I am going to apologize right up front for this chapter. It has a lot of the script in it! But if you get past that, it has some key little changes. Also this will be followed by my own interlude chapter with just Annie and Eyal.
Everyone that reviewed my previous chapter, THANK YOU SO MUCH :) :) I LOVE every single one. You keep me going! I will reply personally to each of you as soon as I get a chance!
Please Read and Review! I hope you enjoy :)
Dig For Fire Rewrite
By Elanen
Annie expertly maneuvered her red Volkswagen through the late evening traffic. It had been one hell of a work day. Arthur Campbell's resignation the day before had sent the entire department into a tizzy.
With relief she pulled into the driveway of her house. Well, it was still her sister's house. Danielle and Michael were waiting to put the house on the market until they finished moving the rest of their stuff to California. It was taking them a suspicious amount of time. No doubt her sister's ploy to give her as much time here as she could.
But Danielle didn't know what had transpired here. Since Simon's death Annie had stuck to her small apartment in the addition, avoiding the main house all together. That could only last so long. When her stay at Eyal's D.C. apartment had fallen through, she had only returned here as a last result. She had every intention of moving out as soon as possible, but had not found the time.
Moving in through the gate, Annie halted as her spy senses flared. The back door that led into her sister's kitchen had been forced open. She pulled her gun and flashlight from her purse. She slowly approached and kicked the door gently to the side. Entering the house, she clicked the flashlight on. She quickly surveyed the room and leveled her weapon at the intruder.
"Since when did you start carrying on US soil?" Arthur Campbell was reclining casually in one of the kitchen chairs.
"Since the last time someone broke into my kitchen." Her voice was edged with flint, but she lowered the gun and flipped on the overhead light. "How'd you get in here?"
"Don't worry. I lost whatever press was tailing me. Last thing I need right now is to be caught having an illicit meeting with some young blonde."
"Is that supposed to be a joke?" She spat. "How could you do this to Joan?"
"You don't get to ask questions yet." Arthur stood and approached her. "What were you doing in Colombia?"
Annie considered the ex-DCS Director before pulling the file from her bag. She laid it on the kitchen island. "I was investigating the transfer of funds from your personal account to the Puma – a known terrorist."
"Henry Wilcox gave this to you?" She nodded.
He looked through the pages. She stopped him on one of the pictures. "Is, uh, this the woman you, uh?" How to put this delicately.
"That I resigned over?" He shook his head. "No, this is Teresa Hamilton. She's a cutout for the Puma."
"What is Teo's connection to you, Arthur? What's going on here?"
"I thought you already knew." Arthur was watching her closely, and she could see the debate in his eyes. "I think we're done here."
"Arthur…" Annie was interrupted by her cell phone buzzing. She went to silence it when she recognized the number. She pointed at Arthur and motioned for him to stay.
"Hello?"
"I have news." Eyal's smooth Israeli accent sounded in her ear.
"Yeah… Arthur's with me." She let him know she couldn't talk. Arthur's eyebrows rose at the mention of his name.
"I don't have much time." He said in a rush. "I did some digging…"
There was suddenly a jumble of noises, and she caught herself just in time from calling out his name in front of Arthur.
He came back on the line breathing hard. "Ask Arthur if Braga is his son. I'll explain later if he doesn't. And this number's not good anymore." The line went dead, and she stared at her phone in concern for a moment.
Arthur was watching her.
"Is Teo your son?"
His eyes darkened. "Who was that?" he pointed at her phone.
"A friend. It doesn't matter. Is Teo your son?" She reiterated.
"Was it Auggie? I know you had someone assisting you."
"Auggie? Why…" The pieces snapped into place. "Of course, Auggie opened the account. He would know it was for your son."
Arthur was torn.
"Listen Arthur, I think I have made my side clear." She indicated the file that lay open between them. "But I can't help you unless you trust me."
He sighed and conceded. "I had no business having a kid. I was still basically one myself – just out of Annapolis, my first overseas tour. And Teo's mom, her name was Ana. Ana Sofia. I didn't learn she was pregnant until I was out in the middle of the Pacific. If I had to do it all over again, I would have proposed to her right then and there and begged her to come join me as soon as she could. But I was young and scared.
"So what happened?" Annie prompted
"She had the baby. Her parents became a huge obstacle. They refused to let her marry me. They made it very difficult for me to see my son. But, uh… but we still managed to steal a few moments here and there.
"And where's Ana Sofia now?"
"She died." Annie could hear the pain in Arthur's voice. This was a side to him she had never seen. "Her parents took Teo in, cut me off from him completely. It wasn't until they passed years later that Teo and I were able to reconnect. And that hasn't been easy. You know… I suppose I tried too hard to make it all up to him. There's a part of him that keeps…that keeps pushing me away. But lately he's become erratic."
"That's accurate, with what I saw." She agreed. "Does Joan know about Teo?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Joan and I had challenges trying to start a family, and I suppose I was… You know, I was afraid of admitting just how much being a father meant to me." "Does Henry know Teo's my son?"
"He hasn't said anything to me."
"If he does know, he'll do everything in his power to exploit it to ruin me."
"He's going to want to hear what I found out in Colombia. I can try and see if he knows the truth about Teo." She offered.
"Well you can't ask him directly. He will have to volunteer it."
"What if he doesn't?"
Arthur thought about it for a minute. "Confirm everything else. Tell him I am funding the Puma."
"What?"
"Earn some trust, some goodwill, and we'll see what he does with the information. Henry always finds a way to profit from other people's problems." "How soon could you arrange a meet?"
"I can ask to meet him in the morning. He has to be just as anxious to know what I uncovered."
Arthur contemplated the file one more time before closing the folder. "Why give this to you, Annie? What did Henry say?"
Annie looked away.
"If you are going to help me with this, you have to be just as honest as I am with you. Like why Henry disclosed this Intel to you, and who revealed Teo was my son?"
"Teo as your son was just a hunch." She was quick to cover for Eyal. He clearly did not believe her, but she continued. "Henry gave me the Intel because of Jai."
"What does Jai have to do with any of this?" Her words distracted him from his former line of questioning.
"He was lying." She shook her head. "He gave me the Intel because he knew I wouldn't be able to pass on it."
"What did he say specifically, Annie?" Arthur was watching her intently.
She sighed. "He said that Jai liked me and trusted me. He wanted to spare me the Bloodletting about to hit Langley for his son's sake." She paused. "He said you would resign, Arthur… and he was right."
Arthur smiled sadly at her. "He was right about one thing. Jai cared about you. Contact me when you have the meeting set." He patted her arm and left.
XXXXX
"Thanks for meeting me on such short notice." Annie joined Henry Wilcox at the railing of the patio. As she had expected, he had been eager to meet when she had called the night before.
"You said it was important."
"Well, I just got back from Colombia."
"You verify the Intel in the file?" Henry asked.
"The truth is even more damning." She shook her head. "The funds are being funneled directly to Teo Braga."
"The Puma." She nodded at his words. "What about the woman in the photos? Got any ID?"
"She's a cutout, like you said. Arthur said her name was Teresa Hamilton. I can't figure out his play here." Annie tried to draw him out.
He snorted. "I've never had any success trying to discern Arthur's motives. Were you able to discover the extent of Arthur's relationship with Teo Braga?"
She tried to judge the answer in his eyes. "No."
"Well, then thank you for sharing." Henry was abruptly done, and he made for the door.
"Wait!" She turned to face him. "That's it?" She was genuinely confused.
"Well, I'm sorry. You asked for the meeting. I thought we were through." It seemed Henry had reigned himself in, and he was acting like this entire situation was her idea.
"Well, what's the next thing you want me to do? I mean, when I said I was in, I meant it."
"I think you misunderstood our last meeting." He shook his head condescendingly. "I wasn't asking you to do anything with the file. I was simply… extending a professional courtesy."
"Right." Sure. "And I appreciate that…"
"Then why'd you already read somebody else in?" He hissed.
Annie was thrown for a loop. "What?"
"You had an associate with you in Colombia. Did you think I wouldn't find out? Not CIA from the looks of him. So who is he?"
Annie could only stare at him.
"Ah, no matter. I will know soon enough. You should take more care in the future with whom you share that file with, Miss Walker. It is dangerous information." He gave her a quizzical look. "I had thought of anyone you would turn to Anderson not an outsider. Well, if you get the notion to share again, don't."
Annie desperately tried to focus. "Auggie is implicated in that file. His security clearance got dinged just like you said. Now Arthur. How did you know that was going to happen?"
He shook his head. "I expected more from you."
She waited until he was out of sight before she let her true feelings show. She clutched the railing tightly and blew out her breath. When had Eyal been drawn into this? Henry was powerful. She had no doubt he would figure out just who had been with her in Colombia.
"Eyal can take care of himself." She told herself, but the thought did little to ease her worry. The price you pay when you care about someone.
Returning to the task at hand she pulled out her phone and hurried after Henry.
"What happened?" Arthur answered her call.
"Our fish has taken the bait." She maneuvered her car into traffic behind Henry.
XXXXX
Annie tailed Henry for several blocks before he parked, and placed a call on a pay phone.
"Where are you? You haven't been in this morning?" Auggie's worried tone answered her call.
"I need you to run a trace on the pay phone on 14th and Pennsylvania." How far could she push before Auggie demanded answers.
"A pay phone? I swear, sometimes I am convinced the phone company keeps them around for spies."
"It was an outgoing call two minutes ago and an incoming one just now." She parked her car and continued to follow Henry as he left the pay phone on foot.
"Why don't you tell me what's going on?" Apparently she couldn't stall him for long.
"I'm trailing Henry Wilcox."
"What? Why?" Auggie was alarmed.
"To see what he does with the Intel I gave him."
"I'm sorry. What Intel that you got from where to accomplish what?"
"Uh, I have a lot to explain to you, Auggie, but now is not a good time."
"Okay. Now I just have more questions."
"Soon. I promise. I got to go. Give me a call when you get a trace on that phone."
"Will do. And be careful, Walker."
XXXXX
It didn't take Auggie long to call back.
"Finished running the trace on the pay phone Henry used."
"Anything yet?" Annie asked.
"A call was placed to Langley's main switchboard."
"No wonder he used a pay phone." Annie paused. Henry was milling about in the crowd a flight below her. She had followed him into the metro station, and he seemed to be waiting for a train. "Could you trace which extension he was connected to?"
"No, it gets rerouted after that."
"And the incoming?"
"Burner phone, paid for with cash at a vending machine at the Frankfurt airport. In other words – Untraceable." Auggie supplied. "Hey, why do I hear an echo?"
"I'm in the Metro Station at the Federal Triangle."
"Annie, that is twenty-nine different kinds of ill-advised. If he spots you, you can't walk this back." She did not need the reminder.
Henry's train arrived, and she rushed to keep eyes on him. "This is my train. I'll call you as soon as I can." She ended the conversation and ducked into the car next to Henry.
She almost lost him once, and he almost spotted her, but she managed to shadow him to the seventh floor of a tall office building and into a door marked Solstar Oil.
She found a maintenance hallway and once again called Auggie. "What can you tell me about the Solstar Oil Company?"
"Solstar's a regional heavyweight in the energy-services business, big footprint in Colombia. They're pumping close to 300,000 barrels a day out of their field in Casanare, or, to be more specific, they were pumping that much until about two weeks ago."
"The Ayacucho pipeline bombing." She remembered hearing about that. It made more sense now. "Courtesy of our friend Teo Braga and the ALC."
There was a long silence on Auggie's end. "How… Where…"
"Are you really going to pretend you didn't know I went to Colombia?"
"No, I knew." He sighed. "I guess hoped it really was just for vacation."
"I'm sorry, Auggie. I didn't want to lie to you."
"I get it, Annie. Were spies. It comes with the territory. Let's just try to be more open with each other, yeah?"
"Of course, Auggie. We need to have a drink and share what we know, but right now…" Annie stopped in front of a door marked Communications Room and an idea struck. "I haven't done taps since the farm. Think you can walk me through it?"
"Oh, it's like riding a bike, only the bike isn't breaking the fourth amendment." He chuckled. "All right, what you want to create is a slave parallel wiretap. You'll need Solstar's target line. They should be grouped by floor number."
She searched for the right one. "Okay, got it."
"You'll need an unused line you can pirate to eavesdrop from. You're listening for a dial tone. That's your parallel. Now create your slave."
She followed his instructions. "Uh, I'm one wire short, though."
"Hey, what about your headset? Do you have wire cutter?"
"No, but I have teeth." She grinned.
"Well, that'll do the trick." He laughed.
"Signing off." She went to work.
XXXXX
The CIA's been secretly financing the ALC under the table. It's why Arthur Campbell had to step down. He has a personal connection to Teo Braga.
Teo Braga? What kind of connection?
I'm afraid that's classified. But believe me, it's a bond that cannot easily be severed.
Annie and Auggie had met up with Arthur at his hotel room, and they were all listening intently to Annie's pilfered audio.
"He knows." Arthur was worried. "He knows Teo's identity. He knows he's my son."
"I'm sorry, Arthur." Annie was not sure where to go from here.
"I need to confront him."
"Disagree." Auggie chimed in. "We work the Intel. We still have a potential mole to uncover. This affects the entire Agency, Not just you."
The older man sighed. "Play it again."
Annie pressed the button and the voices filled the room once more. "We have a handle on the Solstar execs. It's the other voice that we can't place. We know Henry's in contact with someone in the building, and this guy says 'we'. My guess is he's one of ours. Do you recognize his voice?"
"Well, Henry's voice is overriding it. The sound quality's not great."
"Hey, Annie put a lot on the line to get that for you." Auggie was quick to jump to her defense.
Arthur ignored him, and played the recording for the third time. "I can't identify him."
"Do you think it could be someone from the Latin desk or one of your ex-lieutenants?" She asked.
"I don't know."
"Play it for him again." Auggie said.
"I don't know who it is!" Arthur replied in frustration.
"Great. Thanks for all your help." Auggie put in sarcastically.
"Auggie!" Annie tried to cut him off, but he did not listen.
"No, we need to take this to Joan right now, tonight."
"You can't do that. Not yet."
"Why not? Is it because you don't want her to know the truth about Teo?" Auggie asked. Or is it because you don't want her to find out about this phony affair of yours?"
Annie started in surprise.
"I grabbed your backup burner phone number from a cell tower in the near northeast – secret email account, too. You know what I found? Nothing. No secret messages. No late night booty calls. You say she's a covert operative, so I find it highly unlikely she's threatening to go public. Now you could have resigned quietly for personal reasons. No one would be the wiser, but you needed a diversion to take the scent off Teo."
"Bravo, you figured it out. Look at the big brain on you." Arthur was not happy his deception had been discovered.
"Joan thinks you really cheated on her, Arthur." Annie said in concern. "She might not show it, but she's crushed. She loves you."
"I'm trying to protect her." Annie could see the sincerity in his eyes. "Lying to her was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but let there be no doubt – I had to do it."
"Well, your story won't hold up. I'm not gonna be the last one looking into it." Auggie said.
"It doesn't have to hold up forever, just through tomorrow."
"What's tomorrow?" Annie asked
Arthur paced the hotel room. "There is a chance that Joan emerges from this unscathed, but she's going to need more than plausible deniability. She needs to be unassailable. Otherwise… She'll go down with me, and they'll remove her from the building."
"She has to pass a polygraph." Arthur nodded in response to Auggie.
"That's the reason you kept all this from her."
"The poly's scheduled for tomorrow. I need you both not to say anything to her until afterwards."
"Thanks for asking." Auggie's tone was once again derisive.
Annie eyed the two. Something more was going on here. "Of course we won't say anything." Annie tried to make up for her friend's attitude. "But you underestimate her, Arthur. You underestimate us all."
"I'm just trying to make things right."
"Well, it's a little late for that." Auggie retorted.
Arthur was about to reply when Annie cut in. "Maybe we should call it a night."
"I think that's a good idea." Arthur agreed.
"Can I use your bathroom?"
"Of course." Arthur pointed it out to her.
Annie shut the door with a click. Something was going on with Auggie and Arthur. They were keeping something from her. Clearly they didn't expect her to be listening at the door, she thought, as she heard their muffled voices. She eased the door open an inch.
"You need to stop playing on Annie's sympathy for you. If you needed somebody to go toe-to-toe with Henry, you should have come to me and left her out of it." She heard Auggie's angry voice.
"She was already in it. Henry made sure of that."
"No, this is all on you."
"Oh, so you're gonna keep score?" Arthur was getting upset now. "Who let her go to Colombia? Which one of us read her in on Teo's identity?"
"She was in Colombia before I knew she had left. There was nothing I could do about that, and I never told her Teo was your son."
"Then how did she find out?"
"I don't know. When we talked, she already knew." Auggie said. "Maybe Teo told her.
"No, Annie and I talked last night. She got a phone call…whoever was on the other end, told her. I figured it was you and that she was covering for you."
Not the information she had been looking for and definitely not where she wanted their minds to go. She made her exit from the bathroom.
"You ready?" She asked Auggie. He nodded and they left.
XXXXX
Annie entered Auggie's apartment, and he let go of her arm. She had given him a ride home from Arthur's.
He folded up his cane and made for the refrigerator.
"You want a beer." He asked
"No, I have to drive home later." That sounded wrong. "I mean…I…"
Auggie laughed lightly at her. "Come on, Annie. We said we weren't going to make this awkward. I know you'll be going home later, but we should talk." He popped the top off his drink and made his way over to her.
She wondered how he knew exactly where she was standing.
"Sorry, I guess I'm a little nervous. I don't want to hurt you."
"Little late for that, but I heal quickly." He handed her a bottled water and a beer. "In case you change your mind." He maneuvered easily to the couch and sat down. "Why don't you start with why you thought it was a good idea to follow a random note to meet with someone you had no idea who, without telling anyone? Namely, me. You just forget about your best friend over here, hm?"
Annie smiled, slipped onto the couch beside him, and launched into her story about Henry Wilcox.
XXXXX
The next afternoon…
Annie was washing her hands in the Bathroom at Langley when Joan burst in.
"Oh, I didn't realize anyone would be here." Joan apologized.
"It's okay." Annie said, but Joan rushed passed her and threw up in the commode.
"Joan, are you okay?" This didn't sound good.
Joan emerged looking pale and tired. "This is…Kind of embarrassing. Life sure comes at you in funny ways sometimes." She rinsed her mouth out and washed her hands.
"Joan are you pregnant?"
Joan sighed. "Just one more thing I didn't see coming. So much for woman's intuition." She scoffed.
"How are you feeling? Are you okay?" Annie asked in concern.
"Besides discovering the father of my child is cheating on me, I'm great."
This changes things. I have to tell her the truth. Annie and Joan may not have always agreed on how to go about things, but Annie hated to see her so dejected. "Joan, I've been meaning to talk to you about something…" She started
"Annie, I am late for a polygraph. Can this wait?"
Polygraph. Right. "Yeah."
"Okay." Joan turned back. "Arthur doesn't know about any of this yet, so if you could…"
"Of course."
"Thank you." Her boss gave a weak smile and left.
XXXXX
"So…" Annie sat on the corner of Auggie's desk. "I spent my lunch hour casing out Solstar. Chatting up a receptionist having a smoke. I didn't glean anything about who else was in the meeting, but I did find out Salazar is headed to Colombia this week for an executive retreat. How about you?"
"I sampled the voice from that teleconference, ran it through a voice recognition database, but I came up with nothing. The quality's too iffy."
She sighed. "So we know what? He's a he?"
"And that he can say 'good afternoon' in Spanish."
Annie smiled. "That doesn't drain the pool very much. We have to keep drilling down."
Auggie nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately it's going to have to wait till after the NFAC run-through."
Annie groan. Boring!
"You know," Auggie took her elbow and she started to lead him. "If we sit near the door, maybe we can sneak out during the powerpoint presentation.
As they wait for the presentation to begin across the hall from Joan's office, they heard the tail end of her conversation.
I have to run home first to do an errand, but you can pick me up at eight.
Great! Well, I hope you're hungry. The place is called Casa Nosotros, and the Cochinita Pibil is amazing. Buenas tardes.
XXXXX
"Seth Newman?" Arthur questioned.
Annie and Auggie had brought their suspicions to Arthur.
"We think he's who gave Henry the details of your bank transfers."
"Does he have access to that kind of information?" Annie asked.
"Not directly, no, but if he was motivated enough, sure."
"Well, you stole Joan from him, didn't you?"
Arthur shook his head. "We were both in relationships at the time. It's tough to say who stole who."
"All right, let's just say he was properly motivated. What do we do about it now?" Auggie asked.
"Nothing. At least not openly. We can't accuse him without something concrete. If we confront him, it'll only expose you to Henry."
"I want to search his house, see if there's a safe that I can get into or a burner phone I can pull the digits off of." Annie said.
"Too risky."
"He's single he lives alone. We know he won't be home until at least nine or ten tonight." Annie argued.
"Well, how do you know that?"
She hesitated. "Because Seth's having dinner with Joan."
"I think they said tacos." Auggie put in.
Arthur pulled out his phone.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling my wife!"
"No, if you tell Joan now we lose our window."
"Arthur, hold on. We just found out Seth's a mole not a killer. He's been alone with Joan on plenty of occasions without causing her harm." Auggie tried to calm him down.
"That's not what I'm worried about."
"Well, what do you think she's gonna do – sleep with him for payback?" Annie shot him a look. Not helping.
"I didn't say that."
"Trust me," She said gently. "Joan is not thinking about payback right now."
"What do you mean?" Arthur asked.
"Nothing. It's just…it's Joan." She backtracked.
"You leaned on us yesterday to keep our mouths shut. Now suddenly you need to talk to your wife? Until Annie gets out of Seth's house safely, you're gonna have to wait to clear your conscience, okay?"
"Fine." He gave in. "Do what you have to do, Annie."
She paused at the door. "You're going to get through this, Arthur. Both of you. Joan will forgive you."
"Thanks, Annie."
She nodded and left with Auggie in tow.
XXXXX
Annie slipped silently down the side of Seth Newman's house. No one should be home, but there were still neighbors. She start when a light flashed on overhead. The spotlight was motion censored. She breathed a sigh of relief and continued to the back door.
Her pocket knife made quick work of the lock, and she slipped into the interior of the house. She flipped her flashlight on.
Seth's living room was nicely decorated. He even had framed pictures on his mantel. She eyed a picture of Seth and Joan. Clearly the man didn't know how to move on.
She checked behind the artwork on the walls for a safe, and then moved up the stairs to the second floor.
Bingo! His office. She scanned his bookshelves. Nothing. She turned to his desk, and paged through the files. She tried to crack the desktop computer with no luck. She had just noticed a flashdrive by the computer when the door below opened and closed and Seth's voice sounded.
She hid in the closet in the nick of time.
Seth entered his study still engage with his conversation on the phone. He picked up the flashdrive she had been fingering earlier and pocketed it.
Unfortunately Annie had upset some books on her rushed entrance to the closet and one of the bookends was threatening to fall. She was so intent on catching it, she missed Seth's approach.
He pulled her roughly from the closet and shoved her up against the wall. Recovering quickly she smashed him in the face. He caught her as she tried to flee, and they fought along the hallway.
They tumbled down the stairs. She kicked out and caught him in the stomach. He was stunned for a moment, and she used this to her advantage and raced to her car.
She was still breathing heavy when she came around the corner to the bridge across the river. Her eyes widened when Seth came out of the neighbor's yard baring a baseball bat, and she had to slam on her brakes so as not to hit him.
He swung at her windshield, and glass splattered around her. She ducked as he reached in the car window for her. He tried to reach her keys. She hit the gas, but she didn't get far before he succeeded in stopping her.
He drug her out of the car and pushed her up against the hood. She fought back wildly as he tried to choke her. Hitting him hard in the face, she leaned back and kicked him in the chest with both feet.
He spun away from her from the force of the blow and stumbled over the side of the bridge.
She tried to catch his hand, but there wasn't time, and she watched in horror as he plunged into the Potomac River below.
Her phone jerked her from her dazed state, and she found it buzzing away in her console. The number was unknown. She took a deep breath before answering. "Hello?"
"Neshama, I thought you might like my new number."
Her façade crumbled as she realized who it was, and she breathed out his name. "Eyal."
"Annie, what's wrong?" She could hear his concern.
"I'll call you back." She had to get out of here before someone saw her.
XXXXX
Eyal laid his phone on the bedside table. The clock read 2:32am. It had been a long, rough day, and he had only now made it to the Paris hotel. He had called Annie because he knew with the time difference it would still be early for her.
But now sleep would not come. The price you pay when you care. He sighed. Annie could take care of herself.
He snatched his phone when it rang a few minutes later. He sighed again and answered.
"Rivka." He shouldn't be surprised she already knew his new number.
"One of our assets has gone missing." Rivka was straight to the point.
"When?"
"About two days ago. He did not leave on his own, and we suspect not willingly as well. We tracked him to the States. You are the best in America."
"When do I leave?" This was shaping up to be a good assignment. Anything to take him closer to Annie.
"We have you on the 2 o'clock flight into Washington DC. The Intel will be waiting for you." She paused. "Get some sleep." His handler rang off.
He shook his head at her. She cared, but she had to remember to, and then only if it did not interfere with the task at hand.
He laid back down on the bed. He had just dozed off when his phone rang again.
XXXXX
Annie swung her door closed behind her and went straight for the first aid kit. Her shoulder was starting to burn. She didn't remember when it had started, but it was bleeding.
"I'm fine, Auggie, really." She spoke into her phone. "Did you find anything?"
"I spent the last thirty minutes monitoring public-safety scanners. So far, it seems no one has seen or heard anything. No mention of a struggle nor a traffic incident on the bridge nor a body falling into the Potomac."
"So, let's consider ourselves lucky."
"Yeah, did you leave anything at his place that could lead back to you, any fingerprints, stray hairs, drops of blood?"
"What does it matter? It's not like we can enlist a CIA cleaning crew to sweep the house of their own lead counsel." She was frustrated, and her body was starting to feel the effects of the beating she had taken.
"Hey, you are not gonna hang out there on your own on this. I won't let it happen."
"I know." She tried to hold the phone with her good shoulder while bringing a rag to her other, but it didn't work, and she almost dropped the phone. She grimaced.
Auggie must have heard her. "Annie…"
"I'm fine, Auggie. I gotta go." She hung up and tossed the phone into her bedroom.
She surveyed her reflection in the mirror. Only a shower would come close to helping this.
She groaned as the water hit her injured body, but the warm water helped to loosen her muscles. She finally began to relax.
Twenty minutes later she had finished her shower and bandaged her shoulder as best she could. It had not been as bad as it looked. She was going to have a bruise to hide on her neck though.
As she crawled into bed, she found her cell again. She had one more call to make tonight.
"Annie?" Eyal's voice was low and full of sleep.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's a good way to wake up." Annie was glad he couldn't see the blush that crept up her cheeks. "Are you alright?" He asked.
"I am now." She laid back on her pillow and closed her eyes.
He chuckled at her words, but could tell something had rattled her. "What happened, Neshama?"
"I'll tell you, if you tell me." She bargained. "I didn't need a new phone, a new windshield, maybe…"
"Sounds like this story is worth hearing. I will tell you mine. "He agreed.
"Good. You start."
Eyal laid back on the bed and smiled into the phone. He began his story.
XXXXX
"I wasn't expecting to hear from you again so soon, after what you said." Annie came up next to the bench Henry was waiting on for her. She had received his email late last night that he wanted to meet, and she was apprehensive wondering if he knew about Seth.
"I've been giving our last conversation some thought. You asked me what I wanted you to do next." He paused as he noticed her busted knuckles. "Looks nasty and recent. What did you do?"
"Fender bender. It happens" She sat casually on the edge of the bench beside him.
"When I was at the farm, they taught us to use our mirrors." Henry hassled her.
"I'm sure you didn't ask me out here to criticize my driving."
"No, I didn't. I need you to go back down to Colombia as soon as possible. Arthur has abdicated his responsibility. It's up to us to fill the gap."
"What kind of gap." She asked.
"I received Intel the ALC is planning an attack on American interests. Teo Braga is behind it." He pierced her with a serious stare. "You've established a contact with him, some kind of rapport. You may be the only one that can get close enough to stop him."
Was he asking what she thought he was! "Are you asking me to kill him?" She shouldn't have been surprised.
"You've already told me twice that you are in, without reservation. Time to back those words up Miss Walker."
TBC in I'll Follow You Down my own interlude before the next episode.
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