Julia stepped off the plane at Dulles and headed toward the arrival's hall. As she was only going to spend the day, she only had a backpack with her personal belongings and laptop.
When she stepped out into the arrival's hall, she noticed a man in a black suit with her name written on a sign. She walked up to him. Luckily, he didn't stick out like a sore thumb among the other chauffeurs waiting for people. There was nothing more intriguing to people to notice that you were being picked up by the FBI.
"Doctor Adams?" asked the man in a baritone voice.
"Yes."
He lowered his sign and looked at his watch. "You're late."
Julia frowned; this was starting off great.
"Well, I did try to take over in the cockpit to land sooner but the pilot and copilot denied me access."
Her tone was filled with irony. As if she was responsible for the heavy air traffic over Dulles, that had needed them to circle around the area twice, before getting the green light from air control to insert themselves in the queue of planes to land. The guy eyed her but kept a straight face.
Typical, she thought. She would have been surprised that an FBI agent had a sense of humor. Everything about them was rigid and transpired discipline. If she listened to her instincts, she was more than certain that this guy was an ex-military. He did fit the part, she thought as she followed him through the crowd of people. He was in his late forties, meaning he could have retired from active duty, was built and the way he walked was firm and stiff.
Besides, she thought, she was more than early in comparison to the time her meeting with them was, but it was his way of telling her had waited and had more important things to do.
When they arrived outside, he led her to a black SUV and opened the back door for her. Once she was inside, he closed the door, walked around the back of the vehicle, and placed himself in the driver's seat.
After a few minutes, it was obvious that he would not strike up a conversation and as she knew it would take forty-five minutes to get to destination, she pulled out her phone and texted Conrad that she had arrived safely and was on route to her appointment. As he didn't respond, she imagined he was busy and put her phone away after checking her emails.
The first half hour of the trip, there was nothing much to see as she looked out the window. She found herself missing the usual taxi driver, who at least you could have a conversation with. This guy apparently didn't want to engage, and she wasn't going to be the one to break the ice. Regardless, every so often, he would look in his mirror and let his eyes land on her briefly before returning his attention to the road. Then at a distance she saw the Lincoln Memorial and she knew they were nearing the heart of Washington DC.
It brought back memories as she recalled the couple of times she had been in DC. The first time it had been with her parents and Jeremy. They had done all the sites, but being young, the only thing she had really been interested in had been the White House. Then later, in her early twenties, she had returned and had enjoyed all the monuments and museums, soaking up on history, natural history, space and aviation, and art.
The car turned and directed itself into an underground parking lot. He parked, helped her out of the car and she followed him through two doors that led to a set of elevators. He had badged to get into the parking lot, through the doors and operate the elevator buttons. There was no joking around with FBI security. Then again, she wouldn't have imagined it to be any different.
They made a first stop on the lobby to get her signed in with a badge and pass through a metal detector. Then they took another elevator and headed up to the fourth floor. Still remaining mute, he led her down the hall past a few offices where people in suits were busy doing whatever they were supposed to do for the FBI and then stopped in front of a small meeting room.
His open hand showed her inside.
"As your meeting is not for another couple of hours, you can stay here. Agent Fuller has ordered you lunch, and you have various drinks at your disposal."
He then turned heels and walked away without saying goodbye or wishing her a nice day. She sighed and shook her head as she neared the table and one of the chairs. People rarely came to the FBI for fun, the least they could do was make it more welcoming and improve the quality of their service.
Her phone rang as she put her laptop down on the table, deciding to get some work done to make time go by faster.
"Have they arrested you yet?" she heard Conrad's voice say on the other side.
"Haha. Very funny. If they did, would you come and bail me out?"
"Not only would I do that, but I'd tear down the place. How is it? I've always wondered."
She looked around and thought back to her experience so far.
"I think you'd like it; it has a very military-like atmosphere. I swear the agent that drove me here didn't even speak to me in the car and he kept eyeing me from his mirror. I was wondering if he was trying to profile me or something."
"Maybe he found you attractive."
"Don't do that… Don't find excuses for this man. Next thing you know you're going to tell me that I intimidated him, when in all honesty, I think it was the other way around."
"Fine, I won't say it then."
She stood and headed toward a section where various refreshments and a coffee urn had been set up. She grabbed a bottle of water.
"So, what now?" he asked.
"Well, I just wait until it's time, hear what they have to say and then come home."
"I still think you should have taken the lawyer with you."
"Why? I'm not a criminal and I have nothing to reproach myself of."
"This is the FBI; they always have something up their sleeve."
"That is reassuring."
"Sorry, I'm only joking, I'm trying to lighten things up for you."
"You know what would make me take my mind off this?"
"Phone sex?"
She laughed. "Well, that would work too. I've always fantasized about doing it at the FBI headquarters. But seriously, talk to me about work. Anything interesting?"
"A patient arrived at the ER this morning with the number 8 pool ball in his rectum."
Julia raised her eyebrows and sat back down. Now that was interesting.
"I'm not even going to ask the why or how of this situation, even though I'm sure he probably told you. Who's operating?"
"Nolan."
"Ha! He'll get a kick out of that. Anything else? How are the preparations for the prom going?"
"Jessica is coordinating everything with the school, and they've already started to set things up. I'll stop by after lunch and take a picture so you can see. Everything is under control; you don't need to worry."
She heard Henley call his name from somewhere behind. "I've got to go. Call me when you're done and tell me everything."
"I will. Say hi to Sylvia for me and thank Jessica."
"Got it. See you later."
The rest of the morning dragged on, she looked at patient files, lab and imaging results and reviewed her OR and post-op reports. At noon, sharp, a woman walked in and brought her a tuna sandwich. She stared at the plater agog… Then it dawned on her that this was the FBI, they worked with the CIA and the NSA, it was of course normal for them to know it was her favorite sandwich. She eyed the different corners of the room. Was there a camera? Were there multiple cameras hidden in the room watching her every move and listening to her every word?
After lunch, she stood and started pacing the floor. She was bored out of her wits and nervous as well. What did they have to say that could not be said over the phone or via an email? She knew this kind of situation too well. When there was good news or nothing to say, she as a doctor called the patient, but when things were bad, she generally preferred having the patient in front of her to break the news.
Finally, the door opened, and two men walked inside. She remembered them from the hospital. The tall blond was Agent Dean Fuller and the tall black haired was Sebastian Reese. Aside from the hair color, they looked a lot alike. Another thing about the FBI; maybe there was a list of physical traits to have to get in or they simply molded you so that everyone looked alike, very much like the New York Rockettes.
"Doctor Adams, thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule," said Fuller as he shook her hand.
'Ah', she thought, finally some decency.
She then shook hands with Reese.
"Of course, anything I can do to help."
They sat down across from her, now if that wasn't intimidating, she didn't know what was. It could almost have felt like an impending interrogation, and she expected the door to open any minute, and an analyst entering with a polygraph machine.
"There have been new elements that have come about in the Red Rock Medical file."
She narrowed her eyes.
"What does that mean exactly? I thought they were all in custody pending trial."
Reese shot Fuller a look and Julia picked up on it.
"What's going on?" she asked.
She saw Fuller take a deep breath. "The majority are still in custody as we speak until trial. All but one."
"OK, so you're still looking for one person, I don't see why that is a problem for me."
"Actually, we had all that were concerned but we had to release one of the suspects."
Her eyes grew big, and she could slowly start to feel her heartbeat accelerate.
"I'm sorry, what?!"
Fuller took the file in his hands and pushed it across the table toward her.
"All the information is in the file."
She looked down at the file for a few seconds before reaching out her hand and dragging it closer to her so she could pick it up. It wasn't until she had opened it and read the documents that she realized that she had been holding her breath.
Her eyes shot up toward the two federal agents, she was feeling sick to her stomach.
"This is a joke, right?" she said as she closed the file and set it down on the table.
"Unfortunately, not. The decision came from higher up, we didn't know or had the information at the time of the arrest, otherwise we wouldn't have arrested him."
She pushed her chair back. She was feeling trapped between the table and the chair and needed space and air.
Both men watched silently as she stood, paced a few minutes, her hand over her mouth.
She then turned toward them. "I almost died and you're sitting there telling me that he gets to walk away no questions asked?"
"Yes," replied Reese.
She leaned over the table and placed her open palms down on it angrily.
"I handed over to you one of the biggest medical insurance frauds in the country and this is the way you thank me! Do you have any idea what I've been through?"
"I understand that this is hard, but this is the way it goes."
"Not good enough!", she replied harshly. "What if he comes after me for retaliation?"
"There is no risk or need to worry about that."
She then saw Reese eye again Fuller.
"What?" she asked, "You're going to tell me there's more?"
Fuller gave Reese a dark look, indicating that he should be more discreet, before softening his look and turning his attention to her.
"He'd like to talk with you."
In knee-jerk reaction, she shot up straight and gave them a look that indicated the craziness of their request.
"This is not only preposterous but completely insane. I'm not going to give that man the satisfaction of giving me some lame excuse and apologize for what he did. You can take his request and stick it up where you know."
If Reese kept a straight face, she noticed that the corners of Fuller's mouth moved up slightly as if he was trying to hold back a smile or laugh. Either it was to mock her, or he too found it crazy.
"Is there anything else?" she asked.
"We only ask that you provide no confidential information about this. If asked, he was deemed non-guilty. If you fail to do so, there will be legal actions taken."
"Fine. Now, I'd like to be escorted back to the airport, I have patients that need me."
"Of course."
Both men stood and walked over to her. As Reese shook her hand, Fuller took the file from off the table and placed it securely under his arm. Heaven forbid, this kind of information went public and viral.
Upon that last thought, it dawned on her that it was exactly for that reason that they had set him free. If the information got out or if he went public, it would cause a lot of problems for the FBI. Bastards were only thinking about themselves.
"Agent Carson will be over shortly to take you back to the airport. Have a nice trip home, Doctor Adams."
Julia said nothing and once they had exited the meeting room, she packed up her things and waited for Carson to show up.
He did rather quickly and once again without saying anything left the room indicating that she should obviously follow him.