As they walked toward their car, Vail watched her profile in the clear winter sunlight, her breath clouding the cold air in rhythmic streams. She took a deeper, stuttering breath, her freedom evidently registering. "Actually, it's Steve."

"I assume that since you've turned me into an escaped federal prisoner, you still haven't figured out who's responsible for setting me up."

"After looking at the evidence, I'd say your innocence is questionable."

"Then why did you break me out, Stan?"

"I thought by now you'd be ready for a conjugal visit."

"Suddenly prison isn't looking so bad."

They got to the car, and Bursaw climbed in. Kate grabbed Vail and turned him around, kissing him fully. "Thanks, bricklayer." She got in.

"Let's see if you're thanking me when this all goes south."

Suddenly her smile was gone, and her eyes started to well up. "Sorry, Steve, but all this is scaring me."

"You'd be a fool not to be scared." He put his arm around her. Then he took out his credentials and showed them to her.

"I thought you had to give those up to Langston."

"And who's the one person in the Bureau who can rescind my being fired?"

"The director?"

"So you've got friends in high places. Plus, you're innocent. Or so I'm told. I promise you you're not spending another minute in jail." Then Vail filled her in on his trip to Chicago and the shoot-out he and Kalix had been involved in. He told her about his phone call to the United States Attorney, with him posing as her attorney and Kalix playing the telephone role of his boss, William Langston.

"Kalix did all that for me?" she said.

"What about me?"

"How many times do I have to thank you? You've really gotten needy while I've been in the big house."

"But unlike John I'm not trying to suck up to the director," Vail said.

"That's a great way to talk about a guy who saved your life."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure you'll find some way to get even with him for that."

AUSA Fred Bisset checked his wristwatch again. It was now exactly twenty minutes since the two agents had left with Kate Bannon, and it was starting to seem a little too long. He again called the extension the black agent had given him for the director's office. It rang six or seven times before a female answered it. "Hello."

"Hello? This is Assistant United States Attorney Fred Bisset. Let me speak to the director, please." This is Assistant United States Attorney Fred Bisset. Let me speak to the director, please."

"The director? This is the employees' break room. Let me get you back to the switchboard."

When the operator came on the line, Bisset again identified himself and asked to be put through to the director's office. He waited a moment, then heard, "Director Lasker's office."

"This is AUSA Bisset. Could I speak to the director, please?"

"I'm sorry, he's in New York for a regional conference."

"Then can you transfer me to Assistant Director Langston?"

"I'm sorry, he's with the director."

23.

As Bursaw drove cautiously through the city's streets, Vail asked Kate, "Do you have any idea what this is about?"

"It's all I've been thinking about since they came for me. I have no idea."

"Could it be something to do with the CIA?"

"The CIA? Why them?"

"It's better if you answer my questions first."

"Okay. Let's see, the CIA. The only real contact I've had with them was when I had Bureau liaison with them. I was over there almost every day. More there than at headquarters, actually. But I think I already told you about that."

"Ever have problems with anyone there? Any suspicions about anything?"

"No, not that I can remember."

Vail took out the nine photographs of the CIA employees that Kalix had given him and handed them to her. "Do you know any of these people?"

Kate went through them slowly, carefully studying their features, knowing that work ID photos, due to the regimented posing and general lack of quality, can be more difficult to identify. When she finished, she shuffled back and picked out one. "He's the only one I know. Myles Rellick. He was one of my contacts there."

"Anything about him that didn't sit right with you?"

"Not really. Do you think he's involved in this?"

Vail explained about finding the CIA safe phone number, Calculus's three Bryn Mawr Park visits, and how Kalix had narrowed the times down to the nine men in the photos. "You must have seen something, or at least they think you did."

"I don't know, the guy was beige wallpaper. Nothing sticks out about him."

"You don't need to dwell on it. Just let it roll around in the back of your head for a while. Maybe something will surface."

"Where are we heading?"

"Thanks to Luke, we have a safe place to stay."

"Didn't Bonnie and Clyde say that once?" Kate said.

Bursaw said, "My sister is a history professor at Georgetown, and right now she's on a sabbatical, in Portugal. That's her area of expertise. She has an apartment near the school. There's a car. I'm kind of in charge of maintaining both. She won't be back until May for a summer course she's teaching. It's just a one-bedroom, but it's well stocked with food. And she's about your size if you need clothes."

"What about all the files and information we have at the off-site?" she asked Vail. "Won't we need that?"

"It's all in the trunk. And we took photos of everything on the walls. I don't know if they're going to go public looking for you-and me, I suppose, since it won't take long to figure out who helped you. But I don't think they can announce to the world that you escaped, seeing as how they refuse to acknowledge that you'd been arrested. Lasker's got Langston out of town for a couple of days, leaving Kalix in charge of counterintelligence operations, so the Bureau won't be burning a lot of manpower hunting for us. And Luke should be cool for a while, because if they do try to identify Unknown Black Agent Number One, they'll start at headquarters. No one knows about us being friends. We should have a couple of days before there's any type of full-court press."

Bursaw turned off Rock Creek Parkway onto Pennsylvania Avenue and then turned up Twenty-eighth Street. Three blocks later he pulled up to a small apartment building. "This is it," he said, getting out and opening the trunk.

Inside his sister's residence, Bursaw put the box containing the files on a desk in the living room and handed Vail the keys. "You're now officially in charge of them." He pointed at a large fish tank with a couple dozen disinterested tropical fish swimming around. "The car is a powder blue VW Bug. It's parked in the garage. The key card to get in and out is over the visor."

"Are you going somewhere?" Vail asked.

"I've got to go home, change, and go to the office. I hope you're right and they won't be looking for me. As soon as I put in an appearance and see if there's any general alarm for you two, I'll be back to give you a hand."

"Thanks, Luke," Kate said, and kissed him on the cheek.

Vail walked him out. "Is there an access code for your sister's answering machine?"

"Good idea. We can leave each other messages on it if you go out. It's 777."

"I'll call Kalix and let him know what Kate said about the photos. It looks like Myles Rellick is our best bet, but I have no idea where to start. We can't do surveillance, or a wiretap, or even search his financial background. This fugitive stuff isn't as easy as it looks."

"I'm sure you'll figure something out. Especially since it's for Kate, her being such a good friend friend and all." and all."

"I told you, it's complicated."

"The best things always are."

When Vail came back in, he found Kate looking through the bedroom closet. "Sorry we didn't have time to get some of your clothes."

"I'd rather wear three-day-old clothes than a nice crisp prison uniform."

"Anything there?"

"I'll find something," she said. "I'm sorry I got emotional in the car."

"Any CIA epiphanies yet?"

"Not yet, but I'm too tired to summon up any real memory. I'm going to take a shower and get some sleep. You could probably use a couple of hours yourself. You look beat."

He smiled at her mischievously. "I could use a shower, too. This place looks like it would have a limited supply of hot water."

"That's good," she said in a playful tone, "because it sounds like you could use a cold shower."

After a couple of seconds, Vail said, "Kate, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. The whole thing was a setup, and you're paying the price. I was so smug figuring out those puzzles. 'Ariadne's thread.' I should have picked up on something."

"Like what? Everything was falling into place."

"Like their killing the moles, and just as we got to them. They knew just when to kill them-because they were sending us to them. That should have registered with me."

Gently she took his hand in hers. "I should be terrified right now, but- No, that's not right. I am terrified. But with you here I know this is going to end well. So please, please, don't stop being you." don't stop being you."

"Probably the smartest thing you could do right now is be worried."

"Well, bricklayer, I'm so worried that I'm going to sleep. You probably should, too."

Vail picked up one of the pillows from the bed. "Maybe you're right. I'll stretch out on the couch and see if I can't nod off as soon as I call John."

A few hours later, Kate walked into the living room, her face still full of sleep. "Tell me it's New Year's morning and I just had a bad dream."

Vail sat up on the couch. "I don't suppose you dreamed about who would do this to you."

"Nothing. As far as the CIA people at Langley, I was kind of a ghost. Float in, do a little paperwork, say hello to a few people, and float out."

"You've got the Russians on you. You're a threat to somebody. I know you supervised security work in Detroit, but that was the Middle East, right?"

"Right."

"When was the last time you worked the Russians?"

"Never. When I rotated out of Detroit, I went to OPR for a year, and then I was a unit chief in the Counterintelligence Division, but it was an administrative position, the liaison with the CIA. I had a desk at Langley, but it wasn't like I was there sixty hours a week."

"Where else were you assigned?"

"After my CIA stint, which was about a year and a half, I got tapped to go to New York as an ASAC. But just before I was to leave, the director called me in and told me he wanted me to be the deputy AD in the general criminal division. So I haven't been in counterintelligence for almost two years. And then it had nothing to do with the Russians."

Vail was silent, staring back at her without seeing her. He was quiet longer than usual. "Did you handle any assets when you were there?"

"No, I haven't seen an informant since I was a street agent," she said.

Vail just shook his head.

There was a knock at the door, and then they heard a key in the lock. Bursaw walked in, carrying a large pizza box.

"How's the manhunt going?" Vail asked.

"Not a word about it at WFO and nothing on the news. I went by the off-site, and there are a couple of guys sitting on it. They look like marshals."

Vail said to Kate, "Then they're on your apartment, too."

Bursaw opened the box and pulled off a piece of pizza. "So what's the plan?"

Vail pulled off a slice and handed it with a napkin to Kate. "I wish I knew."

A few minutes later, there was another knock at the door, which caused everyone to stop talking. Vail peered out the peephole. It was John Kalix. He came in carrying an oversize briefcase. "I think I found something," he said.

Kate stood up and hugged him. "Thanks for everything, John, except for maybe keeping the big galoot here alive."

"I'm kind of new at all this, but I'll bear that in mind next time."