Lee “Scarecrow” Stetson
Billy took one look and turned on them as soon as they came into the bull pen. “Just what do you two think you’re doing?”
Lee gave him a hard stare. “Prepping to go with the rescue mission.”
“Absolutely not!”
The noise in the bull pen came to a near-complete stop. Lee couldn’t have cared less. Billy was wrong and he was right and that was all there was to it. “That’s our son you’re talking about!”
“Which is exactly why you can’t go!” retorted their boss. “Damn it, Lee, we never let family members participate in a mission!”
“Because they’re not usually agents. We are!”
Billy took a sharp breath before gesturing them into his office. He started in as soon as they shut the door. “Okay, Stetson — Stetsons. You’re both parents, and you’re both agents. Which one are you right now? Because if you can’t absolutely guarantee that you’re only going to act as agents, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you go out to that airport.”
“You just try and stop us,” snarled Lee. “Amanda, go get the rest of the equipment.”
“Belay that!” Billy was breathing heavily. “And that’s an order! You two are going to stay here and man communications and coordination. I also need you to be around if Mr. and Mrs. King wake up.”
There was a tap on the door, and they glanced out to see Francine standing there. Joe and Carrie were with her. With a harsh sigh, Billy let the three of them in.
“Why aren’t we on the way out to — which airport did you say it was?” asked Joe.
“I didn’t,” said Billy. “Because you’re not going.”
Joe was as furious as Lee had been, if not more so. “The hell we aren’t!”
“Scarecrow and Sunlight are staying under order,” snapped Billy. “And we don’t let untrained civilians go on operations.”
“Oh, baloney!” shouted Joe. “Amanda told me how she got started here.”
“That was an exception,” said Francine, whose composure stood in contrast to the rest of them. “Amanda actually put herself in the middle of it the first time anyway.”
“I don’t care. We’re going.”
“I’ll put you all in lockup if I have to,” countered Billy. “Do I?”
Lee turned away, feeling anger stiffening every movement. Billy would do that, he knew; it wasn’t an idle threat. A part of him even understood why this was happening: they wouldn’t be objective. They couldn’t be. And if someone had to make a split second, life-or-death decision?
Amanda’s hand slid around his. “We can keep Joe and Carrie with us while we work comms.”
He shook his head vigorously, barely noticing that the argument with Billy was still going on. Carrie’s voice had entered the fray.
“Look, damn it.” Francine’s temper finally broke. “I’m not going to let any of you compromise my partner’s safety by letting you go with us! Did you even think of that while you were standing here wasting time arguing, when we could be on our way?”
“Your partner,” said Joe. “Our son.”
“The answer is still no,” said Billy, opening the office door and signaling to a security guard. “And if you try, you’re going into holding. All four of you! You hear that, Moya? If you see Scarecrow and Sunlight so much as make a move toward following us, you’re to take them downstairs. Am I clear?”
The security guard swallowed but nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Sir, please!” pleaded Amanda, and Lee could feel her shaking. “We’ll stay out of the way.”
At that, Francine actually laughed, although it was harsh from the anger mixed into the humor. “Don’t even try that line, Amanda. You never stay out of the way, even when it isn’t a relative.”
Amanda’s face crumpled, and she began blinking rapidly, the way she always did when she was holding back tears. “You just…” she trailed off. “You just all be careful out there.” Then she took a long, shaky breath. “Joe, Carrie, before we get started, do you want anything to eat or drink? We have coffee and a couple of vending machines.”
“I don’t believe this!” yelled Joe as they came back out into the bull pen. “You’re actually letting him order you to stay?”
Billy and Francine paused from where they were gathering their things. “I can have both their jobs, King, and they know it. I should also mention I have friends over at the EAO. Good friends. In high places.”
Despite his red face, Joe visibly quailed. Carrie took the opportunity to tug him toward the break room Amanda had pointed out. He threw them a final furious glare before he followed.
“Sir,” began Amanda.
“No!” Francine exclaimed. “The decision’s made.”
Lee looked down at Amanda for a long moment, and realization came abruptly. Francine was right: a decision had been made. It just wasn’t the decision everyone thought it was.
“All right,” he said, fighting for his own control. His voice went gravelly from his efforts. “We’ll man comms. But you bring them both back,” he said, meeting Billy’s and Francine’s eyes in turn. “You hear me? Both of them.”
“Like we’d do anything else,” countered Francine. But then she sighed, shoulders dropping. “Both of them. I promise.”
As a rule, Lee didn’t like going into the break room; he could never quite ignore its stink of sweat and cigarette smoke. Amanda had told him once that she felt the same way. She only went in there when she had to.
Both of them went through the door without so much as a hitch in their steps.
Joe was at a table. Surprisingly, he was staring into a cup of coffee.
Lee sat down next to him. “I wouldn’t. The stuff out of that vending machine isn’t fit for human consumption. We have something better upstairs in the Q.”
“Is it coffee or something stronger?”
“Coffee,” said Amanda. “Well, okay, we do have stronger stuff up there, but it’s only for when someone’s getting too hysterical and it wouldn’t compromise anything if they ended up a little bit impaired.”
Joe’s stare became morose. “That wouldn’t be a problem right now.”
“Yes, it would,” she answered crisply, and despite everything, Lee found himself beginning to chuckle.
Carrie moved to stand next to where Joe was sitting. “Why? And what’s so funny, Lee?”
“The two of you,” he replied, even as he felt his momentary humor fade. “Thinking we’d actually take an order like that lying down. Especially when there’s communication equipment in our vans. This mission doesn’t need central coordination here.”
Amanda nodded. “There’s just one thing. If Lee and I tell you to stay back, you have to listen to us.” She held up her hands before anyone had time to protest. “I know. I know. That’s pot, kettle, and black. But the four of us are all Jamie has. If we all end up hurt, there won’t be anyone else for him.”
“Do you really think that’s how this would end up?” asked Carrie. Her hand twitched where it lay on Joe’s shoulder.
Lee took a breath and let it out. “It’s well within possible. I’ll be honest. I’d feel better if the two of you weren’t with us.”
That brought Joe to his feet. “Not a chance.”
“I know.” He paused. “Can either of you handle a weapon?”
“A gun?” asked Joe. “Don’t you remember I managed it with the Prime Minister? I needed one for protection a couple of times in Estoccia. And yes, I’ve pulled the trigger. On a practice range, at least.”
“I can’t,” said Carrie softly. “But if it’s something I can learn quickly —”
“No,” said Amanda, and her voice wasn’t without sympathy. “But there’ll be a lot of other things needing doing. Come on. Let’s go upstairs. We’ll need to go the back way, so the security officers don’t see us.”
“Upstairs? We’re not going to the car?”
“Upstairs,” said Lee. “We need to gear up. And get some of that actual coffee.”
Lee was startled when Amanda pushed Joe into the front passenger seat, instead choosing to sit in the minivan’s second row with Carrie. He could hear their voices murmuring behind him, but they were too quiet to make out any words. When he’d asked, Amanda’s answer had been far too smooth: I haven’t ridden in the back of this new car yet. Don’t you think I should?
He’d let it drop. Beside him, Joe appeared to be trying to stare a hole into the windshield.
“Easy,” said Lee. “We’ll be there soon enough.”
Joe gave him a terse nod. When he lifted his coffee mug for a drink, there was an audible sloshing sound.
“You, ah, you might want to take it easy on that, too. We probably won’t be able to get any more.”
“No coffee makers in your panel vans?”
“Don’t I wish.”
“Mm,” was the other man’s reply.
Lee sighed. “Look, if you’ve got something to say, now’s the time to say it.”
There was a pause before Joe answered. “Why aren’t you driving like you did before, on the way over to the house? I didn’t even know you could lay down tire rubber with a minivan.”
“Evasion,” replied Lee. “We don’t want to get too close to the Agency team until it’s past the point where Billy can send us back.” He used his head to indicate the glove compartment. “Why don’t you open that up.”
Joe’s eyes narrowed, but he complied.
“Reach in and find the latch on the bottom. Feel it? Good. Press down and then pull up.”
The hidden compartment opened silently, and Joe gingerly reached in. When his hand came back out, he was holding an ankle holster and one of their backup pieces. “Is this legal?”
“We’re sworn law enforcement. There should also be an ammunition clip in there. Get that and then close the compartment and put those papers back so you can’t easily see it.”
He complied. “I take it this is one of those tweaks you were having done the day Jamie got into the fight.”
“Not then, but Amanda brought this into the Agency’s garage a couple days later.”
Joe hefted the pistol experimentally. “Why the secrecy?”
“Whole point of a clutch piece is the other guy doesn’t know you have it. You know how to load a Bobcat?”
Joe didn’t, but was able to follow Lee’s instructions for triggering the swing-up barrel. He handled the load well, keeping the muzzle pointed down at the baseboard or out the window the whole time. Lee relaxed at these indications that Joe did, in fact, know proper usage of a handgun.
“That thing won’t give you a lot of kick,” he explained, “and it’s bad for long distances. But up close, it might mean the difference between living and dying. You don’t need to tell Jamie about that compartment, by the way. Amanda knows, and there’s no more reason not to tell Carrie, but that’s enough. Which reminds me. Now that both of you know what we do for a living, it might not be a bad idea if I hooked you up with a couple of our combat instructors. Unless the IRC is already planning on teaching you self-defense, that is.”
Joe’s coffee mug rattled in one of the cup holders. “About that.”
“Now’s not the time.” The last thing either of them needed was to get into an argument right now. “Just think about it.”
“I have been, ever since I figured out you and Amanda were working together. You did an awful job of hiding that, by the way. I’m glad to see you’re more serious about your weapons.”
“‘Every gun is a loaded gun’,” quoted Lee. “All right. Looks like the Agency team’s going straight in. Maybe another forty minutes or so.”
“Where is ‘there’?”
“Bay Bridge Airport. Amanda heard sea gulls in Jamie’s and Zeta’s recordings.” He couldn’t help the faint smile that touched his lips. “That’s one of the reasons she’s so good. She notices everything.”
“But is that enough to keep her safe?” The timbre of Joe’s voice lowered. “I have a hard time believing she’s even willing to carry a gun. She hates them.”
“She’ll use them if she has to,” answered Lee. “And she’s actually not a bad shot. We’re always training, you know. If not on the range, on something else.”
“No,” said Joe shortly. “Nobody ever gave me that sort of information.”
“I wouldn’t let Amanda out here if I didn’t think she could hold her own. I’m the senior agent. All I have to do is say something to Billy and he’d put her back behind a desk until there’s a chance for a formal review.”
“She’d never forgive you.”
Lee chuckled. “Do you really think I’d tell her if I was the one who did it?” Then he sobered. “There’s no reason. She’s one of the best agents either he or I have ever seen, and we’ve both seen plenty come and go.”
“You’re not better?”
“I’m larger and stronger, better in a fight. And I’m more experienced. But that’s different from good or bad. What, did you think she was out here as window dressing or something?”
“She just…” Joe blew his breath out. “Her definition of rough-and-tumble is camping with a carload of tents and equipment.”
“That’s an asset.” He signaled his way around a tractor-trailer before glancing at the other man’s face. “Is that what’s had you worried? That she can’t handle herself in the field?”
“It’s not so much can’t handle, as it is shouldn’t have to handle.”
“It was her decision, Joe. She chose this. With her eyes wide open.”
“I know.” The other man sighed. “And I’m beginning to understand why. It’s that weird way her mind works, all those little side trips it takes, like hearing the sea gulls. That’s useful, isn’t it? And you didn’t question it, which means this wasn’t the first time something like that has happened. Is it?”
“Not even close. Which is why you ought to quit needling her about it. She’s not always as confident as she looks. Keep in mind, there’s no one at the Agency who would ever hesitate if it came to protecting her or her family. Nobody so much as touches them without us bringing down the hammer. They’re our own.”
“Does ‘family’ include Carrie and me?”
“What does that matter, if you’re not going to be around?” That came out more bitter than he’d really meant, but it was enough to push Joe back into that brooding silence. In the back, Carrie and Amanda’s voices had fallen into a cadence and rhythm, and he heard the faint rattle of beads. Praying, he realized, the same way he and Carrie had at the hospital, and which also explained why she’d climbed in the back. They finished about ten minutes before the end of the trip, and the remainder of it passed in silence.
When they got to the airport, he swung the minivan around behind one of the hangars. There were no people around, but that wasn’t unheard-of for a general aviation operation. Lee scanned the area as they got out; everything else seemed perfectly normal.
“What took you so long, Scarecrow?” Billy Melrose seemed to materialize out of thin air. “We’ve all been waiting.”
Author’s Note:
- Production of the Beretta 21A Bobcat semi-automatic pistol, which was designed for easy concealment, began in 1984 and continues today. Its “tip-up” barrel is considered a defining feature.