“Who is this?” she demanded angrily.
“You know who it is.”
She sank back in her chair, nearly dropping the phone. It was Scott. She knew his voice too well. It had been a ray of light through the darkest days of her life.
Tears gathered around her eyes. Her throat went hot, her voice dry. He was alive! Happiness burst through her. “My God, where are you? They told me you were dead.”
“Is anyone there with you?”
He sounded so normal, when she felt as if she’d just come out of a dark fog. She shook her head, and then realizing how stupid that was said, “No. I’m in my office at home.”
“Is the ambassador there?”
“He left for work. God, Scott, what is going on?”
“It’s better if you don’t use names.”
Kate didn’t question him. Scott wasn’t paranoid, and whatever this was about, it had to be serious. “All right.”
“I need your help.”
“Of course.”
She could hear the faint sound of amusement on the other side. “Don’t you want to know what I’m getting you into before you say yes?”
“It won’t make a difference.”
There was a long pause. “You always were too good for him.”
She didn’t need to ask whom he meant. Once she would have argued with him, but she just let it go. He was right. “Tell me what you need.”
“Tex is messed up in a murder investigation in Scotland—the Isle of Lewis to be specific. I need you to make it go away.”
Kate was so happy to hear that Dean was alive as well that it took her a moment to catch up with everything Scott wassaying. He filled her in a little more on the details. Dean had apparently come to the rescue of a woman who unknowingly had become involved with OPF—an organization she was very familiar with—and they both had ended up being framed for murder when one of the terrorists killed the other two.
“That sounds like him,” Kate said.
“Not following orders?”
Kate laughed. “He’s still giving you a hard time, huh? No, I meant Superman always coming to the rescue and not being able to look the other way. It should sound familiar.”
There was a long pause while they both remembered how he’d come to her rescue—and what it had cost them both.
“He’s a pain in the ass,” Scott said gruffly, “but see what you can find out.”
Scott passed on the information about the woman’s credit card presumably being used to purchase the UNDEX—underwater explosive—materials, and what Dean had found out about OPF and their targets.
“He thinks there’s more to it?” she asked.
“He isn’t sure. But I agree—it seems like overkill.”
She agreed. “I’ll see what I can find out and point the police in the right direction.” It would be easy enough to tell them the CIA had been watching OPF—which they had—and assure them that “Dan” and Annie weren’t involved. “What else?”
Scott hesitated. “I’ve already put you in enough danger as it is.”
She could hear the worry in his voice. He was trying to protect her. But she wasn’t going to let him do that. Whatever had forced him into hiding, he needed her help. She would finally have the chance to pay him back for all he’d done for her. “Then tell me what happened out there so I know what I’m up against.”
He sighed. “You don’t fight fair, do you?”
