Radclyffe - Honor Reclaimed

"Is that her usual time?"

"Any time between four thirty and six," Hara said. "Almost every day."

Cam realized instantly that the pattern had been carefully, deliberately set, but she followed the questions to their logical end for the sake of procedure. "Does Ms. Bleeker ordinarily accompany her?"

"Not usually this early, Commander."

"How long is she usually gone?"

"Forty-five minutes. An hour at the most. In fact, she should be back any time."

"Was she carrying anything today?"

"Not that I noticed, but it was still dark. I observed her exit the building and checked my watch. By then she was partially obscured by the dunes." Hara looked uncomfortable. "Did I miss something, Commander?"

"No. I did." Cam stepped back inside and said to Blair, "They must've picked her up on the water."

"Who?" Blair demanded. "Are you telling me she's been kidnapped or something?"

"I doubt that." The muscles in Cam's shoulders tightened as she fought back the anger. "I'd imagine the Agency retrieved her."

"Why?" Blair paced in a tight circle in the center of the kitchen, growing more furious with each passing moment.

"The number of people who know she's here is very limited, and there's no reason to believe she would be a target for a kidnapping." Cam pulled her cell phone from her belt. "It's more likely this was part of the plan from the beginning."

"I can't believe she did this. Do you know what this is going to do to Diane? God damn it. Son of a bitch." Blair stalked from one side of the room to the other. "What plan are you talking about? Whose plan?"

"The CIA's. We've just identified a key player in the assault on the Aerie. We may have uncovered a potential connection to the terrorists who hit the World Trade Center. I'm sure that's the information Valerie was sent here to get. Now she has it, her job is done, and they've extracted her." Cam shrugged. "They often relocate their field agents precipitously."

"They sent her to spy on you? My father would never allow that."

Cam caught Blair's shoulders and halted her harried journey. "He probably doesn't even know about it."

"That's ridiculous. He's the president. He knows everything."

"Actually, he doesn't, and there's a good reason for it. There are times when he has to be able to disavow knowledge, especially when something may be.. .hazy, legally." Cam blew out a frustrated breath. "But I'm willing to bet Lucinda Washburn knows about it. Because she's the one who protects him."

"I'm calling her. Right now." Blair grabbed her phone from the counter and flipped it open.

Gently, Cam reached out and closed it. "She's not going to tell you. She's not going to tell me. If she knows, she won't admit it. That's how these things are done."

Blair fixed Cam with an incredulous stare. "Why aren't you angry? Don't you feel betrayed?"

"It's not personal," Cam said quietly. She couldn't view it as personal, because she needed to keep her head clear. The operation depended upon it. And even more importantly, so did the lives of her people.

"Bullshit. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. That woman.. .damn it, I hate saying this, but that woman is more to you than just another agent."

"No, she isn't." Cam smiled ruefully. "Claire was, once, but Valerie isn't."

"How you can distinguish between the two of them?"

Cam considered whether it was wise to answer. Discussing her past involvement with another woman with Blair was not generally a wise idea. She knew that Blair trusted her. She also knew that Blair knew that she loved her. But Blair was Blair, and she didn't take any intrusion on their relationship lightly. Cam sighed. It went against her every instinct, but her relationship with Blair was something that she couldn't fit into the logic of the rest of her life. The only course that had ever worked with Blair was honesty, no matter how treacherous the path might appear. "What Claire and I had, what we shared, was in the past. We were different people then, and Claire is gone now."

Blair pulled out a kitchen chair and sank into it, then sat drumming her fingers on the wooden surface as she regarded Cam through narrowed eyes. "Do you ever.. .miss her?"

"Ah, Jesus, Blair," Cam said pleadingly.

"I'm not jealous, I just want to know."

Cam pulled out a second chair and sat facing Blair. She leaned forward and curled her hands around the outside of Blair's knees. She looked directly into Blair's eyes. "Sometimes I'm sad that I'll never see her...Claire...again. But those times are very rare, and they have nothing to do with you and me. It's not about the sex—it wasn't really about that for a long time, even before it ended. It's more like losing a friend."

"And what about Valerie?"

"Valerie..." Cam blew out a breath and shook her head. "Valerie is a woman I don't really know. We're connected, that's true, on a deeper level than just ordinary colleagues, but I don't know what drives her inside. I don't know why she makes the choices she does. I don't know her, and I can't be responsible for her. I have Stark and Savard and Mac and all of the others to think of."

"But you like her. I know you do."

"I do. I understand her, on a lot of levels. She's more like me than any of the others."

Blair wanted to protest, but she knew it was true. Cam would sacrifice almost everything for duty—-not love, not really—but if you didn't know her very well, it would look like that. "Well, I'm really pissed at her. She had no business getting involved with Diane if she knew she was going to be leaving. It's selfish and cruel."

"Maybe she couldn't help it." Cam traced a finger along the tense angle of Blair's jaw. "Baby. Sometimes we fall in love even when we don't want to."

Blair turned her head quickly and kissed Cam's hand. "Don't try to talk me out of being angry."

Cam shook her head again. "I'm not. I know I couldn't. I'm just saying that I've been where she is, and sometimes it's just as hard on the other side. Especially when you can't explain why you're doing what you're doing."

"It drives me crazy the way you all stick together," Blair grumbled.

"If we find out that Valerie isn't working for the Agency, or that the plan all along was to somehow protect the people responsible for what happened at the Aerie, then I will hunt her down to the ends of the earth." Cam's hands tightened on Blair's thighs. "I promise you that."

"What do you mean if she isn't working for the Agency? You mean like a double agent?" Blair dropped her head back with a groan and stared at the ceiling. "This just keeps getting worse. Poor Diane."

Cam said nothing, disgusted with those who professed to share a common goal but whose agenda, ultimately, was only the preservation of their own power. It was a lesson she had learned very early in her life, and one she had temporarily forgotten only because Valerie had been a woman whom she had trusted. It was a mistake she wouldn't make again. She opened her cell phone and punched in Lucinda Washburn's private number.

Blair looked out the kitchen window and saw Diane start down the dune path wearing nothing but a silk blouse, slacks, and low heels. The thermometer mounted outside the window read fifty-three degrees. "Jesus."

She pulled on her jacket, grabbed Cam's from a hook by the back door, and started after her. She crossed the beach beneath a dull gray morning sky, grateful that it had at last stopped raining. The tide was on its way out, and seagulls chattered and picked among the littered shells and abandoned seaweed at the water's edge. She joined her best friend and extended the anorak. "Here, put this on. You're going to get sick."

"Thanks," Diane said quietly, accepting the navy fleece pullover. She shrugged into it without looking away from the ocean. It was too big for her in the shoulders and sleeves, and she wrapped both arms around her waist, automatically pulling her hands inside to warm them. "I'm okay. You don't need to stay."