"You know, I actually have been thinking about a change.

Surprised?"

"Good grief, yes, but at least if you were teaching, you wouldn't end up with an FBI escort. Annie, this is more than just not getting hurt, or worse. I thought the aBig A' with Mary would have done it, but no, there you go, back to Iraq again. You're good. That's not what this is about. I'm proud of what you do and how well you do it, but I just wish you'd be safer."

"The big what?" Annie laughed. "What did you say about Mary?"

"A, as in absence."

"Guilty as charged. Mary's things are gone from the house. Guess she finally made a decision."

"It's not all your fault."

"A lot of it is, Slider. First of all, I'm never home. Then, when we talked, it was like neither of us could understand each other, especially after Saudi Arabia and the fallout in Switzerland."

"Everything was wrong with that, Annie. How are you doing? Are you still seeing a doctor?"

"I haven't been, and it's been over three years, but this injury brought back some feelings. After Jack was killed and I was injured, it was almost a relief to be unconscious. I think I'll see a therapist at the clinic a couple of times, a friend of Mom's, just to check myself out. It's not as bad as Switzerland, but I won't lie, I'm wobbly right now."

Rebecca sighed. "So you're dealing with several situations here.

Damn your job. Annie. You need someone. Another human being.

You've been out there alone too long."

"Volunteering?"

"Want to get slapped again?" Rebecca made a face at her. "And a 63 a yes, I know there's more to life than just having someone in your life.

Accomplishments and stuff."

"Stuff?" Annie gave her a look.

"You know what I mean, and it doesn't have to be so dangerous either. We didn't get to talk the last time you were home. Did you tell your parents about the Saudi-Switzerland thing?"

"I was going to talk with them last October, but the network got me back out there so fast that I didn't have time. I never should have come home and hidden the truth. You and Mary are still the only people who know besides the network and my doctor. What am I going to say?

Mom, Dad, I'm sorry, but Mary and I didn't take a vacation. I lied. I went to a party in Saudi Arabia and was beaten within an inch of my life."

"Annie, stop." She reached over and rubbed Annie's hand.

"All right, but you know this is going to hurt my parents or anyone it touches. I've created a monster. And, Slider, talking about connecting with someone, I've only let one person come close to me in three years.

Then I backed off before it got beyond a kiss. I stayed with Kerri after the injury, but I'm to the point where I don't even think about it."

"Are you able to touch someone?"

"Yes. Just nothing intimate. I'm not sure it's possible." Rebecca had seen the worst of it when Annie came home from Switzerland three years ago. "I'm dealing with some weird stuff. I picked up more than a piece of concrete in my arm over there."

Rebecca's head snapped up. "Not an STD...no, wait, you just said..."

"Oh hell, Rebecca." Annie groaned.

Rebecca stood and hugged her. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Let me get out of these clothes and into something more comfortable. We'll talk when I come back, but this is what I mean. You can do just about anything, Annie. You have your master's in journalism. You know people, so stop putting your face in front of a gun. Your life scares me to death." She picked up their coffee cups and walked to the kitchen. "Why don't you pick out some wine?"

Annie headed for the bar and took her time choosing a bottle.

When Rebecca came back she was wearing jeans and a dark blue sweatshirt. She took the wineglass Annie offered.

a 64 a "Tell me about the FBI. All you said was that they would be with you tonight."

"The FBI is with me because my name and seven other female journalists turned up on an Iraqi Web site, one that is truly dangerous. It seems unreal to me because I feel they would have made a move over there, not here, but, at the same time, things have happened. The house was broken into when I was having dinner at Mom and Dad's, and the alarm didn't go off, which is not good news. The FBI was working on the loft this morning. That's probably how they got inside."

"My God."

"For the first time, it makes me feel helpless. I was alone over there and handled it. I'm cooperating every way I can, Rebecca, but still, if I was in Iraq, this would hardly get the attention it's getting here." Annie stood. "I think I'll just leave. Get out of town."

"Out of town?"

"Yes, just drive around the Midwest. Look at the states. Do you know how long it's been since I've looked at my own country?"

"You just got home. I know this is pretty ugly, the FBI and all, but wouldn't it be better just to get this settled first?"

"I'm tired of it all, Slider. The war, Jack's death, Mary, my stupid arm, and this situation, whatever the hell it is. I need some down time somewhere. I'd like to tell Mom and Dad about the thing three years ago and then just take off."

"Annie, listen to yourself. What if they follow you, whoever this is? Get all the help you can. Don't take a chance. What can you be thinking?"

Annie frowned, tipped her wineglass back for a healthy drink, and set it down carefully.

"Rebecca, I've had more support from my pantyhose." They burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, you're right, but God, am I tempted." Annie scrubbed her face. "Sarah's right too, and intellectually, I know they're everywhere, but I don't think of them being in my town, or worse, in my home. I always come home and feel safe, but this time I brought them with me."

"Sarah?"

"The FBI agent who is assigned to me. Sarah Moore. She's staying at the house and would be here tonight but has a meeting."

a 65 a Annie smiled, thinking of the dark-haired woman. "She's the one bright spot in this whole thing. Kind of gorgeous."

Rebecca began to smile. "Not like you, Annie."

"What's not like me?"

"A gorgeous woman?"

Annie laughed. "All right, she's very attractive and great to talk to. We even laugh, and other than you, do you know how long it's been since I've laughed like that with anyone?"

"You used to be the fastest thing on two feet. Well, is she?"

"Is she what?" Annie looked up, confused.

"Is she on your team?" Rebecca started to laugh.

"Oh." Annie frowned. "That's dumb. I don't know. I admit to salivating, but I think I've lost my gaydar. I don't think there's anything she doesn't know about me, and we've talked about her, but somehow I don't think so. In fact, I'm almost sure she's not." She stared into her wineglass, wondering how she could have missed that.

"Annie, you probably just haven't paid any attention. I think we have to work on the fact that you haven't had sex in well over three years."

"We? See? You are volunteering. Anyway, that's nothing. I interviewed a couple that was being punished by their church, and they'd gone over six years." Annie grinned. "They both looked incredibly nervous."

"That's an interesting restriction," Rebecca said. "Give me the name of that church, and I'll see if I can talk David into joining."

"Slider, I could solve that problem for you."

Rebecca leaned back in her chair, laughing, "You just don't quit, do you? You are the most focused person I know. Remember the famous boat incident at your grandparents'?"

Annie nodded. That was a bad moment. The boat engine had quit, and they had almost gone over the dam.

"Here I am screaming, aWe're going over the dam,' over and over."

"Well, we were. You were right."

"I was the only one yelling. You ripped the cover off that engine and started working on it. I swear, you would have thought we were tied up at the pier."

a 66 a "Rebecca, it was my fault. I was the last one to service the damned thing."

"Yes, but you never looked at the dam, at me, or anything but the engine. You just kept fiddling with it and turning the screwdriver, pulling the cord. Finally, it caught, and off we went, and that's my point.

You have the most remarkable focus of anyone I've ever known."

"You are so full of it, Slider. That's not focus. You're confusing it with stubbornness. What can I say? I've been in love with you since I was five. I'm just your love slave." Annie leaned back. "All right, let's change the subject. How's David and how's the job?"

"Ah, okay, that's another world. More wine?" Rebecca got up and headed for the bar. They moved on to more familiar, safer topics, and after three more glasses of wine Annie asked Scott to take her home.

v The snow continued to blow in from the lake as Hamel drove slowly past Rebecca's house. He drove past the lights at the gate and pulled over, letting the engine idle. He had followed them here, gone ahead, and turned back. The wind rocked his car gently as he waited for the big black car to pull out of the driveway. Finally, it passed him, taillights fading in the blowing snow. He waited a long time and then turned the car off, easing out the door.

Angling through the old pines, he walked to the back of the house, checking for any remaining lights. Seeing none, he walked through the snow to the back of the enclosed porch. The door was unlocked, and he walked quietly inside. The main door was locked, but he pulled a device from his parka and had the door open within minutes. The dark house was quiet, and he waited in the kitchen, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. This was just reconnaissance, he reminded himself as he walked noiselessly down the hallway, through each room and then up the steps. Everyone was sleeping upstairs as he quietly opened each door, committing every room to memory just as he had in the Booker woman's home. He was at the back door again and outside in less than twenty minutes, passing through the house like a sigh, an old house creaking in the cold, windy winter night.

a 67 a a 68 a

ChAPTER EighT.

Sarah's back was starting to cramp after bending over the table for hours, arranging papers into folders. Don Ahrens, the special agent in charge of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Milwaukee, looked over at her and grinned.

"Tired?" he asked.

Sarah made a face. "We're supposed to have a paperless system, Don."

The information Annie had provided them had turned them in a different direction and seemed to tie Dr. Majer into the terrorist cell Don had been working on for over two years. It was a name to go with all the activity. Hopefully, the final piece of the puzzle. Sarah smiled at Don with a genuine sense of satisfaction, despite her aching back. He straightened with a groan, looking at his watch.

"Damn, it's after midnight."

"Want some coffee before we call it a night?"

He nodded then grabbed his coat off the back of a chair. "Let's go to the break room. The chairs are more comfortable."

Sarah took a drink as she sat with her coffee and leaned back, letting fatigue wash over her. "There's definitely been someone at the Booker house. Did you see the device from our computer?"

Don nodded. "I told them to look further. Usually, there's at least one more bug. They just put the first one in to distract everyone."

"It's someone who can just walk through our sensors and her alarm system and then bug our computer. Then walk right down the driveway after they were done. Looked like just one person. But it was a size thirteen shoe, so it was probably was a man. Nothing was taken a 69 a that Annie could find. The only prints found inside were the ones that belonged there, and it looks like he got in through her loft. So, couple that with our bugged computer, it's more than just a break-in. I'm going to move her to a safe house."

"The one on Whitmore's open," Don said and then frowned. "Why aren't you getting her out of town?"

"Her injury. They ran tests today, and we should have the information tomorrow. That's why I've suggested a safe house here. Once they've decided what to do about her arm, we can go anywhere."

"All right, but don't take her out of town before talking to me.

This information on Dr. Majer may just break our case wide open, and I want to talk with her. I need to get inside his home without drawing attention to ourselves, and she may just be the person to give us an idea how to do that."

"Probably. And her friend Rebecca teaches with him and knows him," Sarah said. "No wonder the network loves her. She can talk, and her experience is invaluable."

"Such as?"

"I've never had the chance to talk to someone who's actually lived over there like she has. She knows the locals, the families, their customs, how they feel about us. And then there was Saddam. She was there before our troops were and says it's the worst conditions she's ever worked under, but not the most dangerous."

"You're kidding," he said.

"No. In her opinion, Pakistan was far more dangerous. Think about Danny Pearl."

"The organization you were talking about earlier, have you tried finding it?"

Sarah shook her head. "I'm going to do a bit more work tonight, and the FFI was something I was going to look at."

Don finished his coffee. "Let's go to your office and see if we can find it."

"I've spent a fair amount of time on the Information Analysis Center," she said as they walked down the hall together. "I'd like to have the information first, for a change. I'll bet anyone in this country that has to deal with Iraq feels the same way. It's such a different culture, and I always feel like I'm playing catch-up."

a 70 a "Still, Sarah, the Fusion Centers are the best thing we've devised in this country. It's the best and latest information we have. Best of all, anyone can access it with clearance-military, any of the states, even civilians."

"Is it true we have constructed ten new permanent military bases in Iraq?"

"Ten? Last I heard it was four," he said. While she booted up her computer, he looked at the photos of Annie Booker taped to the cabinets above Sarah's desk. Sarah looked up and followed Don's line of sight.