A moment later, Alex took hold of Teren’s hand under the blanket. Teren smiled as she drifted back to sleep.
*******************************************************
They landed in London on schedule, and Teren led them to their next gate for the flight to Zurich. She had to lead them, because Alex was still rubbing her eyes and trying to wake up.
With Alex drinking a cup of hot tea, and still looking like a zombie, Teren set up the computer and plugged into her cellular. She checked their email, noting that there was little extra information from Ken. Only the fact that she was now wanted in the state of Pennsylvania, and Alex had been named as a renegade by the Bureau.
“That was fast,” she muttered to herself. “Normally an agent has two weeks to clear their name. Alex got less than three days.”
That bothered her, and she shook her head in frustration. If they couldn’t figure out the connection to the FBI, it would still be difficult to get Alex’s career back. The Agency would protect her, but not Alex. Teren could only hope they were on the right track.
“Teren?” Alex’s voice was low and held a note of jetlag.
“Yes?”
“There’s a file on the desktop of the computer. It’s called ‘notesT.’ It contains all the stuff I pulled out of those files last night. Not the diagrams, but the text stuff.”
“Can I look?”
“Sure.”
Teren opened the file, and began reading. Alex had done a good job of organizing the sheets that Teren had gotten from Stu. Her notes were easy to follow and they answered a few minor questions Teren had been wondering about.
She noticed a name near the end of the file. “Hey, Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you sure this name’s right? von Odbert?”
“Yeah. First name Jurgen, I believe.”
Teren frowned and reached for her own briefcase. “Son of a bitch.” She pulled out the CIA printouts, and scanned them, looking for the name.
“I was right. Jurgen von Odbert has a bank account in Germany, and there have been several deposits into it from the Treville account.”
“Really? Great. I suppose you’re going to want to go to Germany now?”
“Maybe. This might be another key.”
“Wonderful,” Alex said in a lifeless voice.
Teren peered up at her. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Yeah. It just kind of hit me that I’m on the run, and I may not be able to go home. But I’m fine. Yep. Just great. Yep, yep, yep.”
Alex leaned her head back on the seat. Teren shut down the computer, and closed it. She slid it back into its case, and locked the briefcase. She placed it next to her own, which she also closed and locked, and then she sat down in the seat next to Alex.
“Excuse me.” Alex looked up as Teren spoke. “I’m looking for a friend of mine. She looks a lot like you, but when I saw her last she was smiling.”
“Funny. Really funny.”
Teren stretched an arm across the back of the seat. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Nothing. I think I’m just feeling the jetlag.”
The darker woman bit her lip. “Are you sure that’s it?”
“Yeah. I’ll be fine. David knows —” Alex stopped herself, her eyes closing in pain. “Let me get some more caffeine, and I’ll be fine.”
Teren nodded. “You know there’s a Coke machine in a side corridor.”
“Are the sodas cold? I’d heard that Europeans aren’t big on cold drinks.”
“They’ve gotten used to us Yankees and our odd ways. I’m sure the machine is cold.”
Alex stood. “Great. Where did you say it was?”
Teren pointed. “Back that way, then turn down that small hall near the restrooms.”
“Thanks.”
Alex walked away, and Teren sighed. She ran a hand through her hair, and then rubbed her cheeks.
It was going to take a while, she knew. She and Alex had been tossed together without warning, and it had happened at a time when Alex had a huge emotional load on her. Teren was still trying to relearn how to relate to people, and she recognized that at times she was probably less than supportive. She wanted to be. But she didn’t know how.
Both of them had lost their partners. Teren didn’t think either of them was ready for a new one. Yet, neither of them had a choice. It was either work together or risk losing everything.
It didn’t help that they were attracted to each other. This case was going to be hard enough, and adding in the strained emotions because of the ambush just made everything worse. And when you threw sex into the mix …
Alex interrupted Teren’s musings by dropping into the seat next to her. She held out a can of Coke to the dark haired woman.
“Thought you might want one.”
“Thanks.”
They were silent for a of couple minutes. Alex cleared her throat a few times, but didn’t say anything. Finally, she turned to Teren.
“I’m sorry. I tend to be a bitch when I get this tired.”
“No problem. I’ll just try to remember to get more caffeine into you.”
They gave each other a half smile, then stood as their flight was announced.
“You ready?” Teren asked.
“Sure. Let’s get this over with.” Alex picked up her jacket and her briefcase. “Did I ever tell you that I hate flying?”
Teren stopped and looked at her. “No, you didn’t. Do you really?”
“Well, no, flying itself isn’t so bad,” Alex said. Teren waited, her eyebrow raised. “It’s the take offs and landings that I hate .”
Teren shook her head. “Come on, then. Let’s get this next take off over with.”
“My feeling exactly.”
The plane had just pushed back from the gate when Alex thought of something.
“Teren?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t speak French.”
Teren glanced at her. “That’s too bad.”
“Don’t they speak French in Switzerland?”
“In some places. Zurich is much more of a German town, though.”
“I can’t speak German either.”
Teren grinned. “Guess that means I get to order dinner, right?”
“Can you speak German?”
“Yes.”
“Figures.”
“And French. And Spanish.”
Alex glared at her. “Yes, but can you speak Yiddish or read Hebrew?”
Teren shook her head. “No. But I also know Greek and a little Latin.”
“Does the CIA require that you know Greek?”
“No, I picked that one up from my father.”
“Oh.”
“But the Agency did require that I learn French, German and Spanish.”
“And the Latin?”
Teren shrugged. “Something different in high school.”
Alex nodded and looked out the window. They were on the runway.
“I could teach you French or German, if you wanted.”
Alex nodded again. “Okay. And I’ll teach you Hebrew. Deal?”
“Deal.”
The plane lifted from the ground and Alex’s grip on Teren’s hand tightened.
*******************************************************
The sky in Zurich was clear, but it was icy cold and there was a chill wind in the air. Alex shivered as she followed Teren to their rental car. Already she was wishing she could speak German, as Teren and the car rental agent had had a conversation that she thought was much longer than necessary. It didn’t help that the agent was a young woman with bright blue eyes and perfect skin, or that she had been smiling at Teren.
Alex shook her head. Disgusting, she thought. What is up with this jealousy crap?
She was brought out of her thoughts by Teren abruptly stopping. Alex almost walked into her.
“Sorry.”
“No problem. Hand me your bag.”
They loaded the suitcases into the trunk of the BMW, and Teren got behind the wheel.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Alex asked. “Wait, let me guess. You’ve been here before, right?”
Teren started the car. “Well, as a matter of fact, I have. Perry and I met with several people here.”