Come home

Sorry to say, there will be nothing over the weekend.

9/5/98

Fiona's mouth was dry, her heart was hammering, there was a tightness in her throat and stomach which usually preceded vomiting.

"OK." Sam said loudly. "Adam checked in at 1400 hours local time, 1200 hours GMT. He was due to clock in again at-"

"Eight o'clock in the evening, Greenwich Meantime, ten o'clock local time." Chris took over. "He is, at present, twelve hours, twenty-six minutes overdue."

"That's bad, even by Adam's standards." Fiona breathed, not trusting her voice with more. Sam nodded.

"Chris, this is a red flag now."

"I know. I told Greg to report him missing this morning if he hadn't reported in. He's doing it now."

"Tash, spread a map of the area out on the briefing room table. Sarah, get on the phone with Fire-eye. He's the one Adam was meant to be working with."

"Done that." Greg called. "Fire-eye says he sent Adam out to get intel from an asset at 1700 hours local time yesterday and hasn't seen or heard from him since. No one has." 1700 hours local time yesterday. 1500 hours here. Almost 18 hours unaccounted for. What could have happened to him in that time?

"Pull the asset's file, look for anything useful." Sam was giving orders again. "Sarah, call Fire-eye and tell him to get the rendez-vous checked out, by a group. We don't want anyone else to disappear. Fiona, sit down and put your head between your knees. You look like you're about to faint."

Fiona sank down, breathing hard and shakily. The backs of her eyes prickled.

"Can you blame her?" Sarah asked.

Where on earth was Adam? What had happened to him? Was he dead? Captured? Pinned down? Or left somewhere alive, but too badly hurt to reach help, dying even now, alone and helpless?

"Fiona?" Sam knelt down in front of her. She raised her head, eyes brimming with unshed tears. Sam sighed. "Fiona, I know this is tough, I know you're scared. So am I. No one wants to lose Adam, we all know what he means to you. I need you with us, OK? You're usually quite good with this, aren't you?" Fiona nodded. "We both know Adam's good. He's good at getting himself out of danger, and he's very difficult to kill." Sam paused. "Has something else happened between you? Is there something I need to know?"

Something had happened. She was fairly sure of it now. She was three days overdue, had thrown up yesterday morning, felt like she was going to again and this... emotional vulnerability wasn't like her at all. If she was pregnant, if their child had started to grow inside her... Oh God, if she was pregnant and he didn't come back...

Panic bit her, nausea surged with it. She muttered an apology to Sam and got out of there as fast as she could.

Sam stood up, sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Anyone know why she's taking this so badly?" He asked the room at large.

"She kinda likes Adam." Tash said, very sarcastically.

"That's not new. She's usually very controlled."

"Fascinating as this is, Sam," Chris interjected, "can we return to the officer who is possibly in very immediate danger. As I see it, there are six generic possibilities: Adam has either been killed, injured so he is immobile, captured, pinned down, his cell has been blown open and he's been forced to make away on foot or he has defected." Sam shook his head.

"He won't have defected. He wouldn't leave Fiona and he's far too loyal."

"If the cell had been blown open," Greg put in, "Fire-eye would have said the code-word. We'd know."

"That leaves pinned down, captured, injured or pushing up daisies." Tash surmised. "Lucky him."