His face was red. “We were trying to get you both home safely. Without our protection, your friend —” he stopped. “Did you call her your partner just now?”

Teren glared at him, and he winced as her eyes eyes drilled into him like diamond points.

“Yes. I called her my partner.” She took a step towards the shorter man. “Is there a problem with that?”

Graves coughed. “Um, no. No problem. Tell you what, why don’t I let you get unpacked, and I’ll wait down in the, um, kitchen. Okay?” He backed out the door, and offered her a sickly smile before quickly escaping down the stairs.

Teren sighed, and glanced around the small suite she’d been given. It was the same one she had stayed in after Perry’s death. Alex, she’d been told, was to be in the one next door.

She sat in one of the chairs by the coffee table, and waited. Unpack? No fucking way. No way would she sleep in this room ever again. As soon as Alex was in the clear, they were out of there.

Even if she had to shoot her way out.

Alex finished her story to Director Collins and waited for a response. She fidgeted in her seat, frustrated at not being able to read the older man’s impassive face, as he listened and smoked his pipe.

After a moment longer, he nodded, and leaned forward, knocking the bowl of the pipe against an ashtray.

“It’s quite a tale, Agent Reis.” She nodded, but didn’t say anything. “Now, you want to tell me the part you’ve been holding back on?”

Her eyebrow rose. “Excuse me, sir?”

“There’s something you’re not telling me. Though for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. That’s irritating, especially when you have to know that this is the one chance you have at getting off of rogue status. It would be in your best interest to tell me the whole story, and yet you hold something back.” He shook his head. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you didn’t trust me.”

Alex swallowed hard, and took a deep breath. “Okay.” She thought for a moment longer, making her decision. “We have reason to believe that one of the men involved in this conspiracy is a high ranking FBI official.”

She waited for a reaction, a touch frightened when it didn’t come. Then the director blinked, and raised his own eyebrow.

“Why do you think this?”

“They had information they shouldn’t have had. Brogan mentioned they also had some kind of protection from law enforcement, or he thought they did. Plus, there’s the question of a phone call from the FBI to the Philadelphia police — “

Collins held up his hand. “I heard about that from Cliff. He said the call came from his office, but he doesn’t know who made it. They’ve never been able to track it down.” He tilted his head. “You think it’s Cliff, don’t you?”

For a moment, she didn’t answer. Then she gave a tiny nod, and said, “We think it’s a possibility.”

The director leaned back in his chair. His eyes narrowed in though, and Alex had to force herself not to fidget again. They stayed that way for several minutes, until Collins gave a sigh.

“Well, Alex, you’ve given me a number of things to consider, including the possiblity that we have a turncoat in our midst.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I wish I could give you better news.”

He nodded. “Right. Well, tell you what. Why don’t you step out of here for a minute, and let me think things over. Send Mr. Graves in if you see him, I just need to check a few details with him. I’ll call you when I’ve made my decision.”

“Yes, sir.” Alex stood. “Thank you for hearing me out, sir.”

Collins nodded, and dismissed her with a wave.

She left the room, finding Ken and Cliff still seated in the large living room. Ron Graves was with them.

Alex cleared her throat as she entered, and they all stood.

“Mr. Graves? Director Collins would like to speak to you.”

“Thank you, Agent Reis. Is he still in the study?”

“Yes.” She watched Graves leave the room.

Ken took step and motioned with his hand. “So? What’s the verdict? What did he say?”

“He’s thinking about it. He said I should wait for a few minutes, and he’ll give me a decision.”

Cliff nodded. “It’ll be nice to have you back, Alex.”

“We don’t know that I’ll be back, Cliff. This whole thing could fall apart.”

“No way.” Ken shook his head emphatically. “There’s no way in hell he won’t throw out the charges. He might give you a little disciplinary duty or something, maybe even suspend you without pay for another week, but no way is he just going to toss you in a cell. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I fled the country instead of answering charges, Ken.”

“They were bogus charges, Alex, I know. I was there.”

Cliff nodded. “Yeah, they were bogus. He might discipline you for leaving, Alex, but the charges will be thrown out.You’ll be back on my task force by tomorrow.”

Well, we’ll see, Cliff. I hope you’re right.” Alex took a seat on the couch. “Speaking of the task force, what’s been happening since I left? We got some reports from Ken, but not many.” Ken winked at her as he took a spot on the other end of the couch.

Cliff sat back down in his chair, and turned a little towards Alex. “Well, I’ve had all the teams working on something. Tom and Rudy have been going after Derek White, but they missed him in Alabama, so now they’re trying to track him down here in DC. Bill and Vic found a link between Arturo’s killer, and Mather, and they’re in California chasing down a couple leads. Steve and Louis are investigating the fire at Kittredge. They said it’s arson. Maybe a bomb, maybe something else, but definitely arson.”

Alex sat straight up and stared at her boss. “Whoa, wait a minute. Kittredge? What fire?”

“Happened the night before Radcliffe was killed, ” Ken said. “The whole place burned to the ground.”

“Anybody hurt?”

“Yeah, a couple bodies. One, a woman, is unidentified, and the other — get this — the other, is White’s father-in-law.”

Alex whistled. “Did they die in the fire, or before?”

“Before. The guy was shot, and somebody caved in the woman’s head — M.E. said it could have been the butt of rifle, but he’s not sure.”

“Which makes me think they were killed, then dumped, and the place torched by White, ” Cliff said.

Ken shook his head. “No, I don’t think it was White.”

“Why not, Ken?”

“Alex, why would he kill his father-in-law?”

“Bah,” Cliff waved at Ken, “you might as well ask why he shot Radcliffe. Point is, we don’t know.”

“How do we know he shot Radcliffe?”

“We found a rifle at the scene with his fingerprints.”

“Uh-huh.”

Alex kept her mouth closed. She didn’t know which information she could trust to whom, and she decided it was best to just not say anything.

Instead, she decided to change the subject. “So, tell me what Mark and Ben have been doing.”

Cliff shook his head. “Not a clue.”

Ken laughed at the shocked look on Alex’s face. “For some reason, they decided it was important to follow some corporate links, rather than the right-wing groups. So, they’ve been over at the IRS offices a lot, looking at tax records. You’ll have to talk to them yourself. When they found out you were coming back, they said they had some great stuff for you.”

“But you don’t know what they’re doing, Cliff?”

“Oh, I know where they are, and I know they’re tracking corporate leads, I just don’t have any specifics for you. In the week or so that you’ve been gone, I’ve kind of left them to their own stuff,” Cliff said. “They requested to miss the daily meetings so they could spend their time at the IRS— they were on to something, and they weren’t letting it go.”

“Well, good for them.”

The door to the study opened, and Alex turned to see Ron Graves leave the room and head for the stairs. A moment, later, Andrew Collins called her.

Alex stood and shared a grim look with Ken and Cliff, before going back into the study and closing the door behind her.