[Quinn 01] - The Cleaner

'The guy who threw it was aiming for the back of my head, but I turned at the last moment.' Quinn stared at her, waiting for more. Orlando sat down on the couch. 'They must have

keyed into our signal somehow. They knew where you were. From that they must have got a fix on me. Probably surprised the hell out of them I was right next door to where you were staying.'

'Then why didn't they get you?' Quinn asked.

'When you were in the sphere and our signal got jammed, I knew I only had a few seconds,' she said. 'I grabbed my gun, got behind the couch, and aimed for the door. I think their timing must have been a little off. They probably wanted to cut our communication and break in at the same moment.' She shrugged. 'It's how I would have planned it.'

Quinn nodded in agreement. It's how he would have planned it, too.

'There were three of them,' she went on. 'I got the first one as he came in. The second as he ran toward the bedroom. It was the last who gave me the most problems.'

'He was the one with the ashtray?'

She nodded. 'But he won't be throwing anything else soon. After that, I didn't want to wait to see if anyone else was coming, so I grabbed what I could and got out of there.' She nodded at him. 'Your turn.'

Quinn told her about his escape from the sphere, his conversation with Duke, and his subsequent return to the sphere the previous night.

'So are you intentionally trying to make me look like a slacker?' she asked.

'I wasn't exactly going to point it out.'

'Your sensitivity is touching,' she said. 'What about Nate?'

Quinn's mouth tensed. 'He should have checked in by now.' 'He's not going to.' 'I know.' Orlando looked at him for a moment. 'We'll find

him,' she said. Quinn nodded, but said nothing. He only hoped his apprentice was still alive when they did.

He thought for a moment, then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. 'I think it's time I had a real talk with Peter.'

'Yeah. Have fun with that.' She got up and walked into the bedroom.

As Quinn turned on his phone and dialed Peter's number, he could hear the shower being turned on in the other room.

A moment later, Misty answered. 'It's Quinn,'

he said. Silence on the other end. 'Misty?' he asked. 'Sorry,' she said, sounding shaken. 'It's just. . .

we heard you were dead.' 'When was this supposed to have happened?' 'Two nights ago,' she said. 'In Berlin.' 'I don't feel dead.' 'Thank God for that. I assume you want to speak

to Peter.' 'Please.' Within seconds Peter was on the line. 'Holy

Christ, Quinn. What the hell's going on?' 'You tell me.' 'Borko's bragging that he took you and your

whole team out. He seems to know you were

working for me.' 'Really? Tell me, who are you working for, Peter?' 'What's that supposed to mean?' 'The job with Duke was a setup,' Quinn said.

'Turns out he was in deep with Borko. I know. Shocking, isn't it?' he said, his voice flat. 'But you want to hear something even more interesting? He told me Borko was responsible for the disruption. And that he'd had inside help. You're the one who really wanted me to work with Duke. You begged me. Now it turns out Duke was working for Borko.

And Borko was the one who took out the Office. See where I'm going with this?'

'Fuck you. Fuck you for even thinking what you're thinking,' Peter said. 'You're saying I was in on something that killed several close friends of mine?You think I would have done that?' He paused. 'Fuck you.'

'You're the one who wanted me here.'

'I had nothing to do with what happened. As far as I knew, Duke was just helping us out. How was I supposed to know otherwise? I can't even leave my goddamn office. And I've got no one out there but you.'

Quinn paused. As much as it looked like Peter was involved, it just didn't seem right. He'd known Peter for a long time, and despite the man's faults, the head of the Office had never turned on one of his assets. So Quinn was inclined to believe him. But that didn't mean he'd make it easy for Peter. 'If it wasn't you, then who was it? Maybe you need to take a hard look at your employee situation. How's morale?'

'Go to hell,' Peter said. 'Everyone's clean here.'

'How can you know that?'

'I just do. All right?'

'If you say so.'

'What's your situation?' Peter asked.

Quinn took a breath. 'Nate's missing.'

'You think he's dead?'

Quinn hesitated, then said, 'No. I think they've got him.' 'Using him as insurance?' 'That would be my guess.'