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When Nick and Selena got to the hospital they found a guard posted outside Stephanie's room. The room was crowded. Steph was propped up in bed, awake. An IV dripped clear liquid into a vein on her arm. The bullet had caused a lot of bleeding, but she was out of danger. Her husband sat by the bed, holding her hand.
Lucas Monroe oversaw the covert operations that kept alive the spirit of Wild Bill Donovan's OSS. He was a legend among the field agents who carried out Langley's missions. His record in the field had brought him to Hood's attention. When Hood took over the agency he moved Lucas to the seventh floor and then into his position as DCNS.
Lucas looked up as Nick and Selena came in. His eyes were bloodshot and tired, angry looking. He looked as though he'd been sleeping in his clothes.
"Lucas," Nick said.
"How could you put her in harm's way like that?"
"Whoa, hold on, partner. I told her to stay in the vehicle. It wasn't me that put her out there."
"It was me," Selena said, "but Steph made her own choice."
"Lighten up, Lucas," Lamont said. "She was trying to help."
"Lucas," Stephanie said. "It's not their fault. Nobody forced me to get out of the car."
"You could have been killed."
"But I wasn't. It's over and I'm okay. You would've done the same."
"It's different."
He started to say something more, then changed his mind. He squeezed Stephanie's hand.
"Steph," Elizabeth said. "They shot up the computers. Everything is off-line. What did you mean by remote backup, when you told Freddie to shut down? You said it was complicated."
"I didn't want to get into it then," Steph said. "There was always a possibility something could go wrong with Freddie. I wanted to make sure that if anything happened to him, I could recover everything."
"Why is it complicated?"
Stephanie looked at Lucas. "Because I backed him up on a computer at Langley. Lucas helped me."
"What? I didn't give you authorization to do that."
"I didn't ask. I knew you wouldn't like it."
"You're damn right I don't like it. What if someone there got into our files?"
"Elizabeth, you need to trust me on this. Even if anyone knew what I'd done, they wouldn't be able to access Freddie. No one except me knows how to do it. Not even Lucas."
"Why Langley?"
"Because Lucas is there and because they have the same kind of computing power we have. I needed a Cray. It was the logical choice. Once our computers are online again, I can send everything back to headquarters."
"Then Freddie hasn't been destroyed?"
"No. I can access him from my laptop."
"And no one else at Langley knows about this?"
"No one knows, Director," Lucas said. "My ass would be in a sling if they did."
"I have to tell Clarence, you know that," Elizabeth said. She turned to Stephanie. "I don't know whether to be angry or grateful."
"I'd go for grateful," Selena said. "We need Freddie. Especially now. He can help us track down whoever came after us."
"I need my laptop," Stephanie said. "Either the one from work, or from home. Both of them are secure."
"I'm not sure the one at headquarters is intact," Elizabeth said.
"I can bring the one from home," Lucas said, "but not now. You need rest. It can wait until tomorrow."
"Lucas..."
"Tomorrow."
"He's right, Steph," Elizabeth said. "You lost a lot of blood. Tomorrow is soon enough."