C. Paradee - Deep Cover

Puzzled, Shelby asked, "What're you talking about?"

"I saw her in the canteen with Michael on Monday. I didn't know who she was, but now I think she probably told him you were headed to your mother's house after work yesterday. He fits Jonathan's description, meager as it was. We can run that license plate number tomorrow, but if it is Michael's, I doubt he registered it in his real name."

"Yeah, but I have access to each of the agent's various identities unless he got one off the black market. I doubt he expected anyone to see him, so he might have just used whatever he had on him."

"True. Let's hope he did. I'd like to nail him. What I can't figure is why he would be shooting at you." Kris didn't expect Shelby to answer and mulled the idea over in her mind. It has to be to get to me. But why not just target me? Why Shelby? The answer came unbidden. To discredit me. This would be just like him. Killing me wouldn't give him any satisfaction unless he'd managed to destroy my career first. Well, two can play that game. He wants a war, he'll get it.

"Kris? You okay?"

The operative nodded. "Just planning my next move."

"You mean, our next move?"

Kris chuckled ruefully at having been caught thinking singularly. "Yes. That's exactly what I meant."

Shelby returned the smile and said sweetly, "Just checking."

Glad for the cover of darkness, Kris cut the headlights when Maggie turned into an apartment complex, staying well back until the Mercedes was driven into a parking space in front of one of the garden apartments. The two women watched Maggie exit the vehicle and walked up the steps to a second floor apartment and enter it.

Kris glanced at Shelby, her face momentarily visible in the car headlights of a departing tenant. Her faced was strained and she looked tired. The operative had wanted to hang around for a while to see if Maggie had any visitors, but she didn't intend to do it at Shelby's expense. Her partner had very little time to relax since the shooting, and that, combined with her confrontation with Jonathan was taking a toll. "How're you feeling?"

Shelby was touched by the worry in Kris' voice and smiled reassuringly. "Fairly good, now. Those pills are pretty potent." She studied her companion, in the dim light. "How about you? Climbing that tree had to hurt."

Kris reached over, pushing a wayward lock of hair from Shelby's face, drinking in the love she could feel emanating from the blonde woman. "It did for a while, but it's not too bad now. Aren't we a pair? I never meant for you to be hurt. I'd give anything if I could change that."

Shelby spoke softly, but meaningfully. "I know you would, but you can't and I'm doing just fine. So don't worry about it, okay? We've got too many other things to do right now."

Kris nodded. "You up to hanging out here for a little while? Maybe an hour or so, just to see if she has any visitors? It's okay if you don't want to."

"I want to." She held her arm up until her watch was visible in the dim light. "Besides it's still early – only nine-thirty." Shelby decided it really felt like midnight and she was exhausted, but she wasn't about to let Kris know that.

Still visualizing the earlier strain she'd witnessed on her partner's face, and feeling guilty for asking her to stay, Kris asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Her stomach tightened when she saw the fleeting look of hurt cross her partner's face. She laid a hand on Kris' thigh, and smiled. "Thanks for caring. Now will you quit being such a worry wart?"

Kris knew she was being overprotective, and chuckled at Shelby's description. "Worry wart?"

Shelby teased, "If the shoe fits..."

Kris muttered, "Paybacks are a bitch," grinning when she heard Shelby's answering chuckle.

The time passed slowly, both women tired, but still hopeful of learning something new. Shelby caught herself dozing off, and broke the lengthy silence. "Do you think anyone will show up?"

Kris considered the question a moment. "Not really. But we might get lucky."

Shelby's expression turned pensive as she turned to face Kris. "Have you figured out why Michael is after me?"

"I think it's to discredit me. He blames me for him getting pulled from the field and reassigned as a technical advisor. It was his actions that got him pulled, not my testimony. But if he's tied in with the Russians, that incident makes a lot more sense in hindsight. He may have had an entirely different agenda. I never bought his excuses or the board's findings that he had just used poor judgment. Michael was too controlled for that."

The analyst mulled that over for a few moments. "Why did he wait so long? You said that happened almost three years ago. Why didn't he do something before now?"

Kris shrugged, speculating. "We're pretty inaccessible in the field. He'd have had no way of finding me. Even those with top access don't necessarily know where we are all the time." She glanced in the side view mirror tracking a tenant's progress to their vehicle. "Someone told him I was here. Probably Maggie. We don't know what her relationship with Michael is, but she was totally focused on him that day in the canteen. I suspect they're more than casual friends."

Shelby searched her memory for what seemed liked the hundredth time for any clue she might have overlooked about Maggie. "I wonder how long she's been providing the Russians with information?"

"I don't know, but probably for a while now." Kris shifted, trying to get comfortable in the cramped confines of the car. "She seemed perfectly comfortable making that drop. It would also explain how the Russians found out so quickly that I was in town."

"Yeah, that makes sense." A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she asked, "Do you think she knows you're a mole?"

The operative's eyes never stopped perusing their surroundings, her senses fully extended, as she considered Shelby's question. "No. But her handlers would want to know of any field agents at headquarters. It probably made Dimitri's day when he found out I was here."

Shelby nodded in agreement, watching a car drive past on a side street. "He'll get what he has coming to him once we get your mother out of there. It's only a matter of time."

Kris smiled at her partner's steadfast belief they would be successful and knew Shelby's optimism was helping to fuel her own hope for her mother's safe rescue. "Have I told you lately that I love you?"

The blonde looked up at the ceiling of the car. "Lemme think...not more than twice today. Personally, I think at least once an hour would be much more appropriate."

Shelby smiled, loving the sound of Kris' laughter as it quietly surrounded her.

"Is that right? I'll be sure and keep that in mind."

"I'm gonna hold you to that." Shelby's smile faded, a serious expression replacing it. "I love you, too, Kris. Every second, every minute, every hour of every day, I wonder how I got so lucky."

Overwhelmed by the intensity of Shelby's declaration, Kris swallowed, her words trapped in her throat. Every time she looked into her partner's eyes, she was again reminded that love really did exist. It wasn't just an illusion, as she'd always believed. "I'm the one who's lucky."

They each sat at their respective posts, across from each other in the car watching their surroundings in comfortable silence, their bond drawing them inexorably closer.

Kris was first to spot the tall, dark man walking up the sidewalk. "Here comes some guy. I never saw any headlights, so I doubt he lives here. He probably parked on a side street around here."

As the figure drew near, Shelby asked, "Is that Michael?" and glanced over at Kris, only to find her partner's eyes were riveted on the tall man.

Kris words were laden with tension. "That's him. Now let's see if he goes to Maggie's apartment."