Money in hand and send button hit, I strolled over to the store. After living in New York for so many years, the quiet during the walk was disturbing. I was used to horns honking in the distance and people gabbing on the phone.
The parking lot was empty, as usual, and yet another thing I wasn't used to. It really must have been boring for a social butterfly like Katie to work there all day. I bet she didn't have the same problem I did about watching soap operas, though.
When I walked in, Katie didn't immediately greet me like she had in the past. "Hello, is anyone here?" I yelled. I didn't bother listening in to her thoughts to find her. I was fairly certain my head would explode if I dipped into that noggin.
I was getting ready to holler again when she appeared in one of the aisles. The smile she usually sported fell from her face when she saw me.
"Oh, it's you," she said, walking over. I expected a cold reception and I wasn't disappointed. At least she was predictable, although I expected her to know I was on my way.
"Yeah, sorry, I just needed to get a couple of things for supper. I even sent my list ahead of time for once."
"Sorry, I've been busy and didn't notice any new orders. Give me a second and I'll get the things you need so you can be on your way," she said, marching up to the cashier area.
"From the way you're acting, you'll be relieved to learn that this is actually my last day in town. We're leaving in the morning."
"That's great news. Because of you my husband lost his robot, so I don't think you can leave fast enough," she said as she inputted my grocery list, causing the conveyors to start up.
"Vinnie left all on his own. That had nothing to do with me. I'm sure he would've done the same thing even if I never came to this town." There was no reason to defend myself to Katie, but it was clear the same kind of rumors that had caused Ettie grief were being told about me.
"That's not what I heard. Hank says the robot befriended you and you gave it all sorts of ideas about it being more than a bucket of bolts." My items were to the checkout, so she started scanning them.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the pure disgust for me that I heard in her voice.
"Vinnie had a mind of his own long before I arrived on the scene. He told me he'd been asking them for a while not to install the new software. Like I said, that had nothing to do with me at all. The only thing that was my doing was fixing the code that Vinnie sabotaged in the first place. Your husband and his team are a bunch of self-centered jerks, who think way too highly about themselves for the little they have to show for their efforts."
"Shows how much you know. Their new robot is ten times better than Vinnie was and they're already making designs for a more sophisticated skin. They'll have a human-looking, functioning robot before the end of the year."
"I doubt very highly that the new system is better than Vinnie's upgrades. I looked at that code and I know the logic behind it won't produce a robot with half the self-awareness that Vinnie has. It looks like that technology is lost to them now because of their own stupidity."
"You don't know what you're talking about. You've only been here a little over a week; you have no clue about all the advancements that team has made," she said, working herself to a tizzy.
?"I don't doubt they've done some really cool things, but they lack the ability to see the bigger picture. Look, can I just pay for my stuff, so I can get out of here?" I asked. The conversation was getting us nowhere and the less time I spent with Katie, the better in my book.
"Sure, it'll be five-fifty," she said, holding her hand out expectantly.
"Here, I only have a twenty, so I'll need change." I handed the bill over, being careful not to touch her. I didn't want to witness her going into a fit about needing to disinfect my germs.
"Fine, I have to go get your change," she said, walking off to the back.
Not liking her attitude, and afraid she might coat my change with some kind of infectious disease, I started after her. When we got to the back, she opened a safe and took out the money. I looked in the safe and noticed a pile of documents on the think tank's stationary. Why would she have anything from there locked in a safe?
"Um, Katie," I said and she jumped. Apparently my ninja skills were in full force on the walk back. "What are all those documents? I didn't think nonemployees were allowed to have access to the confidential documents and I would think anything on company stationery would be considered confidential."
"Just pretend you didn't see them and get out of town as fast as you can." She moved some things around in the safe and pulled out a nine-millimeter Beretta. When people pulled guns on you as often as they did me, it helped to know how big the bullets coming out of them were.
"By the defensive position you've taken, I'm guessing you're the one selling secrets. What I don't understand is why you'd do something like that. Are you just grabbing anything, or do you know what you're selling?"
"What do you know about it? No one's supposed to know," she replied, staring at me like I'd grown a second head.
"'Sean' and I are undercover FBI agents, sent here to find out who was betraying their country. We focused our time at the think tank because it was logical that the person was someone from there."
I was having trouble believing the turn of events. I should've been used to the unexpected, but I liked to pretend things in my life weren't completely insane.
"You don't know what it's like to be in a town full of smart people who think you're an idiot. I spend all my time alone here, while they're all having fun in their labs. Most days I sit here reading about the stupid theories they think I'm too dumb to understand. ?
"I wanted to prove to them I was smarter than any of them. So I started taking their precious research and seeing what I could get for it on the black market. I have to say I've made a pretty penny." Crazy had left the station and it was time to call Nate.
"Nate, I need you at the grocery store now," I sent the message his way. I didn't hear a reply, so I hoped he'd dropped everything and was on his way.
"What are you going to do with the gun, Katie?" I asked, trying to buy some time.
"Well, the way I see it, you're a fed and I can't just let you walk out of here knowing about the documents. I've never had to kill a person before, but I guess when you turn to a life of crime, like I have, you need to learn to do it sometime." She raised the gun and aimed it at my chest.
I hated sticky situations, and Katie deciding it'd be okay to kill me was just a tad sticky. I could've used my power to move something to knock the gun from her hand, or just stop the bullets before they got to me, but I didn't want her to question how that happened.
I couldn't think of anything that I'd done before that would be easy to explain away. If anyone questioned why she claimed a safe magically flew and hit her in the head, I could've just said she was nutty, and chances were most people would believe me.
I thought a different approach was needed, just in case someone combed the scene and witness testimony more thoroughly than I wanted. Nate had said that I was born of fire, so I decided to try to heat things up a little.
First, it was best to keep her talking. "Come on, Katie, you don't really want to do this," I said as I imagined her gun heating up. If it worked, I made plans to find a closed off room and see what my mind was capable of.
"No, of course, I don't want to kill another person, but I don't have a lot of choices here. You know too much, and I'm sure you've seen enough movies to know what happens to someone who knows too much." I noticed her flexing her fingers a little bit.
"There's always a choice. What do you think Nate is going to do when I don't come home tonight?"
"Who in the world is Nate?" she asked. Her grip was visibly slipping from the gun. Lo and behold, my heat projection was actually working. To me it made perfect sense. If fire was a part of who I was, I should have control over it. I imagined Nate wouldn't see it the same way.
"Nate is my partner; Sean is just his cover name. I'm sure you'v
e seen enough movies to know that's how it works."
"Ouch," she whined as she dropped the gun, shaking her mildly burnt palm. I charged her, trying to knock her down, but she was ready for it. She kicked me in the stomach. I thought the kick warranted a punch to her face, which I gladly gave her.
We continued to exchange blows until I got bored and just tackled her to the ground. While she was squirming to get free, I pulled out the knife from my right front pocket and held it to her throat.
"Stop fighting. You're under arrest and just as soon as my partner gets here, we can see how you look in handcuffs."
For some reason I was never issued my own set. I was pretty sure Nate had something to do with that. He probably thought I'd use them against him in a nonsexual way. I ensured that I had her secure underneath me and thankfully Nate arrived within five minutes.
"Time to use those cuffs of yours. I found our bad guy," I said when he found us.
"You're saying Katie is the bad guy? You've got to be kidding," he said out loud. Mentally he added, "If I didn't tune into your thoughts after your S.O.S., I would never believe you. I'd think she just tried to overcharge you for flour."
I got up so he could work whatever magic he did when he arrested a suspect. I'd heard there were words you should say, but I left that up to him.
"Yeah, we were totally looking the wrong direction. We'll have to remember in the future to always check out the crazy housewife."
I took inventory of the little damage I sustained during the tussle. I'd have a few bruises, but nothing major. At least I wouldn't have to sit through months of Nate nursing me back to health.
"She's all secured," Nate said, after I heard the handcuffs locking in place. "I'll call this in and see how soon the local authorities can come pick her up. Then I think we need to celebrate tonight. I hope you were planning something special for dinner."
"If you classify chicken noodle soup as special, I sure did. I thought something mild would be best with the plane ride tomorrow."
We were back into the area of overly domestic. I didn't think most agent pairings talked about what one of them was cooking for dinner for the duo.
He thought for a second before saying, "You're probably right, but let's see if they have any sparkling juice or something else non-alcoholic that we can celebrate with."
"You make the call and I'll watch Katie, once she's out of our hair, we can make decisions on our supper plans."
He made his calls and we hung out for thirty minutes before a sheriff from the next town over arrived to take Katie away. During our wait, I babbled about how great it felt to be successful on my first mission. I really thought we'd be leaving there with nothing.
As we were heading out the door, Nate grabbed my hand and said, "Don't think I didn't notice how you disarmed her. Evidently, bored and lazy aren't the only times you decide to experiment. You've added life-threatening situations to the list. Before you do anything else, we need to have you checked out and make sure your brain isn't getting overworked."
I could understand his worry, but I didn't feel any drain on my brain. "I'm sure the tests will be just fine, but if they make you feel better, we can do them. I'm guessing you have a special phoenix doctor you're planning to take me to."
?"When we get back to New York, she'll be one of our first stops."
We got into the Suburban and headed for our temporary home. I was kind of sad I wasn't going to be there when Hank discovered his wife was stealing secrets. I bet that would've been a rude awakening for him. I could've tried to view the exchange remotely, but I'd used my noodle enough for one day.
At the house, I quickly threw all the ingredients for the soup in a pot. I was going to make homemade noodles, but with all the excitement, I just grabbed a package off the shelf before we left. Technically, it wasn't stealing because I never got my change back. We ate the soup, sipping on the apple juice we were able to find, no sparkling juice in the little store, so our celebration was very mild. When we were done, we crawled into bed and called it a night. There was a long day of me freaking out about flying ahead of us, meaning we both needed as much rest as we could get.
CHAPTER 28
Two's company, three's a crowd