"If you remember..."

"You were annoyed, but you didn't pout, or make demands."

"Demands? Gosh, you sure do have a lot toun learn about men. I was a little taken aback by the shriek of euphoria. I've gotten used to you holding back your emotions. Maybe jealous is the wrong word."

"I mean, I'll tell you right now, I won't compromise my work. I'd die." She gathered the camera bag to her. "I'd shrivel up, and die."

He put his arm around her. "I understand that about you."

"I want to believe that."

She leaned into the pocket he made for her under his sleeve. He put his other arm around her, and she clutched his shirt.

"In case you forgot in all the excitement," he said. "I loveyou . Glenn Prentiss, Photographer."

"You mean, 'girl' photographer?"

"No, although I do think my heterosexuality is still intact. What do you think?"

"I think your sexuality is fine. At least, from where I'm sitting."

She let her thoughts wander back to the time when they were close. She let it flood over her, the images, and sense memory as it rushed through her body. Her mouth crawled up his neck. The car jerked to a stop. Geoff's mouth hovered near her ear.

"Please tell me Shane has a bedroom."

"He has a darkroom. It's very small. We'd have to stand up."

"News flash. Vertical is not a problem. Let's ask Dave to circle the block."

"What if he doesn't have a full tank of gas? If he went slowly, we could, too."

"If only we knew how long this was going to take." Geoff peered at the window glass trying to see something. "Maybe we're stuck in traffic."

"I don't think so. His engine is off. Mine, however, is still racing." She fanned herself.

"I can take care of that for you soon as I get you to my service station. 'Course, if he doesn't get back here soon I might have to pop your hood right here."

The door opened. But, before either of them could blink, a woman got in beside Geoff, and smiled.

"I've been assigned to take you the rest of the way," she said.

"Will it be much longer?" Geoff asked.

Glenn was wary, the way one woman sometimes instinctively is of another. It was irrational, and Glenn tried to overcome it.

"Where's Dave?" she asked.

"Dave was called away."

The woman smiled. It was a disgustingly pretty smile.

Geoff said, "I hope nothing happened to Lou?"

"Lou? Oh, Lou."

Glenn asked, "Was he called back because something happened to Lou?"

"You all are on such friendly terms," the woman said. "Since you already know that much, I guess it won't hurt to tell you." She put on a pleasant kindergarten teacher expression. "I'm afraid Lou has taken a turn for the worse."

She's lying. It was another irrational thought, and Glenn fought to suppress it. "Then will you be driving us home?"

The woman looked closely at Geoff, and asked, "Can I get you anything?"

Now she reminded Glenn of a flight attendant. Fly me . Geoff shook his head.

Glenn said, "We decided not to go to Bethesda, we want to go to my apartment." Fly some other guy .

"We'll be there in no time."

Glenn couldn't get the words out of her head now that they were there. I'm Bambi, fly me . She made another stab at being polite.

"And, your name is?" she asked, offering her hand in a gentlemanly gesture.

The woman shook it, and then shook Geoff's hand as almost an afterthought.

"Cozzoli," she said, backing out the door. "Agent Cozzoli."

The door slammed shut.

"She's lying," Geoff said.

Glenn looked at him. "What makes you say that?"

He shrugged. "Her eyes. She made too big a point of looking directly at me. And, trust me. They're even more shuttered than yours."

"Is that why you were looking so closely at them?"

"What other reason could I have?"

"Some men might think she has pretty brown eyes."

"Those men are not in love with green eyes. Which are looking particularly green right now. Who's jealous now?"

Glenn batted his insinuation away like a gnat. "I knew she was lying, too."

"What made you suspect?"

"I'd say 'woman's intuition', but I'm not that kind of girl. It was when we asked about Lou. She had no idea what we were talking about. Besides, didn't Dave say he was going to pull through?"

"Speaking of Dave, didn't he sayhe was taking us to Bethesda?"

"And, wouldn't he have said something to us before leaving?"

Geoff pinched his lips together. "Yeah, maybe. So, that leaves the question, who's the wench up front?"

"And, why are we letting her drive us around?" Glenn fingered the latch on her camera case. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Why should I do anything about it? I'm just along for the ride."

"Youare the man. The man is supposed to do something."

Geoff grinned. "You're not serious."

"Don't do that thing with your eyebrows."

"What thing?"

"Stop it." Glenn returned to the camera case. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Force yourself."

Geoff turned toward her with that determined expression she'd come to respect.

"Remember what you asked me? After meeting with Mr. Knight?"

"You know him, don't you?"

"How could you tell?" she asked.

"I've seen you shot at, chased, and with the corpse of your ex-boyfriend, but I've never seen you turn pale and faint."

"I've seen that man once in my life."

She bit her lip, and looked at her hands. They trembled a little so she hid them in the folds of her coat.

"Seeing him brought it all back in a rush. It was when Bobby died."

Geoff's eyes widened. "You don't mean that guy had something to do with my brother's death?"

"It was afterward. A man appeared in the cafe, and took charge of the situation. I guess, now I know why. He said things to me about being a photographer, and tried to keep me from leaving."

"What did you do?"

Her lips screwed into a smile. "I took his picture, of course."

Geoff laughed out loud. "Of course, you did. I would have paid real money to see that."

"No, you wouldn't." She stopped smiling. "I never knew how the AFIB found out who I was. After I filed the photos I assumed it had something to do with my credentials. But, I was freelancing. I wasn't on any manifest, didn't have an official press pass."

"Somebody must have given them your name."

"That's what I told myself. But, they tracked me down pretty quickly at my hotel."

"You thought you were anonymous. But, the guy you happened to run into was a Commander for the CIA. And, he notified the AFIB, and they tracked you down."

"Let me ask you a question. Have you ever in your lifeheard of the AFIB?" she asked.

"No, but I don't exactly keep up with government initials."

"But, when I asked about it, you all told me you never got a visit from any of their representatives."

"Just the two officers who showed up to give us the bad news," Geoff said.

"What if thereis no AFIB? What if it's a fictitious smoke screen made up by the CIA?"

"If they don't exist, it's been the CIA who's after you."

"Or, let's say Commander Knight sics his spooks on me. The AFIB comes in, and claims jurisdiction, seeing that servicemen are involved. Knight backs off. At least, to all appearances. They're satisfied that I'm innocent. But, when I get back to the States, Knight sends his agents to question me."

"Because he doesn't trust the AFIB?" Geoff nodded. "I don't know, but they did drop their cover to bring you in out of the cold."

Glenn thought about it. "That must be what happened. Something went screwy, and Justin Knight needed me to get to the bottom of it."

"What made you remember him?"

"His eyebrows. I dream about them, they become tentacles that reach out for me. You don't suppose that's what they were after? The photo I took of Justin Knight?"

"Maybe that's what they took out of your apartment. Maybe that's why he was so cool. Because he knows you don't have his photograph, because he burgled it."

"Except...I left the negatives with Shane." Her voice trailed off, and she closed her eyes. "I knew the glass was half empty. I justknew it!"

21.

Justin Knight drew his weapon, and nodded. The key was fit into the lock, and the door opened. Two agents moved inside. The Commander followed, and made a sweep of the dining room. He gestured to his men to go down the hall, and the three of them burst through the bedroom door.

There's a kind of disquiet that inhabits a place where violence has been done. Justin Knight recognized it here. It was as if the air molecules hung in disarray and confusion, like children who needed comforting. He sensed it very strongly, and kept his weapon drawn.

The bed was stripped of the sheets. Knight examined the bare mattress, then straightened up. He had a wire wrapped around his neck, which anchored a pair of discs to the base of his larynx. He put two fingers on either side of his throat.

"We need forensics up here. Stand by. Over." He put a finger to a plastic ear-piece. "Check all dumpsters in a one block radius." He listened, then spoke again. "Sheets. Bed sheets. Out."

Justin Knight walked to the closet. He waited for an agent to train his weapon, then pulled the handle of the louvered door. Heaped in the middle of the closet floor was something so white, at first he thought it was the sheets. Then, his hand went to his larynx microphone.