17.
I watch Josh check and recheck all these…gadgets…before putting them into a back pack
that’s very different from the backpack I know. He sighs and then looks up at me. I’m sitting
on the bed cross legged and studying him closely.
“What?” he smiles softly.
I shake my head silently.
“I’ve done this before.” He says, reading my mind.
“Yeah.” I say and nod unconvincingly.
“We’re going heavily armed.”
“Do you know how to shoot?”
“Yes, very well.” He stands up and walks over to the bed, eyeing me carefully. “I’m also going
with highly specialized trained CIA and FBI operatives. I’m not infiltrating a palace on my own.
This is what they do.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Yeah?”
“I guess.” I shrug.
“Mike will be here with you, along with several others. Mike is going to stay IN the same room
with you and he will protect you, Donna, until his dying breath.”
“Because I’m Brick’s woman?” I chuckle with a mirth I don’t feel.
“Because you’re his friend,” he replies seriously. “And I’m his friend.”
“Why isn’t he going then and you stay here?”
“Reiger doesn’t want Mike, he wants me. Mike has no bargaining power with him.”
“I just…” I drift off and look down at the bed. I’m being ridiculous. I KNOW I’m being ridiculous,
but I can’t help it. This is Josh. MY Josh, and he’s caught up in something
dangerous…deadly.
“You just what?”
“Nothing.” I say.
“Come on.”
I launch myself off the bed and fling myself into his arms. He’s surprised when he catches me.
“Please don’t go.” I beg quietly.
“Donna…”
“You’re right, Josh. This is what these guys do. So, let them do it. Stay here safe with me.”
“Please don’t ask me to do that, Donna.” He whispers.
“Why?” I cry pulling away.
“Because if you ask me, I will. I will stay behind with you, but if I do, this will never be over for
me or us. Reiger and his minions will always be out there and we’ll always be looking over our
shoulders and we’ll never be safe, our children will never be safe. This man has now
terrorized three generations of my family. I have to be the one to end it. It has to be me. If it’s
not me now, then it will have to be me some other day.” He says passionately.
And he’s right. This is like a blood feud between these two families and the classic fight of
good versus evil. And I’ve discovered that when Josh is on the side of good, he rarely loses
those fights.
“Okay.” I reluctantly relent.
“Thank you.” He smiles softly and his sincerity shines right through.
“I just really like what we’ve started here, Josh. I love you and I don’t want anything to happen
to you. You’re going to be off playing James Bond, and I’m going to be sitting here freaked
out and feeling helpless.”
“Well, first of all, you’ll have Mike to keep you entertained and he’s anything but boring.
Secondly, while I’m doing that, you can stay here and start to think about whether or not we
should go back to the White House.”
“Why wouldn’t we go back?” I ask in a surprised tone.
“You don’t think it’s going to be boring after this?”
“Josh, working for you is many things, but boring has never been one of them.” I drone.
“I don’t know how to take that.”
“I’m not going to tell you how to take it.”
“I’m going to assume it was a compliment.”
“Okay.”
“Just think about it. We have options.” He says.
“All right.” I nod. Interesting that he’s not really saying what those options are though. But I do
like working in the White House. I like the perks that come with it, like flying on Air Force One.
It’s demanding, but it’s also exhilarating. I’ve met Ambassadors and Foreign Heads of State. I
like that Congressmen and Senators try to swindle me and ply me with wine to get me to give
them more time with Josh on something. And I love Josh’s protectiveness when he sees that
happening. I can’t wait to see what he’s like NOW.
He steps up to me and runs his finger down my arm. “You know,” he says using his sexy
husky voice. “I have a few hours before we leave.”
“Austria brings out the randy side of you, you know.”
“No, it’s you that does that.” He smiles, leaning in and kissing my neck.
“I’m worried about getting you too worn out before you have to do something so physically
strenuous and mentally stressful like infiltrating a Nazi stronghold.” I ramble.
“Well, now this sounds promising.” He says softly against my ear as he runs a hand up my
stomach and over my breasts.
“Joshua…” I groan. It sounds like it came right from my stomach.
“I love when you say my name like that.” he says against my neck. He walks me backwards
until we tumble on the bed. “Sometimes I think I’ve been waiting for you.”
I bring my hand up to his face and smile. “It’s too bad I didn’t come along sooner.”
“If you came along any sooner, I think I definitely would have just thought you were too
young.”
“I AM like ten years younger than you, Josh.” I smirk.
“Yeah.” He says, he looks a little melancholy now. “That’s going to be a problem one day I
think.”
“But not today.” I say quickly and hug him to me. He’s getting pretty depressing right now.
Why dwell on something that’s like 40 years away?
“No, thank God.” He smiles and tickles my side and I yelp. I take the opportunity to flip us
over and he pushes my hair out of my face right before I pin him down. This is hot. I like this
kind of power right now.
The door busts open and I quickly hop off of Josh as Mike saunters in.
“Have you ever considered knocking?” Josh demands.
“You have to get going.” Mike smiles. He looks completely unapologetic.
“I have a few hours.” Josh protests.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do, too.”
“Get a watch that actually works.”
“I haven’t had an actual working watch in like 15 years, I had the other one.” Josh replies. He
sighs and pushes himself off the bed. I can feel my bottom lip quivering in fear of him leaving
and I bite it to keep Josh from noticing.
“Don’t fall asleep on the job.” Josh says to Mike, while taking my hand and looking at me. “I
don’t want to hear that you guys lost her again.”
“No Josh really, your flattery is embarrassing.” Mike deadpans.
“You got beat up by a girl, Michael.” Josh shoots back.
Mike glares at him for a beat before turning his gaze to me. “Donna, the reason why Josh’s
codename is Brick is because he swims like one.” He rambles. I arch a brow at Josh.
“I. Hate. You.” Josh growls at Mike, who looks completely unfazed. “You’ve just been waiting
for an excuse to tell her that, haven’t you?” But Mike merely shrugs with an evil glint in his
eye.
I try to stop the giggling, but I can’t. “Nice.” Josh nods at me. “I never thought you’d turn into
Judas.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss the hell out of him. “S’okay.” I whisper huskily. “You
excel at plenty of other things.”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Chapter 18
“We’ve had surveillance running on the place since you gave us the heads up.” CIA Agent
Kate Harper tells us. I will not be mentioning the presence of Kate Harper on this mission
when I tell Donna about it later. Unfortunately, one of these doofusses is bound to mention
the totally hot CIA agent working this with us. But that’s a problem for another day.
I know I played it all cool with Donna, but I hate these types of ops. Yes, I have the basic
skills, but they’re nowhere near the skills of the guys, and now women, who are covering my
back on this one. They were sharp when they started out, and they’ve done nothing but get
sharper while I’ve gathered dust. I’ll carry a weapon and shoot it if I must, but it’s really safer
for all concerned if I keep my weapons holstered.
“And?” I prompted her.
“There’s been an increase in activity over the last 6 hours.” Harper reports.
“Since Reiger contacted me.” I confirm and she nods.
“We haven’t been able to confirm his physical presence on site. Our best intelligence is that
he isn’t staying here and is making a special trip into town to see you.”
“I’m touched…really,” I drawl and earn a smile from Harper. One of the guys kicks my shin
under the table. Yeah, I am so busted.
“That call he made to you was scrambled too well to trace it in the amount of time you kept
him on the line.” Harper pauses. “I thought you Washington types could talk anybody’s ear
off.”
“Routinely; they just don’t always care to listen.” I reply and get another smile…and another
kick.
“We’re watching inbound flights and customs at the borders, but it’s more likely he’s been
holing up nearby.”
“Yeah…that’s what we figured. What’s the head count at the residence?” I ask for the hell of
it.
“14 and climbing.”
“Great. So Reiger essentially wants what I’ve got and he’s willing to get it with overwhelming
force.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jamison, Harper’s partner pipes up. “That’s why we’re advocating a preemptive
strike. We hit the house now, before the reinforcements arrive.”
“But if we hit too early, Reiger isn’t going to show.” I object.
“I think he will.” Jamison retorts. “You’ve got both the pieces and he knows it. Where’s Liesel
Reiger?”
“Still at the safe house.” Dillon answers. “We’re not bringing her in until we see Reiger up
close and personal.”
“Sadly, I’m not sure he cares about his daughter.” I point out. “I doubt she’s the bargaining
chip that you think she is.”
“You know this man better than anybody.” Jamison states. “If we take the residence, what’s
he likely to do?”
“Pick another spot.” I answer automatically. “He likes being on his own turf. If we take the
residence, it’s going to throw him off balance. But we may not want to deal with Reiger when
he’s off balance and less predictable.”
“Is it possible to take the residence without tipping him off?” Dillon asks.
“We don’t need to ‘take’ the residence.” I interrupt. “If we can infiltrate the residence without
him being aware of it, that’s all we need.”
“We’re supposed to infiltrate an unfamiliar residence that is currently swarming with over a
dozen enemy targets without tipping anyone off?” Kate asks.
“Isn’t that why they call you people spooks?” Dillon laughs at his own joke. There has always
been a rivalry between the CIA agents and the FBI agents in justice who are pursuing war
criminals. This sometimes causes tempers to flare and problems to arise. I do not want
temper tantrums or problems here. I want to get back to Donna in one piece.
“Let’s not go there.” I insist. “We’re a team here. Let’s look at the building plans and come up
with a strategy.”
<><><><><><><><><><><>
I’m watching Donna pace, a habit she’s obviously picked up from Josh, and it’s making me
dizzy.
“Would you sit down?!” I nearly shout and startle Donna. I didn’t mean to be that loud. I’m a
little frustrated staying behind on this one.
“How can you just sit there?” She asks me. “Isn’t this waiting driving you crazy? Why aren’t
they checking in? They should be checking in.”
“They will when they can.” I assure her. “Checking in with us is NOT their first priority and you
shouldn’t want it to be.”
She rolls her eyes at me but sits down at the table next to me and pops some chips in her
mouth. It’s nervous eating; I’m familiar with the condition. Long stake outs almost ALWAYS
guarantee you a weight gain.
“What are you doing?” She asks me.
“I’m working some of the other messages now that we’ve got the cipher cracked.” I report.
“Can I help?”
“Why not?” I shrug. None of this is classified because of the age of the items; they were de-
classified years ago. I pass some of the work over to her and see that she quickly gets down
to work. She’s probably very grateful for the distraction.
“Josh showed you how to de-code this type of cipher?”
“Yeah, but I’m still practicing.”
“I’ll look over everything you do.” I promise. “See what you come up with.”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“We’ve got our infiltration points.” Jamison points to three different locations on the map. “We
gain access and stay hidden until we get the coded signal on our cells.”
“Lyman, Dillon, and McNulty stay together and deal with Reiger directly when they get the
contact call.” Dillon adds. “He’s not going to expect Lyman to go in alone, but we don’t want
to tip our hand on the rest of our team.”
Everyone acknowledges understanding and agreement to the plan and the strike team
heads out. I’m operating on two different wavelengths here. On one level, I’m itching to end
this. But on another hand, I realize that a three generation struggle for my family is coming to
a close and that’s a bit overwhelming emotionally. In order to make this ending come out the
way I want it to, I have to divorce the emotional from the analytical. That’s the only way I’m
going to be able to take Reiger out. And I am going to take Reiger out if it’s the last thing I do.
“How you doing, Brick?” McNulty asks me and I shrug.
“Ready to be done with this.”
“Whether or not we get Reiger?”
I give him a look that says ‘Reiger is not getting away from me again’.
“I’m just saying that this is an old man now.” He points out.
“And?” I prompt. “His crimes diminish with age?”
“No. They couldn’t.” He shakes his head. “Sometimes, when you get to the end of a really
long, hard fought battle…the resolution doesn’t quite…feel like you think it’s going to.
Taking in a decrepit, old man might not give you the satisfaction you’re looking for. You
may have to look outside the box for your sense of finality here.”
“Are you practicing your psych degree on me now?” I smirk.
“Yeah, I am.” He admits. “This is a decades long, family feud you’re trying to settle. You might
find it a little more constructive to focus your energy going forward instead of looking back.
That’s all I’m going to say right now.”
“Thank. God.” I tease, but I take his words to heart. He knows a little something about this. I’m
still contemplating our conversation when my cell phone buzzes. I literally jump.
“Lyman.” I answer.
“Sternberg.” I hear the voice use my family name, but it’s not the voice I’ve been waiting for.
“Put Reiger on.” I insist.
“He will speak to you in person at the location I am to give you.”
“He’ll be speaking to himself. I’m not going anywhere until I speak to Reiger. Put. Him. On.”
There’s a pause before some sharp words are exchanged and the phone is passed on to the
man himself.
“You are every bit as stubborn as your grandfather, Sternberg.”
“Thank you.” I reply shortly. I will not get into a pissing match now; not when I’m so close…
“Speaking of relatives, I’ve got your daughter Liesel here. She’s lovely, really.” I drawl.
“She has nothing to do with this.” Reiger answers. “This is between men.”
“Right. Women are secondary humans; along with Jews and blacks and other members of
inferior races.” I roll my eyes even though he can’t see me. “Let’s make a deal.”
“You have the items with you?” He asks.
“Do you think I would trust them to anyone else?”
“I think like most Jews, you would not relinquish anything that could lead you to an
immeasurable fortune.” He says snidely.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure this fortune is measurable.” I point out. “And I’m also pretty sure that I can
put my hands on it without any help from you.”
“Then for what purpose are we speaking?” Reiger asks.
“My superiors are willing to trade your death sentence for this treasure of yours; not that I
can be blamed if my gun misfires in your direction.” I explain. “Bring us to the treasure, you
avoid the death penalty and your master race progeny walks free.”
“What assurances do I have that you will keep your word? You bastard Jews change your
‘deals’ whenever it suits you.”
“Luckily for you, I’m hampered by both CIA agents and FBI agents. They’ll be part of the
exchange.”
After a moment of thought, Reiger agrees to the deal and wants to meet us at the residence
we have already infiltrated. A time is set and he abruptly hangs up.
“Good job, Brick.” McNulty notes.
“Nah, he agreed too fast. He’s got another ace up his sleeve. Show me the building plans
again.” We go over it brick by brick, but I can’t see it yet, even though I know it’s there. My
phone buzzes again and I see it’s Mike. Please, no…
“Lyman.”
“Josh, we’ve got something weird going on here.” Mike reports.
“Casper, tell me weird does NOT include Donna being out of your sight at any time.”
“No, she’s right here. She’s the one who found it.”
“Found what?”
“We’ve been working on these coded messages now that we have the cipher; the ones that
we’ve accumulated over the years from Reiger’s associates?”
“Yeah?”
“We thought we were messing it up until we figured out these messages were in German.
Donna found a translation program online --”
“Of course she did.” I drawl.
“But it’s still not making sense.” Mike complains. “My pronunciation is shit and we’re not
entirely sure about where each word begins and ends so we might be off base here, but --”
“Send me the entire message, Mike.”
“Donna just did. She sent it as a text; it should pop up on your phone any second.”
“Okay, I got it. I’ll call you right back.” I clip off before I end the call to bring up the text
message. It’s one long stream of letters and it takes me a bit to break them into their
individual words and then one word stands out to me; rats. It starts a pinball volley around my
brain and my heart rate ticks up. “McNulty!”
“What?”
“How far are we from the German border?”
“About 18-20 kilometers, why?”
“Get me a copy of the land deeds and property information.”
“Brick, Reiger is going to be showing up within the hour --”
“Get me the damn papers!” I shout and he holds up both hands in surrender and gets to
work on my ‘request’.
“We’ve got the area sealed.” Kate reports. “He’s not going to be able to move within this
perimeter without our knowing it.”
I smirk. “We’ll see.”
“We know what we’re doing, Brick” She says all snotty and for a second I can hear Donna’s
voice saying those words.
“So does he.” I motion with my head to the most recent picture of Reiger that we have which
is taped above the computer station. “And he’s no novice at escapes. Luckily for me, I’ve got
Donna Moss on my team and together…” I trail off.
“This Moss is another agent?” Kate asks.
“Don’t ask.” McNulty advises and starts bringing up the documents I requested on screen.
Damn, there it is.
I flip open my phone and hit speed dial number one.
“Josh?”
“I love you.” I tell her while keeping my eyes on the screen.
“I…love you too. Are you okay?”
“More than okay. You just helped me solve this last puzzle.”
“I did?”
“The coded message; it referred to rats.”
“I know.” I swear I can hear her shudder through the phone. “That’s why I thought we did
something wrong.”
“No, my beautiful, brilliant woman, you did everything right. They were talking about rat lines.”
“And that helps us how?”
“Rat lines were how Nazi war criminals referred to a tunnel system designed to get them
safely across borders.” I explain and see my companions eyes widen. “Reiger Ayn’t coming in
by motor vehicle, people, he’s coming in through the old tunnels. That’s why he needs almost
an hour lead time, and why he feels confident meeting us here. He’s got another way in…and
out.”
“Shit.” Kate says loud enough to be picked up by my phone. “We need to go in now. Catch
him in the tunnels while he’s off guard.”
“Who’s that?” Donna asks suspiciously.
“CIA agent.” I answer shortly. “Gotta go. I’ll call with an update as soon as I can.” I hang up
even as I hear her call my name in protest. “If we don’t have to worry about blowing our cover
on the ground, let’s take the house now.”
“Agreed.” Kate nods in my direction. “Maybe if this Moss is as good as you say, we should
think about poaching her for our agency.”
“No way in hell.” I reply. “She’s all mine.” We quickly update our strike team and within
minutes, we’re inside the house and by house I mean mansion. The place is immense. The
team breaks out their high tech gear and finds a false wall that leads to a downward spiral
staircase and opens up to three different tunnels.
“Now which way?” McNulty asks.
“We break into teams.” Harper decides and turns to me. “You got a strong feeling about any
particular tunnel?”
“Which one points north to Germany?” I answer her question with a question and after
consulting her compass, points to the tunnel farthest from us. “Then that’s the one I want.”
“Lyman, McNulty and I take this one. Teams of three for each of the others. Report in every
five minutes. We are taking prisoners here, not lives.” She makes eye contact with each
person down here and once she’s satisfied that she’s heard and understood, she nods.
“Move out.”
The tunnels are actually large enough for two of us to walk through them shoulder to
shoulder with occasional openings that are even larger and split off into other tunnels. We
stick with the largest tunnel and communicate silently until Kate puts a hand up to stop our
forward progress. We can hear the sounds of other footsteps in the tunnel coming from the
other direction. My heart beat speeds up and we back up until we reach a larger opening.
The only advantage we have right now is that we know they’re coming and they think we’re
waiting for them a few hundred feet above here. The element of surprise is no small thing but
it isn’t everything.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“He said you are beautiful and brilliant and his woman.” I point out…again. “Can’t you just be
happy with that?”
“We’re going to step around the sexism inherent in that statement and move right to the fact
that this CIA agent may also be beautiful and brilliant.” Donna replies. “What’s her name?
Can we look her up on your fancy equipment here?”
“Donna, I am not wasting time and resources so you can check out someone your demented
mind thinks is competition for Josh.”
“Brilliant, demented mind.” She corrects me. “Josh is out there in a dangerous situation with
this woman. I know what adrenaline and danger does to heighten emotional responses.” I
raise my eyebrows at her. “I’ve seen movies!”
“Donna, please believe me when I tell you that Josh is head over heels in love with you. And
he fell in love with you when he was not under any heightened emotional response to
adrenaline or danger. He has been on hundreds of ops with brilliant, beautiful agents and yet
you are the one he is in love with. Can we not talk about this subject anymore, please?” I’m
not above begging at this point.
“Then what are we supposed to do now, Mike?” She asks me.
“We have the toughest job now; we wait.” I tell her and pat her shoulder sympathetically
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
19.
Harper and McNulty raise their weapons. McNulty’s got an HK G36 assault rifle, when the
shadows heading our way are nearly right on top of us, he flips the light on his HK on and it
blinds the shit out of them. Reiger’s all of six feet away from me now and he’s flanked by two
large German bodyguards.
It’s lame, I know, but at this point, I’m always disappointed they’re not actually in old World
War Two uniforms. I think it would make all this more satisfying to take them out in their wolf’s
skin. The two bodyguards raise their weapons at us. I haven’t pulled my gun yet. We still
have the upper hand. They also can’t actually see their target anyway, thanks to McNulty and
his beacon there.
“My daughter calls you the Hunter.” Reiger says.
“Soon she’s going to call me the guy that threw her ass in jail.”
“You said she would be freed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Were we actually operating on the up and up? My mistake. I’ll just leave you to
your secret tunnel then?”
“I did not think you were this smart.” He says. I hope McNulty accidentally shoots him. He can
get trigger happy. I don’t know if Harper over there knows that.
“I’m not.” I smirk. “My Shiksa girlfriend is.”
“You will never get out of here alive, Sternberg.” He says. “I did not just come here with two
people.”
“Well, I’d like to say ‘great minds think alike,’ but since you’re deranged and feeble, I’ll just
say I didn’t come here with just two people either, and I promise you, my friends are better
armed than yours.”
“Beenden.” Reiger says. Thank God McNulty is just as fluent in German as I am because as
soon as ‘Finish it’ is out of Reiger’s mouth, McNulty fires and Harper fires on his shot. The
two bodyguards go down. The sudden loud noise causes part of the tunnel ceiling to come
down. It didn’t completely cave in or anything, but it caused enough dust that I took my eyes
off of Reiger. When he comes into view again, he’s pulling something away from his mouth.
“FUCK!” I yell and dive on him.
“Brick!” McNulty calls a little confused by my sudden attack of an old man.
“It’s a fucking suicide pill!” I shout as McNulty and Harper rush forward to where I’m at Reiger’
s side on the ground, who’s already showing imminent signs of death. “Do something!” I
order McNulty.
“What the hell do you want me to do?”
“Reverse it.”
“Cyanide?” he asks incredulously picking up a small vile. “I can’t reverse Cyanide, Brick.”
“NO!” I shout. “GOD DAMMIT!” I punch the side of the tunnel as hard as I possibly can. I
scream outraged again, and also in a little bit of pain because I think I just broke my hand.
Three fucking generations of my family…the guy takes a fucking suicide pill.
“He’s dead.” Harper says as she takes her hand away from his pulse point.
“Whoopdie fucking do!” I snap. McNulty arches a brow at me. “I don’t want to fucking hear it!”
I bark.
“Team 1 copy?” comes a soft voice through Harper’s radio on her shoulder.
“Go.”
“We heard gunshots.”
“Target’s neutralized.” She confirms. “We’re all clear.”
“We think you need to see this.” Comes the voice.
The three of us turn and leave the bodies there. We’re not on clean up duty after all and jog
the tunnels in the opposite direction back the way we came.
“Where are you?” Harper radios.
“Tough to say. We took a lot of turns. Head east.”
“I’d kill for GPS.” McNulty mutters.
“Wouldn’t work this far below the surface.” I reply. But then I think of Dillon and radio him.
“Dillon, which way?”
“Hang your next left.” He radios back. He’s following our heat sensors above in our command
van.
I smirk over at McNulty, who shakes his head and smiles. “Now, that’s my idea of help from
above.”
“Mine’s a sniper in the tower.” He shoots back.
“Or that, too.”
“So, this Moss…” Harper says as we move as quickly as possible through the tunnels. “She’s
not an agent.”
“No. She’s my girlfriend.” I confirm.
“Is it serious?” Harper asks and McNulty chokes on his laugh. “That’s a yes.” Harper
concludes.
“Yes.” I nod.
“It’s too bad.” She shrugs. “You’re not without your charm.”
“McNulty here’s got charm.” I say nodding my head over to McNulty. “He’s got a way with the
ladies, they love him.”
“I don’t date FBI pukes.” She says a little distastefully. “They’ve got way too much baggage.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t date CIA snobs.” McNulty shoots back.
“All right, children. Let’s remember we’re running around blind underground in Austria,
please.” I say jumping in to referee.
“Hang your next right.” Dillon pops in in my ear.
“Team three copy?” Harper says as we make a turn.
“Go.”
“Are you still moving?”
“Negative. We’re stationary.”
“They’re about 50 yards ahead of you now.” Dillon says and we pick up our pace to a light
jog, which is making me pretty winded. Donna’s gonna kill me. I promised her I wouldn’t over
exert myself.
We come upon the other group and they’re all standing there in front of a wall. “What’s going
on?” I ask.
“We’ve hit a wall.” One quips. Funny.
“Why do you need us?” McNulty asks.
“It’s booby trapped.” Jamison says.
“I’ll be damned….” I say quietly and move to the wall, shining my small flashlight along the
sides. I run my hand over the jasper covered wall, then move my radio mic closer to my
mouth. “Dillon, hand the radio off to someone else and come on down with your bag of tricks.”
“I get to blow something up?” he replies.
“That’s a big 10-4.” I say.
“I’m supersonic.” Dillon cuts off.
I shine my flashlight around the wall and note the various explosives there, then shine it
along the walls. I stop when I hit the ceiling.
“Look at that.” I nudge McNulty.
“A trap door.” He notes.
“It probably goes to a well.” I nod. “There’s a lake on the grounds, isn’t there?”
“Yeah.” McNulty nods. “Dillon should probably stay away from the ceiling.”
“Yeah, I’m not interested in going for a swim with all this electrical shit strapped to me.” I nod.
“What are you two talking about?” Jamison demands.
“Welcome to the mission, did you do your homework?” McNulty quips. “Behind door number
one here is Reiger’s treasure.”
Before long, Dillon comes jogging up and everyone steps out of his way. Dillon’s top notch.
This guy makes McGyver look like a girl. In fact, I’m not a hundred percent sure that show
wasn’t loosely based off of Dillon.
He sets a bright light up that illuminates the whole door and steps back to study it, then he
looks up. “Ah.” He says.
“Yup.” I confirm.
“Well, I’ll want to stay away from that.”
“That would be much appreciated.” I say.
“Seeing as how you can’t swim for shit…” Dillon mutters and opens his bag.
“We’ll just keep that on the QT, thanks.” I reply, rolling my eyes.
“I’m just saying, when the rush of water comes, there’s gold, jewels, priceless works of art,
17th century weaponry behind this door, and if it’s saving your ass or that stuff…” he jokes.
“Hey, you’re the one that’s got to explain that to Donna on the other side.” I shoot back.
“She’ll be upset, that’s true.” He nods as he gets to work.
“She’ll need someone to comfort her for sure…” McNulty joins in.
“A strong shoulder to cry on…” Dillon replies.
“Someone who was there and is just a bit traumatized and emotional about seeing Josh
drown…”
All right, I’ve had about enough of these two. “Just blow the fucking door!”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“Concealed entrances with booby traps!?”
“Donna, just get off the computer.” Mike says frustrated. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell
you everything you need to know.”
“You will not, Michael. You’ll censor.” I bite back. “Booby traps, like, you know, bombs?”
“Explosives, sure.” He says. “But, Donna, you’re talking about stuff that’s 70, 80 years old.
Doesn’t mean it’s going to work.”
I turn to him and give him my ‘Josh, how stupid am I’ glare. His eyes widen a bit. Looks like it
works just as well on him.
Mike’s cell phone rings and I jump up and run over to him. “Yeah.” He says pressing it to his
ear.
“Is it Josh?” I ask frantically. “Is he okay? Is it over? Is Reiger dead?”
“I have a PHONE in my ear.” Mike says to me.
“I should shut up now?” I ask backing away.
“Please.” He smiles.
He listens to the person on the other end, thanks them and snaps his phone off.
“Reiger’s dead. Everyone down in the tunnels is all right. We’re still awaiting word on the
guys above ground.”
“So Josh is all right?” I ask holding my breath.
“Right now, yes.” He nods and I let my breath out.
“What’s the ‘but’ part?”
“They think they found the treasure.” He says.
“Booby traps?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And the hits just keep on coming.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Chapter 20
“Toby --”
“Leo, we can’t just let these things ride anymore!” I explode.
“We don’t have much of a choice.” Leo says quietly.
“If Josh isn’t coming back, we need to start considering a replacement.”
“Who said he isn’t coming back?” Leo asks.
“Please.”
“I swear, Toby, I haven’t heard that he’s made a decision either way.”
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?” I ask.
“I don’t know! Am I supposed to write these things down for you?” Leo grouses, but I know it’s
meant as a distraction.
“Let’s call him and ask him them.” I suggest and see Leo’s hand freeze in the process of
picking up a file on the desk. It’s just a small hesitation but since I’m watching for it, I pick it up
easily. “He’s still with his Mom in Florida, right?” I take out my cell phone in the ultimate bluff.
“Toby…don’t.” Leo says softly.
“Where is he really, Leo?” I ask point blank. “I know he wasn’t in Florida the last time I got in
touch with him.”
“Toby…” Leo sits down heavily in his office chair and then looks up at me with hooded eyes.
“Toby, I’m telling you to drop this…for everyone’s safety.”
“This has something to do with Reiger?”
Leo visibly pales. “Damn it, Toby, what are you up to?”
“I saw the name in Josh’s office, I looked into it.” I reply.
“Damn it, stop! Stop right now and never mention it again, do you understand me?!” Leo
shouts.
“Yeah…”
“I mean it, Toby. You’ll be opening Pandora’s Box.”
“I got it.” I assure him. “He’s…okay though?”
“Last I heard, yes.” Leo admits.
“We need him here.”
“I know. He needs to…finish something first.” Leo tells me.
“You’ll let me know when he’s…available again?”
“Yes.” Leo agrees and nods toward the door, dismissing me. I sure as hell hope he hears
something soon.
<><><><><><><><>
“Damn it, Dillon, can you open the things or not?” All my frustration over letting Reiger slip
through my fingers by letting him take the easy way out comes out at Dillon. Not that he’s on
the run anymore, but still.
“It’s not as easy I as I make it look, Brick, and unless you’d like to practice your backstroke…”
Dillon trails off as he concentrates on the work before him. I know it’s complicated and time
consuming, but patience, in case you haven’t noticed, isn’t exactly my strong suit.
“Right. Take your time…” I manage and pace the length of the tunnel to where it takes a
sharp right turn. I get around the corner and blow out a deep breath.
“You okay?” Harper asks and I nod distractedly. “Not exactly the ending you’d pictured on
this investigation?”
“Not even close.” I admit and it’s her turn to nod.
“You took him out.”
“He took himself out.” I correct her.
“You put him in the position where he thought that was his only option; same thing.” She
concludes. “He’s not running around spending money he stole from the prisoners he
tortured….That Ayn’t nothing, Josh.”
“Maybe.” I agree but mostly to get her to leave me alone.
“Brick!” McNulty calls me from around the corner and Harper and I jog back to where Dillon is
working.
“What is it?”
“I’m running into some trouble here.” Dillon announces.
“What kind of trouble?”
“The kind where if I’m wrong or accidentally set something off while I’m working, we’re all
dead.” Dillon explains.
“I hate that kind.” I mutter.
“I’ve never seen a layout like this before.” Dillon continues and points to several items while I
pretend I understand the problem.
“You’re losing me here, Dillon.” I confess.
“There’s a switch missing.” Kate Harper offers.
“Exactly!” Dillon beams like his prized pupil just got the Nobel prize.
“How hard can it be to disarm this sucker when it’s got to be incredibly old?” I ask.
“Without the missing piece, incredibly hard.” Dillon tells me. “You’d be risking your life to try.”
“A missing piece!” It hits me like a ton of, well, bricks. “You’re brilliant, Dillon, I don’t care what
McNulty says.”
“I am?” He asks.
I nod and smile while I use the radio to call up to our comrades. “Patch me through to
Casper, will you?” I wait a minute before I hear Mike’s voice on the line.
“What have you got for me?” He asks.
“It’s what you have for me. Or rather what Donna has for me.” I correct myself. “I need the
item Donna is holding for me. I need it down here in the tunnel. So get it from her and bring it
down here, okay?”
“Right. I’ll just get it from her and do that.” Mike says sarcastically.
“It’s one little thing, Michael. We’re waiting.” I hear the line click as it’s disconnected.
It seems like hours, but it’s really just about 30 minutes, before there’s a commotion and a
new group appears at the turn of the tunnel. I’m more than a little dismayed to catch a
glimpse of a blond ponytail in the middle of the group. Jesus, Mike, you couldn’t keep her at
the safe house?
“Don’t start.” Mike preemptively cuts me off. “Like you could have done any better.”
I’m slightly mollified when Donna throws her arms around me and kisses me, but it only
distracts me for a moment. “You promised to stay at the safe house.”
“I promised to stay with Mike at the safe house. Mike is now here, so I’m here, too.”
“It’s dangerous here.” I point out.
“Mike checked with the team. They said it was clear here.” She reports.
I give a scathing look to the rest of my team who are now studiously avoiding my eyes by
looking at anything and anyone but me. “Uh-huh. Tell me you at least brought the thing.”
She produces the items that I requested; the one from my father and the one from Liesel. I
turn to move closer to the device as Dillon and Donna move to follow me. I turn back abruptly
and give her a scathing look intended to get her to back up.
“Like anything that could hurt me up there isn’t going to be able to hurt me from ten feet
further back?” She asks.
“Good point. Somebody get her out of here, please.” I request. I even said please. I mention
this because despite my good manners, nobody steps up to follow orders. “Will somebody
please escort my fiancé out of this hell hole?” I ask again.
“fiancé?” Donna squeaks.
“We’ll talk about it later.” I assure her. “Now please get out of here until we work this out.”
“And leave my fiancé alone down here? No way.” She shakes her head determinedly. See
how she did that? She just turned my distraction technique right back on me. At any other
time, I’d admire her style but right now…
“Donna, please --”
“Get on with it already.” Harper shouts. “Donna will stick with me.”
Shit. The women have joined forces. The Sisterhood lives, even here. “You’ll both have to
stand back.” I say authoritatively.
“Come on, Donna, let’s stand back and fan ourselves while the big, bad, brave, boys protect
us.” Kate drawls and Donna snickers. Yeah, that’s gonna be trouble.
I turn back to Dillon and hand him the pieces. He manipulates them for a minute and then I
can see the light bulb go in. “Fucking incredible.” He carefully places the items, now joined
together, into the spot where he and Kate said a piece was missing. He slowly turns them
until something clicks and we all hold our breath. I hear a hissing sound.
“That doesn’t sound good.” I whisper to Dillon, but he’s watching the device still and doesn’t
answer me.
“No, check it out. The device triggered something beyond this wall and it looks like…” He
trails off again and have I mentioned how annoying that is? Then I see the smoke.
“Everybody clear out!” I order.
“No, wait!” Dillon counters. “It’s good smoke.”
“Good smoke?” I repeat.
“Check it out! The device has released something from the other side of the door that’s
melting the trigger wires. It’s amazing!” Dillon is in love. The whole team moves closer to
watch. When the smoke dissipates, Dillon uses a series of mirrors to check connections.
“Now what?”
Dillon makes eye contact with me and his mouth forms into a sly smile. “Now we open the
door.”
“Seriously? It’s that simple?”
“Yeah…or else I’m wrong and we’re all about to die.” Dillon shrugs.
Damn smart ass. I reach my hand out to push the door open.
“Josh, wait!” Donna calls out. “Can’t you push it open with a stick or something and stand
back a ways?”
I look over at Dillon, who’s smirking. “It’s fine.” I assure her with a confidence I am mostly
faking. I do take another step back though as I push hard with my right hand. The sucker is
damn heavy so I have to lean back in and push with both arms. Then I motion to Dillon and
McNulty who add their weight; nothing. What the hell?
“Wait!” Donna calls out and approaches us.
“If the three of us can’t push the door open, there’s no way you can.” I explain.
She just ignores me and reaches a hand out to the device giving it a slow, cautious turn until
another click sounds and the door pops open like a jack-in-the-box.
“Men are always trying to use brawn when brains are what is called for.” Donna tells Kate, as
Harper sticks her tongue in her cheek. “After you, Joshua.”
I kiss her quickly on the lips and take her hand in mine. “No, this one we do together.” We
push the door open further and walk across the threshold together. I turn on my high beam
light and flash it around but all I see is more tunnel. We take a few steps inside when I hear
Donna gasp.
“What?” I turn to her in alarm and see her pointing her light in a different direction. I move
mine to follow hers and then it’s my turn to gasp. There are piles and piles of treasure. I can
see chests, boxes, and bags, some of them broken, overflowing with coins, jewelry and items
made from lots of shiny, expensive material; like silver and gold. Holy shit.
“Joshua…” She moans. “Look what they stole…” I can hear her heart breaking in her tone of
voice.
“We’ll see about getting it back where it belongs, Donna, I promise.”
The rest of our team has followed us inside.
“Holy shit, Lyman.” Mike seems to need a thesaurus.
“Yeah…” I agree. “Holy shit.”
Harper is already perusing through a pile of what looks like books.
“What have you got over there?” I ask her and it’s the first time I see her at a loss for words.
“They’re…records…ledgers…” Then she looks up at me with sadness etched on her face.
“Records from the concentration camps…experiments and…death records.”
I nod solemnly and Donna puts her arm around my waist. “We’re going to need lots of help
cataloguing all of this. Have you got people you trust to go through this?” I ask Harper and
she nods without looking back at me. “I’ll start making calls.”
“Hey! There are plans over here!” McNulty calls out. “Plans for the design of the death
camps.”
“God…” Dillon begins. “I mean, you know they had to have plans but looking at them…
Seeing how someone sat down and at their leisure put together plans for killing a whole race
of people. I feel sick.”
“There’s a lot of that going around.” I tell him and Donna gives my hand a squeeze. “Looks
like we could use someone with excellent organizing and documenting skills. Feel up to a
challenge?”
“If you’re here with me.” She replies.
“Deal.” I agree and kiss her again. I need something pure and true in this testament to evil
surrounding us. The next few days are going to be tough, but with Donna beside me, I truly
believe I can get through it.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
21.
I walk into the tunnel just in time to see Donna take off in the opposite direction. She throws
herself over a large garbage can and throws up violently into it.
What the hell?
I pull a bottle of water off of a table and walk over to her. This whole area is like some kind of
archeological excavation now. A certain amount of this tunnel has been afforded for space
for the CIA, FBI and Operation Last Chance teams to work, but beyond us, that part of the
tunnel has been sealed.
There are bright lights now set up all over. In one area some chairs, tables, bottles of water
and food, and a couple of computers have been set up for appraisers to work.
Donna’s been here tirelessly working with anyone who needs help. I’ve been trying to be
here as long as she’ll let me, but as she points out, I was shot not too long ago, and followed
that up with ‘physically and emotionally draining globetrotting and spy work,’ so she limits how
long she’ll let me be here before shooing me off for rest.
I won’t admit it to her, mainly because I don’t want the others to think I’m a wimp, but I’m
feeling a lot better now because of it. I feel stronger.
I hand her the water bottle and she rinses her mouth out, then grabs onto me and cries into
my shoulder. I rub her shoulder with my good hand, because as it turns out, I did break my
hand. Donna didn’t take that well.
“What’s wrong?” I ask softly, stroking her hair.
“Sorry.” She says and looks up at me. “It’s just some of this stuff is really hard to look at. I
was cataloguing the plans…”
“Ah.” I say. “I keep forgetting I’ve been at this longer than you.”
“How does it not get to you?”
“Oh, it gets to me.” I assure. “It gets to me so much, I’ve been chasing these bastards for 20
years, Donna.”
“Are they going to be able to give all this stuff back?”
“Most of it.” I nod. “Some of it will go into a conservatorship until it’s either claimed or
eventually donated to museums. People have filed insurance claims over the years. But for
some of it, the families that owned it were entirely destroyed and it will never be claimed.”
“60 years later…” she sighs, looking around and shaking her head.
“Yeah.” I say and hug her tightly.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“So, this is weird.” Sam says coming into my office.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“I just tried to go up to the Residence to speak with the President, and the secret service
wouldn’t let me.”
“The secret service wouldn’t let you?” I ask incredulously, putting down my pad.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure you got that right?” I reply.
“They told me no one but the First Family and Leo McGarry is permitted in the Residence
until further notice.”
What the hell is going on?
I look at Sam for a minute and then stand up from my desk and head out of my office. “Come
with me.” I say and he falls into step with me.
“Where are we going?”
“Leo’s.”
We walk through Communications and into Operations, and past Josh’s locked office and
Donna’s empty desk. I’ve never been more sure than I am now that they’re heavily involved in
all this somehow.
We enter Leo’s office and he’s sitting on the couch reading through a very large binder.
“What’s going on?” He asks, taking off his glasses.
“Sam was just denied access to the Residence.” I say.
“I know.” Leo nods. “The secret service told me. Talk to Mrs. Landingham and she’ll schedule
you some time, Sam.”
“Why can’t he go to the Residence?” I prod.
“There was an assassination attempt on the President, remember?” Leo shoots back. “There
are security measures in place.”
“Presidents have been shot at before.”
“Not this one.”
“Leo…”
“Toby, I swear to God, I’ve about had it with this crap!” He’s about to lay into me more, but
Margaret buzzes in.
“Leo, Josh is on the line.”
Well, this should be good.
Leo stands up, walks to his desk and picks up the receiver. Damn, I was hoping he’d put it on
speaker phone. “Josh, how’s Florida? Really! That’s amazing! Congratulations.”
Congratulations? What would Leo be congratulating him on? “I haven’t heard from Donna in
a while, have you? Yeah? Is she doing okay? How’d you break your hand? Oh. Well, that
obviously wasn’t very smart. How’s your mom? Yes, Toby and Sam are here too, would you
like to speak with them? I’ll put you on speaker.”
Leo punches a button and Josh’s voice fills the office. “Good job on the mid-terms, guys.” He
says.
“The house stayed the same.” Sam replies.
“Yeah, well…it could have gone a lot worse.” Josh replies.
“How’s Florida?”
“Outstanding.” He immediately replies.
“Really? Even with that bad weather? It’s been raining pretty much non-stop since you got
there.” Leo gives me an unamused look. I can’t help it. It’s in my nature. This stuff is literally
programmed into my DNA.
“No, the rain sucks. But it’s been ages since I spent any real time with my mother.” Josh
replies.
“When do you think you’ll be back?” Sam asks, sitting down. Good job, Sam. I can’t get in
trouble for that.
“I’ll be back in Washington in about two weeks.”
“Have you heard from Donna?” Sam continues.
“Yeah, she’s great.” Josh replies. “She’s coming back when I am.”
“When are you coming back to work?” I ask. What? It’s the natural flow of the conversation!
Pause.
See?
“We’ll talk about that when you get back to Washington, Josh.” Leo jumps in and saves him. I
keep forgetting about their history and that’s something I should never forget.
“Will do.” Josh says.
“Take care, Buddy.” Sam says.
“You too, Sam.”
“We’ll see you soon, Josh.” I say.
“Auf Wiedersehen, Toby.” Josh says and disconnects. Leo rolls his eyes. Sam looks
perplexed by Josh odd choice of closing, but shakes it off.
“Well, that’s good news.” Leo says. He obviously got a lot more out of that conversation than
I did. But I did get more than I had before…
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“I thought you didn’t want Toby to know.” Donna says as soon as I disconnect the call in our
room.
“Well, I don’t. And I don’t think he’s allowed to know, but he’s been bugging the shit out of
Leo. I thought maybe I could give him enough to figure it out on his own. Toby never really
needs confirmation of anything.”
“Leo’s not going to be very happy with you for that.” Donna says sternly.
“Probably not.” Josh shrugs.
“How’s your hand feeling today?” she asks as I slide across the bed where she’s sitting cross
legged with my laptop open in front of her.
“Throbs a little.” I shrug.
“Well, maybe that will teach you not to punch concrete walls.” She replies. Geez! She’s really
on my case today!
“Probably not.” I reply. “What are you doing?”
“Looking at things to do in Paris.” She smiles sidelong at me. “Though it doesn’t sound like
we’ll be able to squeeze it in now.”
“Why not?”
“You told the White House we’d be back there in two weeks.” She looks very disappointed.
“Well, maybe it’ll be two weeks and a few days then.” I say.
“Really?” she smiles perking up again.
“Did I or did I not promise you Paris or Hawaii?” I push myself up on my good hand and kiss
her neck.
“You did!”
“And you seem to have picked Paris.”
“I figured since we were already over here, it would be easier. I could always bug you to take
me to Hawaii during re-election.” She pokes me in the ribs, but tips her head back so I can
kiss along her collarbone.
I slide the computer out of the way and she eases back into the pillows. “I take it we’re going
back to the White House then?”
“Do you not want to?”
“I want to be wherever you are, Donnatella.” I say. “I like my job, I do. But not as much as I
love you, and if you would feel better being far away from there, I’ll do that.”
“Well, how likely is it that your past will come back again?”
“I’m not going to go looking for it anymore, Donna. I promise you that.” I look right into her
eyes so she knows I mean it. Donna can always see through me when I’m lying. “It’s unlikely
that anyone else would come looking for me. After Jacobs’ arrest, the FBI is doing an internal
investigation and anyone working for Reiger no longer has the funding to come after me. I
can’t say I’m 100 percent positive it never will, but it won’t be because I went to look for it.”
She nods and then looks down between us.
“Donna, if you’re scared about being around me…”
She snaps her eyes back up to mine and… uh oh…I’m in trouble. She shoves me and sits
up. “Joshua Lyman, you idiot!”
“I’m sorry!” I say quickly and wrap my arms around her and bring her back into the pillows.
“Don’t try and charm me!” she snaps, half-heartedly trying to pull away.
“I’m not.” I say lowering my voice to my husky voice that I know makes her nuts.
“Stop trying to give me outs, Joshua.” She orders, but she lets me ease her back down to our
previous spot.
“Kay.”
“I’m serious.”
“They might not let me back in, you know.”
“Leo hasn’t said anything about that.”
“Leo’s not in charge of the Secret Service, Donna. The President was shot during an
attempt on my life.”
“But once the Secret Service talks to Justice…” she starts and trails off. One look at my face
though tells her that may not be the case. “They’ll hash it out, right? Reiger’s dead; Liesel’s
in jail.”
I shrug. “I guess we’ll see.”
She looks at me for a long moment before she speaks. “Well, if they do let you go back, I’d
like to go back, Josh.”
I smile lightly at her. “Good.”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
22.
“Sarah? There’s someone here to see you. Two someones actually.” President Bartlet
announces and Mom shoots to her feet in time to see Donna and I come through the door.
“Joshua!” I run into my mother’s arms and we hold on to each other long enough to assure
ourselves, and be assured, that each of us is fine. Donna’s watching us with a tremulous
smile on her lips. We both spoke to Mom after we’d first discovered the treasure (and
eliminated Reiger) and again a week later when we were touring Paris; that was an amazing
week. But Donna and I both knew from personal experience that hearing the voice wasn’t the
same as seeing the face and holding the body of someone you love.
“How’s life at the White House?” I tease.
“I could get used to it. Maybe you should think about running for office.” Mom teases back.
“I’ll keep it in mind if I need to come up with an alternative career.” I promise. Donna and I just
arrived and I haven’t seen Leo or Ron Butterfield yet. My professional fate appears very
much in limbo here. I wasn’t sure they’d let us in the building.
“Donna, honey, are you okay?” Mom holds out an arm to invite her into our family circle. She
joins us without hesitation. “You’ve had quite the adventure.”
“That may be understating things a bit.” Donna replies. “But these last few days in Paris have
had a restorative effect.”
“I’ll bet.” President Bartlet remarks. “Josh, take your time with your family, but come see me
and Leo when you’re done.” He orders gently. I like the fact that he refers to both these
women as my family.
“Yes, sir, thanks.” We end up sitting on the couch all together with Mom in between Donna
and I.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you both.” Mom shakes her head and squeezes our
hands. Then she gets a puzzled look and looks down at Donna’s hand. “Hmmmm…. is there
something you forgot to tell me on the phone from Paris, Joshua?”
“I did not forget. We just wanted to tell you in person.” I smirk over at Donna because I told
her this would be the outcome of ‘waiting’ to tell my mother. “I asked Donna to marry me while
she was drunk on French Champagne and slipped a ring on her finger before she sobered
up enough to reconsider.”
Mom slaps my shoulder. “Donna, I’d say ‘congratulations’ but I’m not sure that ‘condolences’
wouldn’t be more appropriate.”
“Mom!” I protest mildly.
“I know what I’m getting into, Sarah.” Donna says with a sweet smile for me.
“I’m sure you do.” Sarah agrees and kisses her on the cheek. “Welcome to the family.”
“Thanks.” Donna replies. “I’m just going to go freshen up a minute before we have to go
downstairs to discuss our career options.” She excuses herself to give me a few minutes
alone with Mom. I send her a smile of gratitude.
“You’re done with this business now, right Joshua?” Mom asks immediately.
“Completely done.” I promise her.
“Even if Michael calls with another hot lead on someone?” She presses.
“I’ve already told him I’m retired. I think he’s ready to be done too.” I assure her. “We did a lot
of good, Mom. We captured a lot of the monsters responsible for the holocaust and we were
able to return family items to thousands of people; even more once they finish cataloguing all
the items from Reiger’s storehouse.”
“I know.” Mom closes her eyes. “But it wasn’t without a tremendous personal cost either. If
things hadn’t turned out the way they did with Donna…”
“Please, don’t even think that.” I shake that alternate ending off. Donna is safe and sound in
the building and even wearing the ring I bought her in Paris.
“I just mean that you have others to consider now.”
“I know that, but I had others to consider before too.” I remind her. “I had to finish what Dad
and his Dad started. I had to.”
“I wish I could say I don’t understand you, but I was married too long to your father to claim
ignorance.” Mom admits. “Now you’ve closed that book.”
“Yes, both literally and figuratively.” I assure her. “After I finish this one last thing.” I get up
and grab the flight bag I brought with me. “I have a couple things for you.”
“Presents from Paris?” Mom’s eyes light up.
I smirk. “You get those too, but Donna has them in her bag and she wants to give them to
you. This is…family business.” I explain. “We were able to acquire some things from the
recovery operation in Austria. A lot of it is untraceable, but some of the items had
identification markings and are being returned to the families that the items were stolen from.”
“Josh?” Mom says my name tentatively and I nod. She starts crying before I can even give
the items to her.
“The wedding rings belonged to Grandpa and Grandma. Remember how he always said he
regretted not having them before he died?” I unwrap the simple bands of gold inscribed with
the names of Yosef Liam Sternberg and Ariella Sternberg.
”Oh Joshua…” Mom holds them in her closed palm and hugs me tightly.
“There’s one other thing.” I unwrap it from the bubble wrap Donna had carefully wrapped it in
and hand Mom the Menorah that was recovered; also engraved with our family name. Mom
looks up and covers her mouth with her hand.
“After all these years…” Mom keeps shaking her head in disbelief. “Your father would be so
proud of you, Joshua. Not just for this, but for the man you’ve become.”
Now I’m crying too. “That’s because of you too, Mom.” She nods a little but her eyes are all
about inspecting every detail of the Menorah.
“I’ll be very honored to hold these in trust for the family, but I think you should consider using
the rings when you and Donna marry. Take something from the past into the future.”
“I’ll talk to her about it.” I promise, moved by the very thought and knowing Donna would feel
the same.
Mom chuckles. “You’ve already learned to consult Donna before making decisions that affect
both you? Finally, proof of that brilliant brain I’ve been hearing about.” She kisses my cheek
to take the sting from her teasing.
“You know, if I had a self confidence problem, that’s the kind of thing that could mess a guy
up for life.”
“Self confidence was never an issue for you.” She rolls her eyes. “If anything you had too
much and never realized when you were attempting the impossible; maybe that’s why you
achieved it so often.” Her gaze traveled around the beautiful White House sitting room. “I
mean, look where we’re sitting; look what I’m holding all because of you.”
“I love you, Mom.” I tell her even though I know she knows it already.
“And I love you, Joshua, with all my heart. I pray that now our family can enjoy that love in
peace.” That sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
“I’d better get downstairs and you’d better get your things packed.” I advise her.
“We’re going to your apartment?”
“Uh….it needs a little clean up work right now.” I shrug off the damage Reiger’s people did
when they ransacked it. Nothing there was priceless to me and as long as Mom and Donna
are safe…well, the rest can be replaced and cleaned up. The anti-semitic slurs they painted
on the wall need to be painted over though, and I’m not taking Donna or Mom back there
until it’s fit for habitation again. Mike assured me he was on it and I trust him. “In the
meantime, we’re going to be staying at a posh DC hotel. You’re going to be completely
spoiled for Connecticut after this.”
“I’ll take my chances…besides, Florida is looking better and better to me.” Mom admits and
gets up to pack.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“You started without me?” I say lightly, although I’m feeling anything but calm about them
starting this conversation without me. Donna is sitting by herself on one of the couches in the
Oval with Ron and Leo sitting opposite her and the President in an armchair between them. I
join Donna and take her hand.
“Just some small talk.” President Bartlet assure me. “A proposal in Paris? I didn’t know you
had it in you, Josh.”
“Donna inspires me, sir.” I tell him with a smirk.
“In more ways than one.” He agrees and motions to the papers in his hand. “I’ve been
catching up on your reports from Europe. You two make a formidable team.”
“We had a lot of help, sir.” Donna adds. “From incredibly well trained teams of the FBI and
the CIA; not to mention the assistance from Operation Last Chance.”
“I guess what I’m asking is if you think you’re done with this business, Josh.” President Bartlet
asks point blank.
“I am well and truly done, Mr. President.” I assure him. “This was the last thread I needed to
tie up for my family.”
“We’re asking Josh, because--” Ron began.
“I know why you’re asking, Ron.” I interrupt him. “Let’s cut to the chase. Do I still have a job
here?”
“Josh…” Donna groans. I know she was hoping for something more…diplomatic, but this is
still me after all. She should have known better. Leo’s smirking now.
“Agent Harper is thinking you and Donna should come work for her.” He tells me.
“I don’t think that I’m cut out for that kind of life.” Donna states. “But it’s a very nice
compliment.”
I just keep eye contact with Leo. Finally he speaks. “If any of this gets started up again--”
“It won’t.” I interrupt again.
“-you’ll be involuntarily separated.” He finished without batting an eye. “It’s too big a security
risk for the President and everyone else around you.” He tells me sending a significant look
at Donna. I nod in understanding.
“I’m done, sir.” I address my comment to the President. “I’d like to continue my work here; we
both would. But I’ll understand if you think that’s a bad idea.”
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, Josh. I think I’m going to need someone brilliant to help
me accomplish all the things we want to accomplish this term.” He answers. “Do you know
anyone who fits that description, Donnatella?”
“Well…there’s Agent Harper…Agent Dillon seemed to have a pretty sharp mind….this whole
thing would have never been resolved without Mike Casper’s hard work and then there’s--”
She stops abruptly when she sees my expression.
“I was speaking of someone who is brilliant about politics, Donna.” The President gently
chides her.
“Oh. Well, then there’s really just Josh.” She smiles up at me and I reward her with a kiss. We
both turn to look at the President, who nods at Ron.
“Okay, then. The first order of business is to wipe both your names from these reports. Agent
Casper and his crew, as well as Operation Last Chance, will get credit for the arrests and the
recovery.”
“That’s not right.” Donna objects. “I don’t care about my name in there, but Josh has spent
most of his life trying to capture--”
“Yes, and you and I know the truth. My mother, father, and grandfather know it too. That’s all
I need. Plus, it’s going to go a long way in keeping us safe from any repercussions from all
this. So we’re going to cooperate in any way Ron wants us to.” I tell her.
“Got it.” Donna agrees immediately and I’m startled by her acquiescence. Damn, I didn’t know
I had that kind of power.
“Anything else, Ron?” Leo asks.
“We think, under the circumstances, keeping a lower profile for a few months wouldn’t be
remiss.” Ron added.
“That should be easy enough. Josh is still recovering from a gunshot wound. That alone
should enable us to keep him under the radar.” Leo decides. “When are you two thinking of
starting back?”
“Monday?” I suggest.
“Monday.” The President agrees and stands up in dismissal. Donna and I follow suit, as does
Leo and Ron. “Listen…I won’t be able to mention it out loud again, so I want to take this time
to tell you what an incredible job you’ve done with all this, Joshua. It’s no small feat, and while
we can never bring back the lives that were lost or undo the atrocities that were committed,
you’ve brought justice on a great many of the individuals responsible for much of the death
and destruction. I’m very proud of you, Josh.”
That choked me up and Donna has to squeeze my hand to get me to answer. “Thank you,
sir.” I really can’t get out any other words and I have to look down at my shoes to keep the
tears in my eyes from spilling over.
“We’ll see you first thing Monday morning, Mr. President.” Donna fills in the silence and tugs
on my hand. We leave the Oval through the portico and I pause there a minute to pull myself
together.
“It’s okay, Josh. It’s been a pretty emotional day.” Donna rubs my back with her hand.
I chuckle at her understatement. “Mom wants to give us the wedding bands.”
“I’d be honored to wear them.” She tells me quietly. “It will be like having your grandparents
with us.”
That does it and the tears I’d been battling back, spill over my face. Donna wipes them away
with gentle fingers and I see that she’s crying too. “I love you so much.” I tell her.
“Ditto.” She grins impishly at me. “I’ve been thinking about our housing options for the
weekend. I think we should stay at the Hay Adams. I hear they have incredible rooms
overlooking Lafayette Park.”
“For like a thousand bucks a night. Are you trying to bankrupt me?”
“Are you saying I’m not worth a thousand dollar a night hotel room, Joshua?”
“Oh, no, I’m not going there.” I refuse to get sucked into that.
“Fine, then let’s go to Florida.” She counters.
“Florida?”
“Your mom really does want to look at real estate there, and we have four days. We could
make some wedding plans.” She pouts and I’m done.
“Two days.” I counter just for form.
“Three.”
“Two and a half; final offer. We have to get back here and get you settled into my place.” I
explain.
“We’re going to settle me into your place?”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight again.” I promise.
“Never?” She teases.
“Never.” I agree. “Get used to it.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” This agreeable Donna is quite unnerving. I hope it doesn’t last long.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“What the hell do you mean it’s been changed?” He shouts from his office.
“I told him if he wanted some of your time, he could damn well get his ass over here. You’re
barely back from medical leave.” I explain.
“You didn’t.” Josh says hopefully.
“I may have left out the ‘ass’ part but he got the idea.” I hate to pop his bubble but…
“Donna, I am perfectly capable of walking, or taking a cab,” He amends when I give him the
disbelieving look. “…to the Hill.”
“Of course you are.” I tell him and rub my palm against his cheek. “But this way he’s coming
to your turf. Isn’t that better?”
Yes, I’ve been…modifying his schedule a bit. But that’s within my purview as assistant and
fiancé. He’ll just have to deal with it.
“Donna, you can’t just--”
“Leave her alone.” Toby interrupts us.
“Toby, this has nothing to do with you.” Josh objects.
“You’re very lucky she puts up with you at all. Leave her alone and come to my office,” Toby
orders.
Josh gives me a look that says we’re not through discussing this yet. You’d really think he’d
know better than that by now.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“Hey, you don’t get to dictate how I deal with Donna in the office.” I tell him as we walk toward
his office.
“Somebody ought to before you completely blow it.” Toby replies and opens his door.
“Your faith in me is quite astonishing.”
“I have no faith in you, Joshua. People who lie to me, don’t instill faith.”
“Donna didn’t want anyone to know we were in Paris.” I stick to the line we came up with. “She
didn’t want anyone to know she was in Florida with me; neither of us did. We’d just
discovered this…thing between us and we wanted some time and privacy to figure things out.
For awhile, we weren’t even sure we were coming back to work here.”
“Please.”
“Toby, you don’t know what it was like. Nobody watching over our shoulder or hard deadlines
hanging over our head. Just rest and relaxation, my friend. Rest and Relaxation.”
“That sounds pretty nice, Joshua.” Toby agrees. “But since you’ve decided to come back and
grace us with your presence, do you think we could get a little work done?”
“What do you need?” I ask and sit on his couch. It’s then that I notice what the television is
tuned to; an honors ceremony for Mike and his team with the President and the Director of
the F.B.I. It makes me smile.
“The Marriage Recognition Act; can you talk to your pal Skinner?” Toby asks.
“Huh? Oh, sure. I’ll have Donna set it up.”
“It has to be soon.” Toby reminds me, like my brain has addled while I was gone.
“Yeah, yeah…” My attention wanders back to the screen showing my pal Mike receiving a
medal and a plaque of some kind. God, he’s going to be impossible to live with now.
Toby notices where my gaze is focused. “That’s quite a medal your friend got there. I’m
surprised you aren’t there, too.”
“I just got back to work.” I protest weakly. “Besides, this is his moment.” I nod toward the TV.
“We’ll have a private celebration when all this hoopla settles down.”
“He deserves the hoopla.” Toby points out. “All of them do.” I look over at him, but his focus
is still on Mike and his team on the stage with the President and the Director. “They risked
their lives over and over again to seek justice for those who can’t seek it for themselves.”
“Yeah…” I agree.
“And this guy Reiger? The worst of the worst. There must be a special spot in hell reserved
for him and his pals.” Toby opines. “I’m glad Casper and his team are getting this special
recognition. I just can’t help but think about everyone else who helped in the captures and
recoveries that will never get to shake hands with the President and take a bow on the world
stage.” His gaze swings around to meet mine and I see understanding there.
“They know that they were a part of it and they were never in it for the glory to begin with.” I
explain and look back at McNulty receiving adulation from the crowd. He looks more than a
little uncomfortable. I chuckle. Dillon hams it up, while Mike rolls his eyes. Take a bow my
friends, you deserve it. “I’ll have Donna call Skinner’s office today.” I get up to leave.
“Anything else?”
“No, that was it. Just don’t screw it up with Donna, or I’ll have her working with me before you
can say ‘apology bouquet’.” He threatens.
“As. If.” I laugh at him. People just don’t understand how we work, Donna and I.
“Donnatella Moss!” I bellow from across the bullpen.
“Yes, master.” She shouts back and I’ve got to say I like the sound of that. Again, she reads
my mind. “It was sarcasm, Joshua, don’t get used to it.”
“You really know how to bring a guy down, you know that?” I tell her as we meet each other
halfway.
“Yes, but I also know how to bring a guy--”
“Donna!” I exclaim.
“What? I was going to say lunch!” She says smirking.
“I don’t have time for lunch. What’s his name is coming over to see me. You told me so
yourself.”
“Yes, but not for 30 more minutes; plenty of time for lunch. See how well I take care of you?”
She bats her eyes at me.
“Nobody does it better.” I agree. “However, I’m afraid to ask what lunch entails.”
“Well, it’s not burned beef.” Donna hedges. Shit. “But it’s not salad either. I’ve got it laid out in
your office. Let’s go eat.”
I let her lead me by the hand to my desk where I smell delicious Chinese food. I use the
remote to turn the TV on, but Donna tries to take it away from me.
“No news while we eat, Josh. It’s not good for your blood pressure.”
“This news is. Look.” I motion with my hand to the television and she sees part of the team we
worked with on a stage responding to thunderous applause.
“Hey! I forgot that was today.” Donna notes and leans close to me. “That applause is for you
too, you know.” She whispers.
I just smile and lift the can of Fresca she got us for lunch. That new attorney, Ainsley Hayes,
has us all drinking the stuff now. “To all the men and women who were part of the hunt.” I
toast.
“Hear, hear.” She taps her can to mine, we both take a sip and smile briefly before I can’t
resist and kiss her. As usual, my timing is impeccable. C.J. catches us in the act.
“Hey, hey! Not in the office. We had a deal.” C.J. protests.
“We’re on our lunch break.” I counter.
“Uh-huh.” C.J. replies with her tongue in her cheek. “Oh, good, I was hoping you had it on.
That guy there. Do you know who that is?”
“Uh, no.” I lie. “How would I know that guy?”
“He works with Mike, you’re Mike’s friend. It’s not like impossible you might have met him.” C.
J. explains and I relax.
“Sorry, Ceej.” I shake my head in the negative.
“Damn. Maybe you could ask Mike?” She suggests.
“He’s a stranger. Why do you think this is the guy for you?” Donna asks.
“He’s hot!” C.J. says motioning to the screen. “And he hunts dangerous Nazi war criminals.
Can you imagine being with a man like that?”
“Hmmmm…It is alluring in a way, I guess.” Donna shrugs and gives me a smirk. “But I prefer
the cerebral type.”
C.J. scoffs. “Not me. So what do you say, Josh? Give Mike a call and invite him and his
friends out for a celebration sometime this week?”
There’s NO WAY I’m doing that. Talk about dangerous missions! “I’ll see what I can do, Ceej.”
I tell her with a reassuring wink to Donnatella.
“You rock, Josh Lyman, I don’t care what everyone else says.” C.J. kisses my cheek. “And we’
re very glad you’re back.”
“Me too, C.J.” I keep my eyes on Donna’s. “And except for a Honeymoon, I don’t plan to be
out again for the rest of the term.”
C.J. took one more glance at the TV as she walked out. “Good. If only we had men like that
working here.”
Donna burst out laughing and her happiness was just so infectious, I had to kiss her
again…and again… Hey, at least I closed and locked the doors first! From now on, this is the
only person I’m going to spend my time hunting down, and I know that I’ll never have to look
far. Then I see the look in Donna’s eyes and wonder which one of us is the hunter and which
one is the hunted. Donna chooses that moment to kiss me again and I decide that I really don’
t care.
~THE END~
I watch Josh check and recheck all these…gadgets…before putting them into a back pack
that’s very different from the backpack I know. He sighs and then looks up at me. I’m sitting
on the bed cross legged and studying him closely.
“What?” he smiles softly.
I shake my head silently.
“I’ve done this before.” He says, reading my mind.
“Yeah.” I say and nod unconvincingly.
“We’re going heavily armed.”
“Do you know how to shoot?”
“Yes, very well.” He stands up and walks over to the bed, eyeing me carefully. “I’m also going
with highly specialized trained CIA and FBI operatives. I’m not infiltrating a palace on my own.
This is what they do.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Yeah?”
“I guess.” I shrug.
“Mike will be here with you, along with several others. Mike is going to stay IN the same room
with you and he will protect you, Donna, until his dying breath.”
“Because I’m Brick’s woman?” I chuckle with a mirth I don’t feel.
“Because you’re his friend,” he replies seriously. “And I’m his friend.”
“Why isn’t he going then and you stay here?”
“Reiger doesn’t want Mike, he wants me. Mike has no bargaining power with him.”
“I just…” I drift off and look down at the bed. I’m being ridiculous. I KNOW I’m being ridiculous,
but I can’t help it. This is Josh. MY Josh, and he’s caught up in something
dangerous…deadly.
“You just what?”
“Nothing.” I say.
“Come on.”
I launch myself off the bed and fling myself into his arms. He’s surprised when he catches me.
“Please don’t go.” I beg quietly.
“Donna…”
“You’re right, Josh. This is what these guys do. So, let them do it. Stay here safe with me.”
“Please don’t ask me to do that, Donna.” He whispers.
“Why?” I cry pulling away.
“Because if you ask me, I will. I will stay behind with you, but if I do, this will never be over for
me or us. Reiger and his minions will always be out there and we’ll always be looking over our
shoulders and we’ll never be safe, our children will never be safe. This man has now
terrorized three generations of my family. I have to be the one to end it. It has to be me. If it’s
not me now, then it will have to be me some other day.” He says passionately.
And he’s right. This is like a blood feud between these two families and the classic fight of
good versus evil. And I’ve discovered that when Josh is on the side of good, he rarely loses
those fights.
“Okay.” I reluctantly relent.
“Thank you.” He smiles softly and his sincerity shines right through.
“I just really like what we’ve started here, Josh. I love you and I don’t want anything to happen
to you. You’re going to be off playing James Bond, and I’m going to be sitting here freaked
out and feeling helpless.”
“Well, first of all, you’ll have Mike to keep you entertained and he’s anything but boring.
Secondly, while I’m doing that, you can stay here and start to think about whether or not we
should go back to the White House.”
“Why wouldn’t we go back?” I ask in a surprised tone.
“You don’t think it’s going to be boring after this?”
“Josh, working for you is many things, but boring has never been one of them.” I drone.
“I don’t know how to take that.”
“I’m not going to tell you how to take it.”
“I’m going to assume it was a compliment.”
“Okay.”
“Just think about it. We have options.” He says.
“All right.” I nod. Interesting that he’s not really saying what those options are though. But I do
like working in the White House. I like the perks that come with it, like flying on Air Force One.
It’s demanding, but it’s also exhilarating. I’ve met Ambassadors and Foreign Heads of State. I
like that Congressmen and Senators try to swindle me and ply me with wine to get me to give
them more time with Josh on something. And I love Josh’s protectiveness when he sees that
happening. I can’t wait to see what he’s like NOW.
He steps up to me and runs his finger down my arm. “You know,” he says using his sexy
husky voice. “I have a few hours before we leave.”
“Austria brings out the randy side of you, you know.”
“No, it’s you that does that.” He smiles, leaning in and kissing my neck.
“I’m worried about getting you too worn out before you have to do something so physically
strenuous and mentally stressful like infiltrating a Nazi stronghold.” I ramble.
“Well, now this sounds promising.” He says softly against my ear as he runs a hand up my
stomach and over my breasts.
“Joshua…” I groan. It sounds like it came right from my stomach.
“I love when you say my name like that.” he says against my neck. He walks me backwards
until we tumble on the bed. “Sometimes I think I’ve been waiting for you.”
I bring my hand up to his face and smile. “It’s too bad I didn’t come along sooner.”
“If you came along any sooner, I think I definitely would have just thought you were too
young.”
“I AM like ten years younger than you, Josh.” I smirk.
“Yeah.” He says, he looks a little melancholy now. “That’s going to be a problem one day I
think.”
“But not today.” I say quickly and hug him to me. He’s getting pretty depressing right now.
Why dwell on something that’s like 40 years away?
“No, thank God.” He smiles and tickles my side and I yelp. I take the opportunity to flip us
over and he pushes my hair out of my face right before I pin him down. This is hot. I like this
kind of power right now.
The door busts open and I quickly hop off of Josh as Mike saunters in.
“Have you ever considered knocking?” Josh demands.
“You have to get going.” Mike smiles. He looks completely unapologetic.
“I have a few hours.” Josh protests.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do, too.”
“Get a watch that actually works.”
“I haven’t had an actual working watch in like 15 years, I had the other one.” Josh replies. He
sighs and pushes himself off the bed. I can feel my bottom lip quivering in fear of him leaving
and I bite it to keep Josh from noticing.
“Don’t fall asleep on the job.” Josh says to Mike, while taking my hand and looking at me. “I
don’t want to hear that you guys lost her again.”
“No Josh really, your flattery is embarrassing.” Mike deadpans.
“You got beat up by a girl, Michael.” Josh shoots back.
Mike glares at him for a beat before turning his gaze to me. “Donna, the reason why Josh’s
codename is Brick is because he swims like one.” He rambles. I arch a brow at Josh.
“I. Hate. You.” Josh growls at Mike, who looks completely unfazed. “You’ve just been waiting
for an excuse to tell her that, haven’t you?” But Mike merely shrugs with an evil glint in his
eye.
I try to stop the giggling, but I can’t. “Nice.” Josh nods at me. “I never thought you’d turn into
Judas.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss the hell out of him. “S’okay.” I whisper huskily. “You
excel at plenty of other things.”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Chapter 18
“We’ve had surveillance running on the place since you gave us the heads up.” CIA Agent
Kate Harper tells us. I will not be mentioning the presence of Kate Harper on this mission
when I tell Donna about it later. Unfortunately, one of these doofusses is bound to mention
the totally hot CIA agent working this with us. But that’s a problem for another day.
I know I played it all cool with Donna, but I hate these types of ops. Yes, I have the basic
skills, but they’re nowhere near the skills of the guys, and now women, who are covering my
back on this one. They were sharp when they started out, and they’ve done nothing but get
sharper while I’ve gathered dust. I’ll carry a weapon and shoot it if I must, but it’s really safer
for all concerned if I keep my weapons holstered.
“And?” I prompted her.
“There’s been an increase in activity over the last 6 hours.” Harper reports.
“Since Reiger contacted me.” I confirm and she nods.
“We haven’t been able to confirm his physical presence on site. Our best intelligence is that
he isn’t staying here and is making a special trip into town to see you.”
“I’m touched…really,” I drawl and earn a smile from Harper. One of the guys kicks my shin
under the table. Yeah, I am so busted.
“That call he made to you was scrambled too well to trace it in the amount of time you kept
him on the line.” Harper pauses. “I thought you Washington types could talk anybody’s ear
off.”
“Routinely; they just don’t always care to listen.” I reply and get another smile…and another
kick.
“We’re watching inbound flights and customs at the borders, but it’s more likely he’s been
holing up nearby.”
“Yeah…that’s what we figured. What’s the head count at the residence?” I ask for the hell of
it.
“14 and climbing.”
“Great. So Reiger essentially wants what I’ve got and he’s willing to get it with overwhelming
force.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jamison, Harper’s partner pipes up. “That’s why we’re advocating a preemptive
strike. We hit the house now, before the reinforcements arrive.”
“But if we hit too early, Reiger isn’t going to show.” I object.
“I think he will.” Jamison retorts. “You’ve got both the pieces and he knows it. Where’s Liesel
Reiger?”
“Still at the safe house.” Dillon answers. “We’re not bringing her in until we see Reiger up
close and personal.”
“Sadly, I’m not sure he cares about his daughter.” I point out. “I doubt she’s the bargaining
chip that you think she is.”
“You know this man better than anybody.” Jamison states. “If we take the residence, what’s
he likely to do?”
“Pick another spot.” I answer automatically. “He likes being on his own turf. If we take the
residence, it’s going to throw him off balance. But we may not want to deal with Reiger when
he’s off balance and less predictable.”
“Is it possible to take the residence without tipping him off?” Dillon asks.
“We don’t need to ‘take’ the residence.” I interrupt. “If we can infiltrate the residence without
him being aware of it, that’s all we need.”
“We’re supposed to infiltrate an unfamiliar residence that is currently swarming with over a
dozen enemy targets without tipping anyone off?” Kate asks.
“Isn’t that why they call you people spooks?” Dillon laughs at his own joke. There has always
been a rivalry between the CIA agents and the FBI agents in justice who are pursuing war
criminals. This sometimes causes tempers to flare and problems to arise. I do not want
temper tantrums or problems here. I want to get back to Donna in one piece.
“Let’s not go there.” I insist. “We’re a team here. Let’s look at the building plans and come up
with a strategy.”
<><><><><><><><><><><>
I’m watching Donna pace, a habit she’s obviously picked up from Josh, and it’s making me
dizzy.
“Would you sit down?!” I nearly shout and startle Donna. I didn’t mean to be that loud. I’m a
little frustrated staying behind on this one.
“How can you just sit there?” She asks me. “Isn’t this waiting driving you crazy? Why aren’t
they checking in? They should be checking in.”
“They will when they can.” I assure her. “Checking in with us is NOT their first priority and you
shouldn’t want it to be.”
She rolls her eyes at me but sits down at the table next to me and pops some chips in her
mouth. It’s nervous eating; I’m familiar with the condition. Long stake outs almost ALWAYS
guarantee you a weight gain.
“What are you doing?” She asks me.
“I’m working some of the other messages now that we’ve got the cipher cracked.” I report.
“Can I help?”
“Why not?” I shrug. None of this is classified because of the age of the items; they were de-
classified years ago. I pass some of the work over to her and see that she quickly gets down
to work. She’s probably very grateful for the distraction.
“Josh showed you how to de-code this type of cipher?”
“Yeah, but I’m still practicing.”
“I’ll look over everything you do.” I promise. “See what you come up with.”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“We’ve got our infiltration points.” Jamison points to three different locations on the map. “We
gain access and stay hidden until we get the coded signal on our cells.”
“Lyman, Dillon, and McNulty stay together and deal with Reiger directly when they get the
contact call.” Dillon adds. “He’s not going to expect Lyman to go in alone, but we don’t want
to tip our hand on the rest of our team.”
Everyone acknowledges understanding and agreement to the plan and the strike team
heads out. I’m operating on two different wavelengths here. On one level, I’m itching to end
this. But on another hand, I realize that a three generation struggle for my family is coming to
a close and that’s a bit overwhelming emotionally. In order to make this ending come out the
way I want it to, I have to divorce the emotional from the analytical. That’s the only way I’m
going to be able to take Reiger out. And I am going to take Reiger out if it’s the last thing I do.
“How you doing, Brick?” McNulty asks me and I shrug.
“Ready to be done with this.”
“Whether or not we get Reiger?”
I give him a look that says ‘Reiger is not getting away from me again’.
“I’m just saying that this is an old man now.” He points out.
“And?” I prompt. “His crimes diminish with age?”
“No. They couldn’t.” He shakes his head. “Sometimes, when you get to the end of a really
long, hard fought battle…the resolution doesn’t quite…feel like you think it’s going to.
Taking in a decrepit, old man might not give you the satisfaction you’re looking for. You
may have to look outside the box for your sense of finality here.”
“Are you practicing your psych degree on me now?” I smirk.
“Yeah, I am.” He admits. “This is a decades long, family feud you’re trying to settle. You might
find it a little more constructive to focus your energy going forward instead of looking back.
That’s all I’m going to say right now.”
“Thank. God.” I tease, but I take his words to heart. He knows a little something about this. I’m
still contemplating our conversation when my cell phone buzzes. I literally jump.
“Lyman.” I answer.
“Sternberg.” I hear the voice use my family name, but it’s not the voice I’ve been waiting for.
“Put Reiger on.” I insist.
“He will speak to you in person at the location I am to give you.”
“He’ll be speaking to himself. I’m not going anywhere until I speak to Reiger. Put. Him. On.”
There’s a pause before some sharp words are exchanged and the phone is passed on to the
man himself.
“You are every bit as stubborn as your grandfather, Sternberg.”
“Thank you.” I reply shortly. I will not get into a pissing match now; not when I’m so close…
“Speaking of relatives, I’ve got your daughter Liesel here. She’s lovely, really.” I drawl.
“She has nothing to do with this.” Reiger answers. “This is between men.”
“Right. Women are secondary humans; along with Jews and blacks and other members of
inferior races.” I roll my eyes even though he can’t see me. “Let’s make a deal.”
“You have the items with you?” He asks.
“Do you think I would trust them to anyone else?”
“I think like most Jews, you would not relinquish anything that could lead you to an
immeasurable fortune.” He says snidely.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure this fortune is measurable.” I point out. “And I’m also pretty sure that I can
put my hands on it without any help from you.”
“Then for what purpose are we speaking?” Reiger asks.
“My superiors are willing to trade your death sentence for this treasure of yours; not that I
can be blamed if my gun misfires in your direction.” I explain. “Bring us to the treasure, you
avoid the death penalty and your master race progeny walks free.”
“What assurances do I have that you will keep your word? You bastard Jews change your
‘deals’ whenever it suits you.”
“Luckily for you, I’m hampered by both CIA agents and FBI agents. They’ll be part of the
exchange.”
After a moment of thought, Reiger agrees to the deal and wants to meet us at the residence
we have already infiltrated. A time is set and he abruptly hangs up.
“Good job, Brick.” McNulty notes.
“Nah, he agreed too fast. He’s got another ace up his sleeve. Show me the building plans
again.” We go over it brick by brick, but I can’t see it yet, even though I know it’s there. My
phone buzzes again and I see it’s Mike. Please, no…
“Lyman.”
“Josh, we’ve got something weird going on here.” Mike reports.
“Casper, tell me weird does NOT include Donna being out of your sight at any time.”
“No, she’s right here. She’s the one who found it.”
“Found what?”
“We’ve been working on these coded messages now that we have the cipher; the ones that
we’ve accumulated over the years from Reiger’s associates?”
“Yeah?”
“We thought we were messing it up until we figured out these messages were in German.
Donna found a translation program online --”
“Of course she did.” I drawl.
“But it’s still not making sense.” Mike complains. “My pronunciation is shit and we’re not
entirely sure about where each word begins and ends so we might be off base here, but --”
“Send me the entire message, Mike.”
“Donna just did. She sent it as a text; it should pop up on your phone any second.”
“Okay, I got it. I’ll call you right back.” I clip off before I end the call to bring up the text
message. It’s one long stream of letters and it takes me a bit to break them into their
individual words and then one word stands out to me; rats. It starts a pinball volley around my
brain and my heart rate ticks up. “McNulty!”
“What?”
“How far are we from the German border?”
“About 18-20 kilometers, why?”
“Get me a copy of the land deeds and property information.”
“Brick, Reiger is going to be showing up within the hour --”
“Get me the damn papers!” I shout and he holds up both hands in surrender and gets to
work on my ‘request’.
“We’ve got the area sealed.” Kate reports. “He’s not going to be able to move within this
perimeter without our knowing it.”
I smirk. “We’ll see.”
“We know what we’re doing, Brick” She says all snotty and for a second I can hear Donna’s
voice saying those words.
“So does he.” I motion with my head to the most recent picture of Reiger that we have which
is taped above the computer station. “And he’s no novice at escapes. Luckily for me, I’ve got
Donna Moss on my team and together…” I trail off.
“This Moss is another agent?” Kate asks.
“Don’t ask.” McNulty advises and starts bringing up the documents I requested on screen.
Damn, there it is.
I flip open my phone and hit speed dial number one.
“Josh?”
“I love you.” I tell her while keeping my eyes on the screen.
“I…love you too. Are you okay?”
“More than okay. You just helped me solve this last puzzle.”
“I did?”
“The coded message; it referred to rats.”
“I know.” I swear I can hear her shudder through the phone. “That’s why I thought we did
something wrong.”
“No, my beautiful, brilliant woman, you did everything right. They were talking about rat lines.”
“And that helps us how?”
“Rat lines were how Nazi war criminals referred to a tunnel system designed to get them
safely across borders.” I explain and see my companions eyes widen. “Reiger Ayn’t coming in
by motor vehicle, people, he’s coming in through the old tunnels. That’s why he needs almost
an hour lead time, and why he feels confident meeting us here. He’s got another way in…and
out.”
“Shit.” Kate says loud enough to be picked up by my phone. “We need to go in now. Catch
him in the tunnels while he’s off guard.”
“Who’s that?” Donna asks suspiciously.
“CIA agent.” I answer shortly. “Gotta go. I’ll call with an update as soon as I can.” I hang up
even as I hear her call my name in protest. “If we don’t have to worry about blowing our cover
on the ground, let’s take the house now.”
“Agreed.” Kate nods in my direction. “Maybe if this Moss is as good as you say, we should
think about poaching her for our agency.”
“No way in hell.” I reply. “She’s all mine.” We quickly update our strike team and within
minutes, we’re inside the house and by house I mean mansion. The place is immense. The
team breaks out their high tech gear and finds a false wall that leads to a downward spiral
staircase and opens up to three different tunnels.
“Now which way?” McNulty asks.
“We break into teams.” Harper decides and turns to me. “You got a strong feeling about any
particular tunnel?”
“Which one points north to Germany?” I answer her question with a question and after
consulting her compass, points to the tunnel farthest from us. “Then that’s the one I want.”
“Lyman, McNulty and I take this one. Teams of three for each of the others. Report in every
five minutes. We are taking prisoners here, not lives.” She makes eye contact with each
person down here and once she’s satisfied that she’s heard and understood, she nods.
“Move out.”
The tunnels are actually large enough for two of us to walk through them shoulder to
shoulder with occasional openings that are even larger and split off into other tunnels. We
stick with the largest tunnel and communicate silently until Kate puts a hand up to stop our
forward progress. We can hear the sounds of other footsteps in the tunnel coming from the
other direction. My heart beat speeds up and we back up until we reach a larger opening.
The only advantage we have right now is that we know they’re coming and they think we’re
waiting for them a few hundred feet above here. The element of surprise is no small thing but
it isn’t everything.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“He said you are beautiful and brilliant and his woman.” I point out…again. “Can’t you just be
happy with that?”
“We’re going to step around the sexism inherent in that statement and move right to the fact
that this CIA agent may also be beautiful and brilliant.” Donna replies. “What’s her name?
Can we look her up on your fancy equipment here?”
“Donna, I am not wasting time and resources so you can check out someone your demented
mind thinks is competition for Josh.”
“Brilliant, demented mind.” She corrects me. “Josh is out there in a dangerous situation with
this woman. I know what adrenaline and danger does to heighten emotional responses.” I
raise my eyebrows at her. “I’ve seen movies!”
“Donna, please believe me when I tell you that Josh is head over heels in love with you. And
he fell in love with you when he was not under any heightened emotional response to
adrenaline or danger. He has been on hundreds of ops with brilliant, beautiful agents and yet
you are the one he is in love with. Can we not talk about this subject anymore, please?” I’m
not above begging at this point.
“Then what are we supposed to do now, Mike?” She asks me.
“We have the toughest job now; we wait.” I tell her and pat her shoulder sympathetically
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
19.
Harper and McNulty raise their weapons. McNulty’s got an HK G36 assault rifle, when the
shadows heading our way are nearly right on top of us, he flips the light on his HK on and it
blinds the shit out of them. Reiger’s all of six feet away from me now and he’s flanked by two
large German bodyguards.
It’s lame, I know, but at this point, I’m always disappointed they’re not actually in old World
War Two uniforms. I think it would make all this more satisfying to take them out in their wolf’s
skin. The two bodyguards raise their weapons at us. I haven’t pulled my gun yet. We still
have the upper hand. They also can’t actually see their target anyway, thanks to McNulty and
his beacon there.
“My daughter calls you the Hunter.” Reiger says.
“Soon she’s going to call me the guy that threw her ass in jail.”
“You said she would be freed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Were we actually operating on the up and up? My mistake. I’ll just leave you to
your secret tunnel then?”
“I did not think you were this smart.” He says. I hope McNulty accidentally shoots him. He can
get trigger happy. I don’t know if Harper over there knows that.
“I’m not.” I smirk. “My Shiksa girlfriend is.”
“You will never get out of here alive, Sternberg.” He says. “I did not just come here with two
people.”
“Well, I’d like to say ‘great minds think alike,’ but since you’re deranged and feeble, I’ll just
say I didn’t come here with just two people either, and I promise you, my friends are better
armed than yours.”
“Beenden.” Reiger says. Thank God McNulty is just as fluent in German as I am because as
soon as ‘Finish it’ is out of Reiger’s mouth, McNulty fires and Harper fires on his shot. The
two bodyguards go down. The sudden loud noise causes part of the tunnel ceiling to come
down. It didn’t completely cave in or anything, but it caused enough dust that I took my eyes
off of Reiger. When he comes into view again, he’s pulling something away from his mouth.
“FUCK!” I yell and dive on him.
“Brick!” McNulty calls a little confused by my sudden attack of an old man.
“It’s a fucking suicide pill!” I shout as McNulty and Harper rush forward to where I’m at Reiger’
s side on the ground, who’s already showing imminent signs of death. “Do something!” I
order McNulty.
“What the hell do you want me to do?”
“Reverse it.”
“Cyanide?” he asks incredulously picking up a small vile. “I can’t reverse Cyanide, Brick.”
“NO!” I shout. “GOD DAMMIT!” I punch the side of the tunnel as hard as I possibly can. I
scream outraged again, and also in a little bit of pain because I think I just broke my hand.
Three fucking generations of my family…the guy takes a fucking suicide pill.
“He’s dead.” Harper says as she takes her hand away from his pulse point.
“Whoopdie fucking do!” I snap. McNulty arches a brow at me. “I don’t want to fucking hear it!”
I bark.
“Team 1 copy?” comes a soft voice through Harper’s radio on her shoulder.
“Go.”
“We heard gunshots.”
“Target’s neutralized.” She confirms. “We’re all clear.”
“We think you need to see this.” Comes the voice.
The three of us turn and leave the bodies there. We’re not on clean up duty after all and jog
the tunnels in the opposite direction back the way we came.
“Where are you?” Harper radios.
“Tough to say. We took a lot of turns. Head east.”
“I’d kill for GPS.” McNulty mutters.
“Wouldn’t work this far below the surface.” I reply. But then I think of Dillon and radio him.
“Dillon, which way?”
“Hang your next left.” He radios back. He’s following our heat sensors above in our command
van.
I smirk over at McNulty, who shakes his head and smiles. “Now, that’s my idea of help from
above.”
“Mine’s a sniper in the tower.” He shoots back.
“Or that, too.”
“So, this Moss…” Harper says as we move as quickly as possible through the tunnels. “She’s
not an agent.”
“No. She’s my girlfriend.” I confirm.
“Is it serious?” Harper asks and McNulty chokes on his laugh. “That’s a yes.” Harper
concludes.
“Yes.” I nod.
“It’s too bad.” She shrugs. “You’re not without your charm.”
“McNulty here’s got charm.” I say nodding my head over to McNulty. “He’s got a way with the
ladies, they love him.”
“I don’t date FBI pukes.” She says a little distastefully. “They’ve got way too much baggage.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t date CIA snobs.” McNulty shoots back.
“All right, children. Let’s remember we’re running around blind underground in Austria,
please.” I say jumping in to referee.
“Hang your next right.” Dillon pops in in my ear.
“Team three copy?” Harper says as we make a turn.
“Go.”
“Are you still moving?”
“Negative. We’re stationary.”
“They’re about 50 yards ahead of you now.” Dillon says and we pick up our pace to a light
jog, which is making me pretty winded. Donna’s gonna kill me. I promised her I wouldn’t over
exert myself.
We come upon the other group and they’re all standing there in front of a wall. “What’s going
on?” I ask.
“We’ve hit a wall.” One quips. Funny.
“Why do you need us?” McNulty asks.
“It’s booby trapped.” Jamison says.
“I’ll be damned….” I say quietly and move to the wall, shining my small flashlight along the
sides. I run my hand over the jasper covered wall, then move my radio mic closer to my
mouth. “Dillon, hand the radio off to someone else and come on down with your bag of tricks.”
“I get to blow something up?” he replies.
“That’s a big 10-4.” I say.
“I’m supersonic.” Dillon cuts off.
I shine my flashlight around the wall and note the various explosives there, then shine it
along the walls. I stop when I hit the ceiling.
“Look at that.” I nudge McNulty.
“A trap door.” He notes.
“It probably goes to a well.” I nod. “There’s a lake on the grounds, isn’t there?”
“Yeah.” McNulty nods. “Dillon should probably stay away from the ceiling.”
“Yeah, I’m not interested in going for a swim with all this electrical shit strapped to me.” I nod.
“What are you two talking about?” Jamison demands.
“Welcome to the mission, did you do your homework?” McNulty quips. “Behind door number
one here is Reiger’s treasure.”
Before long, Dillon comes jogging up and everyone steps out of his way. Dillon’s top notch.
This guy makes McGyver look like a girl. In fact, I’m not a hundred percent sure that show
wasn’t loosely based off of Dillon.
He sets a bright light up that illuminates the whole door and steps back to study it, then he
looks up. “Ah.” He says.
“Yup.” I confirm.
“Well, I’ll want to stay away from that.”
“That would be much appreciated.” I say.
“Seeing as how you can’t swim for shit…” Dillon mutters and opens his bag.
“We’ll just keep that on the QT, thanks.” I reply, rolling my eyes.
“I’m just saying, when the rush of water comes, there’s gold, jewels, priceless works of art,
17th century weaponry behind this door, and if it’s saving your ass or that stuff…” he jokes.
“Hey, you’re the one that’s got to explain that to Donna on the other side.” I shoot back.
“She’ll be upset, that’s true.” He nods as he gets to work.
“She’ll need someone to comfort her for sure…” McNulty joins in.
“A strong shoulder to cry on…” Dillon replies.
“Someone who was there and is just a bit traumatized and emotional about seeing Josh
drown…”
All right, I’ve had about enough of these two. “Just blow the fucking door!”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“Concealed entrances with booby traps!?”
“Donna, just get off the computer.” Mike says frustrated. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell
you everything you need to know.”
“You will not, Michael. You’ll censor.” I bite back. “Booby traps, like, you know, bombs?”
“Explosives, sure.” He says. “But, Donna, you’re talking about stuff that’s 70, 80 years old.
Doesn’t mean it’s going to work.”
I turn to him and give him my ‘Josh, how stupid am I’ glare. His eyes widen a bit. Looks like it
works just as well on him.
Mike’s cell phone rings and I jump up and run over to him. “Yeah.” He says pressing it to his
ear.
“Is it Josh?” I ask frantically. “Is he okay? Is it over? Is Reiger dead?”
“I have a PHONE in my ear.” Mike says to me.
“I should shut up now?” I ask backing away.
“Please.” He smiles.
He listens to the person on the other end, thanks them and snaps his phone off.
“Reiger’s dead. Everyone down in the tunnels is all right. We’re still awaiting word on the
guys above ground.”
“So Josh is all right?” I ask holding my breath.
“Right now, yes.” He nods and I let my breath out.
“What’s the ‘but’ part?”
“They think they found the treasure.” He says.
“Booby traps?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And the hits just keep on coming.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Chapter 20
“Toby --”
“Leo, we can’t just let these things ride anymore!” I explode.
“We don’t have much of a choice.” Leo says quietly.
“If Josh isn’t coming back, we need to start considering a replacement.”
“Who said he isn’t coming back?” Leo asks.
“Please.”
“I swear, Toby, I haven’t heard that he’s made a decision either way.”
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?” I ask.
“I don’t know! Am I supposed to write these things down for you?” Leo grouses, but I know it’s
meant as a distraction.
“Let’s call him and ask him them.” I suggest and see Leo’s hand freeze in the process of
picking up a file on the desk. It’s just a small hesitation but since I’m watching for it, I pick it up
easily. “He’s still with his Mom in Florida, right?” I take out my cell phone in the ultimate bluff.
“Toby…don’t.” Leo says softly.
“Where is he really, Leo?” I ask point blank. “I know he wasn’t in Florida the last time I got in
touch with him.”
“Toby…” Leo sits down heavily in his office chair and then looks up at me with hooded eyes.
“Toby, I’m telling you to drop this…for everyone’s safety.”
“This has something to do with Reiger?”
Leo visibly pales. “Damn it, Toby, what are you up to?”
“I saw the name in Josh’s office, I looked into it.” I reply.
“Damn it, stop! Stop right now and never mention it again, do you understand me?!” Leo
shouts.
“Yeah…”
“I mean it, Toby. You’ll be opening Pandora’s Box.”
“I got it.” I assure him. “He’s…okay though?”
“Last I heard, yes.” Leo admits.
“We need him here.”
“I know. He needs to…finish something first.” Leo tells me.
“You’ll let me know when he’s…available again?”
“Yes.” Leo agrees and nods toward the door, dismissing me. I sure as hell hope he hears
something soon.
<><><><><><><><>
“Damn it, Dillon, can you open the things or not?” All my frustration over letting Reiger slip
through my fingers by letting him take the easy way out comes out at Dillon. Not that he’s on
the run anymore, but still.
“It’s not as easy I as I make it look, Brick, and unless you’d like to practice your backstroke…”
Dillon trails off as he concentrates on the work before him. I know it’s complicated and time
consuming, but patience, in case you haven’t noticed, isn’t exactly my strong suit.
“Right. Take your time…” I manage and pace the length of the tunnel to where it takes a
sharp right turn. I get around the corner and blow out a deep breath.
“You okay?” Harper asks and I nod distractedly. “Not exactly the ending you’d pictured on
this investigation?”
“Not even close.” I admit and it’s her turn to nod.
“You took him out.”
“He took himself out.” I correct her.
“You put him in the position where he thought that was his only option; same thing.” She
concludes. “He’s not running around spending money he stole from the prisoners he
tortured….That Ayn’t nothing, Josh.”
“Maybe.” I agree but mostly to get her to leave me alone.
“Brick!” McNulty calls me from around the corner and Harper and I jog back to where Dillon is
working.
“What is it?”
“I’m running into some trouble here.” Dillon announces.
“What kind of trouble?”
“The kind where if I’m wrong or accidentally set something off while I’m working, we’re all
dead.” Dillon explains.
“I hate that kind.” I mutter.
“I’ve never seen a layout like this before.” Dillon continues and points to several items while I
pretend I understand the problem.
“You’re losing me here, Dillon.” I confess.
“There’s a switch missing.” Kate Harper offers.
“Exactly!” Dillon beams like his prized pupil just got the Nobel prize.
“How hard can it be to disarm this sucker when it’s got to be incredibly old?” I ask.
“Without the missing piece, incredibly hard.” Dillon tells me. “You’d be risking your life to try.”
“A missing piece!” It hits me like a ton of, well, bricks. “You’re brilliant, Dillon, I don’t care what
McNulty says.”
“I am?” He asks.
I nod and smile while I use the radio to call up to our comrades. “Patch me through to
Casper, will you?” I wait a minute before I hear Mike’s voice on the line.
“What have you got for me?” He asks.
“It’s what you have for me. Or rather what Donna has for me.” I correct myself. “I need the
item Donna is holding for me. I need it down here in the tunnel. So get it from her and bring it
down here, okay?”
“Right. I’ll just get it from her and do that.” Mike says sarcastically.
“It’s one little thing, Michael. We’re waiting.” I hear the line click as it’s disconnected.
It seems like hours, but it’s really just about 30 minutes, before there’s a commotion and a
new group appears at the turn of the tunnel. I’m more than a little dismayed to catch a
glimpse of a blond ponytail in the middle of the group. Jesus, Mike, you couldn’t keep her at
the safe house?
“Don’t start.” Mike preemptively cuts me off. “Like you could have done any better.”
I’m slightly mollified when Donna throws her arms around me and kisses me, but it only
distracts me for a moment. “You promised to stay at the safe house.”
“I promised to stay with Mike at the safe house. Mike is now here, so I’m here, too.”
“It’s dangerous here.” I point out.
“Mike checked with the team. They said it was clear here.” She reports.
I give a scathing look to the rest of my team who are now studiously avoiding my eyes by
looking at anything and anyone but me. “Uh-huh. Tell me you at least brought the thing.”
She produces the items that I requested; the one from my father and the one from Liesel. I
turn to move closer to the device as Dillon and Donna move to follow me. I turn back abruptly
and give her a scathing look intended to get her to back up.
“Like anything that could hurt me up there isn’t going to be able to hurt me from ten feet
further back?” She asks.
“Good point. Somebody get her out of here, please.” I request. I even said please. I mention
this because despite my good manners, nobody steps up to follow orders. “Will somebody
please escort my fiancé out of this hell hole?” I ask again.
“fiancé?” Donna squeaks.
“We’ll talk about it later.” I assure her. “Now please get out of here until we work this out.”
“And leave my fiancé alone down here? No way.” She shakes her head determinedly. See
how she did that? She just turned my distraction technique right back on me. At any other
time, I’d admire her style but right now…
“Donna, please --”
“Get on with it already.” Harper shouts. “Donna will stick with me.”
Shit. The women have joined forces. The Sisterhood lives, even here. “You’ll both have to
stand back.” I say authoritatively.
“Come on, Donna, let’s stand back and fan ourselves while the big, bad, brave, boys protect
us.” Kate drawls and Donna snickers. Yeah, that’s gonna be trouble.
I turn back to Dillon and hand him the pieces. He manipulates them for a minute and then I
can see the light bulb go in. “Fucking incredible.” He carefully places the items, now joined
together, into the spot where he and Kate said a piece was missing. He slowly turns them
until something clicks and we all hold our breath. I hear a hissing sound.
“That doesn’t sound good.” I whisper to Dillon, but he’s watching the device still and doesn’t
answer me.
“No, check it out. The device triggered something beyond this wall and it looks like…” He
trails off again and have I mentioned how annoying that is? Then I see the smoke.
“Everybody clear out!” I order.
“No, wait!” Dillon counters. “It’s good smoke.”
“Good smoke?” I repeat.
“Check it out! The device has released something from the other side of the door that’s
melting the trigger wires. It’s amazing!” Dillon is in love. The whole team moves closer to
watch. When the smoke dissipates, Dillon uses a series of mirrors to check connections.
“Now what?”
Dillon makes eye contact with me and his mouth forms into a sly smile. “Now we open the
door.”
“Seriously? It’s that simple?”
“Yeah…or else I’m wrong and we’re all about to die.” Dillon shrugs.
Damn smart ass. I reach my hand out to push the door open.
“Josh, wait!” Donna calls out. “Can’t you push it open with a stick or something and stand
back a ways?”
I look over at Dillon, who’s smirking. “It’s fine.” I assure her with a confidence I am mostly
faking. I do take another step back though as I push hard with my right hand. The sucker is
damn heavy so I have to lean back in and push with both arms. Then I motion to Dillon and
McNulty who add their weight; nothing. What the hell?
“Wait!” Donna calls out and approaches us.
“If the three of us can’t push the door open, there’s no way you can.” I explain.
She just ignores me and reaches a hand out to the device giving it a slow, cautious turn until
another click sounds and the door pops open like a jack-in-the-box.
“Men are always trying to use brawn when brains are what is called for.” Donna tells Kate, as
Harper sticks her tongue in her cheek. “After you, Joshua.”
I kiss her quickly on the lips and take her hand in mine. “No, this one we do together.” We
push the door open further and walk across the threshold together. I turn on my high beam
light and flash it around but all I see is more tunnel. We take a few steps inside when I hear
Donna gasp.
“What?” I turn to her in alarm and see her pointing her light in a different direction. I move
mine to follow hers and then it’s my turn to gasp. There are piles and piles of treasure. I can
see chests, boxes, and bags, some of them broken, overflowing with coins, jewelry and items
made from lots of shiny, expensive material; like silver and gold. Holy shit.
“Joshua…” She moans. “Look what they stole…” I can hear her heart breaking in her tone of
voice.
“We’ll see about getting it back where it belongs, Donna, I promise.”
The rest of our team has followed us inside.
“Holy shit, Lyman.” Mike seems to need a thesaurus.
“Yeah…” I agree. “Holy shit.”
Harper is already perusing through a pile of what looks like books.
“What have you got over there?” I ask her and it’s the first time I see her at a loss for words.
“They’re…records…ledgers…” Then she looks up at me with sadness etched on her face.
“Records from the concentration camps…experiments and…death records.”
I nod solemnly and Donna puts her arm around my waist. “We’re going to need lots of help
cataloguing all of this. Have you got people you trust to go through this?” I ask Harper and
she nods without looking back at me. “I’ll start making calls.”
“Hey! There are plans over here!” McNulty calls out. “Plans for the design of the death
camps.”
“God…” Dillon begins. “I mean, you know they had to have plans but looking at them…
Seeing how someone sat down and at their leisure put together plans for killing a whole race
of people. I feel sick.”
“There’s a lot of that going around.” I tell him and Donna gives my hand a squeeze. “Looks
like we could use someone with excellent organizing and documenting skills. Feel up to a
challenge?”
“If you’re here with me.” She replies.
“Deal.” I agree and kiss her again. I need something pure and true in this testament to evil
surrounding us. The next few days are going to be tough, but with Donna beside me, I truly
believe I can get through it.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
21.
I walk into the tunnel just in time to see Donna take off in the opposite direction. She throws
herself over a large garbage can and throws up violently into it.
What the hell?
I pull a bottle of water off of a table and walk over to her. This whole area is like some kind of
archeological excavation now. A certain amount of this tunnel has been afforded for space
for the CIA, FBI and Operation Last Chance teams to work, but beyond us, that part of the
tunnel has been sealed.
There are bright lights now set up all over. In one area some chairs, tables, bottles of water
and food, and a couple of computers have been set up for appraisers to work.
Donna’s been here tirelessly working with anyone who needs help. I’ve been trying to be
here as long as she’ll let me, but as she points out, I was shot not too long ago, and followed
that up with ‘physically and emotionally draining globetrotting and spy work,’ so she limits how
long she’ll let me be here before shooing me off for rest.
I won’t admit it to her, mainly because I don’t want the others to think I’m a wimp, but I’m
feeling a lot better now because of it. I feel stronger.
I hand her the water bottle and she rinses her mouth out, then grabs onto me and cries into
my shoulder. I rub her shoulder with my good hand, because as it turns out, I did break my
hand. Donna didn’t take that well.
“What’s wrong?” I ask softly, stroking her hair.
“Sorry.” She says and looks up at me. “It’s just some of this stuff is really hard to look at. I
was cataloguing the plans…”
“Ah.” I say. “I keep forgetting I’ve been at this longer than you.”
“How does it not get to you?”
“Oh, it gets to me.” I assure. “It gets to me so much, I’ve been chasing these bastards for 20
years, Donna.”
“Are they going to be able to give all this stuff back?”
“Most of it.” I nod. “Some of it will go into a conservatorship until it’s either claimed or
eventually donated to museums. People have filed insurance claims over the years. But for
some of it, the families that owned it were entirely destroyed and it will never be claimed.”
“60 years later…” she sighs, looking around and shaking her head.
“Yeah.” I say and hug her tightly.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“So, this is weird.” Sam says coming into my office.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“I just tried to go up to the Residence to speak with the President, and the secret service
wouldn’t let me.”
“The secret service wouldn’t let you?” I ask incredulously, putting down my pad.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure you got that right?” I reply.
“They told me no one but the First Family and Leo McGarry is permitted in the Residence
until further notice.”
What the hell is going on?
I look at Sam for a minute and then stand up from my desk and head out of my office. “Come
with me.” I say and he falls into step with me.
“Where are we going?”
“Leo’s.”
We walk through Communications and into Operations, and past Josh’s locked office and
Donna’s empty desk. I’ve never been more sure than I am now that they’re heavily involved in
all this somehow.
We enter Leo’s office and he’s sitting on the couch reading through a very large binder.
“What’s going on?” He asks, taking off his glasses.
“Sam was just denied access to the Residence.” I say.
“I know.” Leo nods. “The secret service told me. Talk to Mrs. Landingham and she’ll schedule
you some time, Sam.”
“Why can’t he go to the Residence?” I prod.
“There was an assassination attempt on the President, remember?” Leo shoots back. “There
are security measures in place.”
“Presidents have been shot at before.”
“Not this one.”
“Leo…”
“Toby, I swear to God, I’ve about had it with this crap!” He’s about to lay into me more, but
Margaret buzzes in.
“Leo, Josh is on the line.”
Well, this should be good.
Leo stands up, walks to his desk and picks up the receiver. Damn, I was hoping he’d put it on
speaker phone. “Josh, how’s Florida? Really! That’s amazing! Congratulations.”
Congratulations? What would Leo be congratulating him on? “I haven’t heard from Donna in
a while, have you? Yeah? Is she doing okay? How’d you break your hand? Oh. Well, that
obviously wasn’t very smart. How’s your mom? Yes, Toby and Sam are here too, would you
like to speak with them? I’ll put you on speaker.”
Leo punches a button and Josh’s voice fills the office. “Good job on the mid-terms, guys.” He
says.
“The house stayed the same.” Sam replies.
“Yeah, well…it could have gone a lot worse.” Josh replies.
“How’s Florida?”
“Outstanding.” He immediately replies.
“Really? Even with that bad weather? It’s been raining pretty much non-stop since you got
there.” Leo gives me an unamused look. I can’t help it. It’s in my nature. This stuff is literally
programmed into my DNA.
“No, the rain sucks. But it’s been ages since I spent any real time with my mother.” Josh
replies.
“When do you think you’ll be back?” Sam asks, sitting down. Good job, Sam. I can’t get in
trouble for that.
“I’ll be back in Washington in about two weeks.”
“Have you heard from Donna?” Sam continues.
“Yeah, she’s great.” Josh replies. “She’s coming back when I am.”
“When are you coming back to work?” I ask. What? It’s the natural flow of the conversation!
Pause.
See?
“We’ll talk about that when you get back to Washington, Josh.” Leo jumps in and saves him. I
keep forgetting about their history and that’s something I should never forget.
“Will do.” Josh says.
“Take care, Buddy.” Sam says.
“You too, Sam.”
“We’ll see you soon, Josh.” I say.
“Auf Wiedersehen, Toby.” Josh says and disconnects. Leo rolls his eyes. Sam looks
perplexed by Josh odd choice of closing, but shakes it off.
“Well, that’s good news.” Leo says. He obviously got a lot more out of that conversation than
I did. But I did get more than I had before…
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“I thought you didn’t want Toby to know.” Donna says as soon as I disconnect the call in our
room.
“Well, I don’t. And I don’t think he’s allowed to know, but he’s been bugging the shit out of
Leo. I thought maybe I could give him enough to figure it out on his own. Toby never really
needs confirmation of anything.”
“Leo’s not going to be very happy with you for that.” Donna says sternly.
“Probably not.” Josh shrugs.
“How’s your hand feeling today?” she asks as I slide across the bed where she’s sitting cross
legged with my laptop open in front of her.
“Throbs a little.” I shrug.
“Well, maybe that will teach you not to punch concrete walls.” She replies. Geez! She’s really
on my case today!
“Probably not.” I reply. “What are you doing?”
“Looking at things to do in Paris.” She smiles sidelong at me. “Though it doesn’t sound like
we’ll be able to squeeze it in now.”
“Why not?”
“You told the White House we’d be back there in two weeks.” She looks very disappointed.
“Well, maybe it’ll be two weeks and a few days then.” I say.
“Really?” she smiles perking up again.
“Did I or did I not promise you Paris or Hawaii?” I push myself up on my good hand and kiss
her neck.
“You did!”
“And you seem to have picked Paris.”
“I figured since we were already over here, it would be easier. I could always bug you to take
me to Hawaii during re-election.” She pokes me in the ribs, but tips her head back so I can
kiss along her collarbone.
I slide the computer out of the way and she eases back into the pillows. “I take it we’re going
back to the White House then?”
“Do you not want to?”
“I want to be wherever you are, Donnatella.” I say. “I like my job, I do. But not as much as I
love you, and if you would feel better being far away from there, I’ll do that.”
“Well, how likely is it that your past will come back again?”
“I’m not going to go looking for it anymore, Donna. I promise you that.” I look right into her
eyes so she knows I mean it. Donna can always see through me when I’m lying. “It’s unlikely
that anyone else would come looking for me. After Jacobs’ arrest, the FBI is doing an internal
investigation and anyone working for Reiger no longer has the funding to come after me. I
can’t say I’m 100 percent positive it never will, but it won’t be because I went to look for it.”
She nods and then looks down between us.
“Donna, if you’re scared about being around me…”
She snaps her eyes back up to mine and… uh oh…I’m in trouble. She shoves me and sits
up. “Joshua Lyman, you idiot!”
“I’m sorry!” I say quickly and wrap my arms around her and bring her back into the pillows.
“Don’t try and charm me!” she snaps, half-heartedly trying to pull away.
“I’m not.” I say lowering my voice to my husky voice that I know makes her nuts.
“Stop trying to give me outs, Joshua.” She orders, but she lets me ease her back down to our
previous spot.
“Kay.”
“I’m serious.”
“They might not let me back in, you know.”
“Leo hasn’t said anything about that.”
“Leo’s not in charge of the Secret Service, Donna. The President was shot during an
attempt on my life.”
“But once the Secret Service talks to Justice…” she starts and trails off. One look at my face
though tells her that may not be the case. “They’ll hash it out, right? Reiger’s dead; Liesel’s
in jail.”
I shrug. “I guess we’ll see.”
She looks at me for a long moment before she speaks. “Well, if they do let you go back, I’d
like to go back, Josh.”
I smile lightly at her. “Good.”
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
22.
“Sarah? There’s someone here to see you. Two someones actually.” President Bartlet
announces and Mom shoots to her feet in time to see Donna and I come through the door.
“Joshua!” I run into my mother’s arms and we hold on to each other long enough to assure
ourselves, and be assured, that each of us is fine. Donna’s watching us with a tremulous
smile on her lips. We both spoke to Mom after we’d first discovered the treasure (and
eliminated Reiger) and again a week later when we were touring Paris; that was an amazing
week. But Donna and I both knew from personal experience that hearing the voice wasn’t the
same as seeing the face and holding the body of someone you love.
“How’s life at the White House?” I tease.
“I could get used to it. Maybe you should think about running for office.” Mom teases back.
“I’ll keep it in mind if I need to come up with an alternative career.” I promise. Donna and I just
arrived and I haven’t seen Leo or Ron Butterfield yet. My professional fate appears very
much in limbo here. I wasn’t sure they’d let us in the building.
“Donna, honey, are you okay?” Mom holds out an arm to invite her into our family circle. She
joins us without hesitation. “You’ve had quite the adventure.”
“That may be understating things a bit.” Donna replies. “But these last few days in Paris have
had a restorative effect.”
“I’ll bet.” President Bartlet remarks. “Josh, take your time with your family, but come see me
and Leo when you’re done.” He orders gently. I like the fact that he refers to both these
women as my family.
“Yes, sir, thanks.” We end up sitting on the couch all together with Mom in between Donna
and I.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you both.” Mom shakes her head and squeezes our
hands. Then she gets a puzzled look and looks down at Donna’s hand. “Hmmmm…. is there
something you forgot to tell me on the phone from Paris, Joshua?”
“I did not forget. We just wanted to tell you in person.” I smirk over at Donna because I told
her this would be the outcome of ‘waiting’ to tell my mother. “I asked Donna to marry me while
she was drunk on French Champagne and slipped a ring on her finger before she sobered
up enough to reconsider.”
Mom slaps my shoulder. “Donna, I’d say ‘congratulations’ but I’m not sure that ‘condolences’
wouldn’t be more appropriate.”
“Mom!” I protest mildly.
“I know what I’m getting into, Sarah.” Donna says with a sweet smile for me.
“I’m sure you do.” Sarah agrees and kisses her on the cheek. “Welcome to the family.”
“Thanks.” Donna replies. “I’m just going to go freshen up a minute before we have to go
downstairs to discuss our career options.” She excuses herself to give me a few minutes
alone with Mom. I send her a smile of gratitude.
“You’re done with this business now, right Joshua?” Mom asks immediately.
“Completely done.” I promise her.
“Even if Michael calls with another hot lead on someone?” She presses.
“I’ve already told him I’m retired. I think he’s ready to be done too.” I assure her. “We did a lot
of good, Mom. We captured a lot of the monsters responsible for the holocaust and we were
able to return family items to thousands of people; even more once they finish cataloguing all
the items from Reiger’s storehouse.”
“I know.” Mom closes her eyes. “But it wasn’t without a tremendous personal cost either. If
things hadn’t turned out the way they did with Donna…”
“Please, don’t even think that.” I shake that alternate ending off. Donna is safe and sound in
the building and even wearing the ring I bought her in Paris.
“I just mean that you have others to consider now.”
“I know that, but I had others to consider before too.” I remind her. “I had to finish what Dad
and his Dad started. I had to.”
“I wish I could say I don’t understand you, but I was married too long to your father to claim
ignorance.” Mom admits. “Now you’ve closed that book.”
“Yes, both literally and figuratively.” I assure her. “After I finish this one last thing.” I get up
and grab the flight bag I brought with me. “I have a couple things for you.”
“Presents from Paris?” Mom’s eyes light up.
I smirk. “You get those too, but Donna has them in her bag and she wants to give them to
you. This is…family business.” I explain. “We were able to acquire some things from the
recovery operation in Austria. A lot of it is untraceable, but some of the items had
identification markings and are being returned to the families that the items were stolen from.”
“Josh?” Mom says my name tentatively and I nod. She starts crying before I can even give
the items to her.
“The wedding rings belonged to Grandpa and Grandma. Remember how he always said he
regretted not having them before he died?” I unwrap the simple bands of gold inscribed with
the names of Yosef Liam Sternberg and Ariella Sternberg.
”Oh Joshua…” Mom holds them in her closed palm and hugs me tightly.
“There’s one other thing.” I unwrap it from the bubble wrap Donna had carefully wrapped it in
and hand Mom the Menorah that was recovered; also engraved with our family name. Mom
looks up and covers her mouth with her hand.
“After all these years…” Mom keeps shaking her head in disbelief. “Your father would be so
proud of you, Joshua. Not just for this, but for the man you’ve become.”
Now I’m crying too. “That’s because of you too, Mom.” She nods a little but her eyes are all
about inspecting every detail of the Menorah.
“I’ll be very honored to hold these in trust for the family, but I think you should consider using
the rings when you and Donna marry. Take something from the past into the future.”
“I’ll talk to her about it.” I promise, moved by the very thought and knowing Donna would feel
the same.
Mom chuckles. “You’ve already learned to consult Donna before making decisions that affect
both you? Finally, proof of that brilliant brain I’ve been hearing about.” She kisses my cheek
to take the sting from her teasing.
“You know, if I had a self confidence problem, that’s the kind of thing that could mess a guy
up for life.”
“Self confidence was never an issue for you.” She rolls her eyes. “If anything you had too
much and never realized when you were attempting the impossible; maybe that’s why you
achieved it so often.” Her gaze traveled around the beautiful White House sitting room. “I
mean, look where we’re sitting; look what I’m holding all because of you.”
“I love you, Mom.” I tell her even though I know she knows it already.
“And I love you, Joshua, with all my heart. I pray that now our family can enjoy that love in
peace.” That sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
“I’d better get downstairs and you’d better get your things packed.” I advise her.
“We’re going to your apartment?”
“Uh….it needs a little clean up work right now.” I shrug off the damage Reiger’s people did
when they ransacked it. Nothing there was priceless to me and as long as Mom and Donna
are safe…well, the rest can be replaced and cleaned up. The anti-semitic slurs they painted
on the wall need to be painted over though, and I’m not taking Donna or Mom back there
until it’s fit for habitation again. Mike assured me he was on it and I trust him. “In the
meantime, we’re going to be staying at a posh DC hotel. You’re going to be completely
spoiled for Connecticut after this.”
“I’ll take my chances…besides, Florida is looking better and better to me.” Mom admits and
gets up to pack.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“You started without me?” I say lightly, although I’m feeling anything but calm about them
starting this conversation without me. Donna is sitting by herself on one of the couches in the
Oval with Ron and Leo sitting opposite her and the President in an armchair between them. I
join Donna and take her hand.
“Just some small talk.” President Bartlet assure me. “A proposal in Paris? I didn’t know you
had it in you, Josh.”
“Donna inspires me, sir.” I tell him with a smirk.
“In more ways than one.” He agrees and motions to the papers in his hand. “I’ve been
catching up on your reports from Europe. You two make a formidable team.”
“We had a lot of help, sir.” Donna adds. “From incredibly well trained teams of the FBI and
the CIA; not to mention the assistance from Operation Last Chance.”
“I guess what I’m asking is if you think you’re done with this business, Josh.” President Bartlet
asks point blank.
“I am well and truly done, Mr. President.” I assure him. “This was the last thread I needed to
tie up for my family.”
“We’re asking Josh, because--” Ron began.
“I know why you’re asking, Ron.” I interrupt him. “Let’s cut to the chase. Do I still have a job
here?”
“Josh…” Donna groans. I know she was hoping for something more…diplomatic, but this is
still me after all. She should have known better. Leo’s smirking now.
“Agent Harper is thinking you and Donna should come work for her.” He tells me.
“I don’t think that I’m cut out for that kind of life.” Donna states. “But it’s a very nice
compliment.”
I just keep eye contact with Leo. Finally he speaks. “If any of this gets started up again--”
“It won’t.” I interrupt again.
“-you’ll be involuntarily separated.” He finished without batting an eye. “It’s too big a security
risk for the President and everyone else around you.” He tells me sending a significant look
at Donna. I nod in understanding.
“I’m done, sir.” I address my comment to the President. “I’d like to continue my work here; we
both would. But I’ll understand if you think that’s a bad idea.”
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, Josh. I think I’m going to need someone brilliant to help
me accomplish all the things we want to accomplish this term.” He answers. “Do you know
anyone who fits that description, Donnatella?”
“Well…there’s Agent Harper…Agent Dillon seemed to have a pretty sharp mind….this whole
thing would have never been resolved without Mike Casper’s hard work and then there’s--”
She stops abruptly when she sees my expression.
“I was speaking of someone who is brilliant about politics, Donna.” The President gently
chides her.
“Oh. Well, then there’s really just Josh.” She smiles up at me and I reward her with a kiss. We
both turn to look at the President, who nods at Ron.
“Okay, then. The first order of business is to wipe both your names from these reports. Agent
Casper and his crew, as well as Operation Last Chance, will get credit for the arrests and the
recovery.”
“That’s not right.” Donna objects. “I don’t care about my name in there, but Josh has spent
most of his life trying to capture--”
“Yes, and you and I know the truth. My mother, father, and grandfather know it too. That’s all
I need. Plus, it’s going to go a long way in keeping us safe from any repercussions from all
this. So we’re going to cooperate in any way Ron wants us to.” I tell her.
“Got it.” Donna agrees immediately and I’m startled by her acquiescence. Damn, I didn’t know
I had that kind of power.
“Anything else, Ron?” Leo asks.
“We think, under the circumstances, keeping a lower profile for a few months wouldn’t be
remiss.” Ron added.
“That should be easy enough. Josh is still recovering from a gunshot wound. That alone
should enable us to keep him under the radar.” Leo decides. “When are you two thinking of
starting back?”
“Monday?” I suggest.
“Monday.” The President agrees and stands up in dismissal. Donna and I follow suit, as does
Leo and Ron. “Listen…I won’t be able to mention it out loud again, so I want to take this time
to tell you what an incredible job you’ve done with all this, Joshua. It’s no small feat, and while
we can never bring back the lives that were lost or undo the atrocities that were committed,
you’ve brought justice on a great many of the individuals responsible for much of the death
and destruction. I’m very proud of you, Josh.”
That choked me up and Donna has to squeeze my hand to get me to answer. “Thank you,
sir.” I really can’t get out any other words and I have to look down at my shoes to keep the
tears in my eyes from spilling over.
“We’ll see you first thing Monday morning, Mr. President.” Donna fills in the silence and tugs
on my hand. We leave the Oval through the portico and I pause there a minute to pull myself
together.
“It’s okay, Josh. It’s been a pretty emotional day.” Donna rubs my back with her hand.
I chuckle at her understatement. “Mom wants to give us the wedding bands.”
“I’d be honored to wear them.” She tells me quietly. “It will be like having your grandparents
with us.”
That does it and the tears I’d been battling back, spill over my face. Donna wipes them away
with gentle fingers and I see that she’s crying too. “I love you so much.” I tell her.
“Ditto.” She grins impishly at me. “I’ve been thinking about our housing options for the
weekend. I think we should stay at the Hay Adams. I hear they have incredible rooms
overlooking Lafayette Park.”
“For like a thousand bucks a night. Are you trying to bankrupt me?”
“Are you saying I’m not worth a thousand dollar a night hotel room, Joshua?”
“Oh, no, I’m not going there.” I refuse to get sucked into that.
“Fine, then let’s go to Florida.” She counters.
“Florida?”
“Your mom really does want to look at real estate there, and we have four days. We could
make some wedding plans.” She pouts and I’m done.
“Two days.” I counter just for form.
“Three.”
“Two and a half; final offer. We have to get back here and get you settled into my place.” I
explain.
“We’re going to settle me into your place?”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight again.” I promise.
“Never?” She teases.
“Never.” I agree. “Get used to it.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” This agreeable Donna is quite unnerving. I hope it doesn’t last long.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“What the hell do you mean it’s been changed?” He shouts from his office.
“I told him if he wanted some of your time, he could damn well get his ass over here. You’re
barely back from medical leave.” I explain.
“You didn’t.” Josh says hopefully.
“I may have left out the ‘ass’ part but he got the idea.” I hate to pop his bubble but…
“Donna, I am perfectly capable of walking, or taking a cab,” He amends when I give him the
disbelieving look. “…to the Hill.”
“Of course you are.” I tell him and rub my palm against his cheek. “But this way he’s coming
to your turf. Isn’t that better?”
Yes, I’ve been…modifying his schedule a bit. But that’s within my purview as assistant and
fiancé. He’ll just have to deal with it.
“Donna, you can’t just--”
“Leave her alone.” Toby interrupts us.
“Toby, this has nothing to do with you.” Josh objects.
“You’re very lucky she puts up with you at all. Leave her alone and come to my office,” Toby
orders.
Josh gives me a look that says we’re not through discussing this yet. You’d really think he’d
know better than that by now.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
“Hey, you don’t get to dictate how I deal with Donna in the office.” I tell him as we walk toward
his office.
“Somebody ought to before you completely blow it.” Toby replies and opens his door.
“Your faith in me is quite astonishing.”
“I have no faith in you, Joshua. People who lie to me, don’t instill faith.”
“Donna didn’t want anyone to know we were in Paris.” I stick to the line we came up with. “She
didn’t want anyone to know she was in Florida with me; neither of us did. We’d just
discovered this…thing between us and we wanted some time and privacy to figure things out.
For awhile, we weren’t even sure we were coming back to work here.”
“Please.”
“Toby, you don’t know what it was like. Nobody watching over our shoulder or hard deadlines
hanging over our head. Just rest and relaxation, my friend. Rest and Relaxation.”
“That sounds pretty nice, Joshua.” Toby agrees. “But since you’ve decided to come back and
grace us with your presence, do you think we could get a little work done?”
“What do you need?” I ask and sit on his couch. It’s then that I notice what the television is
tuned to; an honors ceremony for Mike and his team with the President and the Director of
the F.B.I. It makes me smile.
“The Marriage Recognition Act; can you talk to your pal Skinner?” Toby asks.
“Huh? Oh, sure. I’ll have Donna set it up.”
“It has to be soon.” Toby reminds me, like my brain has addled while I was gone.
“Yeah, yeah…” My attention wanders back to the screen showing my pal Mike receiving a
medal and a plaque of some kind. God, he’s going to be impossible to live with now.
Toby notices where my gaze is focused. “That’s quite a medal your friend got there. I’m
surprised you aren’t there, too.”
“I just got back to work.” I protest weakly. “Besides, this is his moment.” I nod toward the TV.
“We’ll have a private celebration when all this hoopla settles down.”
“He deserves the hoopla.” Toby points out. “All of them do.” I look over at him, but his focus
is still on Mike and his team on the stage with the President and the Director. “They risked
their lives over and over again to seek justice for those who can’t seek it for themselves.”
“Yeah…” I agree.
“And this guy Reiger? The worst of the worst. There must be a special spot in hell reserved
for him and his pals.” Toby opines. “I’m glad Casper and his team are getting this special
recognition. I just can’t help but think about everyone else who helped in the captures and
recoveries that will never get to shake hands with the President and take a bow on the world
stage.” His gaze swings around to meet mine and I see understanding there.
“They know that they were a part of it and they were never in it for the glory to begin with.” I
explain and look back at McNulty receiving adulation from the crowd. He looks more than a
little uncomfortable. I chuckle. Dillon hams it up, while Mike rolls his eyes. Take a bow my
friends, you deserve it. “I’ll have Donna call Skinner’s office today.” I get up to leave.
“Anything else?”
“No, that was it. Just don’t screw it up with Donna, or I’ll have her working with me before you
can say ‘apology bouquet’.” He threatens.
“As. If.” I laugh at him. People just don’t understand how we work, Donna and I.
“Donnatella Moss!” I bellow from across the bullpen.
“Yes, master.” She shouts back and I’ve got to say I like the sound of that. Again, she reads
my mind. “It was sarcasm, Joshua, don’t get used to it.”
“You really know how to bring a guy down, you know that?” I tell her as we meet each other
halfway.
“Yes, but I also know how to bring a guy--”
“Donna!” I exclaim.
“What? I was going to say lunch!” She says smirking.
“I don’t have time for lunch. What’s his name is coming over to see me. You told me so
yourself.”
“Yes, but not for 30 more minutes; plenty of time for lunch. See how well I take care of you?”
She bats her eyes at me.
“Nobody does it better.” I agree. “However, I’m afraid to ask what lunch entails.”
“Well, it’s not burned beef.” Donna hedges. Shit. “But it’s not salad either. I’ve got it laid out in
your office. Let’s go eat.”
I let her lead me by the hand to my desk where I smell delicious Chinese food. I use the
remote to turn the TV on, but Donna tries to take it away from me.
“No news while we eat, Josh. It’s not good for your blood pressure.”
“This news is. Look.” I motion with my hand to the television and she sees part of the team we
worked with on a stage responding to thunderous applause.
“Hey! I forgot that was today.” Donna notes and leans close to me. “That applause is for you
too, you know.” She whispers.
I just smile and lift the can of Fresca she got us for lunch. That new attorney, Ainsley Hayes,
has us all drinking the stuff now. “To all the men and women who were part of the hunt.” I
toast.
“Hear, hear.” She taps her can to mine, we both take a sip and smile briefly before I can’t
resist and kiss her. As usual, my timing is impeccable. C.J. catches us in the act.
“Hey, hey! Not in the office. We had a deal.” C.J. protests.
“We’re on our lunch break.” I counter.
“Uh-huh.” C.J. replies with her tongue in her cheek. “Oh, good, I was hoping you had it on.
That guy there. Do you know who that is?”
“Uh, no.” I lie. “How would I know that guy?”
“He works with Mike, you’re Mike’s friend. It’s not like impossible you might have met him.” C.
J. explains and I relax.
“Sorry, Ceej.” I shake my head in the negative.
“Damn. Maybe you could ask Mike?” She suggests.
“He’s a stranger. Why do you think this is the guy for you?” Donna asks.
“He’s hot!” C.J. says motioning to the screen. “And he hunts dangerous Nazi war criminals.
Can you imagine being with a man like that?”
“Hmmmm…It is alluring in a way, I guess.” Donna shrugs and gives me a smirk. “But I prefer
the cerebral type.”
C.J. scoffs. “Not me. So what do you say, Josh? Give Mike a call and invite him and his
friends out for a celebration sometime this week?”
There’s NO WAY I’m doing that. Talk about dangerous missions! “I’ll see what I can do, Ceej.”
I tell her with a reassuring wink to Donnatella.
“You rock, Josh Lyman, I don’t care what everyone else says.” C.J. kisses my cheek. “And we’
re very glad you’re back.”
“Me too, C.J.” I keep my eyes on Donna’s. “And except for a Honeymoon, I don’t plan to be
out again for the rest of the term.”
C.J. took one more glance at the TV as she walked out. “Good. If only we had men like that
working here.”
Donna burst out laughing and her happiness was just so infectious, I had to kiss her
again…and again… Hey, at least I closed and locked the doors first! From now on, this is the
only person I’m going to spend my time hunting down, and I know that I’ll never have to look
far. Then I see the look in Donna’s eyes and wonder which one of us is the hunter and which
one is the hunted. Donna chooses that moment to kiss me again and I decide that I really don’
t care.
~THE END~
