Holder broke the silence. “Well, Dr. Taylor, it’s about time you decided to join us,” he said, voice full of irony.
Kate Taylor dropped her eyes. “I had trouble getting here.”
As Holder’s face sparked in fury at this lame excuse, she raised her head and gazed around the table, bestowing a warm smile on the first two agents. When she reached Sullivan, her smile broadened as she acknowledged their acquaintance. Sullivan basked in her attention.
“Sorry. It won’t happen again,” she said, apologizing to everyone—except Holder. Sullivan and the other team members shot uncomfortable glances at the senior agent, who had smoothed his face back into a neutral mask. They knew something was going on; they also knew that Kate Taylor had won the first round.
Before Holder could speak, a man entered and whispered in his ear. Holder nodded and left. In his absence the room was silent, and Sullivan used the opportunity to study this new Kate Taylor. They’d first met in Vienna in 1982, when they’d been assigned to take out a man the agency believed had gone rogue, Matthew Connolly. Both were unhappy about the assignment to kill a man they admired, and they were relieved when the order had been rescinded at the last second. Sullivan had always been attracted to the woman and wanted to bed her, but she’d never indicated in any way that she was interested in him. In fact, he’d sometimes wondered if she was interested in men at all; in the years before and since he’d never heard about a liaison between Kate Taylor and a man, unless it was whispers about her and Holder. To be fair he hadn’t heard of a liaison between Kate and a woman, either. She seemed the ultimate loner.
Be that as it may, he’d wanted her then, and he wanted her now, despite the fact that she looked quite different than six years ago. Back then she’d been the perfect size, not too fat, not too thin; now she was downright skinny, her face bordering on gaunt. Yet its thinness made her cheekbones more prominent, and the brilliant green of her eyes popped against the red tones in her hair. Her skin was another issue. It had been clear and ivory before, but now it seemed faded, sallow even, and small but noticeable black smudges formed half rings under her eyes.
Of course he knew—everyone in the room knew—that she’d been through hell since he’d last seen her. What really happened had been grist for the Agency gossip mill for months, but all they knew for sure was that she’d been arrested during a mission in East Germany and held in a Stasi prison for months before being exchanged for an Eastern Bloc spy. Although he didn’t know precisely what she’d endured, he could well imagine, and her looks confirmed his fears.
Once Holder returned to the room, his briefing was almost anti-climactic: They would be sent to Colombia to carry out assignments to be designated. For the rest of today they were supposed to study the information in the envelopes.
While the other agents quickly unclasped their envelopes in the briefing room, Kate collected her purse and her envelope and made her way upstairs to the library. She’d always felt at home amongst the books and journals; she also often mistrusted the information the Agency provided and wanted to learn about an issue from all sides, believing it could give her an edge. When she entered the library foyer, she was savoring the sights and smells and didn’t notice the woman coming up behind her.
“Kate Taylor! I was hoping you’d make it up here soon!”
Startled out of her reverie, Kate whirled around to confront the speaker, but instead of a frown, a grin spread across her face.
“Toni, oh, my God! How long has it been? I’m so glad to see you!” she gushed.
Toni Martucci, Kate’s best friend in the Agency, wrapped her in a huge hug. At first Kate resisted, but then she melted into Toni’s arms. “Come on, Kate. Let’s go to my office, if you’ve got a few minutes to chat?”
“Sure. Lead the way.”
When they’d made themselves comfortable in Toni’s workspace, the librarian started to say “How are you” but caught herself. It was clear that Kate Taylor wasn’t doing well, and Toni, like her colleagues, knew the vague outline of what her friend had endured. Instead she said: “It’s great to see you. When did you get in town?”
“Yesterday night. They put me in an apartment about two miles from here.”
“How is it? The apartment, I mean?”
“Like these places usually are. Impersonal but acceptable.”
“Do you have everything you need? Can I help with something?”
Kate considered for a second. “I haven’t figured out what I might need yet. We could go shopping. I don’t have many clothes.”
“Sounds wonderful, hon. You know how much I love to shop.”
They giggled as they recalled shopping excursions in the past.
“You’ll have to be my guide. I’ve been out of the fashion scene so long that I don’t know what’s in and what’s not.” Kate hadn’t meant to refer to her recent past, and when she did, she averted her eyes, hoping Toni wouldn’t follow that thread. She looked at her watch. “Guess I’d better get to work.”
“Should I ask what you’re looking for?”
“Anything and everything about Colombia.”
Toni lifted one eyebrow.
“Yep, Colombia,” Kate repeated. She pointed at the envelope she’d laid on Toni’s desk. “I want to find out what isn’t in the reports.” After Toni nodded, she continued: “The news I got in Leipzig was pretty one-sided.” She lowered her eyes again before looking directly at Toni. “You know I was in Leipzig?”
Toni started to reach out her hand but withdrew it immediately, breaking eye contact with Kate. Once more she nodded.
“East Germany’s officially on the side of the rebels, the FARC, so their media did report a lot on the war between them and the government. And about the drug cartels, too.” She laughed, tapping her hand on the envelope again. “Probably the opposite of what’s in these reports, don’t you think?”
Toni chuckled and was about to reply, but her phone beeped. “Martucci,” she answered. As she listened, she looked at Kate. “Certainly, sir. I’ll tell her.” Then she frowned at the receiver, lips pursed in irritation. “He’s a fun guy, isn’t he?”
When she’d figured out who was on the line, Kate had unconsciously clenched her hands. “A pain in the ass. What does he want now?”
“You in his office in five minutes.”
Sighing, Kate quickly outlined what she wanted from Toni, then left the library to make her way—slowly—to Holder’s office.
SIMON Holder was drumming his fingers indignantly on the desk when his secretary announced Kate’s arrival. He waved a hand at her in annoyance, and she escaped out the door. When Kate appeared, Holder looked pointedly at the clock.
“You’re late, again!” he snarled.
They stood on either side of his desk, both stiff with anger.
“Sit!”
She sat opposite the desk and waited while he took his time examining the papers on his desk, the same ones he’d been studying for the last half hour.
“First,” he said, extending some papers across the desk, “requisition a car from the motor pool this afternoon.”
Kate picked up the requisition slip, which was clipped to a driver’s license. She almost smiled, but stopped herself just in time. Instead she stuffed the papers in her handbag and gazed blankly at him.
Next he reached a small pink slip across the table. “You have an appointment at the shooting range between two and three.