had to laugh. “Didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know, sorry.”
“Would you like me to rub your belly? It’s very relaxing.”
Kate was looking at the other woman questioningly as she said this. It sounded heavenly: She imagined Janice’s cool, soft hands soothing her abdomen, soothing her pain. But, she didn’t know if it was…. Sighing, she shut her eyes, and then opened them to find her liquid eyes still fixed on her own, inviting her to accept the pleasure.
In that moment Kate capitulated. She murmured: “Please, yes. I would like that.”
Janice moved the bed linen and Kate’s gown to the side. She placed the tips of her fingers on Kate’s abdomen and softly stroked small circles over her skin. At first Kate flinched slightly at her touch, but soon Janice could feel her muscles give way as she relaxed into the sensual pleasure.
How long had it been since she felt this good, Kate wondered? She couldn’t remember. If she had allowed herself, she would have realized that it wasn’t just the absence of pain or the soothing sensation that created the pleasure; there was something else. But she didn’t allow herself to think about that. She simply surrendered completely.
Janice watched Kate’s face as she moved her fingers over her skin. She knew what the something else was, for she was feeling it, too. Unlike Kate, she was in touch with that feeling, and she embraced it.
After about twenty minutes, Janice thought she’d better stop. She had to get ready for Fremont’s arrival. She raised her hands, and Kate opened her eyes and lips slightly, unhappy that the pleasure had ended.
“I’ve got to go see about Dr. Fremont’s arrival.”
“Hum…,” Kate mumbled. “Thank you.”
Janice smiled and put the bed clothes and gown back in position. Kate’s eyes drifted closed again, and her face was smoother and calmer than any time since she’d gotten here. Janice stroked her cheek, then left.
As she walked from Kate’s room to the nurses’ station outside, she noticed that Lieutenant Mary Rogers, one of the nurses in her charge and her best friend at the hospital, was watching closely. The window to the room had provided Mary with a good view of Kate’s bed, and when Janice walked behind the counter of the station, Mary moved next to her. In a low voice she said: “Be careful, Janice.”
While pretending to concentrate on Kate’s chart, Janice responded quietly: “Don’t worry, Mary, I will. She….”
Mary stopped her: “Don’t tell me anything, Janice. Just be careful, please.”
Janice nodded. She knew Mary was right. She would have to be careful. But she wasn’t going to back off, either. This could be too important, for her and for Kate.
Chapter Five
At 5:15 Holder had retrieved Major Margaret Fremont from Tempelhof, and they were on their way to the hospital. They didn’t talk much. Maggie Fremont was not one for small talk, and she especially didn’t want to make small talk with this man. A slight, dark-haired woman with sparkling blue eyes and a no-nonsense personality, Fremont had spent more than thirty of her fifty years affiliated with the US Army. For many of those years she had been one of the few female doctors in the Army.
She’d met Holder in Vietnam, fifteen years ago, when she’d operated on him after a failed mission. Since then their paths had crossed more often than she’d wished, but they did have an acceptable working relationship. She knew he was a spook and a handler, and she reckoned he was good at it because of what she considered his character flaws. Today she thought again that she glad he wasn’t HER handler.
After having heard Austin’s report on the phone a few hours earlier, she had questions for her old “friend.”
“Okay, Holder. Give me the story. Austin told me what terrible shape she’s in. How’d she get that way?”
“Need to know, Maggie. And you don’t.”
Snorting, she rejoined: “Cut the crap. It’s me you’re talking to. And I’m doing you a favor. Tell me.”
“What difference does it make?”
“I want to know, that’s what difference it makes. Stop playing games and get to the point.”
Holder shot her an unreadable look, then shrugged slightly.“All right. She was working undercover in East Germany. Someone betrayed her; we don’t know who. The Stasi arrested her and put her in Bautzen, their prison outside Berlin. We exchanged her for a Czech spy earlier today. That’s the whole story.”
Pursing her lips in cynicism, she said: “The whole story. That’s a laugh. All right, just tell me this: How long did they have her?”
“Six months.”
She gasped. “For the love of Pete! Why did it take so long? Was she that far down the list, or was it something else?”
“You mean did we leave her there on purpose? For God’s sake! Would I do that? She’s one of my best operatives.”
Fremont glared at him. “Leave God out of it, Holder. Of course you would do it. Remember, it’s me you’re talking to. But okay. I’ll accept what you’re saying for the moment. If you weren’t giving her up, why DID it take so long?”
“For the first month we didn’t even know she’d been arrested. Breakdown in communication. When she didn’t report in as scheduled, I set the wheels in motion, but things like that take time.”
Fremont harrumphed in disdain. “Right.”
“Maggie, it does take time. Then I got, well, distracted by other problems. It’s a fact of life that every operative has to accept. They are not always priority number one.”
“So while you were dithering, they were torturing her.”
“Believe me; I had no idea what they were doing to her.”
Another harrumph from Fremont.
“Look. This world of ours has its own rules. One of them is that you don’t mess with our people when they get caught, and we don’t mess with your people when they get caught. While you’re working out an exchange you don’t hurt them, at least not too badly.” He stopped when Fremont raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh, yes, of course this rule is superseded by another. If the operative is suspected of certain transgressions, they are at the mercy of the other side. But Kate was not arrested for anything major. There was no reason for them to treat her like that.” He paused. “I’m going to get to the bottom of it, you can count on that. Someone’s going to pay.”
“Who’s going to pay? Some other poor soul like Taylor, right?”
“Pour soul? Kate Taylor is no innocent,” he shot back.“She is a highly trained operative who has carried out many missions that have ended…hum…badly for the other side. It just so happened that the one they got her for was relatively innocuous.”
“Are you saying she deserved it?” Her eyes flashed at his implication.
“Shit no! But don’t confuse her with Mother Theresa. She is a dangerous, calculating soldier. As a soldier she has to accept what the battle brings her.”
“Soldiers know someone’s got their back. Did you have her back? Or is she an army of one? Remember, I’ve been a soldier for a long time. Soldiers look out for each other.”
She had found the weakness in his position, and he was annoyed. He turned to gaze out the window, pursed his lips. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now, is there? Except fix what they did to her.”
Fremont inhaled sharply. “Do you really think she can be ‘fixed’ as easily as that? For God’s sake, to say she’ll be scarred for life is not just a figure of speech. And she’s pregnant! Do you think the baby will just miraculously go away?”