CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1608 Words
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Reid and Maria exchanged a confused glance. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, and hadn’t yet let on that he was indeed there with her.
“Why him?” Maria asked on his behalf. “Why now?”
“I’ll give you two reasons,” Riker said. “First, the group that claimed responsibility is one of his former cases, an offshoot of Hamas that was banished from Gaza for killing members of their own ranks during a raid. They had originally set up shop in Syria; Zero and Reidigger flushed them out and they vanished. They’ve been inactive ever since. We’re hoping that something in his head might trigger, give us some insight into their goals.”
“And the second reason?” Reid asked, finally making his presence known to Riker.
“Agent Strickland is leading this charge,” she explained. “He asked for you personally. We’re obliging because… well, like it or not, you’re still the best we’ve got.”
Strickland? Maria mouthed to him, thoroughly confused. He had not yet told her that he and Todd had developed a friendship in the wake of last month’s incident; she only knew of Strickland as the young agent that had been sent after Zero in Slovakia.
Regardless of Strickland’s request, he knew this wasn’t what he wanted. He had to put his family first. “I can’t,” he told Riker plainly. “I’m on vacation with my girls. What would I do, just leave them here alone and without protection?”
“Of course not,” Riker said superciliously. “We’re sending a car to your location. Watson is in it.”
“Watson?” Last Reid had heard, Agent Watson was on medical leave for a gunshot wound to his shoulder.
“We anticipated you wouldn’t go unless you had someone around you could trust,” Riker explained. “Watson isn’t currently fit for fieldwork, but he’s still quite capable. He’ll see to your girls’ safety. We both know he will.”
Reid glanced at Maria again. The CIA seemed vehement to have him on this case. Even worse, although he told himself over and over again that he couldn’t go, couldn’t possibly leave his girls, a chill of excitement shuddered up the nape of his neck at the thought of returning to the field. The agent side of him craved it. “I… I need a minute,” he said. “I need to think for a minute.”
“You’ve got about five before the car arrives,” said Riker. “We hope you’ll be in it.” The deputy director hung up.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Maria said quietly.
Reid nodded. “I agree. Unless… unless they never intended to keep me out of the field. Maybe this past month was just a way to give me some time without letting me go.” He could hardly believe his own words; it was as if his mouth betrayed his brain. I’m actually considering this. He noted Maria’s pensive stare, her flitting gaze, and he knew what she was thinking. She had always thought he had something of a misplaced sense of duty—not to the agency, but to doing the right thing.
“You can’t,” she told him quietly. “You’re on vacation with your family. You told the girls you’re not in the field anymore…”
“I know,” he said quickly. “I know, you’re right. I can’t.” He shook his head. “But fifty dead, Maria? These people need to be caught. What if Riker is right? What if something in my mind can help find them faster, or stop another attack?”
Maria scoffed. “If this is a ploy by Riker, then she knows exactly which of your buttons to push to make you think twice. How are you going to tell the girls that you’re leaving them right in the middle of your vacation?”
“I knew it.”
Reid looked up and a thin hiss of a sigh escaped his lips. Maya had come out of the fitting room at some point while they were talking and had obviously heard enough. She stood there with her arms slack at her sides and a look of abject disappointment on her face.
“I knew it,” Maya said again. “This was never about family or vacation or ‘surviving together,’ was it?”
“Maya, let me explain,” Reid started. “We just got the call…”
“You lied to us.” She scoffed and shook her head. “Guess we should be used to it by now though.” Maya stormed away towards the entrance of the boutique.
“What’s going on?” Sara exited the second fitting room in time to see her sister hurrying out to the street.
Reid sighed. He had a feeling that Sara was not going to take this well. “There was a call,” he explained gently, “just now. It’s an urgent matter, and they want my help.”
“The CIA?” Sara asked plainly.
Reid nodded. Maria seemed taken aback by the girl’s candor; she didn’t know that he had told his daughters the truth about what he did.
“Yes,” he admitted. “From the CIA. A lot of people were just killed, and they think I might know how to keep them from doing it again.”
Sara said nothing. Instead she too hurried across the small shop towards the door. Reid stood quickly; Maria grabbed up her purse and the two of them followed Sara out onto the street. Maya stood near the curb, facing away from the entrance with her arms folded tightly.
“Fifty people are dead, Maya,” Reid told her, ignorant to passers-by or anyone around them. “Including members of Congress, killed in an explosion. Am I just supposed to ignore that?”
Maya spun on a heel to face him. “You’re supposed to be with us!” she nearly shouted. “You’re supposed to be protecting us! That’s what you said. You promised.”
“I know I did, but this is different—”
“Then it’s always going to be different!” Maya argued. “You’ll make promises, and every time you get a call you’ll break them. You know you will. And what about Sara? She’s finally doing better, finally has some life in her, and you want to run off and leave us?”
“He should go.” Sara took a step closer to them and they both fell silent, looking over at her sharply as if just noticing that she was there on the street at all. “You should go.”
“Sara…” Reid said softly. The conviction in her voice was enough to break his heart.
“If people need you like we needed you, then you should help them,” Sara told him.
Maya shook her head. “Sara, you don’t know what you’re saying…”
“Yes I do,” she insisted. “We both know he can help them. We’ll be okay.”
Reid reached out and took his older daughter’s hand. She tried to pull away, but he held fast. “Hey,” he said, “remember what we talked about the other day? What you said you wanted to do? You said that if you want it to end, the best way to do it is to be part of the people trying to stop it. Right?”
Maya bit her lip and said nothing.
“Like father, like daughter,” Reid pressed. “That’s how I feel right now. That’s how I feel all the time. That’s why it’s so hard to say no to things like this.”
Maya’s hand slipped from his and her arm fell slack at her side. She had no rebuttal for his argument. It pained him greatly to see his daughter standing there and looking so dejected. But it was even more than that; she looked afraid, vulnerable.
“Agent Watson is coming,” he told her. “He’s going to watch over you two and make sure you get home safely. You won’t be alone.”
“It’s not about being alone,” Maya murmured.
Reid felt a hand on his shoulder as Maria said quietly, “The car is going to be here any minute for us.” Then she handed him something, a tiny black rectangle that looked like a capped USB stick.
As soon as he took it he knew what it was; the knowledge was in his brain already and the touch of the stick brought it back to him. He nodded appreciably to Maria and then said, “Maya, come with me a minute.” He led the older girl around the corner from the boutique and checked left and right to make sure that no one was watching. “I know you’re scared…”
“I am not scared,” Maya said heatedly.
“Not for yourself,” he replied quickly. “You’re scared for your sister. And for me. Maria and Todd will take care of me, I promise. Watson will take care of you two. But just in case, take this.” He handed her the tiny black stick.
Maya frowned as she took it. “What is it?”
“This is a tiny stun gun,” he told her. “It’s automatically armed when you take off the cap, so don’t do it unless it’s absolutely necessary. There are two prongs just inside, and it will deliver a one-hundred-thousand volt shock—but it’s only charged for one use.”
Maya’s eyes widened at the description of the seemingly innocuous plastic device. She held it gingerly with two fingers, as if it might shock her just from a gentle touch.
“Keep it on you at all times,” Reid told his daughter. “Somewhere you can grab it quickly if you need to. And don’t trust anyone that isn’t us or Agent Watson. Do you understand?”
Maya nodded. “But what if…”
“No one, Maya.” He wasn’t overtly expecting the girls to run into any trouble, but Agent Zero had a lot of enemies, and if the events of February and March had proven anything it was that there was no such thing as too cautious.
“Okay,” Maya said softly as she pocketed the device.
He drew her into a hug and squeezed her tightly for several seconds. Despite her mood only moments ago, she hugged him back. “Be safe,” he told her. “I love you.”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “Love you too.”
“Hey.” Maria appeared around the corner, startling them both. “Car is here. Time to go.”
A black town car was waiting by the curb, and the familiar form of Agent Watson climbed out of the backseat. He was tall and stoic, African-American, with his right arm still in a sling. “Zero. Johansson.” He nodded to each in turn.
“Hi John,” Reid greeted him soberly. “Thanks for doing this.” He knelt in front of Sara. “I’m going to be back before you know it.”
She nodded and looked down at the pavement, as if she didn’t really believe it.
“You listen to your sister and Agent Watson, okay?”
“I will.”
Reid hugged her. “Love you, kiddo.”
“Bye, Dad.”
He smiled and shook his head. “It’s not bye. It’s ‘see you later.’”
“See you later,” she said quietly.
“I’ll take care of them,” Watson assured him as Maria got into the car.
“I know you will.” Reid had to force his legs to move, to climb into the backseat of the waiting sedan. He pulled the door closed, and watched through the window as they stood on the curb, until the car rounded a corner he could no longer see them.
- Writer
