v The sound of crows woke Sarah in the morning, and she had a moment's disorientation. She pulled on jeans and crossed to Annie's bedroom. The bed had been made. It was only seven thirty, and she walked downstairs barefoot. Sarah looked out the back door and saw Annie walking back to the house through the snow, hands in her parka pockets, her bare head down.

She swore under her breath. Annie shouldn't have been out there alone. There was a freshly made pot of coffee on the counter along with a stack of photographs on top of a large brown envelope. She picked them up, turning them over to look at the back as well. The enlarged photos showed enormous mountains and a snowy road beside steep drop-offs. They were the tallest mountains Sarah had ever seen. More photos peeked out of the envelope. Sarah poured two cups of coffee and put them on the table. Fresh cold air came in with Annie, and she looked at Sarah.

"Morning. Are you still speaking to me?"

Sarah pointed at the coffee. "I want to ask a favor. No, this is an order."

"What?"

"Don't leave the house like that, without me or one of the team, Annie, please."

Annie slipped out of her boots and hung her parka over a chair.

"I'm sorry. I just don't think about it."

"I have to do something FBI-related this morning. Since you're so restless, would you like to go along?" She looked at Annie's windblown hair and red cheeks. Christ, she was lovely. "You don't have to dress up.

Jeans and whatever will be fine. Heavy socks and warm shoes."

"We'll be outside?" Annie asked.

a 104 a "Not exactly. But you will need warm clothes. Let's eat breakfast and go. What are those photos?" she asked.

"Something odd that I found in the office yesterday afternoon, and I brought it with me last night. Jack had given me these to hold on to the day before he was shot. The first photos are a mountain pass in Afghanistan. A French photographer that I used to hang out with took these." Annie handed the first two to Sarah. "Aren't those huge?"

"I don't think I've ever seen anything so desolate. Were you with the photographer when these were taken?"

Annie nodded and pulled more of the photos out, handing them to Sarah in sequence. "He was killed in Iraq over a year ago."

The next photo was a jeep filled with some bags and a person at the wheel, a man. Sarah's breath caught. Someone was running, their arms and legs blurred. It was Annie. The following one was Annie half out of her coat, and then another as she was bending over a woman covered in what appeared to be blood. In the next, Annie was down to her T-shirt and jeans, on her knees in the snow. The final picture was Annie, blood on her arms and the white T-shirt, standing with her hands at her side, looking down at the bloody woman in the snow. Sarah looked up from the photos. "Did this woman make it?"

"No." Annie shook her head. "We were following a small unit of Marines. They let them go by but shot at us."

Sarah stacked the photos and then laid them on the table so she could look at them again in sequence.

"She has blood all over her," Sarah said again.

Annie nodded. "She took the first picture, the one of him in the jeep, and that's when they shot her. They were a team, lovers actually, and I had met them in Kosovo. We were less than a quarter mile behind the Marines, and they sent three men back to help us, including a doctor.

They knew we were back there and heard the gunfire."

"These are terrible photos, Annie."

"I keep these to remind myself."

"Remind yourself?"

"Of where I've been, why I do what I do. When people ask me why I do this job, and they always do, I talk about Jack Keegan, his dedication. I'd really like to include moments like this too, but I don't.

That isn't why I'm showing them to you. Look at these." She handed the rest of the photos to Sarah and sat down across from her. There were a 105 a three large photos of men, sitting in what appeared to be a living room, but the decor was sparse and certainly not American. Each photo had at least six or seven men, and one of them looked distinctly familiar to Sarah. She looked up at Annie.

"What is this?"

Annie pointed at the man that looked familiar. "I don't know and I have no clue where Jack got these. He mentioned that they had been left for him at the bureau in Baghdad, and he told me to take care of them until he went home. Sarah, it's him." She tapped the photos again.

"The man at Sam's."

Annie was right. It was the man they had seen at Sam's little grocery store over a week ago.

"Are the mountain photos connected to these men?"

"Not at all. I've never seen these photos before."

"Could I have them? I'll have Scott take them in to Don."

Annie left the room for a shower, and Sarah studied the photos.

Finally, she got up and took some bowls out of the cupboard. Cereal would do this morning.

Forty minutes later, they were driving to the small private airport the FBI used in north Milwaukee. "So, you're still not going to tell me where we're headed, are you?" Annie's voice had a bit of the old teasing tone.

"I have to blindfold you and-" Sarah started, but Annie interrupted.

"No one blindfolds me. The only broken bone I've ever had, unlike someone sitting across the table from me, was during a high school prank involving me wearing a blindfold, and I broke a tiny little bone in my foot. It kept me out of a golf match, and I'm still punishing Rebecca for that one."

"All right, cranky, no blindfold, but it sounded like fun." She parked the car. "Ready? I have twenty minutes to get my bird in the air."

Annie looked surprised. "You're a pilot, Sarah?" Annie almost skipped as they walked to the hangar, eyes shining. The plane was ready for Sarah as she introduced Annie to the crew. After last night, this is good, Sarah thought and climbed in, tossing the folder behind the seat.

Sarah talked to the tower until they were clear, then flew along a 106 a the Lake Michigan shore. The little blue Cessna angled north as the sun splintered the sky into rainbows through ice crystals in the cold air. Sarah handed Annie a pair of headphones so they could talk and explained that she made this trip whenever possible, carrying information too sensitive for fax, telephone, or computer to a tiny office in the northern town.Annie asked how she began flying, and Sarah explained that she had been part of a high school flying class, then private lessons, and had continued into college. The FBI used her services when possible, and that helped keep her rating up.

"So, that's how many years?" Annie asked.

"If you include high school, it's about nineteen years."

"And that makes you how old?"

"Thirty-five."

"Okay, so I'm the old-timer here, at thirty-eight. You're just a kid, Moore." She stared out the window at the passing landscape. "I love flying," she said and began to tell stories of all the crazy flights she had taken in her life. Her face was animated, and Sarah smiled, once again the beneficiary of Annie's stories.

"Why didn't you learn to fly?"

"I didn't dare get involved because I knew it would keep me and hold me forever. I just would never land."

Sarah smiled at Annie. "I understand."

Approaching Green Bay, Sarah trimmed the flaps, reduced air speed, and talked to the tower, letting Annie listen in. As they taxied down the runway, a car drove up, and a tall redhead got out, waiting in the cold sunlight.

Sarah reached behind the seat as the plane shut down, and she opened the window. She looked down at the figure striding toward the plane. "Hey, Rosy, how've you been?"

A Southern drawl laced with some pretty healthy cussing came floating into the cabin.

"What?" Sarah grinned and cupped her hand behind her ear as she dropped the envelope. The woman asked where she'd been and Sarah pointed at Annie. The redhead grabbed the struts and crawled up to take a look as Sarah did the introductions.

"Looks like a darned good reason to me. Are we going to see you soon? Allison says you still owe her for that last poker game." She a 107 a grinned, took another longer look at Annie, then raised her eyebrows suggestively at Sarah.

"Let me get back to you. Maybe this weekend," Sarah said and Rosy got down, walking back toward her car. The woman stopped and took her phone out of her jacket, talked and looked back at Sarah. She began walking back toward the plane and held her phone out.

"It's Don, for you. Something about photos?"

Sarah talked with her boss for a few minutes and then handed the phone back to Rosy. She watched her walk away, saying nothing, thinking about Don's information.

"Good friend?" Annie asked.

"One of the best. She and her partner, Allison, have lived up here for about two years. Allie's a nurse, a darned good one, ex-military out of Iraq, but she won't talk about it. We'll probably come up here, to her house, when we manage to get you out of town." Rosy drove away and Sarah put the headphones back on, talking to the tower and checking the weather for the trip back down.

"Didn't you say we're not leaving Milwaukee today?" Annie asked. "I mean, here we are. Why don't we just stay?"

"If I had my way, we would. My boss says not until after the party." Her mind grumbled at Don again. He hadn't really given her any reason, and that just angered her all the more.

Once in the air, Annie watched the lake and rubbed her arm.

"What's up?"

Annie smiled. "I'm working on a painting, and sometimes I just space out, working it out in my mind. That's what I was doing yesterday, painting, but I forgot to do my exercises."

"Do you let people see it before it's done?"

There was a long silence and then Annie answered cautiously, "Maybe." She looked at Sarah. "Are you asking?"

"Yeah, I guess I am. My days are so busy that it's wonderful to think about something that's not life and death. Well, you know about that."

Annie nodded. "When I'm into a painting, sometimes I can hardly stand to be away from it. I value my gift. It's like dreaming on canvas Right now it's the only thing that makes sense to me, but it needs more work before it can be seen." She tightened her seat belt and looked at Sarah.

a 108 a Sarah caught Annie's quirky expression.

"Did you bring me along just to keep an eye on me today?" Annie said.

"Maybe. I still can't believe you did that yesterday."

"My head just won't straighten out. Trust me not to do that again?"

Sarah nodded and looked out into the blue sky that surrounded them. This felt so good to her. "Annie, I watched some of your early reports last night."

"You did? You watched my old films?"

"You're in Pakistan to begin with on this tape. You're fun to watch.

I always learn something too."

Annie smiled at Sarah. "Thank you, schmoozer. Did the FBI teach you that, or is it just something you've learned in the bars? You know, all those women, so little time?"

Sarah laughed. "Would I really tell you if I had?"

They laughed at each other, and Sarah hated to lose the moment.

"Back to the film. I noticed something as I was going over it last night."

"Like what?"

"Well, it's like you changed in about a year."

"What do you mean?"

"I felt like you..." Sarah stopped, searching for the right words.

"It was like you lost your sense of humor."

Annie gave a sad little laugh. "That's interesting." She looked out of the window, away from Sarah. "I've had that time described a lot of ways, but never quite like that."

Sarah waited for more, but Annie added nothing. The sound of the motor filled the silence. "Listen, if it's personal, I'm sorry, but it really was noticeable on the reports."

"Only if you look closely. And you do. You look at everything."

"Now who's schmoozing?"

"Sarah, you do notice things. There was some serious trouble at that time, but the only people who know about it are Rebecca, Mary, and some doctors. I promised myself, even before the injury in Baghdad, that I would come home and talk about it, especially to my parents."

Sarah reached down for the thermos she'd brought along. "Here, pour us some coffee."

a 109 a "Don't you have anything stronger? We can share."

"If this is too personal, you don't have to say any more."

Annie took a drink and held the cup out to Sarah. She was gripping the thermos lid so tightly that her fingers were white.

"I need to tell Mom and Dad first because Mary and I weren't exactly forthcoming when we got home."

The plane was nearing Milwaukee, and Sarah held her hand up. "I have to check in. Hold on, okay?"

Annie nodded and then said, "Wait, can you fly over the house?

I've never done that." Sarah banked the plane right as she talked with the tower.

"Sarah, look at that," Annie said on the second circle around her house. "See the tracks into the woods? And look, tire marks in the snow just off the road."

Sarah banked the plane again, giving herself a good look. Annie was right. There was definitely a trail in the woods to the north of the house, but there were also car tracks in the snow. She didn't remember seeing that in the report from the team.