The gravel crunched beneath Kathryn’s feet as she jogged across the Long Island estate’s courtyard to her waiting trainees. She was late, and, apparently, so was Hendricks.
“How’re you doing today, bub?” Kathryn asked, slapping him on the shoulder as she jogged by.
“Ready to kick some Axis, ma’am.”
Kathryn smiled. “I knew you would be.”
The greeting was more jovial than she felt, but like the performance she’d put on for Forrester over the weekend, it was a necessity. She couldn’t let the disturbing news that greeted her upon her arrival at the training center affect her focus. She had a job to do, and she would have to shelve her concerns for just a little longer.
“Morning, folks. Sorry I’m late,” she said, as she stepped behind her desk at the front of the classroom.
Her meeting with the other instructors ran longer than expected, as rumors flew about green trainees being pulled from the ranks for immediate deployment. All the instructors agreed they weren’t ready, but, as always, the demand for agents far outweighed the organization’s ability to supply them.
Kathryn found it hard to look at her students. Their lives depended on the lessons they learned from their instructors, and she would be unable to prepare some of them properly for what lay ahead. She had a sinking feeling about Jenny. The way things had been going for them, it was practically a given that she’d be one of the trainees called up.
Kathryn busied herself as she spoke and avoided looking at Jenny altogether, for fear she’d see right through her.
“All right,” she began, as she made meaningless piles out of the folders on her desk. “We’ve been through the equipment, and we’ve been through the procedures. It’s time to put what you’ve learned into action. Welcome to field training.”
The class stared at her, anxiously awaiting her words, and she realized she couldn’t avoid eye contact forever. They would feed off her confidence in them—she could give them that at least. She took a calming breath and looked up, ready to get down to business.
“Is there anyone here who has not had time to review the mission?”
A young brunette unabashedly raised her hand.
Kathryn gave the room a distracted glance. “Anyone else?”
No one.
“Thank you.” She went back to needlessly organizing files and addressed the unprepared woman. “Ericsson, you may go.”
“Ma’am?”
Kathryn looked up. “I’m sorry, was I not clear?” She leaned forward. “Get out.”
“Now, wait a minute,” the woman protested. “I’ve got—”
“You’ve got what, Ericsson? A good excuse? Other things to do?”
The class shifted uncomfortably at the ferocious reprimand.
“We’ve all got things to do, and my list doesn’t include wasting my time and energy on someone who doesn’t take this class seriously.”
“Ma’am—” the woman tried to explain.
“Ericsson!” Kathryn slammed the folders in her hand on the desk. “Maybe the Joe at the guardhouse will be interested in your tale of woe, but, honestly, I don’t care what you have to say. Get out of this class and out of my sight. Every second I waste on you is a second I can’t give to someone who does give a shit.”
The rest of the class sat in stunned silence while the woman collected her things and quickly left the room shaking her head. Some stared at her back as she departed, and some stared at the floor, but Kathryn felt Jenny’s eyes trained on her.
Now wasn’t the time to send signals of reassurance, so when Kathryn met Jenny’s concerned gaze, she offered no more recognition for her than for a stranger on the street.
“I’m going to assume the rest of you are well versed in what we’re doing today?”
Silent nods.
“Are there any questions?”
Silence.
Kathryn understood their apprehension after her outburst, but now was not the time to be shy. “Listen, you’re not in high school, and this is not the principal’s office. I’m sorry you’re uncomfortable, but I haven’t the time to hold hands. I’m here to teach you what you need to know to survive. I can’t help you if you don’t help yourselves. Now, do you have any questions?”
Silence.
Kathryn put her hands on her hips. “Are you telling me that on the brink of your first full-on mission sim, no one has any questions?”
One brave trainee in the back raised her hand. “What kind of resistance can we expect?”
“Excellent question. Thank you.”
The room relaxed with the return to the learning environment, and question after question was raised and answered with due care and infinite patience.
Jenny asked a question, but Kathryn knew she already knew the answer and asked just to have her look her way. Kathryn answered the question with the same detachment she had answered the others and moved on. She was sure that left Jenny doubly concerned and reflexively hurt, but she would explain her actions later, preferably while lying in each other’s arms after a night of lovemaking. She blinked the thought away.
“If you are captured overseas,” she went on sternly, responding to another question, “you’re to try and hold out for forty-eight hours. This will enable your cell to disperse and go underground.”
She noticed the collective discomfort of the class when they realized they were not holding out to be rescued. “You are not in the military. They will not be coming to your rescue. If you are caught, you are—”
“Royally fucked,” a voice interrupted from the back of the room. Everyone turned around to see Lieutenant Branson, the eternal thorn in her side, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. “That’s how it’s supposed to work, isn’t it, Hammond?”
Kathryn did her best to keep her face neutral. She would not give him the satisfaction of a reaction. The education of her team was more important than any feud she had with the man. He had been warned about undermining her authority in front of the trainees, but he took every opportunity to needle her without stepping over the line.
Without revealing her personal feelings toward him, she held up her hand to the back of the room. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lt. Jeremy Branson. He is our firearms expert. His team will represent the enemy on our mission today.”
She gave him a warning look about whatever he was up to, and he smirked back without comment.
“Thanks ever so much for stopping by to introduce yourself, Lieutenant,” she said as civilly as she could.
He tipped the bill of his cap with a look that said he wasn’t through. “Good luck today, folks. You’ll need it.” He disappeared out the door into the bright afternoon sun.
Kathryn swore internally and rubbed her head. “Where were we?”
“We were royally fucked,” a small woman said from the fourth row.
“Right. Well, let’s not get caught today and we won’t have to go into the details of being royally fucked. Okay?”
There was no humor in her delivery, but a small murmur of laughter went around the room as the class sought any excuse to lighten the mood.
“If you have any more questions, now is the time to ask. Once that mission clock starts, question time is over. Understand? You do what I say, when I say it.”
The class nodded.
“Good. You all know what your jobs are. Watch me for your signals, and we’ll all make it out alive.”
More nods.
“Sync your time, and I’ll see you on the other side.”
The class set their watches to the wall clock and filed out.
Jenny was the last one in the shuffling line of recruits heading for the exit. Kathryn came up behind her and tickled the small of her back, whispering, “Excuse me,” in her ear as she passed.
She caught Jenny’s relieved smile in response and was glad she knew it wasn’t personal.
Kathryn shook her head as she watched her student fumble with his tools. Hendricks was running out of time. A misstep had turned their covert mission into an ugly smash and grab. The mission could be salvaged, but not if the recruit couldn’t perform his task. The entire team had performed admirably, but now an alarm was blaring, tripped by a careless oversight, and Sam Hendricks cursed the sound of it, as it rendered him unable to think straight. He was poised with the wire snips over the tangle of wires—frozen.
She knew he was thinking white, red, blue, then green? Or red, white, green, then blue? His inaction showed he couldn’t remember. There wasn’t a booby-trapped safe in their mission profile, but they had been warned to prepare for anything.
Kathryn hovered nearby, wondering when he would look at his watch to see how much time he had left to decide. They always looked at their watches. They might as well be noting their time of death. If he began clipping randomly and, by some miracle, got the sequence right, he would barely have time to stop the mock detonation and break into the safe before the guards showed up. Failure was imminent.
Kathryn glanced to the wall through the doorway and watched the time for the detonation clock wind down to zero. She looked back to Hendricks, and, predictably, he had spent the last few seconds of his life looking at his watch.
To his credit, he didn’t turn to her in surprise when he saw the device that would cost him his life. He recognized it immediately and processed what he needed to do to eliminate it. He just didn’t process it fast enough.
The mission was over. The team had failed, but Kathryn looked on the failure as an opportunity to hone her own rusty skills and to test Research and Development’s new, improved plastic explosive.
She tapped Hendricks on the shoulder and let him know he was a dead man before sending him out the door with a quick flick of her head toward the exit.
His “Sorry, ma’am” got lost in the screeching of the alarm as he sprinted away.
Hendricks looked at the mission clock beside the expired detonation clock outside the door and shook his head: three minutes and thirty seconds before the guards would show up. Even his unflappable instructor couldn’t crack the safe, grab the contents, and get clear in time.
He ran in a crouch along the stone wall of their mock German outpost and followed it to its end, where he hopped into the ditch beside Jenny.
“Did you do it?” she asked, rifle in hand.
“Negative,” he huffed, out of breath. “Killed in action.”
“Ugh, Sam,” Jenny groaned. “What happened?”
“Safe was booby-trapped. BV-36. Four wire … couldn’t remember the sequence.”
“White, red, blue, then green,” she said. “How hard is that?”
He looked at her with disdain. “Maybe you should run point next time.”
Jenny apologized for her criticism with a pat on his shoulder. “Where’s our fearless leader?”
“She’s—” Hendricks looked at his watch. “Say, that’s not right.”
“What?”
“Mission clock in there is three minutes off.”
“Are you sure?”
“We’re synced.” He showed her his watch. “She thinks she has time. She’s as dead as I am.”
Jenny handed him the rifle. “Not if I can help it. Cover me.”
“Wha—wait!”
He stared in disbelief as Jenny sprinted toward the stone building, ignoring the caravan of guards coming up the drive.
“She told us to wait!” he said to the air, but Jenny was long out of earshot.
Pure adrenaline muted the blare of the alarm, and Kathryn easily disarmed the detonator attached to the safe. She removed the device and threw open the black canvas bag at her feet. The usual tools of stealthy safe-cracking were haphazardly tossed to the side in favor of the plastic explosives that would blow the safe open. It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would get the job done, and just in the nick of time.
She found a certain thrill to her task. Nothing made one feel more alive than the threat of impending doom. It might be just an exercise, but the explosives in her hand were very real, and the faint acidic smell of the clay-like substance reminded her of its destructive power, as she kneaded it between her fingers and then rolled it into shape.
She had to admit, she found an odd comfort in the danger. It was familiar, and the intense focus staved off the sense of dread brought on by the morning’s rumors. The constant alarm reminded her that somewhere, guards were double-timing it to her position. She worked quickly and efficiently, as skills long dormant returned without thought. While her hands continued their work, she reflexively glanced around the room for an alternative escape route. She knew there was none, but old habits die hard.
It would be close, but she had time. Her team had taken out the guards in the immediate vicinity, and in sixty seconds, the safe would be open and she would be out the door with its contents. A satisfied grin doubled her determination. The good showing by her squad pleased her, but defeating Branson’s team would really make her day.
She had just finished embedding the knotted Primacord fuse into the malleable plastic explosives placed in the appropriate places on the safe door when she thought she heard her name being shouted above the screeching alarm. She made a half-believing glance over her shoulder and did a double take when she saw Jenny motioning frantically for her to leave.
Not sure why she was surprised, Kathryn shouted, “Get out of here!”
She saw Jenny lean back into the hallway, and confident she’d obeyed her command, she set off the percussion cap on the end of the fuse and pushed up from her kneeling position to sprint out the door. She ran headlong into Jenny’s midsection as she approached quickly from behind.
Kathryn bowled Jenny over, and they both wound up sprawled in a heap on the floor. Realizing she had no time for anything but a mad scramble for their lives, Kathryn grabbed Jenny by her shirt with both hands and threw her and herself behind the nearest piece of furniture, which, fortunately, was a solid oak desk.
A split second later, the explosion ripped through the room, and Kathryn ducked her head into Jenny’s chest as a piece of hinge came flying through the back of the desk and embedded itself in the bookcase just past their heads.
Kathryn stared at the large projectile in disbelief and then looked through the fist-sized hole it left in the kick panel of the desk. She looked down at Jenny.
“Are you all right?” she shouted above the still blaring alarm and the ringing in her ears.
Jenny didn’t answer.
“Jenny! Are you all right?”
Jenny nodded mutely, and Kathryn realized the shoulder to her midsection knocked the breath out of her.
Kathryn leaped to her feet, pulling Jenny with her.
“Get out of here, now!”
Jenny didn’t really have a choice this time, as a shove in the back propelled her toward the exit. Kathryn quickly returned to the smoldering safe and kicked the mangled door from its remaining hinge. She removed the prize—a small black book of codes that was charred around the edges but otherwise still intact—and checked her watch. Close, but well within the safety zone. They’d done well for their first exercise. She nodded with satisfaction and turned for the door.
She looked up to see Branson and two members of his team crowding the doorway with smirks on their faces and Jenny front and center, looking disgusted with her hands on her head. The alarm abruptly stopped, and everyone looked up, as though the silence was by divine order.
Jenny tilted her head regretfully. “I tried to warn you.”
Kathryn pinned her with a furious glare before turning to the smirking lieutenant.
“What is this, Branson? We beat the clock.”
“Oh, we moved up the guard response time. Didn’t you get the memo?”
She realized he had changed the time on the clock in her room. The exercise was doomed from the start.
“Cute, Lieutenant. What’s the matter? Can’t win without cheating?”
“Expect the unexpected, Hammond,” he said gleefully as he shot her with his forefinger. “Pow! You’re dead.” He looked at Jenny. “And your little disciple too.”
Kathryn chewed on the defeat and then slapped the book into Branson’s chest as she shoved past. She didn’t look at Jenny.
“Enjoy the view while you can, boys,” Branson said from behind Jenny’s back as she exited the outpost. “She won’t have that ass for long.”
Jenny responded with a middle finger salute over the shoulder as she stiff-armed the door open and let it slam on the laughter swirling behind her.
The rest of the team had already gathered around Kathryn when Jenny joined them in time to hear some instruction to Hendricks, who was lamenting his unfortunate demise.
“In that situation, Hendricks, you have to make a decision,” Kathryn explained. “At least give yourself a chance to be right.”
“I know. It was the alarm. I couldn’t concentrate.”
“Yes, well … the alarm.” Kathryn looked at the guilty party. “That was careless, Johnson.”
“Didn’t see the tripwire, ma’am.”
“You weren’t looking either.”
The trainee couldn’t deny it, so he sought solace in the dirt on his shoes.
Jenny was glad that Kathryn didn’t seem angry anymore—heat of the moment, she imagined—but she was sure losing to Branson didn’t help.
“You folks did some good things out here today.” Kathryn went on. “You made some mistakes, but you recovered admirably for the most part. Unfortunately, our mission failed today—”
“It failed because he cheated,” Jenny chimed in, thumbing over her shoulder in Branson’s direction.
Kathryn turned, and in a flash, the anger was back.
“It failed because you disobeyed orders.”
“Wait a minute … I was trying to warn you.”
“Your orders were to stay put. Your disobedience showed a blatant disregard for everyone who tried to make this mission a success.”
Jenny put her hands on her hips, finding the description a bit over the top. “I hardly think—”
“That is painfully obvious,” Kathryn barked. “Once inside, you disobeyed orders again when I told you to leave. Training mission aside, you could have gotten us both seriously injured. What were you thinking?”
Jenny could do nothing but blink for a few moments. Kathryn was furious and then some, but then it dawned on her that Kathryn was in a teaching situation, where she had to illustrate that mistakes were part of the learning curve but outright disobedience was not to be tolerated. Jenny learned her lesson, and for the benefit of the rest of the class, she took her dressing down squarely on the chin and offered a weak excuse, as she softened her stance and put her hands behind her back in submission.
“Sorry. I just wanted to help.”
“This is not about what you want! The mission is paramount, and your actions compromised it today, and in the end, we paid for it in failure and with our proverbial lives.”
Jenny looked up, confused. She wanted to say, Okay, I get it already, but she held her tongue in deference to Kathryn’s authority and nodded instead.
Kathryn toned down her ire and addressed the rest of the class. “Don’t ever go back, people. Shoot the guards, cause a distraction, do whatever you can to give your partner more time to complete their mission, but do not needlessly sacrifice yourself to a losing cause. This is a game of seconds.” She turned to Jenny. “And you wasted yours playing hero instead of doing something that actually might have helped the situation.”
Jenny suppressed an eye roll and shifted her weight from one leg to the other, anxious to get out from under the dunce cap. She could have helped, she still reasoned, if Branson hadn’t cheated.
“Okay,” Kathryn said on an exhale. “I think you all get the point. Nice job today. Dismissed.”
The team separated and Kathryn began loading equipment into a jeep to return to the supply shed. When Jenny was sure no one was paying any attention to her, she picked up a bag and walked it over to the open-air vehicle.
Kathryn didn’t say anything as she tossed the dark canvas packs into the back of the jeep one by one. Jenny eyed her in silence until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Come on, Kat,” she whispered. “You can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same.”
Kathryn stopped mid-toss and glared at her. “You screwed up, Jenny.”
“It was a training mission, Kat,” Jenny said casually in her defense.
Kathryn threw the pack down. “What if it wasn’t?”
Jenny threw her pack down and put her hands on her hips, tired of being the punching bag. “I’d probably do the same.”
“And that is precisely how people get captured, tortured, and killed!”
Jenny could tell by the anguish in Kathryn’s eyes that this wasn’t about training or making her an example—it was about personal experience.
Kathryn picked up the pack at her feet and hurled it into the jeep with the others. “You’re not cut out for this, Jenny.”
Jenny could see where this was going and, personal experience or not, she was not going to allow Kathryn to sabotage her chance for fieldwork over one mistake and ghosts of the past.
“Don’t you do that, Kathryn,” Jenny warned. “I’ve worked too hard for this.”
“I’m not doing anything, Jenny. You’re doing it for me.”
Jenny moved closer and lowered her voice, aware of the curious stares from their departing team members. “That’s not fair. You’re letting your personal feelings get in the way of—”
“You’re damn right I am!” Kathryn snapped. “You have no earthly idea what it’s like over there. I’m telling you … you don’t have what it takes.”
“Well, excuse me for caring about my fellow human beings!” Jenny snapped back, at a loss for an effective comeback.
Kathryn pointed at her. “That’s the attitude that’s going to keep you behind a desk for the duration.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes!”
The pair was frozen in fury until Kathryn became aware that every eye within earshot was staring at them. She broke eye contact with Jenny and dared them to continue. “Dismissed!”
The collective group of raised eyebrows went about their business, and Kathryn climbed into the jeep.
Jenny grabbed her arm. “This isn’t right, Kathryn. I’ll go over your head if I have to.”
Kathryn ignored the hand on her arm. “You do that.”
Jenny released her hold and stepped back as the jeep peeled away. She stood there, watching the cloud of dust in disbelief, and wondered how they’d gotten so far apart and how they could possibly fix it.
She heard footsteps approaching in the gravel from behind, and from the uneven gait, she didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.
She put her hands on her hips to show she was in no mood to take any more noise. “Hi, Johnny.”
“Hi ya, kid. Trouble in paradise?”
Jenny cut him a disparaging glare, which she was sure made his day, and he eyed the dispersing dusty trail with interest. “What happened?”
“Jerkhole Branson got cute and screwed with our mission clock. We’re dead.”
“Oh. My condolences. Why’s she barking at you?”
“I went back to warn her about the guards, and we sort of got caught.”
Smitty chuckled. “Sort of got caught, eh? You mean she told you to amscray but you just had to save her, right?”
Jenny was in no mood to appreciate his sarcasm either, but one look in his eyes told her his biting humor was only a front to hide his own guilt.
“You know the drill,” she said.
“Yeah,” he exhaled. “When she says go, just go, and don’t look back.”
“Yeah. I got that.”
“Good. You’ll do fine then. Don’t worry about it. She’ll come around.”
“I’m afraid it’s a little deeper than that, Smitty.”
The two turned to the sound of hurried footsteps as Branson came jogging up from behind and slapped Smitty on the back as he passed.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh, Johnny?” He laughed as his voice trailed off. “Your girlfriend’s still screwing up.”
“Fuck off, asshole,” Smitty called after the soldier’s back. He looked at Jenny. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. Beat me to it. What the hell is his problem anyway?”
“Hell hath no fury like a redneck asshole scorned.”
Jenny raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a long story,” Smitty said, as he waved off the telling of it. “Listen, I’ll go straighten things out with Kat for you. She never stays mad for long.”
“Thanks, Smitty, but I don’t need you to smooth anything over for me. I can take care of myself.”
“Okay, just trying to help.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Jenny mumbled, trudging off toward the equipment shed.
Kathryn downshifted the jeep into second gear as she powered around the corner and cursed herself for losing her temper. Jenny was wrong, but the dressing down in front of the class should have been sufficient. Why did she have to be so damn stubborn?
Kathryn had let her personal feelings interfere with her objective view, but she didn’t care anymore. Jenny could ship out any day, and if there was anything she could do to prevent it, she decided she would do it. Jenny was just too impulsive and headstrong to make a good field agent, of that she was certain. Brass had to see that. They had to.
She came to a skidding stop in front of the equipment shed and unloaded the gear.
“Let me help you there,” the check-in clerk called as he jogged out of the office.
“Thanks.” Kathryn tossed him a pack.
He loaded a few more onto his shoulders and together they slogged inside.
“Did you have a good day, Miss Hammond?”
“I’ve had better,” Kathryn said drolly as she signed the equipment return manifest.
“How’d you like that new RDX?” he asked with a grin, touting the new plastic explosive.
“Packs quite a wallop.” She smiled politely as she crossed the t in her first name with a sharp scratch across the clipboard.
“It might give you a headache,” he said. “Something about the composition. You absorb it through your skin”
“Yeah, I think I’m feeling that,” she said, doubting it was the chemicals making her head pound.
She gave him the remainder of the explosives and began stowing the rest of the equipment in the storage room while he locked up the RDX in the back with the rest of the hazardous materials.
“You don’t have to do that, ma’am,” he said on his return. “That’s my job.”
“Tell you what,” Kathryn countered, “I need to decompress for a few minutes, so what say you return this to the depot for me and I’ll finish up here.” She held up the keys to the jeep.
“Deal!” He snatched the keys and headed for the door. “Lock up when you leave if I’m not back.”
“You got it.”
Kathryn shook her head as the door slammed. Nice fella. Not very security conscious, but at least he locked up the dangerous stuff before he left her alone with the rest of the warehouse.
She took her time returning the equipment to its proper place, using the mindless activity to go over the mission’s successes and its failures. Her thoughts always returned to Jenny and their altercation. She could have handled the situation better, she knew, but she couldn’t stop herself. She knew they would have to part, and soon, but she thought they had more time. Just a little more time.
She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the cool steel shelving. She should have known. Time was never that accommodating, and she was never that lucky. She didn’t know how she was going to mend things with Jenny. She only knew she had to.
She heard the outer office door open and cleared her tight throat and got back to her task.
“Wow, you’re quick,” she called to the clerk, suddenly longing for a distraction.
“Yeah, but not quick enough to escape with our lives,” Jenny said, leaning on the doorjamb.
Kathryn was silent for a moment before coming out with a brilliant, “Hey.”
“Hey,” Jenny said.
She came to Kathryn’s side and they wordlessly put the equipment away together. Kathryn was at a total loss for words, so she opted for the stoic professional approach while Jenny, true to form, got right to the heart of the matter.
“You’re being unreasonable, Kathryn, and that’s not like you. What’s going on?”
Kathryn silently accepted the truth and wanted to hug Jenny for being so perceptive and so forgiving. She closed her eyes and turned away, willing herself not to cry.
Jenny placed a concerned hand on her back. “Kat?”
Quietly, and without turning, Kathryn answered. “They’re pulling some of the trainees for immediate deployment.”
Jenny was stunned. “We’re not ready.”
The obvious required no response.
“Am I going?” Jenny asked bravely.
Kathryn shifted and then swallowed, as her fear was put into words. She barely got out a strangled, “I don’t know.”
Jenny put her arms around Kathryn’s waist and rested her head between her tense shoulder blades.
“I’m not ready for this,” Kathryn whispered. She turned and enveloped Jenny in a desperate embrace. “I’m not ready.”
“Nice try, Hammond,” Branson smirked as they sat waiting for Colonel Forsythe to return to his office. “You almost made it. That seems to be your lot in life, but why is it you’re always taking people down with you?”
“Not today, Jerry,” Kathryn exhaled, as she massaged the headache at her temple.
“Okay, sorry,” Forsythe said, as he walked in the door carrying a folder with the telltale classified blue paper inside. “Now, where were we?”
“We were just about to point out Miss Hammond’s ineptitude.”
Forsythe took off his reading glasses. “I think we can do without the cracks, Branson.”
Branson shrugged. “Hey, she not only got herself killed, she lost her puppy too.”
“Can it, Branson,” Forsythe said calmly.
“She disregarded my directive,” Kathryn said as an irrelevant excuse.
Forsythe pushed some papers around on his desk. “And I’m sure you’ve taken care of that.”
“Yes, sir, I have.”
“Good. Then I think we’re done here. Nice job, Kathryn.”
“What? Her mission failed.”
“You need to get out of my sight, soldier,” Forsythe said impatiently.
Kathryn got up to leave with Branson.
“Stay a moment, Kathryn.”
Branson shook his head and left the room with a disgruntled “Tst.”
Forsythe, in turn, shook his head but made no comment. He leaned back in his chair and took the classified folder with him. “I suppose you’ve heard the rumors.”
Kathryn nodded, as the knot in the pit of her stomach tightened with every passing second. Colonel Forsythe opened the folder and took out a white slip of paper. Kathryn’s heart pounded.
“Some of these recruits are from your unit. I thought you’d want to know.”
He leaned across the desk and offered four names. Kathryn took it casually, although she wasn’t sure she could maintain her cool façade if Jenny’s name appeared before her.
Johnson.
Hayes.
Coleman.
Hendricks.
She closed her eyes, her relief profound, but only for a moment, as she gave thought to those chosen. All had great potential, but all were far too green. She nodded and handed the list back to her superior.
“I know it’s hard,” he replied.
“I suppose it goes without saying, if this weren’t absolutely necessary …”
“We certainly wouldn’t do it if it weren’t. They’ll have a little more training at their destinations, specifics pertaining to their respective missions. You know how it goes.”
Kathryn’s nod turned into a head shake, knowing it wouldn’t be enough for some of them.
“You learned by doing, Kathryn, and without the basics that these kids already have.”
“We all know I’m no shining example of that system in action.”
He replaced the list and closed the folder. “You’re here, and you’ve given them a good start. It’s all we can do.”
He handed her a piece of paper from his briefcase. The flimsy onion paper crinkled in her hand as she took it and snapped it to attention so she could read it. It was a carbon copy of Jenny’s new assignment in the code room, signed at the bottom by the personnel officer in sweeping blue ink and dated the day before.
“Would you like to tell her, or shall I?” Forsythe asked.
Kathryn returned the page, relieved that Jenny was not going into the field. “Sir, at this point, I think that would go down a little easier coming from you.”
Kathryn squinted into the sun as she left Forsythe’s office and hadn’t gone ten steps before Branson was in her ear to pick up where he left off.
“You know, I wouldn’t feel too good about yourself, despite what he says. It’s that blind devotion that took your friend down with you today. Kind of like déjà vu all over again, wasn’t it?”
“I’m warning you, Jerry. Not today.”
“I don’t know what the uppers see in you, Hammond, but I’ve got to hand it to you—you’ve snowed them all. Although, come to think of it, if I could get somewhere by sleeping with brass, I suppose I would too.”
Without skipping a beat, Kathryn flung her elbow up and caught him square in the face. Branson fell to the ground holding his bloody nose and looked back toward Forsythe’s office like a child ready to tattle. Forsythe was standing at the window, smiling as he pulled down the shade.
A muffled “You bitch!” echoed across the courtyard.
Kathryn kept walking and didn’t look back.
Kathryn held her breath as she opened the front door of her apartment, not sure how she would be received. She could see the living room light on from the street, so she knew Jenny was there. She was sitting at the end of the couch, crying, and made no attempt to make eye contact as she wiped her cheek with a tattered tissue.
She knew Jenny would be upset, but she hoped she would know she had nothing to do with her reassignment. Kathryn slowly closed the door, struggling to find the right thing to say by the time she turned around. Simple seemed best.
“I’m sorry, Jenny.”
Jenny looked up, eyes red and filled with tears. “No, you’re not.”
Kathryn hoped it wouldn’t go this way, but she steeled herself for the fight she was sure would follow.
“Okay,” she said in frustration, tossing her keys on the bookcase. “I’m not sorry.”
She passed by the couch without another glance and went into the bedroom before she said something to exacerbate the situation. This shouldn’t be happening. Things would be fine now. Couldn’t Jenny see?
She opened her closet but didn’t see the contents. All she saw was another fight, in a seemingly endless string of fights that were driving them further apart. She stood frozen with her hand on the open closet door, her eyes closed, and a fist tangled in the sleeve of a blouse.
Just let her vent, she urged herself, don’t lose your temper. She heard a floorboard creak and forced herself back into motion by wearily yanking the blouse from its hanger.
The hanger flew off the rod and skittered out of the closet and across the floor, coming to rest at Jenny’s feet.
Jenny picked it up and hesitantly came to her side, holding the mangled wire out like an olive branch.
“I didn’t mean it like that, baby.”
Kathryn relaxed and took the hanger, relieved. There was no anger in Jenny’s eyes, only sadness and regret, which matched her own.
“I am sorry, Jenny.” Kathryn reached out and stroked her cheek. “I’m sorry you’re disappointed, but I want you to know I didn’t have—”
“I know,” Jenny interrupted, as she sought comfort in her arms.
Kathryn held her tightly. “It’s going to be okay now, honey. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Jenny nodded into Kathryn’s chest and then backed off to wipe her tears. Kathryn sensed there was more to her tears than a reassignment.
She cupped her cheek. “What is it?”
“Ugh,” Jenny groaned, as she waved off the waterworks and sat on the bed.
Kathryn plucked another tissue from the box on the vanity and held it out as she joined her.
“Thanks.” Jenny wiped her nose with it. “I just talked to Bernie. He wants to join up.”
“I thought you said he was 4F because he’s colorblind.”
Jenny nodded and dabbed her eyes with the tissue. “He wants to be a war correspondent, or find a spot in the Signal Corp photography division.”
“What brought this on?”
“He said this thing with Cal opened his eyes and he wants to do the same for others—document the war, bring it home. Show people what’s really going on.”
“He’s had a shock. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”
Jenny shook her head and wiped her nose again. “No, he’s already applied, and they’ll take him. He’s good.”
She started crying again, and Kathryn put her arm around her.
“He can’t go over there, Kat. He’s not built for that.”
Kathryn was silent, recognizing their situations were now reversed. The parallel was not lost on Jenny, who looked up sympathetically.
“Now I know how you felt today about me going over there. I’m sorry I was so stubborn.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Kathryn whispered, as she rubbed small circles on her back.
“I can’t let him go. I can’t.”
“Look, if anyone can talk him out of it, you can.”
Jenny shook her head. “I tried. He accused me of not supporting him, of deserting him at the Chronicle, deserting him as a friend—you name it. He’s so twisted up inside. I had no idea, and I have no idea how to get through to him. He’s so angry with me.”
She deflated into Kathryn’s embrace, utterly defeated by the day.
“I haven’t been a good friend to him.” She sniffled. “On top of that, I got kicked out of field training and I let you down. I feel like such a failure.”
Kathryn made sure Jenny was looking her in the eyes. “First, you have never let me down, and you did not get kicked out of field training. You were placed elsewhere, somewhere where you can be better utilized. Code work is important—even more important than your old job at MO. Without it, the agents in the field are blind, and so are we. You are certainly not a failure. And, as for Bernie, he loves you. He’s just … he’s hurting right now. He’ll come around.”
Jenny sniffled again and nodded, burying her face into Kathryn’s shoulder. Kathryn could tell she wasn’t buying the sunny forecast, and she tilted Jenny’s chin up.
“Is Bernie at home?”
Jenny nodded.
“Then go to him.”
“He won’t see me.”
“Hey …” Kathryn squeezed Jenny’s chin. “Who can resist this face?”
That brought a smile.
“Make him see you. I know you can do that. Spend some time with him. Patch things up.”
Jenny was unsure, and Kathryn wanted to make sure it wasn’t about them.
She wiped a tear from her cheek with her thumb. “Are we okay?”
Jenny smiled and covered the hand on her cheek with hers. “Yes.”
“Then go. I’ll try to call you later.”
“You really think I can fix it?”
“Honey, I think I’m living proof you can fix anything.”
Jenny laughed.
“Here.” Kathryn held out the mangled hanger. “Fix that while you’re at it.”