Time. Maybe all I needed was time. And a hot bath. And a handful of aspirins.
Except I didn’t have any of those things.
Focus on the muscles. I could hear that yoga teacher say in that soothing, somewhat superior voice of hers. Feel the tension slipping away. Imagine a golden ball of warm light passing from the crown of your head to the base of your feet, removing all tensions.
Hey, this was actually beginning to work. The pain was slowly beginning to subside. My muscles relaxed. A feeling of well-being flowed through my body. Why didn’t they tell us about the magic golden ball in basic training?
As the tension falls away from your body—
The front door opened. The golden ball disappeared.
“So, we’ll start planning a security system to suit your needs, sir, and we’ll—”
“Oh! How silly of me! I forgot to show you the back porch. I’m very worried about it.”
Octavian had the foresight to come out first. He spotted me, turned around, and hustled the fellow back inside.
All the tension was back, times two. The golden ball of magic light was nowhere to be seen. I needed to get out of there. Now.
Another attempt at standing told me that wasn’t an option, so I crawled my painful way to some rosebushes at the front of his house and inched behind them, getting pricked and scraped as I got out of sight.
I was still there, on my hands and knees, five minutes later when Octavian and Juan Pablo Endara emerged from the house. Peeking through the rosebushes, some of the thorns adorned with drops of my blood and shreds of my clothing, I watched as the two men shook hands and Juan Pablo got in his car and drove off.
Once he had driven around the corner and out of sight, Octavian looked around, confused.
“Barbara?”
“Right here, dear.”
“Where?”
“Kneeling behind the rosebush.”
“Why are you doing that?” he asked, coming over.
“Because I can’t stand.”
He eventually got me vertical, brought me inside, and put one of those heat packs the athletes use on my back.
“I need them sometimes after a long walk or when the weather turns,” he admitted as he arranged the pillows around me on the sofa.
The heat pack, some aspirin, and a hot tea fixed me up, and in an hour I was mobile again.
Turning on the GPS locator, I found the Escudo Security car was at the same coordinates as the office. Well, that didn’t tell me much. Once it got moving again, I’d keep an eye on it. I’d already rented a car so they wouldn’t be able to spot me by my vehicle, which they might know by sight. It would be nice to know why they were spying on me, but just knowing they were was enough to put me on guard. I felt bad bringing Octavian into this. I didn’t want him in danger, but he had volunteered knowing the risks, and he had proven to be a big help already.
I decided not to put him at any more risk and to go back home until the security car made a move.
When I got there, I got the surprise of my life.
Eleven
It took a minute to recognize the balding middle-aged man standing on my front porch. But then I mentally put back the hair, took away the wrinkles, and exchanged the sweater and slacks for camo.
“Junior! What are you doing here?”
Gary Wycliff limped off my porch with a big grin on his face and gave me a hug.
“Ow! Careful. I threw my back out.”
“Oh, sorry. Let’s go inside and talk.”
We both hobbled into the house.
“Well, don’t we make a pair,” Gary said.
“That we do. Time is not kind. When was the last time we saw each other?”
“At James’s funeral.”
“Oh, yes,” I said quietly. “Yes, that was it.”
I brewed him a tea, lost in thought. I tried to focus on the case and the reason why a fellow agent was sitting in my living room getting mauled by my kitten, but my mind kept casting back to earlier times.
Gary hadn’t been the only agent we had worked with, but he had been one of the best and certainly the best who was still alive. It was a shame that Taliban attack had put him permanently on the disabled list. The nation had lost something that day.
Having him here brought back a whole flood of memories—about being younger, about still having a husband, about still having an exciting career. Fixing the tea in my perfect little kitchen looking out at my lovely little garden, I felt like I had left the best years behind me.
Oh, I know I shouldn’t feel sorry for myself. I have a wonderful family, some nice friends, and a good pension. I had a lot more than most people, and yet I couldn’t help but feel a bit useless. The world had kept on moving, and here I was in Cheerville.
Buck up, Barbara, I told myself. The world has indeed kept on moving, and it’s bringing you along with it. There’s a CIA agent in your living room, and he’s obviously not here to sample your tea. Time to get useful.
I squared my shoulders as much as my sore back would permit and went out to the living room. These little episodes of self-pity had started when James had passed and welled up more and more frequently as the years crept on. I had faced many frightening things in my life and had defeated most of them. I suppose I feared death and aging so much because they were undefeatable.
Stop. You have a mission to do.
“So, what’s next?” I asked as I set the tray down.
Gary laughed. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Oh, I don’t know about
