Nicholas went stiff. Mike didn’t know if it was Zachery’s tone or him calling Nicholas a junior agent. Or both. She said, without hesitation, “Sir, Nicholas did everything right, everything by the book. You would have done the same thing if you’d been there. You know these guys were pros, not some lowlife drug dealers. The German, Siegmund Brasch, he would have killed me if Nicholas hadn’t acted. I’d be good and dead, my head blown off.” She swallowed, seeing it. “He saved my life, sir. And Mr. Olympic, that was a fluke, Dr. Janovich surely told you it was. Nicholas did nothing wrong. Because of him, I’m alive.”
Zachery gave her a long look. “And I expect you to say exactly that tomorrow morning, Agent Caine, when the Shooting Incident Review Team from Headquarters arrives for the inquiry. I believe both of you acted exactly right, but I have to make the call because I have no choice. Drummond, you are suspended, pending the results of the SIRT hearing. I need your gun, and your creds.”
Zachery said nothing more, held out his hand. “Per regulation, another weapon will be assigned to you. You need to collect it, then head on home for the night. We’ll sort all this out in the morning.”
Without a word, Nicholas put his weapon and his freshly laminated credentials on the coffee table. He wondered what his former boss, Hamish Penderley of New Scotland Yard, would have said in Zachery’s position. He probably would have grabbed one of his prized antique foils and run him through.
Zachery nodded briefly. “The SIRT hearing will be at eight-thirty tomorrow morning. Neither of you be late.”
Nicholas saw Mike was about to blow. He caught her arm, shook his head.
“We’ll be there, sir. Thank you. Is that all?”
“I’m glad you’re not fighting me on this.”
Nicholas shrugged. “Rules are rules, especially when it comes to the FBI. I knew that when I signed up. As a brand-new junior agent, I’m on probation for ninety days, and there are no special favors to be given because exceptions were made for me to join the FBI. I understand, and I will be back in the morning to explain my side of things.”
“Good. Now go home, clean yourselves up, eat something, go to bed. As I said, we’ll get it all sorted out in the morning.”
Nicholas nodded, turned to leave.
Mike said, “But, sir, we can’t afford to lose the time. Adam Pearce is on the run. He’s in danger, and we have to find him. We think he’s the key to what’s happening.”
Zachery narrowed his eyes at her. “There’s a team in place working on this, Agent Caine. You’re to see Agent Drummond home, do you understand me? And get a good night’s sleep yourself.”
Her back was ramrod straight. “Am I being disciplined as well, sir?”
He shut his eyes, shook his head and gave an exasperated sigh. “Mike, you’re being protected by getting your ass out of this building for the night. Read me?”
“Loud and clear, sir.”
“Good. You two, out of here, now.”
32
Mike called Ben while Nicholas went to get his replacement weapon.
“Please tell me the German is out of the coma and talking.”
“Nope, the lights are still out. There’s swelling, they put in a stent, so hopefully it will help things. He’s pretty messed up, Mike. Nicholas did a real number on him.”
“Thank goodness, otherwise it might have been Nicholas in the damned coma.” She’d been there. She’d seen the fight, hands and fists flying, kicks and punches, the guy finally down, then in a flash, Nicholas facing her, firing point-blank, fast and unquestioning, and she wondered for the hundredth time exactly what kind of spy work he’d done for Britain’s Foreign Office.
She refocused, shook it off. “Any chance they found an implant in the dead guy’s noggin?”
“No. Clean as a whistle. Janovich did an X-ray first thing, no implant.”
“All three are German, but probably only the one has an implant? That’s interesting. Listen, Ben, call me if anything changes there at the hospital.” She wasn’t going to tell him about the inquiry tomorrow, but of course he’d find out soon enough.
Ben said, “I’m going to pull Lia off Sophie Pearce, and turn hospital duty over to her, come back and help Gray and Jack go through Pearce’s files and that SD card. I’ll be able to monitor Sophie as well.”
“Where is Sophie?”
“She’s at the UN, wrapping up. Gonna take her a while, too, from what it sounds like. She called her boss, told her she was coming in to clear her desk so she could take a leave for the next month while she handles her father’s affairs. She’s gonna burn the midnight oil.”
“All right. You know, I can’t help but feel like everyone is looking for something, and we have no idea what that something is.”
“Maybe the something is a someone—Adam Pearce.”
“Him, sure, but there’s something more. Hey, here comes Nicholas, I’ve got to go. Call me if you find anything.”
“Mike, you and Nicholas look like crap warmed over. Get yourselves fixed up, okay? Oh, yeah, another thing, next time, even if you guys think you’re just going to scoop up some kid, I’ll have a team surrounding you. This shouldn’t have happened, Mike, you know that.”
What could she say? He was right. She punched off.
“News?” Nicholas asked, reaching her.
“Ben said nothing new. Why don’t we get some dinner? There’s a great new Chinese place down the street I’ve been wanting to try.”
He ran a hand through his hair. He looked tired, and depressed and flat-out beaten up. “If it’s all the same to you, Mike, I’d like to grab a taxi and head home. It’s been a long day.”
“A cab? What, you didn’t drive your ejector-seat Bondmobile to work this morning?”
She didn’t even draw a smile. “No. I don’t have a car in the city. Taxis work fine.”
“I’m right here, with keys in hand. I’ll drive you home.”
Nicholas thought of his magnificent town house, all five beautiful floors of it, thought of Nigel, doubtless dressed to the butler hilt. “No, no, there’s no need. I’d like the time alone, to clear my head.”
Mike grinned. “If you think I’m falling for that, you must really think I’m stupid.”
“Never,” he said. “Honestly, I’ll be fine.”
She hooked her arm through his and dragged him to the elevator, punched the down button. “I know you, the minute you’re home, you’re going to investigate Pearce and the Germans and Adam by yourself.” She shook her head. “Why do you think Zachery wants us together? He knows things are moving fast and he figures we’ll keep investigating, even though we shouldn’t. He’s pretty smart.”
He waited for the doors to close, then faced her. She’d put her hair back up in its ponytail, but the blood had dried on her white blouse and turned black. “You really think so?”
“Yes. Remember how much he told us before he got to the inquiry part? He’s not going to outwardly sanction us working off-book, but I’m sure that’s the reason he sent me home with you. So don’t fight it.”
He smiled then, and Mike saw a hint of his uncle, Bo Horsley, her former SAC. “So you’re not simply supposed to be my babysitter? Keep me out of trouble? I get the sense you wouldn’t be a very good one in any case. Are you?”
“Nope, I never was. I used to have to babysit to earn spending money, and I hated every minute of it.”
Up went a black eyebrow. “Don’t like kids, Mike?”
“I like kids fine. It was all the parental rules I disliked. Dinner at seven, bath and bed by eight, no jumping on the sofa or pillow fights. Where’s the fun in all that?”
33
7:30 p.m.
“Want to tell me where we’re headed?”
Nicholas commended his soul to God and said, “Upper East Side. Three fifty-eight East Sixty-ninth, between First and Second.”