Balance (53 page)

Michael pretends not to notice.

Her eyes take on a fierce
intensity
,
“
First off, Michael
, my dear
…
I don’t ne
ed a reason to want to kiss you … ever
. 
Secondly, y
ou saw w
hat I saw.
Y
ou said it yourself
…
she w
as
amazing
.
Y
et
,
bec
ause Takada ha
s
deemed
me
indispensable
, she is.  She was just in the wrong place at the wro
n
g time
and I took pity on her
.
F
or that
,
she’s
permitted
to die in my place
,
if need be.  I
refuse to accept that, i
t’s too much
burden
for me to
bear
…
and
believe me, I know
quite a bit about burden.
” He
r delivery,
low and steady, the implication of her anger very apparent.

Michael
,
for the first time
full
y understan
ding
her
reasoning
,
fee
ls ashamed.  He lowers his head,
unwilling to humiliate himself
further
.
  “I’m sorry.  I should have known … understood.”
 

R
est
ing
her forehead against
his and
gently weaving her fingers in his hair, she
whispers, “These damn walls prevent us from really talking.  I should have told you sooner.  Thank you for trusting me to keep up the ruse.”

Lifting his face to meet her gaze,
“Okay, now that we look to have
Waters
as an asset, how do we save them both?”
Michael finally asks.

“
H
aven’t gotten that far yet.  The concussion slowed me down some.”
  Changing subjects,
Rena turns her attention to the computer screens.  “So study boy, what are we looking at?”

Michael
,
resting his jaw on her bare shoulder
, ponders the screen
, “I’m not sure.
I was hoping you could help me with that.  Immersion uploaded everything they found in the clutches.  Got ID’s on them too.  I don’t think they were affiliated with anyone, too sloppy.  I’m thinking freelance or contractors.  They had pictures of this wom
a
n on their persons.
D
o you recall her in the bar last night?”

Studying
the image,
Rena
think
s
back, replayi
ng the night over in her memory.  S
uddenly
,
her
eyes light u
p.
“
T
he mistress.”

“
Excuse me
?”
He
replies
confused
.

“She was
the woman with the married man.
I thought s
he was his mistress.  In fact, we
thought
the
first tracker might
have been his wife or hired tail
.  I guess it
was kind of right.  I was so focused on the
man
, I
i
gnored the
woman
. 
Didn’t Meg
take
pictures
in
the
bar?  She
might
be in some
of
the photos.
” Rena suggests, then kisses him on the lips briefly before sliding off his lap. “
Do me a favor
?
C
an you
call Meg in here, let
’s
see what she remembers.  Not to mention, I need to have a conversation with her.  You promised.”

“
Where are you going?”
Michael asks
.

“
Well, I thought I’d get dressed …
unless you’d prefer I stay here for a while.
”
She offers suggestively.

“
S
eeing
as
we don’t need a reason to
kiss each other, when given one …
”
  Michael
slips
the
robe
down off her body
, wrapping her in his arms
;
gently
pulling
her
lips to his
. 
There’
s still so much about her he
doesn’t understand.
F
or
everything
revelation,
another mystery
presents itself
.

An
hour
later
,
Meg arrives
, giddy and
vivacious
. 
After a
sk
ing if she’
s seen
Waters
th
at
morning,
Rena
explain
s
,
that for his safety, they will have to keep their feeling
s
secret, at least for the
time being. 
Rena
consoles
her
by offering
to
help
them
find
ways to steal private moments
.
 
Meg agrees
recognizing
the
danger
their
burgeoning
relationship puts
him
in
.

Rena hopes
Waters’ attention
affords Meg an extra deg
ree of protection, maybe even another voice to persuade Takada to change his position on her utilization.

A
somber Meg join
s
Michael
in the Ready Room.
Expecting her fragile mood,
he
compliments her
creativity and resourcefulness appropriating th
e
agent’s possessions
. 
H
oping to distract
Meg
,
Michael asks for her help
break
ing
down the
uploaded
information.

After an hour of frustration, they table the investigation and head to breakfast.
 

Waters joins
them
,
eating
his
meal
as they
discu
ss the
developments of the previous evening
. 
U
nable to add anything from the night, his mind
distracted
, h
e captures Meg’s attention briefly, just enough to mouth, “I’m sorry.”

G
lancing
at Rena the
n back,
she
winks and
mouths, “I understand
.
”
P
roducing
a
grateful
smile from
him
, lifting both their spirits
.

C
oncerns
eased and
his train of thought more focused
, he suggests, “
You know, we s
hould run it by
Black, he’s ex-CIA. 
H
e might be able to help.”

“Is that my ears buzzing
?  A
re the young guns looking for the old man’s help
?” Mr. Black
appears behind them,
offering
his
customary
morning salutations
.

“Good morning, kind sir
.
” Rena greets him cheerily
.

“Must be important
.  A welcome like that.
”
He
c
huckl
es,
sit
ting
down
next to Rena
.

The four of the
m replay the
events of
evening, h
is
face
lighting up as they tell him about the hijinks and
fun,
careful to omit
any details
dangerous
to Meg and
Waters
.
 
They explain the trackers
and
the
proposition,
producing
a
nother
round of
laughter from the entire table.
Michael details
the stolen clutches and the
uploaded information,
explain
ing
several of his theories.

Mr. Black
agrees
to
look
at the information.

A
s a
group,
they head to the
Immersion Offices
. 
Ms. Smith
joins them in a
Ready Room
equipped
with several large monitors, t
he extent of the content
s
and information
uploaded and
displayed
around the room
.

Scanning the
images
,
Mr. Black’s face goes ashen.  He immed
iately starts barking commands a
t the
Immersion T
echs,
more
information
starts to
appear
, forming a collage of picture
s
, emails,
cell
numbers, maps and time line
s
. 
Ms. Smith
and
Mr.
Black
fall into
an
animated cryptic conversation, ignoring the
rest of the assembly
entirely
.

Finally,
without explanation,
Ms. Smith
goes to the wall computer
and
types in a code, “You might want to come down here.”

Five minutes later
,
Takada arrives
.

Ms. Smith
whispers to him as he enters. 
W
alking around the room
, he
ask
s
no
question
s
and
no one offe
rs
interpretation.  Finally, he turns to th
os
e gathered, smiling.
 
“Very well done.
Ms. Smith
,
an excellent
idea
to send our team
to that local
e
,
very well done indeed.
”
Takada commends the group
.

“Excuse me, sir … can you provide some illumination.” requests Rena
.

“Absolutely, my dear.
I
t just so happens
,
we recently received
intelligence
pertaini
ng to a very critical mark we’
ve been tr
acking. 
This specific
mark has eluded us
for some time now, evading all of our efforts to
discover the
ir
identity or whereabouts
… until now
.  We k
new we were running out of time
to make a move
, a
s evidenced by your discovery
of the trackers already in play.
Obviously, w
e are not the only
party
interested.”