Chapter 11

When they all arrived at the hospital, Veni was escorted into a cubicle, but without Reid. She looked back at him, worried.

Reid smiled reassuringly. “I’m right here. If you need me, then all you need to do is call.” She picked up on his emphasis on call right away.

She hesitated, then nodded and walked in, where a nurse awaited her. She was instructed to strip down and to get under the sheet on the bed. She stared at the nurse. “Why?”

She smiled and explained, “We need to do a full assessment.”

“I’m not hurt,” she said quickly.

“These are my orders, per the doctor who arrived with you.”

Veni didn’t like it, didn’t like anything about it. She shook her head. “No, if that’s the case, I’ll wait until I see who is coming in to see me,” she declared. “I have no need to have my clothes off.”

At that, the doctor from the airplane stepped in and smiled, then explained, “We’re checking for trackers. It would help us do this if you would undress.”

“Can’t you do a scan or something instead?” she muttered. “Why do I have to strip?”

“Is there a reason you don’t want to?”

“Yes,” she snapped, glaring at him. “I’ve already been held prisoner for way too long for me to want to be so exposed.”

He seemed to accept that response and nodded. “Let me do a full check on you right now, as you are,” he offered. “And, yes, we can scan for trackers, but I’m also looking for points of entry. We’ll find a scanner first, and then we’ll sort out the entry point.”

“Fine,” she muttered.

“Are you sure you don’t want Reid in here?” the doctor asked.

“I do want Reid in here,” she declared, eyeing the doctor carefully. “I never said he couldn’t be in here with me.”

At that, the curtain was pulled back, and Reid stepped forward. “I’m here. It’s all right.” She breathed a sigh of relief, reached out a hand, which he quickly grasped. “It’s fine.”

Now the doctor proceeded to check her over for points of entry, noting drugs, yes, but also trackers. He’d done a quick check of her overall health on the plane, but, as she had been mobile and coherent and not showing any signs of actual trauma, his initial search had been cursory at best, but this was a whole different story.

By the time he was done, she was exhausted, just from the stress, the worry, the waiting. She groaned, as she sank back down on the hospital bed. “And?”

He explained, “We’re bringing in some equipment, and we’ll check for trackers. I did not see any sign of point of entry big enough for a tracker on visible body parts. That’s a good thing, but I can’t be sure. We need to be sure.”

She nodded. “That’s fine. Bring in whatever you need to.”

And, with that, two men stepped forward, one holding a small handheld device. She was quickly scanned top to bottom, and then they stepped back. “She’s clear.”

The relief that washed through her was absolutely mind-numbing. She felt the tears in the corners of her eyes, as she looked up at Reid. He smiled, leaned over, gave her gentle kiss, and said, “See? You’re fine.”

Her breath let out in a whoosh. “Thank God for that,” she murmured. “Now if only the rest of this goes by just as quickly.”

Just then the curtain was pulled back again, and a new person entered her vision. She glared at him. “What do you want?” she asked.

He looked at her in surprise, then over at Reid and frowned. Reid immediately frowned right back.

Veni wondered if it was a secret code between these guys or something.

“I’m Jonas, MI6.”

Feeling like a heel after all they’d done for her, she nodded. “Sorry. I’m not exactly trusting anybody right now.”

“I guess that’s a good thing. Yet you seem to trust this one.” Jonas pointed toward Reid.

Reid just shrugged.

“I knew him from before,” she murmured. “Reid and I went to college together.”

Jonas’s eyebrows shot up at that. “Really?” He turned to face Reid and asked, “You are part of Terk’s team?”

“I’m on this job for Terk, yes,” he clarified.

“So you’re one like Terk?” He waved his hands and asked, “One of his special men?”

Reid’s lips switched.

Veni looked from one man to the other. “What does that mean?” she asked in confusion.

“He’s asking if I have abilities like Terk and like you,” Reid explained, “and the answer is, yes, of course I do.”

“Of course,” Jonas repeated, with a headshake. “How the hell does he find so many gifted people?”

“You would be surprised,” she murmured. “There are others.”

“Are there?” Jonas asked, gazing at her intently. “Back where you were being held?”

“Not that I know of,” she said hesitatingly. She looked over at Reid and caught his almost imperceptible headshake to not tell Jonas about the other voice in her head. “However, I’m not sure there aren’t other prisoners.”

He nodded. “That’s interesting too.” His gaze went from one to the other. “The good news is, you have been cleared health-wise. Obviously we were concerned. However, they didn’t appear to physically hurt you, which is a good thing. Your mother has been heavily drugged and…” He then added carefully, “We did find a tracker on her.”

She stared at him, her eyes widening in horror. “What?”

He nodded. “It’s at the base of her neck, at the hairline. “Since we did just now find one, I want the men to come back and check you again to ensure something wasn’t hidden in your hair. We’ll just do another quick check to confirm.”

With that, the curtain was pulled back, and the same men returned, but this time, instead of a small machine, they went manually over her scalp slowly and carefully.

Then they stepped back, faced Jonas, and stated, “No, she’s clean.”

She didn’t understand. “Why would they track my mother and not me?” she asked.

“We don’t have an answer for you. All we can say is that you’re clear, so that’s good news,” Jonas shared. “We can get you to a hotel, where you can have a shower, can change clothes, and get some rest. We’ll get you some food, as well. We must keep you confined in the hotel for a couple days, while we sort out what’s going on. In your mother’s case, we’ll have to put on extra security for her to ensure she’s safe here at the hospital.” After dropping that bombshell, Jonas disappeared.

Veni looked back to find Anders standing at the curtain. His face was solemn. The frown on his face made her ask, “What’s the matter?”

He replied, “That tracker is worrisome.”

“Yeah, I’m not really thrilled to hear that either,” she murmured. “I still don’t understand why they would track my mother and not me.”

“Maybe because your mother’s deemed to be more valuable to them?” he suggested.

She nodded. “She’s the scientist, so that’s definitely possible,” she said, looking back where her mother was.

“But still, let’s get you to a hotel, and we can hash it out there,” Reid suggested. “Are you ready to go?”

“I’m absolutely ready to go, except for the fact that my mother remains here.”

“Here is where she’ll stay,” Reid declared, “but she’ll have guards on her for extra measure. MI6 is putting more security on her.”

“Sure, but a couple guards may not be enough. You don’t know what these people are like.”

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “Oh, I think we do,” he replied ever-so-gently. “MI6 will do everything they can to protect her. They went to a lot of effort to bring you guys over here, so losing you also meant hiring yet another team to go get you. They won’t take a third loss. They will protect her.”

And, with that, Veni was given no choice but to be led out of the room and into another vehicle.

*

Once inside thehotel, standing at the door to their suite, Reid nudged Veni toward the open door and whispered, “Come on. Let’s get into the room.”

She stepped inside, with the two MI6 agents and Anders right behind them. It was a large suite and much more elegant than she had expected.

Reid looked around with approval. “You’ll be quite comfortable here,” he noted.

“We will be quite comfortable here,” she snapped, glaring at him. “I know I sound cranky and miserable, but honestly I don’t think I can take too much more. I need”—she shook her head—“I don’t even know what I need.”

“You’ll get what you need now. You’ll get time to relax and unwind,” Reid said. “So let’s just get settled.”

As the two agents started to leave, Reid looked back at them and asked, “What’s the protocol? She needs food, and she needs clothes.”

“Clothes are on the way,” one of the men replied, with a nod.

“I need a laptop too,” she added, turning to look at the lead agent. “Some way to communicate with the world. I lost my phone and my laptop.”

“We’ll get something for you.”

“I also need food, and fast, please,” she muttered. “I’m getting hungry.”

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “Tell us what you want, and we’ll arrange it.”

She looked back at Reid. “You want to take this one?” she asked. “I’m heading for the shower. That’s about the only thing I can think of right now.”

He nodded and spoke to the agent. “We need a selection of fruits and raw veggies. She was always a bit of a health nut,” he added. “I would suggest a full-on meal, something healthy, like big Caesar or chef salads, plus four medium-rare steaks and four roasted chicken breasts. Give us a budget, and we’ll order in—or we can set up a delivery.”

It took a little bit to get that sorted out, but—with food ordered, snacks coming, a coffee service that should be here before the food, clothes on the way, and even their own bags just brought in—Reid turned to Anders, who’d settled in with his laptop on the nearby table. Reid sat down next to him with a thump and muttered, “Hope that coffee gets here fast.”

Anders smiled. “Hey, as long as it’s on its way, you’re doing fine.”

“Maybe,” he muttered. “Still feels a little weird dealing with MI6 on this level.”

“Get used to it. All of us do.”

“Really?” he asked, looking over at him.

Anders nodded. “A couple things about MI6 that you just can’t let happen is their tendency to walk all over people.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Reid noted.

“But start as you mean to go on, and you’ll be just fine.”

“I think we’re good at the moment. She’s in having a shower, and that should make her feel more human when she comes out.”

“That and a good meal,” Anders added. “It’ll still take her a bit of time to realize that at least a part of all this readjustment is over with though.”

“I can understand that too,” Reid replied. “I’m not sure if we have security outside or whether it’s even something that needs to be considered.”

“I’ve already tapped into the hotel camera system to ensure that we have an idea about who and what’s coming down the hallway all the time.”

Reid raised an eyebrow. “I gather this is the joy of working privately.”

“It absolutely is,” Anders confirmed. “And, before you ask, no. I didn’t ask permission and don’t intend to tell either,” he muttered. “Still, as long as we have any suspicion that Veni’s in danger, we need to know if somebody’s coming.”

“Oh, I’m all for it,” Reid said, “but I’ve come from the military world, where fifteen requisitions must be filled out in order to get permission for anything. So, while I’m a bit weirded out by some of the leeway we’re taking, I’m definitely fine with all of it.”

Anders burst out laughing. “Yeah, well, you can leave that world behind,” he stated. “It’s completely different when you’re private, not that we’re allowed to break the law, as I am doing right now,” he admitted. “This is definitely hacking without permission, but, if there’s a problem, you can bet that my hacking will be something MI6 covers quite nicely because of the fact that we don’t dare let anything happen to Veni. Thus we need to be on top of our game.”

“Right, so, as long as it’s part of a safety protocol, we can work around it.”

“Exactly.” Anders smiled at him. “You’re getting the hang of it. You’ll be just fine.”

Reid shrugged. “Maybe. It’s strange to consider these things from such a different aspect,” he muttered. “Yet I’m intrigued enough to continue.”

“Good.” Anders nodded, with a smile. “I feel like I’m showing you the ropes, but honestly you already know all this stuff. You just have to get rid of that big-boss-overlord sitting in your head.”

“Yet we’re doing this job for MI6, so doesn’t that mean we have a big-boss-overlord after all?”

“Not if it was my job. I wouldn’t let MI6 anywhere close to us,” he shared, “but sometimes we must cooperate and work with them, whether we like it or not.”

“I would definitely say that was the case right now,” Reid declared, looking around.

“And we are cooperating,” Anders quipped, flashing him a big grin. “We just don’t have to tell them everything.”

“Ah, the classic case of making it look as if you’re cooperating, then, as soon as they’re gone, do your own thing.”

“Absolutely.”

When a knock came on the door a little later, Anders checked his laptop screen, nodded, and said, “It’s the coffee service.” He pointed at his laptop, which showed a person in hotel garb, standing outside with a cart.

“How do we know that they’re clear to come in?”

“We don’t,” Anders replied. “That’ll come next.”

With that, Reid went to the door, opened it, and took the cart, studying the man’s face for future reference. The hotel employee just turned and walked away. Reid didn’t know if that was good or bad, but, hey, this was all about making it work, whatever that took. With the coffee service inside, he shut the door and quickly poured himself and Anders a cup.

“Did you catch any sleep on the flights?” Anders asked.

Reid shook his head. “Not enough to count.”

“Neither did I,” Anders shared. “We can only go for so long, so I highly suggest that we take a couple turns and catch some shut-eye.”

“I’m all for that,” Reid replied, with a nod. “It would be nice to see what kind of shape she’s in, after her shower. As you mentioned, food will help too, but she probably has a long way to go before she can unwind enough to sleep.”

“You might be surprised,” Anders said. “Sometimes a shock reaction can set in, and they crash really fast. Other times it’s something more, and she’ll need some time for adjusting. Either way, as soon as I’m done with this coffee, I’ll grab some sleep, at least an hour or two.” He looked down at his watch, frowned, and corrected, “Make that two. Then you need to crash, and I’ll stand watch.” Anders stood, taking his coffee with him, and noted, “There are two bedrooms. I’ll take the smaller one.” And, with that, he was gone.

Reid sat down at the laptop, studying the hallway onscreen, checking to ensure it was all good. When he heard the water shut off in the en suite bathroom, he smiled.

Moments later she popped her head around the bathroom door and asked, “I guess no clothes are here yet, are they?”

“Not yet,” he said, “but I can give you a T-shirt of mine that’s clean. Otherwise there should be hotel robes lying around.”

“There’s a robe,” she noted, coming out with it wrapped around her body. She sniffed the air and smiled. “Is that coffee?”

“It absolutely is.” He chuckled as he got up to pour her a cup.

“I might feel like a human being at the end of that,” she said. “Sorry. I guess I’ve been pretty difficult to be around.”

“Not at all,” he argued. “Besides, after everything you’ve gone through, it’s okay to need time for yourself.”

“I’m hoping to get that time eventually, but obviously we’re not out of danger yet.” She stopped at the laptop and frowned at the screen. “Is that necessary?”

“I think Anders does it as matter of course, and it is a way to be prepared,” he added. “Just to keep the safety level where it needs to be.”

“I guess,” she muttered. “I keep thinking that we’re okay, but I’m not sure we are because, if you’re still tracking the movements up and down the hallway, obviously you don’t have the same level of comfort that I was hoping to have.”

“I’m not sure that we don’t have the same level of comfort. I think it’s better to keep an eye on it and ensure that we’re clear, at least until we hear back from MI6 and Terk and Levi, plus the doctors on your mother’s condition.”

“Right. I wanted to phone the hospital, as soon as I got out of the shower.”

“And you can,” Reid said, “but get some coffee in you first. Clothes are coming, and so is food. For now, Anders has gone to lie down for a bit.”

She frowned at Reid. “What about you? You didn’t get any sleep on the way over here.”

“I’ll crash for a bit after he’s up,” he shared, with a gentle smile. “Remember? This is what we do.”

“Is it really what you do? To me, it seems it’s what Anders does.”

Reid nodded. “Anders has been private a lot longer than I have. So he’s a little more comfortable breaking the rules. I am not that far behind, though.” And then he laughed. “That’s not even true. I’m used to breaking rules. It’s just… different now.”

“How so?”

“Working for Terk is nothing like being in the government and the military—as you know from comparing your college life with your work helping your mom,” he added, with a smile. “So, I’m good with it. Besides, this work is special and utilizes my gifts. No way the military would. I took this job because I knew it was you and because you needed help. Other than that, I’ve been healing from an injury, and now that I’m out of the military and okayed to return to work, and Terk’s offered me a spot on his team, I’ll take him up on it.”

“So then you can travel around the world doing this all the time, helping people?” she asked, looking at him in surprise.

“Something like that, yeah.”

She nodded slowly. “It must be dangerous though.”

“I don’t know about dangerous,” he clarified. “I get the opportunity to help people. That is something I’ve always been geared to do.”

“Yeah, you always were one of those hero types,” she said, with a gentle smile.

He rolled his eyes at that. “Right. Along with calling me nice, it seems like you’re all about insulting me these days,” he teased.

She walked over, sat in his lap, looped her arms around his neck, and gave him a hug. “Never,” she muttered. “I’m very grateful for everything you’ve done so far.”

Reid shook his head. “I don’t want to make it sound as if I don’t care or that what we did was minimal, but it wasn’t just me.”

“Right.” She reached over and picked up the cup of coffee he had poured for her, but didn’t get off his lap, and he just held her close.

“How are you feeling after that shower?”

“Alive,” she said. “Amazing just how much that changes everything. I knew I needed the shower because I was dirty, but I can’t believe just how much better I feel emotionally.”

“That’s huge, absolutely huge,” he said, “because I don’t know what’s coming toward us. So the better you’re feeling, the easier it will be to handle it.”

She took a sip of coffee and then relaxed against his chest.

“We could move to the couch,” he suggested. “It might make you more comfortable.”

“Am I too heavy?” she asked, twisting her head to look at him.

He tucked her up closer and shook his head. “Nope, definitely not. I was just being polite.”

“Obviously I wasn’t. I just sat down in your lap, like it was normal.”

“You used to do that back in college too.”

She stiffened slightly and then relaxed. “I’d forgotten that.… It seems like so many things from back then were natural and normal, and I’ve just picked them back up again. Yet we’re very different people now.”

“I don’t know about that,” he murmured, loving just having her in his arms. “We were close back then too.”

“I wonder why we… I know why, but I guess I just… Now I have to look back and think that maybe we were foolish, and we had more than we realized together.”

“That doesn’t mean that what we had back then can’t be something we can have again now though, right?” he asked. “It’s not as if there’s a one-time shot, and you blew it.”

She gave him a sad smile. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. Don’t even go there.”

She chuckled. “I’m glad to hear that because, having found you again, even under these circumstances, we have a connection that I don’t really want to lose.”

“I wasn’t planning on losing it,” he said. Putting her coffee cup down, he twisted her in his arms and tucked her into a deeper hug. “I just don’t want you to be interested in a relationship now out of gratitude or something.”

She pulled back to study him and gave him a wry look. “I guess that’s what it sounds like from the way I’ve been talking, but honestly it’s about seeing you all over again and realizing just how good we were before. Even though I remember all the reasons why we broke it off, none of them seem to even matter anymore because they were all about me,” she muttered, with a headshake. “It was all about my not wanting to go in the direction you wanted to go, and, even though we had fun back then, it wasn’t serious in that we didn’t make long-term plans.”

“No, we didn’t,” he agreed, “and we both had lives to live. Now that we’ve had a chance to see the world a little, and we’ve reconnected, it’s interesting to know that connection between us is still there.”

“Interesting?” she repeated.

“Yeah, definitely interesting.”

“But I would use a different word,” she said on a laugh. She looked up at him. “I suppose you’ve had lots of relationships in the meantime, huh?”

“Not lots,” he replied cautiously. “There’s been a couple. Being lonely isn’t exactly easy either.”

“No, it isn’t,” she murmured. “This world that we live in is geared for pairs, and it’s absolutely lovely when you belong to one, and it’s the right one. However, it sucks when you don’t, and the rest of the world moves on without you.”

“Did you not have relationships?” he queried.

“I did, but nothing really serious, not with my parents having so many problems. And no relationship at all in the last year, not with all the lab work,” she shared. “Everything else just drifted away, and it became my mother’s work and nothing else. That was the problem with everything that she wanted me to do. That was her sole focus because she had left her husband, so she worked endlessly and expected me to do so as well.”

“Which was hard on you because she needed a distraction, but that didn’t mean you did.”

She gave him that understanding look. “See? You always got it.”

He chuckled. “I’m the same person I always was. I’m not sure exactly where we’re at for togetherness right now, and I think it’s way too early for either of us to even go in that direction, when you’ve just been rescued and moved to another country. However, just to know that you’re safe and that we reconnected even on a friendship level is huge.”

She gave him a big hug and then slowly got off his lap and walked over to the couch, where she slumped down hard. “Now that I’ve had a shower,” she shared, as she looked over at him, “I really need food.”

“It should be here soon,” He checked the laptop surveillance of the hallway cameras, and then smiled. “It’s here now.”

She got up, tugged the housecoat tighter around her, and watched on the screen as a large cart was pushed down the hallway toward them. “Oh, good. It’s very helpful to have this setup.”

“It is, and, with any luck, we can see that the food’s coming and that there’s no danger.”

She winced at that. “Because that’s what it’s for, isn’t it?”

“Hey, it’s just a warning system,” he noted. “That’s all it is. Don’t make it more than that.”

She nodded, but tightened her robe. As a knock sounded on the door, she turned to face it. “I’m not even fully dressed, so this one’s on you.” She headed off to hide in the bathroom.

“Hey, they’re all on me,” he stated, with a word of warning. “At least until we know where we stand.”