Betrayal (30 page)

“Who…”

“Agent Toles. SPHINX…it’s just a start. Do you understand?”

“I don’t….”

“Lie low for now. I promise I will help you. But,” Jon Krause paused and closed his eyes as he gathered his thoughts. “I made a promise, Agent Toles. Not just to him.”

Alex strained to concentrate on the voice. “Who? Cassidy….I ….””

“She’ll be here soon, Toles. Lie low. For now.”

“John,” she rasped. “Why did you leave?” Alex fought to stay awake as a tear slipped out from under her eyelid and slowly descended the length of her cheek.

Krause watched as the female agent’s expression began to relax again and sleep began to overtake her. “You’ll get there, Agent. Follow SPHINX. Follow John.” He leaned in closer to her. “This is much bigger than you or I, Agent Toles. Just….. Just tell her Pip brought you here. She’ll understand. Then you will too.” He started to leave just as two men in scrubs began wheeling the gurney away. He stopped them momentarily. “Take care of her. She’s…

“Easy to love,” Alex muttered as she felt herself being carried away.

Jon Krause nodded his agreement. “Yes, Agent. She is.”

Dylan sat at the kitchen table spooning his cereal into his mouth as if in a trance. Cassidy watched him and silently wondered
how she would explain her leaving without upsetting him. “Cassie,” a voice broke through her private pondering. “A car just pulled up out front,” Rose whispered in her daughter’s ear. Cassidy closed her eyes, licked her lips and nodded her understanding. “Do you want me to,” Rose began.

“No,” Cassidy answered. “I should answer it.”

Rose attempted to offer her daughter an encouraging smile. The older woman’s own apprehension had grown in the last hour. She didn’t know much about Alex’s job. She did know there were dangers attached to it and she did know that Alex meant the world to her daughter and her grandson. “God, please just let her be okay,” she softly whispered.

“Keep praying that, Mom,” Cassidy called back as she headed for the door.

Cassidy’s hand was trembling so fiercely that it was difficult for her to grasp the door knob and turn. She had been filled with a sense of dread ever since Alex had climbed into the car to leave a few days earlier. Now, she confronted her worst fears. Where was the agent? Was she hurt? Did someone take her? Was she dead? She shook her head slightly trying to banish all of her questions and opened the door. “Cassidy,” a soft voice greeted her. Her eyes grew wide and then narrowed in an attempt to process the sight before her. “Not who you expected, I guess,” the woman said reaching for Cassidy’s hand.

“Jane?”

“It’s a long story,” Jane smiled genuinely.

“Alex…is she…”

“No. But, we need to get you to her.”

Cassidy nodded and then began to speak, “Jane…is Alex….”

“I’ll explain on the way; what I know anyway. Which isn’t much, Cassidy. It could be a couple of…”

“I already packed.”

“He called you then?” Jane asked.

Cassidy searched the woman before her silently with her eyes. “How do you know…”

Jane Merrow smiled. “Oh, Cassidy. We all have our secrets. You thought it was only you, huh?” Cassidy’s composure relaxed slightly. She was still terrified of what she might find when she reached Alex, but it was clear that Alex was alive and that put her greatest fear at bay, at least for the moment.

“What am I going to tell Dylan?” Cassidy was visibly worried about how Dylan would react to her departure.

“Why don’t you let me lead?” Jane suggested. She gently rubbed Cassidy’s shoulder.

Cassidy led Jane the short distance to the kitchen. Dylan had taken possession of one of his action figures and was playing at the table. “Look who I found,” she announced as lightheartedly as she could manage.

“Hello, Dylan,” Jane called over to receive a smiling wave. The former first lady turned and faced the older woman at the counter whose jaw had dropped several inches. “You must be Rose,” Jane greeted warmly. “Alex speaks so highly of you. Nice to finally meet the legend,” she winked.

“Mrs. Merrow, I….”

“Please…Jane. I told Cassidy already, Alex is family; so are all of you.” She tightened her grasp gently on the older woman’s hand and released it. “Dylan,” she said as she made her way to him. “Could I borrow your mom for a bit?”

He looked up at her and shrugged. “I have to go to school.”

Jane fought a genuine laugh. “Do you like school, Dylan?”

“Sure,” he said.

“I promise I will get her back as soon as I can.”

The small boy looked at her and nodded. “Alex comes home tomorrow.”

Cassidy tried to quell her rising emotions, still unsure what was truly happening with the agent. Jane remained intent on the small boy, keeping his attention firmly focused on her. “Well, that’s why I am here. Your mom and I are going to go help Alex with a couple of things and then your mom will bring her home as soon as she can.”

“Alex is working,” he explained. “She catches bad guys.”

“I see. Kind of like a superhero, huh?” Jane remarked gesturing to the figure in his hands.

“Yep,” he said proudly.

“Well, do you think you could take care of your grandmother while your mom and I go meet Alex?” He nodded. “Good. I know how proud she will be of you for doing that, Dylan.” He smiled at her. Jane put her hand on his small cheek and nodded her appreciation, taking a moment to look at a familiar expression. He looked a great deal like his mother, but that bluish hue in his eye, the way it twinkled; that, she thought, that was John. “Alright, then,” she continued, regaining an upright position. “Let’s get you to that agent so we can get you both home.”

Cassidy nodded and headed to her son. “Dylan, I’ll call you later today, okay?”

“Okay,” he said.

Cassidy looked down at him and kissed his forehead. “I love you, Dylan.”

“Mom,” he moaned, a bit embarrassed by her affection in front of their visitor. His response solicited a slight, but genuine giggle from his mother as she turned to Rose.

“Cassie, is Alex…”

“All I know is she is alive,” she whispered. “I’ll call you as soon as I know more,” Cassidy assured her mother.

“Tell Alex we love her,” Rose said with a tear of concern forming in her eye.

Cassidy smiled. “I will, Mom.”

“Ready?” Jane called back as Cassidy picked up her bag and nodded. “It was lovely to meet you, Rose. I’m sorry it is this way. I promise I will make sure they both get back here safe and sound.”

Rose smiled. “I appreciate that, Jane.”

Jane corralled Cassidy with the soft grip of her arm. “Come on, I’ll explain what I can on the way.”

“What do you mean?” Admiral William Brackett bellowed.

“What part did you not understand?” Jon Krause answered through the phone.

“You expect me to believe that Claire…”

“I don’t care what you believe, Admiral. The facts speak clearly. Claire killed Mercier.”

“That’s ridiculous, Jon. Why would Claire kill Elliot?”

“To keep him from meeting with O’Brien perhaps?”

William Brackett paced the floor of his spacious study. “Why hasn’t Callier called?”

“Perhaps he doesn’t know yet,” Krause offered. “I’m tired of cleaning up after your daughter, Bill.”

The admiral’s anger was rising fast. “You listen to me, Jon…”

“No, Bill. You listen to me. I have no idea what your daughter’s game is. She has compromised us again. You put her in play. You put O’Brien in this and you positioned Strickland…”

“You know better than anyone how I felt about John.”

Jon Krause peered into the small hospital room. “Doesn’t matter. Has she called you yet?”

“No,” the admiral answered curtly.

“You know where she will head?”

The admiral took a deep breath. “Back here, I would suppose.”

Krause shook his head. “She’ll cover her tracks, Bill. You taught her well. She knows no one can pin her or O’Brien. Agent Toles is a ghost in this now too. I’d be careful.”

William Brackett responded coolly. “If I didn’t know better, Jon, I’d think you just threated me.”

“No. No, Admiral Brackett. Just a friendly caution. We are
family
after all, aren’t we?”

A brief pause ensued as the admiral considered his answer. “Yes, Jon; we are. I will handle Claire.”

“You do that,” Krause answered smugly as he hung up the phone. He took a long look through the small window at the woman lying in the bed a few yards away. “Good luck with that
Admiral,” he snickered. “I think you may have just met your match.”

Cassidy was still trying to process everything that the former first lady had told her, which was not much. Only that Jon Krause had reached Alex in time to get her out of a bad situation, that Alex was hurt, and that her old friend ‘Pip’ and the Merrows had known each other for many years. It had been quiet in the car for quite some time and Cassidy was becoming increasingly anxious. They had just passed the sign for Hanscome Airforce Base and Cassidy’s worry was growing by leaps and bounds. “Cassidy?” Jane called over, prompting the teacher to lift her head. “I’m sure Alex will be all right. Jon would have told me if…” Cassidy forced a smile in recognition of Jane’s attempts to put her fears at rest. In truth, she was preoccupied with thoughts of Alex and sitting with the former first lady made her more nervous. She had been wrestling with how to divulge the truth about Dylan’s father to everyone that mattered and a part of her was worried about what the woman seated beside her might think. Jane Merrow was as adept as any agent had ever been at reading people. It was both a talent and a skill; a skill she had needed to master in order to survive the military echelon and the political landscape her life handed her. Cassidy’s expression was transparent. “Cassidy?”

“Hum?”

“What is it? I know you are worried about Alex. But there’s something else. Is it Jon?”

“No. I don’t know what she’s going to think about that, though,” Cassidy sighed.

Jane nodded and took in a deep breath. “He is a good man. Complicated, but a good man,” she said quietly, looking out the window of the car.

“Jane?” The former first lady turned her attention back to the teacher. Cassidy wanted to speak openly but her anxiety over Alex’s welfare superseded that need now. “Thank you.”

Jane just smiled and clasped Cassidy’s hand as the car pulled up to a gate and the back window rolled down. “Ma’am,” a young airman greeted. Jane flashed a card. “Have a nice day.”

“Thank you, Airman,” she said with an acknowledging smile and rolled up her window. Jane tightened her grip on Cassidy’s hand and looked over to her. “Anything you need, or Alex…all you ever have to do is ask.”

Cassidy felt a genuine smile manifest. Jane Merrow had a calming presence. She took a deep breath and returned Jane’s gentle squeeze. The unlikely pair occupying the back seat of the black sedan shared more than one thing in common; not the least of which was a deep love for the woman that awaited their arrival.