The House on Broad Street

Alex smiled. She even shook Monica's hand.

"Yeah, well sorry about that. But welcome home sex is always kinda 'rip his clothes off and make him reclaim every hole' with us."

Monica took her hand back. The staring match took over once again.

"Really? Do you give it away every time you go away then?"

Alex didn't even blink.

She slowly leaned into the small space between them and said, "Listen lady," she then paused and looked more closely at Monica before adding, "It is lady isn't it? It's difficult to be sure with all that plastic on your face and the fake tits."

By now, they were almost nose to nose, so Alex just whispered, "Keep your claws out of my husband and keep your fucking nose out of our business. Yes, I said husband. He's mine. We live here now, it's our fucking house and he's my fucking husband, so back the fuck off and keep the hell out of our business before I rip those fake tits off your chest."

Alex stood straight again, took a step to the side of a very frozen Monica and continued with me on the running track. Monica wasn't there when we came around again.

Alex went to apologize when we got back to the house but I shushed her. Monica started the mudslinging, and I looked on Alex's comments as fair retaliation. To the outside world, we maintained a set pattern each day. At night, one of us was up and watching the street, we compared events in the morning. One thing stood out, for the last three evenings at 2a.m. Every morning a car passed the front of the house. It maintained the correct speed for the road, yet we both thought it odd.

I continued to keep all the electronic equipment I had installed when I had the builder's in, all nice folks and all FBI approved. Alex and I talked about the car on our run around the track at the park. It's difficult to follow anyone at two in the morning. No cars to hide behind being one reason. We still needed to keep this a small operation, so enlisting the help of other agencies and using aerial tracking wasn't an option.

The only option we could think of was a tracker. The parcel arrived the next day, the Fed-Ex van pulled up just after three in the afternoon. I met him halfway down the path and the delivery guy was away before Monica could challenge him.

This night we were both up. I had snuck out earlier and was now in position at the junction of the street. My radio pinged once and I got ready. The same car traveled past the house and came to a stop at the junction's stop sign. I aimed the pistol at the car and fired. The air capsule expanded in the barrel and the tracker launched itself towards the car and stuck to the bodywork, just behind the rear wheel.

I watched the car pull away and head in the direction of town, then stood and walked back to the house and in via the back gate into the garden and into the kitchen. A coffee was waiting for me while Alex watched the laptop screen on the table.

After a few minutes, Alex looked up and smiled. "It's just pulled into the all-night diner on Fourth and Becton."

Nodding and out of habit, I checked my shoulder holster once again before I downed what was left of my coffee and left via the back gate. I made it to Becton in ten minutes at a good sprint and a few alleyways between the houses. The car was still parked close to the entrance to the diner. From my position, I pulled a lens out and had a long and hard look at the woman sitting in the diner. Jodie was sitting between the back of the diner close to the emergency exit and the entrance to the diner. Frank had clearly spent time teaching his wife field craft.

*******

So began the cycle of us watching Jodie while she watched us. We both knew she would leave soon and return to her bolt-hole, so our own window of opportunity was limited. Between Alex and I we came up with a plan. The guy from Fed-ex delivered the next day and still managed to evade Monica on the way out.

We weren't even at the house when Jodie drove passed that evening. Alex and I were at the Red Roof Motel on the edge of town, right next to the freeway. This time we watched as Jodie returned, waved at the woman working nights at the counter and walked to her room. The Motel was U-shaped, reception was the middle building and Jodie's room was on the ground floor of one of the two wings.

We gave her twenty minutes, we needed to have that much ourselves as I was hands deep in the phone system and it took me that long to find Jodie's room and patch our phone to the room. Alex phoned her room from the hacked phone system of the Motel, that southern accent sure came in handy.

"Mrs. Jefferson, this is Carol at the front desk. We've had reports from people in your block of a strange man lurking around. I'm notifying everyone in your block so please lock your door and stay inside. The Police have been called and are a few minutes out."

Jodie thanked Carol and put the phone down, a minute later Jodie came rushing out carrying a case and headed for her car. Chloroform works really quickly, faster if the subject tries to fight it.

*******

I made a point of sitting in the chair across from her when she woke up. I also made sure that Alex was close by. If this was going to go south, I may well need her to help with Jodie.

She moved to sit up straight, her eyes never leaving me. I've seen hate and I've seen fear in many people's eyes through my years, Jodie absolutely exuded pure hatred at the person she was staring at.

"Well, well. The coward who left my husband and his team to die while he ran away!" she said.

Had any man said that to me I would have killed them by now and slept peacefully that evening, but this was the wife of my friend and I knew she was hurting.

Jodie looked at Alex, standing behind me. "Who are you, his latest squeeze?"

I left Alex to defend herself, she's a grown up. Not only that, but I had filled her in on what had happened anyway as the days went on, in more and more detail.

Her voice traveled over me so I knew she was behind me now, more so when I felt the chair move so she could rest her arms on the back of it.

"I would prefer you refrained from mudslinging since you know shit about what happened. You're looking for someone to blame, I get that, but this man is willing to sit here and tell you in detail what happened, even though it's way above your security level. He would do that as a friend and not an enemy. So perhaps you should shut your damn mouth and let him talk," replied Alex.

Only seeing Jodie's eyes gave me an inkling of the staring match they were having with each other.

It was Jodie who blinked first, through gritted teeth she said, "Go ahead, tell me your rehearsed excuses you fucking coward."

Alex moved and I was a fraction of a second behind her as she passed me. I grabbed her waist and held on tight, even lifting her off the ground to slow her down. She was sure feisty when she was in kill mode. "Let me beat the shit out of her, please let me. She'll be more pliable after that, I promise," Alex murmured.

She took a moment, but Alex calmed down, a little. Finally, she nodded her head, so I eased up on her and lowered her back onto her feet.

Alex glared at Jodie, and then turned her attention to me demanding, "Show her."

My brow creased in confusion, dread seeped into my thoughts. "What are you talking about?"

Her hands went to her hips and stayed there for a moment. Slowly one arm came away from her hip and pointed to Jodie. "She thinks you're a coward, so show her. Take off your damn shirt."

Jodie looked confused, but still kept her opinion to herself, for now anyway.

The staring match didn't last this time. Alex looked towards Jodie. "Unlike you, I've had unlimited access to the report of that incident. They had to let Andy through for the ambush to succeed. They sent five people after the ambush was over to track him down and kill him. The last two went hand to hand with him."

By now, I had undone all the buttons to my shirt, Alex grabbed one side of it and pulled it back and off my shoulders, then towards herself.

It was my turn now, I suppose. "Close quarter combat very rarely has guns involved, unless you're using it as a club I suppose. They always seem to run out of ammunition at the most important moment. Knives etc. don't need ammo. One of them came at me with the biggest Bowie knife I have ever seen, it was to his cost when he firmly believed that size mattered. The fight lasted awhile and at first I thought the blood on my combats was all theirs."

Jodie could see the jagged lines. Some of the holes either side of the cuts across my chest survived when I sat next to the corpses of those sent to kill me and stitched the deeper ones together in the hopes of keeping my insides, inside. The pad held to my chest by hospital tape kept the gunshot wound from the park incident from showing the scarring behind that. Judging by the draining color from Jodie's face it was plain to see that she now knew that I didn't run away, I ran towards, in an attempt to help the team break free from the ambush.

I turned to look at Alex, this was the first time I had seen her this close to tears. Something about me telegraphed my question to her, I still had to ask it though.

"How did you...??"

A tear ran down her cheek, another joined it when her finger touched my questioning lips.

"When they wheeled you into the hospital after the incident at the park, they cut your jogging vest off, took one look at you and called the police. Hospital policy Andy, the Police sent your name to the FBI and they typed your name into their computer. Your name was flagged because with this country's agreement, you were operating in this country, so they sent an inquiry to us.

Alex kissed my cheek and whispered, "Go get her."

Jodie and I watched as Alex left the room. Then we turned our attention to each other. I sat across from Jodie, my shirt already forgotten, by me anyway. She still looked then stared as I told her everything from that day when hell came to visit the earth.

We were still talking when Alex came and found us an hour later. "So. Do you believe him now?"

Jodie winced at the question. It also seemed she still had her own questions. Her gaze once again fell on me. Her eyes seemed to travel along one knife wound and then changed direction when another wound intersected it. Eventually she said. "But how did you escape?"

"The river. The original ambush team were still in pursuit when I got there. I had blood all over my combats, in water that would have been a wake-up call to any water predator for miles around. I heard a boat start and leave further up river. My best guess was that whoever masterminded the ambush was leaving and trusted the people he left behind to kill me and complete the total loss of Frank's Team."

Jodie still stared at me. I knew she was still having difficulty with the truth.

"But you survived."

The exasperated sigh came from my friend behind me. More so when she added, "If you call practically crawling onto a dead tree and drifting down river for a day and a half, being hauled off the said tree by villagers and transported to a hospital, followed by spending two days in and out of surgery and then three months in deep convalescence. Then yes, he survived. Now, every time he looks at himself in the mirror he reminds himself that he survived to keep you alive and to do what he needs to kill the person who is selling information on MI6 and CIA activities."

Once Alex stopped speaking, she went and got herself a glass of water. It was plain to see that she had read everything before coming over here to help me. I was watching Jodie intently now though she was too busy looking at Alex to notice. She understood now, it was going against everything she had made herself believe, the truth in her eyes, was no longer the truth. Another realization came to her, Jodie's eyes wandered the room we were in and her lip quivered.

"You did the right thing Jodie, when you used the papers that Frank gave you and bolted. That kept you and Alison alive. By the time I had been discharged and those of us that smelt the same rat that Frank had, you had given us time, time to rally others and get them on board. You staying hidden with Alison bought us that time."

Even as I spoke to Jodie her eyes still roamed across the room. Seeing, but replacing what's there with what was once there. It was clear even to this guy, she really did make the ultimate sacrifice for her daughter when she left her house. To keep the only thing she had of Frank's memory alive.

I stepped forward a couple of paces, Jodie noticed instantly and seemed to try to shrink further back into the chair.

Taking a knee made me slightly lower than Jodie. I kept my voice low, but she could hear me clearly enough. "There are those who would want to dangle you on a string in the hope of bringing the scumbag who killed Frank and his team out into the open. Alex and I plan to make sure that never happens, but the final decision is always yours."

Her whole body seemed to shake, and her eyes grew wide when her mind absorbed the implications of what I had just said.

"I can't, I'm all that Alison has left," Jodie protested.

Both Alex's and my head nodded in acknowledgment, to us she had made the right choice. I patted her knee in agreement with her decision as I went to stand.

"Wait!" Jodie cried out.

We both looked at Jodie, her eyes became as big as saucers, seconds later her brow creased and she then shook her head. "I'm not sure if this means anything but Frank once said that if it all hits the fan, Albert has it all."

*******

We smuggled her out of the house later that night, we followed her at a discreet distance out of town for a while then turned off and came back home. Jodie had my number but short of locking her in the house, there was nothing we could do. All three of us agreed that she was safer in hiding, for now at least.

Alex and I sat at the kitchen table. "So what do we do now? We've just let the only lead we had return to her daughter who happens to be in hiding," Alex pondered.

I smirked, I'm sure it wasn't one of my more redeeming features. "We're not doing anything, but the boss is going to be busy though. We need to get into Langley."

It's a good thing Alex had finished her coffee when her cup slipped from her fingers. Fortunately, it only bounced the last couple of inches onto the table.

"Langley? As in CIA headquarters?"

I nodded my head.

Alex leapt from her chair. "Have you totally lost your damn mind? What the fuck will we be doing at Langley?"

Still listening to her bluster, I rose from my chair and pulled my phone from the kitchen table, only pausing just long enough to say, "That's where Albert is."

My cell rang out three times. The boss answered, "Good or bad news?"

"Well," I smiled, "a little of both. Jodie is still alive, plus she's given me the best lead in finding Frank's papers."

The pause was only a moment. "Why do a feel a 'but' in all this?"

I took a breath. "Because Alex and I need to go to Langley to get them."

Hearing him take a breath was a forewarning of what was to come.

"So let me get this straight, Langley has been holding onto Frank's papers all this time and said fuck all about it?"

It's not often I get to hear my boss swear, well, not unless I'm across his desk from him anyway. I recited almost verbatim the conversation Alex and I had had with Jodie. He knew from what I was saying that I had gone right to the very edge of what I was allowed to tell her in doing even that.

"And you know for certain who this Albert is?"

"Yes I do. Frank introduced me to him, the funny thing is, he's not known as Albert at Langley."

"Well, who the hell... No, don't tell me on an open line. I will sort out your and Alex's pass. Let me know when you can. Those upstairs are growing restless. You've gotten closer to this than any of them believed possible."

*******

Alex and I passed through security at ten the next morning. We were asked to sit and wait. Alex lasted an hour before she realized we were being hustled, she was sure building up a whole head of steam before a guy walked up to us and again asked to see our passes.

I handed mine over. Alex glared at the name badge before saying, "So you can do what Agent Donaldson? So you can keep us sitting around for another hour before some other chimp in a suit gets to ask the same question?"

Agent Donaldson, looked at my pass a little longer than expected, he then looked at Alex. The smile on his lips never reached his eyes. "Would you like me to tell Agent Fredricks that you have changed your mind and canceled your appointment?"

Alex stepped towards the Agent, who then took a half step back, the look he saw in Alex's eyes made him do it.

"You mean the appointment we had for him an hour ago, yet we've been sitting here for the whole of that hour being ignored, yes that appointment."

The agent's cheeks colored, which was fun to watch. He then remembered to give me my pass back before muttering something about checking to see if he's available before he turned and left us alone once again.

Ten minutes later, the agent returned. "Agent Fredricks will see you now." He pointed to a bank of elevators and said, "Take the second elevator and get off at the third floor, reception will guide you from there."

We sat outside Agent Fredricks office for another thirty minutes before we got to see Special Agent Fredricks. By now, Alex was fit to bust. She was almost apoplectic when the meeting lasted all of five minutes, with the agent telling us both that no forward movement had been made on the case.

Looking directly at Agent Fredricks, I asked, "Has there been any sightings of either Frank's wife or even daughter?"

With his hand still resting on the folder on his desk, he answered without even looking into the file. "No."

I turned and nodded to Alex, we stood at the same time, I even leaned across to Agent Fredricks and we shook on it before leaving. The elevator ride down to the main hall and out of the building was done with me hanging onto Alex's arm, just in case.

She managed to stay quiet until her backside hit the passenger seat of the car, then she exploded, "Well that was a waste of time!"

Me being me, I chose the confused look when I asked her what she meant.

Alex was staring out the window when she answered my question, "Spent half the bloody day in the place for a two-minute no-sense reading of a report that clearly they didn't want to open."

We made it back to the house late evening. Alex was still on the east side of pissed and no amount of pulling over at rest stops and pouring coffee down her could pull her mood out of the trash can.

Even back at the house she paced. It was clear I had chosen the right person for this case, Alex was as devoted to finding out who was leaking information and killing so many of our people as I was.

On her next lap around me, I stood in front of her and grabbed her by her hips, thankful of the history we had when she looked down at my hands and where they were, then back at me.

"You're heading for an ulcer in later life if you carry on like this."

Her face still scrunched up in suppressed anger she said, "But we spent half a day on a ten minute meeting with some limp dick who didn't seem to give a fuck about this case. He looked like he just wanted it and us to go away."

This time I looked around the room, Alex's eyes followed mine and when I once again focused my attention on her, she looked real confused as to why my attention was distracted. Still being on the north side of paranoid, I opened the drawer under the coffee table and pulled out another black box, sat it on the table and turned it on. At first, a steady hum seeped into every corner of the room, and then even that became silent.