It was just after one a.m. Mitch lay awake thinking back over the case. He calculated it was seven a.m. in Berlin. He had left it a day before calling, rolled over, picked up his phone and dialed Adam Forster’s phone. Adam answered on the second ring.
“You’re up late,” Adam answered.
“You know how it is. How are you? I didn’t wake you?” Mitch asked.
“No, I’ve been up for a while. I’m better, embarrassed …” Adam said.
“There’s no need to be. Really,” Mitch assured him.
“I’ve been under worse pressure than that, Mitch,” Adam said. “You know I’ve seen a lot worse; I don’t know why …” his voice trailed off.
Mitch sat up and leaned against his bed head. “It accumulates, all that stuff. But sometimes it’s the unexpected that trips you up.”
There were a few moments of silence before Adam answered.
“Yeah. I saw her guillotined. I’ve seen men shot down in battle, but that was just … I couldn’t reach her.” He choked.
“Have you got someone to lean on?” Mitch asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got plenty of people lining up to read my head,” Adam said.
“I bet you have.”
“Astrid has been great. We’re going to try and work it out. Two nutters together,” he laughed.
“That could work,” Mitch agreed. “I’m sorry Adam, for my part in it.”
“You did nothing wrong Mitch. Nothing. But thanks for calling.”
“Sure,” Mitch said. “Call if you need to. Any time.”
“Thanks.”
Mitch hung up, put the phone down and slipped back down under the sheets. He suddenly felt very alone.
The next day, Mitch, his boss John and his team members Nick and Ellen sat around in his office late in the afternoon. Ellen had returned on her flight after midday and Mitch was yet to finish his report.
“I’m sorry to report that Adam will be staying in Germany for a while. He’s been stood down and is getting some help,” John informed the team.
“And he’s spending a bit of time with his wife, ex-wife, Astrid, seeing if they can work things out,” Mitch added.
Mitch closed the file on his lap. “Thorsten Schmid comes before the court next Wednesday. There is a petition online calling for his release and calling him a hero.”
“It’s a fine line,” Ellen said, “I feel like he is in a way, but he did take a life.”
“If we were at war he’d get a medal,” Nick agreed.
“He’s definitely more attractive to me now than before.” She nudged Nick. “If I’d known when we were undercover …”
“You still would have married me,” he assured her.
Mitch looked from Ellen to Nick and then, ignoring them, continued. “His brother Dirk has been charged with … well you name it, it’s on the rap sheet—spreading anti-Semitic and xenophobic messages, terrorizing and organizing attacks on Benjamin Hoefer, blackmail, incitement to hatred and glorification of war crimes, etc., etc.”
“The party has been decimated,” John said. “Adler is dead, the images we captured of Voigt in Berlin inciting violence shut down any hope he has of becoming Chancellor, and Sebastian Graf CEO of The New Aryan Order in Berlin is under investigation. It will be a lengthy procedure; they’ll work through the top party members here and in Germany in due course.”
“What happens to the Fountain of Life 2 children?” Ellen asked.
“They’re all loved and wanted aren’t they? Like our love child would have been.” Nick winked at her. “And unlike the original Fountain of Life children. The only drama will be explaining to the kids when they get older about their family genetics, if they do explain.”
“What a mess.” Ellen shook her head.
“You did a great job, team, thank you,” Mitch said. “I’m sorry about what happened to Adam. I should have been more vigilant, seen it coming.”
John shook his head. “He coped well on the London assignment. Something in the march that day was a trigger. He’ll get the help he needs. Mitch, I need to talk to you about a replacement, so if we’ve finished here?”
Mitch nodded.
“We’re going for a quick round at the bar across the road. Well maybe a few rounds,” Ellen said. “Come over when you’re done.”
“Both of you,” Nick said with a look to Mitch. “The report can wait, can’t it John?”
John agreed. “Yes, tomorrow will do.”
Ellen and Nick left Mitch’s office.
“Got someone in mind?” Mitch asked. He rose and went behind his desk to log out.
“Samantha came to see me this morning.”
Mitch looked up at John and frowned.
“I know what you’re thinking, but she asked me to put in a good word for her and consider her application to return to the team,” John said, rising. “I’m going to leave it to you to decide if you can rein her in but give her a hearing at least. She’s at her desk downstairs if you want to call her up.”
Mitch stood to full height with his hands on his hips. “It would be easy to have her slot back in but …”
“I’ll tell her to come up and see you now and we’ll see you across the road in fifteen minutes or so. You don’t have to make any decisions tonight but I’ll support your decision either way,” John said, and departed.
After closing down his laptop, Mitch grabbed his coat jacket and put it on. Minutes later he turned to find Samantha Moore at his door. She smiled nervously. Tall, dark-haired, slim and fit, Samantha had been patiently waiting for her chance to return to his team; to prove herself.
“Sam.” Mitch smiled. “It’s good to see you.”
“Isn’t it?” she teased. “Haven’t you missed me just a bit?”
“Missed saving your ass you mean?” he teased back.
“Missed my enthusiasm, my ability to break in to any system, my support, my sparkling personality?” Samantha said.
Mitch laughed. “Gee, now that you mention it.”
She moved towards him and handed him three pieces of paper.
“What’s this?” he asked, taking the sheets.
“The first one is my swimming qualification that you wanted me to do. I’ve done it. The second is my shooting record; I’ve been keeping it up and I’ve improved—especially in a sniper capacity. The final one is a statement showing for the last six months I’ve been a part-time Army Reserve officer. One weekend per month for the last six months I’ve been in training and for my two weeks’ annual leave I did their Annual Training program.”
Mitch looked up, surprised.
“Well, you said I wasn’t disciplined and couldn’t follow orders, especially under pressure. You also said or maybe muttered that some military training would help the way I think and approach situations. So I’ve been learning how to fall into line. I’ve improved, Mitch, I really have.”
Mitch sat down on the edge of the desk and looked through the certificates and statements.
“I’m impressed, Sam.”
She moved closer to him. “Please Mitch, let me rejoin your team. I know I’ve made promises before, but I’ve taken on board what you said, so let me prove myself.”
Mitch nodded. “Okay, Sam.”
“Okay? Really?” Her eyes lit up. “As in okay I can come back?”
“Yes, okay, really. Welcome back.”
Samantha closed her eyes for a moment, exhaled, opened her eyes, and thanked him in a controlled and professional manner. Mitch looked surprised. The old Samantha would have run at him and enthusiastically hugged him and ran out of the room in excitement.
“We’ve just finished a job and are having a drink across the road. Come and rejoin the team.”
“I’ll grab my gear and meet you there,” she said. “Thank you Mitch.”
“It will be good to have you back.”
She clapped her hands together and then impulsively hugged him. Mitch winced, and seconds later she was gone.
He turned to get his phone before heading to the bar. Nick and Ellen stopped by.
“I thought you’d be there ordering me a beer by now,” Mitch said.
“We’re on our way. I see she’s back then, by the look of that,” Nick nodded towards a smiling Sam as she headed down the stairs.
“Yeah, what’s with the hugging?” Mitch frowned. “Everyone’s hugging these days. Women either want to hug me or dye my hair.”
“Lucky you,” Ellen said. “Did you invite Sam for a drink?”
“I did. She’s meeting us there. Ellie, can I have five minutes with you?”
“Uh oh,” Ellen said.
“I’ll go invite Amy then hold up the bar,” Nick said. “Don’t be all night.”
“You didn’t have to come into the office this afternoon,” Mitch said as Ellen walked further into his office.
“I know, but you know what it’s like. I landed just after midday, then I was wired. You don’t want to sleep because you’ll be out of sync, so it’s best to keep going.” She shrugged.
Mitch rose from sitting on the corner of his desk. “Can you close the door for a minute?”
“Sure,” Ellen said, surprised. There were only a few people left on the floor but she closed the door as requested. She turned to face him.
Mitch put his hands in his pockets and rocked.
“Ellie, I know about your history—your Jewish ancestry.”
Ellen’s eyes widened in surprise. She put her bag and jacket down on the chair near the door. “My history. How?”
“It doesn’t matter. Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
She bit her lip but didn’t answer.
“Out of everyone in the team, you were the one who I thought would be upfront about that. You’ve gone undercover with a vested interest, a dangerous one, and don’t tell me it was because we were short-staffed and we needed a female on the job. That won’t cut it. You should have declared your family history and that it might have compromised your objectivity.” Mitch stepped back and sat on the edge of his desk again while Ellen paced.
“If I had told you, you wouldn’t have let me do it,” she said.
“That’s right,” Mitch agreed.
“After working with me for two years, don’t you think that I can judge my limits? It’s ancient history, Mitch. Yes, my relatives on my mother’s side were murdered by the Nazis and yes, I was disgusted being amongst the NAO, but it wasn’t emotional.”
“What was it then? A history lesson?” Mitch asked.
“Yes, in a way. But it was more than that,” she said. “What I mean is that I am deeply saddened by my family’s history but I didn’t know those family members personally to be overly emotional, I’m just …”
“Angry, revengeful?” Mitch helped her.
Ellen stopped pacing and looked directly at him. She crossed her arms across her chest and thought before answering.
“No, stop putting words in my mouth. I wanted to right a wrong,” she said. “I don’t expect you to understand that, but I was honored to have the chance to do this and to use my job and my skills to possibly shut down something that should never have started again. Imagine if I could have done that in 1939.”
Mitch thought about what she said. They stared at each other, neither speaking for a few moments.
“Okay, I hear all that,” Mitch said, “but what about you? You can’t tell me that you weren’t hearing their plans and it wasn’t making you sick?”
“Sure. But no more than it made you or Nick angry or revolted. Mitch, if you could go undercover and catch someone who did something to your grandmother, wouldn’t you give it your best performance ever?”
“And you couldn’t trust me with any of that before I sent you in?” he said.
“Trust works both ways, Mitch.”
“What does that mean?”
She stopped pacing and turned to face him. “When we were on our last case, do you remember when you had to return to the scene where you were tortured?”
Mitch looked away.
“You had a panic attack,” she continued. “I was the team medic and you sent me from the room to get Nick to help you. You couldn’t trust me enough to get you through that. You had to play the macho guy or whatever that was.”
He looked back at her. “It’s not comparable. My actions didn’t put you at risk but you withheld information that could have affected you on the case.”
She continued. “In the two years we’ve worked together, your housemate Lyn is the first person in your life I’ve ever met.” She held up her hand to stop him protesting. “I know, I sound like your ex, but you met my ex last year, you’ve met my mum when she came to visit on holidays, you’ve come to my place for coffee … you keep all elements of your life compartmentalized. So you can’t be surprised when I choose what to tell you and what to trust you with.” She began to pace again. “We work on some level, but I don’t know what it is and I’m following your lead.”
Mitch’s eyes narrowed in anger; he bit his tongue and looked at the floor, thinking before responding. After a few minutes, he spoke. “You’re probably right Ellie, about all that. I accept the medic comment, fair enough, and everything you’ve said I’m guilty of, but this is not you talking. You’ve never really wanted to invade my life, you’re as private as I am. You’re just trying to justify your actions in your head.”
He stood. “The buck stops with me, Ellie, and if you get hurt, I’m responsible. If I get hurt, you’re not. Try me next time, I might just surprise you.” He shrugged. “But probably not since my entire team seems to think I’m anal, compartmentalized, too uptight or whatever you all want to call it when you have to do it my way.” He opened the door for her to leave. “I’m going to finish this report. You go join the team. You did a great job Ellie, thanks, despite the risk,” he said.
Ellen nodded and walked out of his office.
No tears, no emotion, she was cool and calm and maybe she was capable of making that decision.
He turned to look out the window at the dusk. He sighed, leaning on the windowsill, letting her comments run through his head. For the second time that day he felt very alone. Mitch ran a hand over his short blond hair, wincing at the pain from the blow to the back of his head.
He heard his office door close again and turned to find Ellen standing there. She had tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry Mitch, you are right, I should have told you.” She swallowed. “But there was so much at stake for me and I didn’t want you to remove me from it. You do have my support, one hundred per cent support around the clock.”
“Ellie.” He sighed.
“You do, honestly, and I don’t think you’re anal. I think you’re brilliant and tactical and you are right, I don’t care about our private lives, I was just justifying it in my head, as you said.” She wiped her eyes with a tissue she pulled from her sleeve, then turned to leave.
Mitch moved quickly to the door and grabbed her arm. “Ellie, wait. Thanks for saying that. I will take on board what you said. I’ll work on it … where I can.”
She smiled. “I feel like an idiot for crying.”
“I’m so relieved you’re a girl,” Mitch teased her.
She hit him on the arm. “Shut up.”
Mitch grinned. “Want me to hug you?”
“No, definitely not,” she said. “Weren’t you just complaining that everyone wants to hug all of a sudden?”
Mitch held up his hands in a surrender. “Just offering since it seems to be the done thing.”
Ellen moved towards him and, slipping her arms under his jacket, wrapped them around him.
He smiled, closed his eyes and held her. He lowered his chin to the top of her head and wished.