“Yes.” She didn’t want to tell anyone yet about Tom Jorgen and Rudy Wilkins. “And someone higher up as well.”

Miri’s let her shoulders sag. “You think it’s Cliff, don’t you?”

Raising an eyebrow, Alex looked at her and sighed. “Yes. Or, Teren does, rather.”

“What do you think?”

Alex shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t want to believe it, but there are some clues that point to him. It’s enough to make me wonder.”

The two of them were quiet for a moment, just watching Arlea as she slept. Alex could feel parts of her psyche slipping back into place, little pieces that she’d been missing. It was like coming home, and she leaned back to savor that moment of peace.

Teren had watched quietly as Miri guided her partner into the other room, then dropped her gaze to the floor. She let out a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

“How has she been, Teren?” David asked quietly. “Are you taking care of my partner?”

She felt an inward flinch as she heard the term. Teren sighed.

“As best I can, David. And I think she’s been doing pretty good.” She shrugged. “She cries — a little. But she’s tough when she needs to be.” Teren nodded. “Yeah, I think she’s okay. She needs a break, and a nice vacation — we both do.” She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “I’ll be glad when we end this.”

“How close are you? To ending it, I mean.”

“Not as close as I’d like, but a hell of a lot closer than we were when we got off the plane.” She noticed Ken was nodding.

“Yep. Told you, Dave. There’s no way Alex is going to let go of this. Badge or no badge, she’ll keep going.” He turned to Teren. “You saying you got something overnight?”

“Yeah.” Teren took a deep breath. “We got Derek White.”

Both jaws dropped, and Teren was tempted to reach over and close them. Instead, she leaned back and stretched out, crossing her legs at her ankles.

David recovered first, and cleared his throat. “So, did you turn him over to the Bureau or the local police?”

“Neither. He’s being held at a CIA facility. And that’s all I’m going to say.” She grinned. “The Bureau may have pulled Alex’s badge, but the Agency put me back on active status — and since Alex and I proved that there are international connections, to possible terrorist organizations, it is the CIA’s right to be involved. And they are — through me.”

Ken nodded. “I figured the Agency was going to get more involved, especially when Graves told Cliff you’d been involved in some kind of mess with — what is it? The Bundskrim?”

“Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA. Yeah, we helped expose a Nazi cell in Munich.”

David looked confused. “What did that have to do with this case?”

“Well, these Nazi’s were part of the money system that was paying for the killings here in the States. We traced the money angle back to Switzerland, and then to Munich, where we got lucky.”

Ken snorted. “Right — your head looks like it got real lucky.” He and David chuckled, and Teren smiled at them.

“Okay, so not all the luck was good. But we took out the bad guys, and found the papers that could connect our conspirators to the Nazi money.” She ran a hand across her bandage. “Okay, Alex found the papers. I slept.”

The guys chuckled again.

“So, you found White. Did he tell you who their contact in the Bureau is?”

“No, he didn’t know the guys real name. But he can, and will identify the man if we can put together some sort of line up. The only problem with that is, without more evidence, it’ll be impossible to get the FBI to agree to any kind of line up, even pictures — and without cooperation, it would be hard to get the photos for anyone at Cliff’s level or higher.”

“Any physical description?”

Teren shrugged. “Pretty general. Middle age, salt and pepper hair, just a touch overweight. Alex said it describes just about everyone from Cliff on up.”

“It does.” David nodded. “So, what else did White tell you?”

“He confirmed a lot of stuff. Who did the actual shooting in each hit, who drove the shooter, and he admitted that a guy that works for him in Alabama built the bombs. He used to be an army demolition specialist, but was released with a dishonarable discharge after a stay at Leavenworth, first.— he blew up his CO’s office.”

“Did he mention Arturo? Bill and Vic said they could put Mather in LA, and talking to the guy who killed Arturo.”

“Yeah, he said it was part of their plan. They chose to use gang bangers to take out him and at least a few other people. But, the one guy, who pulled the trigger on Arturo, started demanding more money, so Treville sent a couple old friends, supposedly to give him cash — they killed him instead.”

Ken shook his head, but didn’t say anything.

“He said that after Mather was killed, most of the leaders wanted to wait, make the Feds think that it was over. Then they could strike without a lot of pressure, and also take their time choosing their new killer. But Treville, and the guy in the FBI decided they wanted another killing to throw off the investigation. So, Treville told Brogan to contact what’s his name, in Colorado. He was supposed to kill Ann Seffren. But he missed. Derek said Treville had decided then that Brogan couldn’t be trusted, and he had White make the bomb for his house. He didn’t know who made the bomb that blew up Kittredge.”

“We do,” Ken said smugly.

“Wanna share?”

He shrugged. “We traced the parts to New York. Steve and Lou went up there, and they found a credit card receipt that led them to this guy that does odd jobs.”

“Why would he be making bombs and sending them to Alabama?”

“Hey, I don’t know,” he said as he raised his hands. “All I know is that they got together with Ben and Mark, and the four of them were real happy. I asked what was going on, and they said they didn’t want to tell anyone until they had it locked down.” He sighed. “Gotta tell ya, this thing with the ambush, and the possiblity of someone in the room being a turncoat —” he shook his head, “people are afraid to work with each other. They trust their partners, and nobody else.”

Teren nodded. “Yeah, I can understand where they’re coming from.”

All of them grew silent at the sound of a door opening down the hall. A moment later, Alex and Miri came into the living room.

Alex stopped and looked at them. “Miri, I think they were talking about us.”

Miri twisted her head to the side and eyed her husband, who was wearing a sheepish grin. “I do believe you might be right, Alex. What should we do to punish them for it?”

The blonde put a hand under her chin, and a thoughtful look appeared. “Well, David can’t leave the couch, so we’ll have to think of something else to punish him,” she said, “but I think maybe the other two should help you in the kitchen, getting lunch together. What do you think?”

Miri ignored the shaking heads, and nodded, putting an arm around her friend. “I think it’s a great idea, Alex.”

Ken groaned, and pointed at his leg. “But I can’t stand up for a long time,” he whined with a grin.

“And my head hurts.” Teren pointed at her bandage, and made puppy dog eyes at Alex.

But Alex wasn’t buying. “Nope, sorry, pal. You told me earlier it didn’t hurt a bit. Remember?”

“Well, that was earlier —”

“And your choice is to help Miri in the kitchen, or you can take a pill and go nighty-night. I’m sure I can handle this afternoon just fine.”

Teren stood. “Come on, Ken, we’ve got lunch to make.” He groaned, and she glared at him. “Don’t even try it. You’re not even using your crutches.”

Finally, he grinned, and stood. Teren glanced back at her partner and winked once as she followed Miri and Ken into the kitchen.

Leaving Alex alone with her partner.

She grinned at him. “I guess your punishment is that you get stuck with me, huh?”

He smiled, and patted the couch beside him. “That’s not punishment. Not by a long shot. Come ‘ere, Alex.”