“It won’t be the first time we’ve sacrificed someone for the greater good. We all know this going in. Get a grip here, Tanner. You didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.” Fowler straightened his hundred-dollar tie. “Try to act like a professional.”
Fury flashed anew inside Jack. He didn’t want to hear this crap. He halted his pacing abruptly, flattened his palms on the too neat desk and leaned in his boss’s direction in a blatant attempt at intimidation that was doomed to failure. “I trained her myself. She’s mine. I’m not going to write her off as a calculated loss.”
A nasty grin inched across Fowler’s heavily lined features. “You always did have a thing for her, didn’t you?”
Jack shook with the rage building beneath his barely controlled exterior. But he couldn’t lose it. That would only make matters worse. He’d already given away far too much about just how personal this was to him. “We’ve already taken enough from her. She deserves to be cut some goddamn slack.”
“Sit down, Tanner,” his boss growled, all signs of amusement gone.
“I want some damn backup here,” Jack demanded.
“Sit down.”
His fists clenched for battle, but his brain recognizing his proximity to maxing Fowler’s tolerance level for grief, Tanner dropped back into his chair. This was the part he hated about this damn job. The lack of compassion in those who sat behind a desk and had long ago forgotten what it was like to be out there risking his life for his flag.
“We’re pretty sure it’s Arad who has her, right?” Fowler suggested, feigning actual interest in the case.
Tanner forced himself to take a breath and think reasonably. “According to our intel the Israelis haven’t made a move yet. It has to be Arad. He’s the only one besides the Israelis who has an interest and the know-how and ability to move this quickly.”
Fowler nodded. “I agree. But I disagree with your assumption that he’ll kill her.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “He will kill her. She set him up. He has to know that.”
“But we also know that he liked having her in his bed.”
A new blast of fury had to be repressed before Jack could respond in a normal tone. “She wouldn’t be the first old lover he’s killed.”
Fowler flared his palms. “But the other one was a spy for the French D.S.T. France had no business trying to get one of their intelligence operatives in bed with him. Arad is convinced our girl is the neglected and vengeful daughter of the late Yael Peres. That makes her like him…as far as he knows.”
“The man is smart,” Jack argued impatiently. “If he hasn’t figured out her connection to us already, it won’t take him long.”
“We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”
Jack knew by the look in Fowler’s eyes that there was no changing his mind, but that didn’t stop him. “We owe her. She’s one of ours,” he urged in a last-ditch effort to sway the unmovable. “She gave up a lot for us.” He sighed. “More than even she knows.”
“You’re right,” Fowler agreed, to Jack’s complete surprise. “She is one of ours. And if she lives, I intend to use her to our benefit.”
Uneasiness nudged Jack. This was not a good thing. “What do you mean, use her?”
“Arad has gotten too powerful. The decision has already been made. It’s time to take him out of the picture. He makes too many people nervous, including some of our Israeli friends. She can help us do that.”
Jack laughed out loud, but the sound held no humor. “She’ll be dead long before we can put whatever the hell plan you’ve got up your sleeve into motion. Don’t you get it?” he demanded. “She’s probably dead already!”
“Then what’s the big deal?” Fowler demanded in that too reasonable tone of his. “If she survives, we’ll use her. If she doesn’t, then we’ll be saving the taxpayers a few dollars not having to keep her up.”
Jack pushed to his feet again. He wanted to climb across that perfectly organized desk and beat the hell out the thick-skulled bastard. But that would accomplish nothing. The last thing he needed was to get any further on Fowler’s bad side. Right now Jack was the only hope Ami had…and that wasn’t saying much.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, resignation heavy in his voice.
“See if you can get a line on where Arad’s taken her. Take some time and see what her status is with her old lover. If this plays out like I believe it will, once we’ve established that she’s back in tight with him, we’ll move ahead.”
“He’s probably in France. Finding his approximate location won’t be that difficult, but getting close will be impossible. You know how he works.” This was a waste of time. “Nobody gets close to him. He knew that other woman was D.S.T. before he ever welcomed her into his tight little group. He had his reasons. He used her before she even knew what was happening. It’s a miracle Ami fooled him.”
Fowler grinned, another of those sick surface conventions that made Jack want to reach across his desk and throttle him. “Love is blind. Besides, I have every faith in your ability, Tanner. You’ll get close enough to find out what’s going on. You’ve got a personal stake in this. Just like Arad.”
“Yeah, right.” Fuck you, too, Jack didn’t add.
He left Fowler’s office with a bad feeling in his gut. He waffled between wanting to kill someone with his bare hands and wanting to get rip-roaring drunk. But neither of those things would help Ami. He wasn’t sure anything outside a miracle straight from God would make a difference. At this point, it probably didn’t matter in which direction the pendulum swung for her, she was likely dead either way.
AWARENESS CAME in slow, gradual degrees. Though she couldn’t move, Ami could feel a bed beneath her and a cool sheet over her skin. It was too soft to be her bed at home. Robert preferred a firm mattress. There was a distinctly bad taste in her mouth. She tried to swallow, but the effort proved too monumental a task so she drifted back to sleep.
Sometime later, though she still couldn’t open her eyes, she did hear voices. The whispered words were too hushed to distinguish. Was she in a hospital? County General, maybe? She remembered rushing to her car.
But what had happened after that?
More voices and images filled her head. The sound of a door slamming…the squeal of tires. Fear welled inside her. She’d been kidnapped. Tanner…the CIA guy. Terrorists. She tried to shake her head. To deny the memories slowly seeping back into her skull. This couldn’t be real. She didn’t know anyone in the CIA, and she sure didn’t know any terrorists. Maybe she was having a breakdown of some sort. That would explain everything.
There was only one way to prove it was all just a bad dream. She had to open her eyes and look. Ami focused intently on the task, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Finally her lids drifted open. Unaccustomed to the light, she snapped them shut again. But she had to see. Slowly she opened her eyes once more, blinking to adjust. Large windows or doors of some sort lined the wall she was facing.
She could hear the voices again. A little louder now. Her head felt as if it was stuffed with cotton, but at the same time as heavy as a bowling ball. She couldn’t move. All she wanted to do was to go back to sleep. But if she went back to sleep she would never know where she was or why she was here.
With a groan she managed to roll onto her back. A large fan slowly circled above her. Richly stained wooden beams appeared dark against the white ceiling. Where was she?
If Arad or the Israelis get their hands on you first, there’s no way back.
She’d been kidnapped, her mind told her again, more firmly this time.
Ami bolted upright. She groaned and held her head in her hands until it stopped spinning. Finally she lifted her gaze and blinked until her eyes had regained focus. Oversized furniture lined this new wall she faced. An armoire and a couple of chairs with a table between them. At first it felt as if she were seeing everything in black and white since there appeared to be no color in the room other than varying shades of gray. She looked to her right again, at the wall of windows she’d seen before. The blue sky that reached down to touch the green and brown earth beyond the glass allayed that concern.