mean."

"Yes." Sadness filled Rob's eyes, and he shook his head slowly. "I still can't believe that he wanted to do something so stupid. He's a smart guy!"

"Until he comes out of the dark, we'll never know why he wanted to do it. We're just concerned with getting Harding off his back, and creating conditions that will encourage him to come out. After that, we'll leave it up to the police to sort things."

"We'd rather not get the police involved, Sam. We don't want negative publicity." Rob stopped in front of a door. This one was different than most of the others. Instead of a key lock, it had a fingerprint reader.

"I understand that, but they can't help but get involved. There's a stolen car factored in, and right now they're trying to find it. If they do, and Kyle is still in possession of it, they'll arrest him. So I guess no matter how this goes down, he's in trouble and Aerocorp gets a black eye."

Rob breathed out. "I really wish things would have been different." He pressed his finger to the pad and the door unlocked. "This is Kyle's office, and it leads to the lab. I'm afraid I can't take you there, but maybe you'll find enough in his office that you can use." He stepped aside and let Sam in, closed the door behind them, and sat in a chair near the door. "I'll have to stay here, of course, while you look around."

"I expected that." Sam moved around the desk and sat in Kyle's chair.

The office wasn't very large, and the l-shaped oversized desk with a credenza behind it and three chairs were crammed inside leaving very little walking room. A couple of file cabinets stood in one corner. The desk top was covered with paperwork, files, and small parts. A computer and a few family photographs sat to the left of Sam's elbow. He picked up one of the parts and asked, "Are any of these pieces related to the Air Force project?"

"No, they're not. That's something else Kyle is working on, it's farther down the pipe."

Sam nodded. He set the part back where he found it and flipped open files and scanned them. "Can you tell me if this project had a name?"

Rob hesitated, and Sam looked up at him. The man grasped the arm rests and answered, "It's called Project Condor. I, uh, I really can't tell you much more. I really shouldn't even have let you in here, but...I don't know what else to do. We want Kyle back safe and sound."

He went back to studying the papers on Kyle's desk, but now and then Sam took a quick glance toward Rob. The man seemed nervous. Perhaps he was allowing Sam access that wasn't approved by his superiors, and he was afraid of being sucked into whatever web caught Kyle and made him try to sell this technology.

"Okay, I think I found something." Sam picked up a sheet of paper from within a folder. "Can I use this?"

Rob took the paper and scanned it quickly. "These are Kyle's preliminary notes on the project. It's changed so much since these were made, so I suppose you could use it as proof without really giving anything away."

"Okay." He pushed the chair back from the desk and spun around to turn on the small copier machine on the end of the credenza. Next to it was a door. "Is that the way to the lab?"

"Yes, but like I said, you can't go in there. My superiors would...well, I can't afford to lose my job, Sam. I have five kids to feed, private school tuition, a mortgage, you know. It's tight enough as it is."

Alarm bells went off in Sam's head, but he kept his expression even. He made a couple of copies of the paper and returned it to the folder. Slipping the copies into his shirt pocket, he said, "Thanks, Rob. You've been a big help."

"You're welcome, Sam. If there's anything else you need, just let me know." He led Sam back to the lobby. Under his breath, he added, "Although I hope you got all you needed from that office, because I took a big risk letting you in there today."

"Don't worry. I've got what I needed." Sam left the building, and he was surprised to find Rob following him. He turned and asked, "Is there something else?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to talk about it in there. I...I got a phone call from Kyle last night at home."

"Really? What'd he say?"

"Of course, he asked if I'd heard anything about the baby, and I told him that she's in good hands." A small smile wiped away the unease on Rob's face. "I also told him that there were people looking into the situation and that they were working to take down Harding. He said he would call in a couple of days to get an update."

"Was he calling from a cell phone?"

"No, he left his cell behind at the house. He said he was calling from a pay phone, but he wouldn't say where he was."

"Okay, thanks. At least we sort of have a line to him. I'll let you know when we're ready to pull this off, and hopefully we'll have it all cleaned up by the next time he calls. Then he can come out of hiding."

"This isn't going to end well for him, is it."

Sam shook his head. "Not with the stolen car, but if that's the worst thing he gets charged with, maybe it won't be so bad. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Thanks, Sam." Rob turned and walked quickly back to the building, his hands shoved into his pockets, bent over and watching his own footsteps.

You're just too easy, Rob. I know you're involved in this somehow.

Sam returned to Maddie's and delivered the notes to Michael. "This was all I could get, Mike. Rob was pretty nervous about me getting that, but I think it should be enough to convince Harding we've got what he wants."

"Thanks, Sam. I'll make the call and get things set up with Harding." He left the room and went outside.

Jesse was in the sun room with Fiona and Maddie. Fiona sat in a half reclined position in her chair, and a sweet little bundle of baby dressed in a cute yellow sundress and diaper cover lay over her. He was about to greet them but he just held up a hand when he saw the child was sleeping on her stomach, her little fist curled up near her mouth.

"Isn't she cute," Maddie asked with a big smile.

"Yes, she is," Sam replied softly. As he stared at her, he thought about her parents and the trouble her father was in. All he could think about was a little girl growing up without her daddy, and it tore at his heart. He could relate to that kind of life, and he hoped that she would never have to experience it herself.

"We just wore her out playing with her," Fiona said with a soft voice. "She's starting to crawl around, and that's a lot of work."

"If she's here any longer, I'll have to baby proof the house!"

"Yeah." Sam couldn't say any more. As nice as it was for them to have Kira around, the reality was that she would have to go home soon. It was better if he didn't encourage their thoughts of her staying longer.

Jesse got out of his seat and headed for the kitchen. Sam followed. "How'd things go at Aerocorp?"

"I found something that Mike thinks he can use. I sure hope he can, because Rob got real squirrelly about me taking something that could be sensitive information." He opened the fridge, pulled out a container of iced tea, and poured them each a glass. "And he said something, Jesse. Something that got my suspicions up."

"What was it?"

"He said he couldn't afford to lose his job because he had five kids, and basically he's living a lifestyle that requires a lot of money. I don't think Kyle was in on this alone. I think Rob either put him up to it to make him the fall guy, or he and Kyle worked on this deal together. My gut is telling me that Rob set him up to take the blame."

"Ah, so maybe things are tightening up, and he got nervous about keeping his family in the lap of luxury, so he sold a secret here and there."

"I think this is the first time he's done it, Jesse. He was far too nervous about it. If he'd done it successfully before and gotten away with it, he would have had a cooler head."

"Okay, but how are you going to prove it?"

Sam left the kitchen and opened his computer. "Let my fingers do the walking. I'll see what I can come up with on Rob Lennox."

When Michael entered the house he found Sam typing at his computer and Jesse taking notes on what appeared on the screen. Judging by the way they worked and how fast Sam's fingers flew over the keyboard, they found something good.

"What's up, Sam? Jesse?"

Sam looked up at Michael, sighed, and rested his chin on his fist. "Our buddy Rob isn't as innocent as we thought. Sit down, and we'll fill you in."

Michael sat to Sam's left and leaned forward, his arms on the table. "So?"

"Rob Lennox has a big family, two nice cars, a big house and he's drowning in debt. Sounds like a recipe for stealing from the company," Sam said. "To make matters worse, I found some information on Aerocorp. They're not doing so well, even with the government contracts. There's talk about downsizing, so I'm thinking that Rob is trying to get what he can out of the company before he gets the axe."

"But do you have anything to back this up?"

"No definitive proof yet. If we had more time, I'd suggest doing some surveillance on the guy, but we've got a date with Harding, don't we?"

"He wants to meet with me to see what I have, and then we'll go from there," Michael replied. "We're meeting tomorrow at the coffee house where I listened to the bug."

"Want me to monitor the meet," Sam asked.

"Yes. Jesse, track Rob Lennox."

"Will do." He glanced at his watch. "I'll go get ready for a long night sitting in the car."

After Jesse left, Sam said, "He makes it sound so glamorous, doesn't he?"