Chapter 7

Chuck took a breath before explaining, "his name is Sidney Ward and he's something like a thief-for-hire but worse. He steals secrets for profit. He's been on the CIA watch list for ages, ever since he stole sensitive information from Omaha."

"Why would someone who steals secrets be interested in my painting?" Bryce questioned quietly, ducking further back between the shelves.

"I don't know," Chuck responded, "but, maybe he wants your stash?"

"Or someone else does," Bryce theorised, "while my stash of not-quite legal items isn't common knowledge there are CIA analysts who know about it."

"Huh?"

"Their job was to track down the original owners of the stuff and, if possible, quietly return the items. When I 'died' for the second time in 2009, the General ordered the project to be put on hold. The plan was to revive it as soon as 'Neal Caffrey' was finished with the FBI."

"Four years," Chuck mused and then realised something, "but, your commutation is coming up."

"Yeah?" Bryce questioned, not yet following.

"Which means that they've got less than three months before the project starts back up," Chuck explained and Bryce realised what he was getting at.

"Whatever their plan is, they were running out of time to execute it."

Chuck made a noise of agreement through the phone.

"This is good," Bryce said, feeling energised by the progress, "what does Sarah think?" The pause on the other end was not encouraging. "Chuck?"

"I'm not sure," Chuck said slowly, "she came in late, or early, last night with a bunch of security videos. I spent the whole morning looking at them until I flashed."

Bryce guessed that Sarah wasn't there, otherwise Chuck would have just asked her the question instead of telling him about how little they were talking.

"And why didn't you call her?" he asked.

"She went out to lunch with another wife, a normal woman married to a spy," Chuck said, his voice stinging with something like guilt, "and I didn't want to disturb her because she rarely gets moments of normalcy."

"Who's the spy?" Bryce asked because, again, it wasn't him.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"She wouldn't tell me."

Sarah tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear as she slipped into the seat across from the dark-haired Elizabeth. The confident New York woman had ordered two glasses of red wine, one each, while they waited for their lunch.

It wasn't coffee; more like an early lunch.

Elizabeth greeted her kindly and they quickly began chatting about their husbands.

"Oh, Kieran was so nervous when he told me that he was also CIA," she giggled, "he didn't let it show, but his hands were twisting in his lap as he told me."

Sarah raised her eyebrows and she couldn't imagine Kieran Ryker ever being nervous.

"He looked me straight in the eye as he said it and then told me that I might be in danger because some villain could come after me. He thought the person he was chasing at the time had found out about me."

"What happened?" Sarah asked.

"Turns out it was a bluff, they were just trying to rile him up," she responded, "and it worked in the short-term but, long-term, it just made him more determined to chase them down." It had only taken Kieran a weekend to track them down and arrest them and she had been so proud of her strong, FBI and CIA husband.

Their meal arrived and it wasn't until Sarah was partway though that Elizabeth brought up her question the previous night.

"I think Chuck wants a child," she said, "his sister has a child and I've seen the way he looks at her and there's that picture he drew of us with the house and a baby but, I'm still trying to reorganise my memories and feelings into something that makes sense and I no longer feel ready to take that step."

"And you haven't spoken to him about it?" Elizabeth guessed.

Sarah nodded and took a deep breath.

"I'm sure he would be okay with it but, I don't think I could stand to see the crushed look on his face. And I don't want to bring the subject back up since we already spoke about children." Sort of. Chuck drew the picture and she remembered smiling and feeling content but now she felt lacking and completely unready, the thought of children enough to cause nerves to churn in her gut. "And our jobs are so dangerous, I'm not certain we can handle it."

Elizabeth offered her advice, although she couldn't comment on raising children in a spy environment when she didn't have any. She didn't feel the need to have children and Kieran was okay with that.

They were enjoying their chat and just relaxing before paying the bill when Elizabeth's phone rang.

"Hi, hon!" Elizabeth greeted him. She paused for a moment before holding the phone out out to Sarah. "I think this is for you."

"Hello?" Sarah said cautiously into the phone.

"Sorry to intrude on your time together but, Chuck's just walked into the office."

"What?" She had already told Chuck that they were working without the FBI. "Why?"

"I don't know," Kieran responded, "I haven't asked."

"'You haven't asked'?" she repeated a little harsher than she intended, "why not?"

"I thought you didn't want me to meet him?" Kieran responded, sounding unsure.

She hadn't but, she hadn't expected him to stay hidden just because of that.

"Are you sure it's not because you don't want to be recognised?" she countered.

"No. Although I would like it if he didn't blurt out my affiliation in the middle of the office." There was a pause before he added, "he's speaking with Neal. I thought I said I didn't want my team involved in this."

"Alright," Sarah sighed, "I'm on my way."

Peter sighed as he hung up. He felt a little like a coward, calling for Sarah's help with removing her husband but, he didn't think Chuck would listen to him. The last time he had been involved in Sarah's life, he had been the bad guy. It had been an act for Shaw's benefit because he would have known if Kieran hadn't done anything and El, his FBI team and Neal would all have been in danger.

So, Chuck probably still thought of him as the guy who tried to killed his wife and that was not a good impression to have; this was the guy who was a legend in the spy world and Peter had no illusions that he would get off easy for trying to kill Sarah.

While waiting for Sarah to arrive, he had sat down and started glancing at reports that needed completing. But, there was a knock on his office door.

He sighed and stood up and moved to open it, noticing one thing on the way. Neal and Chuck were gone.

He cursed Neal and whatever he was up to now as he opened the door.

"Hey, Peter," Neal said, innocently with Chuck standing behind him. Oblivious to the tension Peter felt towards Chuck and Chuck's gasp of surprise, he kept talking, "Agent Carmichael has a few leads he wants to follow up."

Peter spotted his name on Chuck's lips and his heart jumped.

"First, come in," he said, moving out of the way.

Neal gave him a curious glance but moved to do as he said when Chuck stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Chuck?" Neal questioned.

Peter pinched the bridge of his nose. He really wouldn't be silly enough to expose an agent in the middle of an FBI office. Or would he?

"Just, come in," he repeated, feeling a headache forming. This would be the second time in as many days that he would have to explain himself. "We'll talk."

"Just talk?" Chuck questioned suspiciously.

Peter held up his weaponless hands and stepped further back. Neal gave them curious looks as he walked in and kept watching as Chuck hesitantly followed him in.

"You're the one Sarah met with last night," Chuck realised quickly.

"That's right."

"You tried to kill her."

"What?" Neal gaped.

"Sort of. I fought seriously but I wasn't trying to kill her."

"Then what do you call it?"

"Putting on a show," Peter responded in a tense voice, explaining again about Shaw.

"Hold it," Neal interrupted. It took him a moment to figure out what to ask and his question was not what Peter expected; "how do you know Shaw?"

"How do you?" Peter asked suspiciously, feeling a thorn-like stab in his heart. He didn't believe that Neal had anything to do with espionage, the Ring or Shaw's plots but, he had been in the life long enough to know that he should suspect everyone.

"Oh," Chuck suddenly said with an air of realisation.

"What?" Peter and Neal asked simultaneously.

"You haven't noticed?" Chuck questioned. They were both spies with the CIA.

"Noticed what?" Peter asked impatiently.

"Bryce Larkin of the CIA," Chuck said, pointing to Neal, "and Kieran Ryker, also of the CIA." He moved his pointing finger over to Peter.

Neal blinked uncomprehendingly. Peter frowned.

"So, you're saying, Peter's CIA?" Neal questioned uncertainly.

"I flashed," Chuck said with a nod.

Peter twitched and sighed.

"So, Neal is not only a spy but, the guy who painted the very painting we're currently chasing down?"

"Yes," Chuck responded.