CHAPTER TWELEVE
1236 Words
CHAPTER TWELEVE
As it turned out, he didn’t need to explain much, neither about his whereabouts during the documentary or Maria’s sudden presence, because as the two of them walked down the corridor towards his waiting daughters, Maya’s eyebrows rose in a precipitous arch that told him she had already leapt to some conclusions about where he had gone and what he might have been doing.
“Hi girls!” he said a little too enthusiastically. “How was the movie?”
“Oh, it was very informative.” Maya made no attempt to hide the suspicion in her voice.
Sara’s gaze flitted from Reid to Maria and back again. “Did you fix your credit card, Dad?” she asked quietly.
“Yes, yes I did,” he said quickly. “And while I was out there, as luck would have it, I happened to run into a friend.”
“Wow,” Maya mused mockingly. “How incredibly bizarre that you might run into someone you know on the streets of a foreign country thousands of miles from home…”
Reid shot his daughter a pointed glare, but Maria smirked. “You must be Maya,” she said as she put out a hand. “I’m Maria.”
Maya didn’t move, but much to Reid’s surprise, Sara reached out and took Maria’s hand. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Sara.”
“Sara, it’s very nice to meet you. Your dad tells me you’re an excellent artist.”
Sara shrugged. “I dabble.”
Reid almost laughed aloud. He had never heard his daughter use the word “dabble” before. “So,” he said, clapping his hands together one. “What are we doing next?”
“Hmm,” said Maya. “If I recall, you said it would be whatever we wanted to do.”
“I did say that…” Reid admitted hesitantly.
“Well then,” Maria interjected, “I know some excellent boutiques nearby, if you girls want to check them out.”
Maya regarded Maria evenly, her eyes slightly narrowed, but eventually she nodded. “Alright. Lead the way.”
Reid groaned. “Shopping?”
Maria led them towards the exit to the museum, and much to his surprise, Sara fell right in stride with her.
“I like your hair,” she told Maria quietly.
“Oh, thank you! I like yours. So do you want to be an artist when you’re older?”
“Not sure yet,” Sara replied. She added, “My mom restored paintings for the Smithsonian. I think I might like to do something like that.”
What is happening? Reid thought. She’s a totally different girl from yesterday. It was strange to him how well Sara seemed to take the presence of a stranger. She seemed fully at ease with it. Maybe he wasn’t the only one pacified by Maria’s presence.
“So, Maria, what do you do?” Maya asked casually.
“I’m an accountant,” she replied as they stepped outside and onto the sidewalk. “I live in Baltimore.”
“Hmm,” Maya said. “Do you travel a lot?”
Maria shrugged. “Now and then, when I can get time from work.”
“Oh, I mean for work,” Maya said. “Does your job send you places? Like, say, Switzer—”
“Maya!” Reid hissed a word of warning.
His daughter shrugged innocently. “What? I’m just asking.”
Reid took his eldest by the elbow and the two of them lagged a short distance behind Maria and Sara, who continued chatting idly. “What do you think you’re doing?” he whispered harshly.
“I’m just getting to know her.”
“No, you’re fishing for answers. Knock it off.”
“Well, what do you think you’re doing?” she shot back. “You tell us this trip is about family. You tell us not to wander off. And then you wander off and come back with this woman who just happened to be in the same place at the same time?”
Reid sighed. “Maya, I promise you, I didn’t know she would be here.” That part wasn’t a lie; he had been just as surprised at Maria’s appearance, maybe even more than the girls were.
“I’ll tell you what it looks like,” Maya continued, her voice hushed. “It looks like you planned this. It looks like you’re still working, if you know what I mean.”
“I swear I’m not,” Reid assured her. “You want to know the truth? Yes, Maria is… like me. Like I was. The agency keeps tabs on us. They know we’re here. She found out and stopped by to check in. I really, truly did not know.”
“Check in? Why?” Maya insisted.
“Why do you think? Because of what happened last month.”
Maya paused. “She knows about that?”
Right. Maya wouldn’t have remembered in the state she was in. “Maya,” Reid said gently, “she was there. Maria helped me find you on that train in Slovakia. You were…” He didn’t want to remind her that she had been drugged. “…Only partially conscious, so Maria stayed with you while I went after Sara.”
Maya bit her lip, walking alongside her father silently. About twenty feet ahead of them, Maria said something to Sara that made the young girl laugh.
“You could’ve told me that,” Maya murmured.
“So you’ll give her a chance?” Reid asked.
His daughter shrugged. “I guess she seems okay. Sara seems to likes her.” Before he could respond, Maya quickened her pace to catch up to the other two.
Reid couldn’t help but smile. “She seems okay” was probably the best he was going to get out of his sixteen-year-old daughter.
Over the course of the next two and a half hours, Reid found himself subjected to no fewer than seven boutiques, and such scintillating conversation as “this would look amazing on you, Maya” and “trust me, pearls are making a comeback” and “what do you mean, your dad won’t let you wear mascara? Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him.”
Rather than try to insert himself into any of the scenes unfolding before him, he resigned to being the bag-holder and instead watched the feminine bonding that was occurring right before his eyes. He imagined he was an anthropologist that had stumbled upon a tribe the likes of which he could never understand—which, all joking aside, was at least partially true. He was downright astonished by how quickly the girls took to having a positive female influence nearby. Even Maya seemed to be having a good time.
They were in shop number eight and waiting while the girls were in fitting rooms when Reid turned to Maria and said, “I honestly can’t believe this. Sara’s personality is like a complete one-eighty from how she was yesterday. You’re really good with kids.”
Maria laughed. “I most definitely am not. But they’re hardly kids; they’re teenagers. They want to be treated like young women, not children.” She shrugged. “Once you know that, it’s pretty easy.”
“Huh.” Reid hadn’t really considered that. To him, they were his baby girls. They needed his protection, his tutelage, his wisdom. It was hard for him to see them any other way.
Maybe they need someone like this in their lives. Hell, maybe I need someone like this in my life.
“Come to dinner with us tonight,” Reid said. “We’ll go someplace here in Zurich, and then the girls and I will take the train back to Engelberg.”
Maria sighed. “I really wish I could, but I think I’ve ignored my responsibilities long enough. In fact…” She pulled out her cell phone, checked it, and frowned deeply. “Oh, that can’t be good.”
“What?”
She turned the phone to show him the screen. Maria had nine missed calls, all from the same source—a phone number marked as “unknown”—and a single text message: MARIGOLD. REPORT.
Maria made the call, angling the phone and tilting her head closer to Reid’s so he could listen in without it being on speaker.
“We have a situation,” Deputy Director Riker declared by way of greeting. “We’re sending a car to your location.”
“What sort of situation?” Maria asked.
“Explosives were detonated at the US embassy in Baghdad,” Riker explained hastily. “The entire building was destroyed. We’ve got more than fifty confirmed dead so far... including a congressional delegation from New York. Senator Conroy and four representatives.”
Reid and Maria exchanged a worried glance. He had little doubt that the Congressmen were the targets, but to make that substantial of an attack, claim that many lives to ensure that a specific five were killed, was undoubtedly the mark of a fanatical group.
“I’ll be ready,” Maria told Riker.
“There’s something else,” the deputy director said quickly before Maria could end the call. “We know you’re with him. In fact, I’d venture to guess that he can hear me right now, so I’ll just tell him myself: you’re being reinstated. We want you on this. Welcome back, Agent Zero.”
- Writer
