Alex winced. “I’m sorry. She probably yelled at you.”
“No. As a matter of fact, she hugged me.”
The green eyes in front of Teren went wide. “She actually hugged you?”
“Yeah. And she said to tell you that she didn’t mean the things she said last night. She knows it wasn’t your fault. She doesn’t blame you, and she’s sorry she said those things.”
Alex’s eyes filled with tears, and she looked away. She said in a whisper, “It was my fault.”
Teren sighed. She had known it wouldn’t be that easy. Guilt was a hard thing to let go of. “No, it wasn’t. And if you’re really looking to blame yourself, then you’re going to have to battle Ken for that right.”
“What?”
“Ken’s blaming himself, too.”
“What for? He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Didn’t he? The way he tells it, he and his partner, Rick was it? They knew they had Brogan scared, and they should have picked him up. If they had, none of this would have happened.”
“But that’s ridiculous. First off, they didn’t have an arrest warrant. Second, they didn’t know there would be a bombing, or that Brogan would take off.”
“That’s what I thought. But he said he should have at least guessed that there would be an ambush.”
“How could he know that? That’s something none of us knew, not Harnisch, not Rick, not Ken, not even —” Alex saw the trap Teren had set.
“Not even who, Alex?”
“Me.” She slumped back in the chair. “Not even me.”
Teren nodded. “That’s right. Not even you. So, if you didn’t know, how could you have stopped it?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Right.”
The two of them sat still for a few more minutes as Alex took in the logic that her friend had laid out for her. She could finally see, in her mind, that there was no one to blame but the attackers. But inside, she was still fighting the guilt.
She spoke to Teren in a very soft voice. “I might need you to remind me of that a few more times.”
“No problem.”
“Is Ken really blaming himself?”
“Well, I don’t think he’s as bad as you, but yeah, he’s feeling guilty as well.”
Alex shook her head. She covered her eyes with her hands for a moment, then dropped them.
“Okay. So, it wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t my fault, the only people to blame are the guys who attacked us, and you and I are going to get them, right?”
Teren grinned at her. “Absolutely.”
“Where do we start?”
The grin got a touch wider. “Not a clue.”
They stared at each other and started laughing. For Alex, it was a way to put another small piece of her psyche back together.
After several minutes, they calmed down, and Teren told Alex the deal she’d made with Ken.
“Your laptop can connect to the net through a cellular, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. We’ll use my phone, though.”
“Why?”
“Because if they’re trying to trace us, they might use the GPS on your cellular. Mine, they can’t trace.”
“Why not?”
“CIA secret. Even though I’m not officially an operative at the moment, I have a few friends there. They’ve made sure I have some protection.” She sighed. “Of course that doesn’t help with idiot police captains.”
“I can’t believe he’s trying to blame you.”
“Why not? He’s got to blame someone, and I’m as good a scapegoat as any. Besides, if he can make someone believe I’m the killer, then he’s discredited the Bureau and the CIA with one swing, as well as being a hero in the public’s eye for finding a cop killer. Plus, he saves himself the work of finding out who did kill the cops.”
“But you’d think he wanted the guys as bad as we do.”
“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” Teren tilted her head. “Did Davies know about the meeting? Did he know Wister was going to be there?”
“Yeah, Wister had to clear it with Davies, why?”
“Just a thought. Maybe we should ask Ken to check into where Davies was last night.”
“Why? You can’t be thinking he might be somehow involved.”
Teren shrugged. “All I know is I didn’t do it, and I don’t appreciate the railroading any more than you do.”
Alex nodded, and leaned forward. “So, what are we going to do about it.”
Teren grinned and dropped her eyes to her hands. “I’ve been thinking about that. I think I know where we need to go.”
“Where’s that?”
Teren reached inside her jacket and pulled out a couple of plane tickets. She nonchalantly handed them to Alex, then started whistling while looking at the ceiling.
Alex took the tickets in her hand, glancing at the destination. Her jaw dropped.
“Zurich?”
Teren nodded.
“Switzerland?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And who are these tickets for?”
“You and me.”
Alex sighed. “I had a bad feeling you were going to say that.” She tossed the tickets on the bed beside the CIA agent. “Want to share your reasoning with me?”
“Sure. Tell you what. Let’s clear this table, and bring in the one from your room. We can put them together and compare notes. Alright?”
“Okay. And you’re going to be honest with me, right, Teren?” Alex was standing up to move her tray of breakfast dishes when Teren reached out and touched her arm. She looked down at the woman still seated on the bed.
Teren’s blue eyes gazed intently at Alex. “I’ve never lied to you, Alex,” she said quietly. “I may have kept a few secrets, but I never lied. And if we’re going to do this, then there won’t be any more secrets either. If we go, we’re going undercover, and the only backup we’ll have is each other.” She hesitated a moment. “We’ve only known each other for eight days, and half of that we were only acquaintances. That’s a short amount of time to develop trust in a person, but we’re going to have to if we do this.”
Alex waited a moment before answering. She kept her gaze steady. “I trust you, Teren. I’d let you guard my back any day.” Then she winced, and looked down. “Though after last night, I guess I would understand if you weren’t sure about me guarding yours.”
Teren squeezed Alex’s arm gently, willing Alex to look at her again. When the blond woman did, Teren raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why wouldn’t I want someone at my back who could stay in control of a situation, and hold off three — no, four men, by herself.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ken said he never had a chance to reload his weapon, and he didn’t even think he fired all his bullets. When I was checking the scene, I looked at the weapons the others, Rick and David, had. Neither got off more than four rounds. One of the two other agents was the first to die, and the other never reloaded his weapon. So, the only one that was really keeping those guys from killing everyone there, was you. And you did a great job.”
“Great job. I was the only one to walk out of there without a gunshot wound.”
Teren purposely thumped a finger off Alex’s bandaged arm, and the smaller woman grimaced in pain.
“No, you didn’t walk out unscathed. That wound is on your shooting arm, Alex. Yes, two of your men died, and a few were injured, one seriously. But you had three men in front of you, and one coming in from the rear. You took out one guy, and put a bullet in another. You kept your attackers at bay until help could get there.” Teren shrugged. “Sometimes, that’s all you can do.”
Alex didn’t say anything. She gazed at Teren for several long moments.
“So, you’d trust me to protect your back?”
“Anytime.”
The blond woman nodded. “Then let’s get to work. We’ve got a lot to do before we leave.”
The two of them shared a smile.
Teren moved the table in from the other room while Alex got her briefcase and her laptop. The blond agent stopped for a moment, and watched the darker woman maneuver the awkward burden through the doorway.
“Teren?”
“Yeah?”
“At some point we’re going to have to talk about what happened last night.”