Chapter 35

Special Agent Downs stood, his tension showing. He saw me looking at him and calmly said, "John, would you like to take a walk with me?"

This was a bit surprising, but the way he said it was more an expectation than a request. I was more than happy to get away at the moment. The females had disappeared into the kitchen and I had been asked more questions than I'd wanted to answer, by Jessica's father. In all fairness, it wasn't bad. He wasn't my father, who would ask insanely complex questions; although he was the father of a young girl. That said enough about the tenor of his inquiries.

Downs helped me up and handed me my crutches. I made it to the back door with him and then he watched as I made it down the stairs.

"How long have you been able to do that?" he asked.

"There's a thing called motivation. I hadn't really tried, until today."

He shook his head and then turned to walk into the back of the storage yard. I followed, wondering where we were going. Never having been here before, I had no idea the depth of the lot. When we were at least seven cars back, he stopped and sat down against the front end of one of the many cars there in storage.

"Ever play chess?" he asked me.

"Is it that game with those funny animal figures, castles, and stuff?" I replied with a grin.

He didn't look up at me to see my facial expression, when he answered, "You can fool me once ... I imagine you play chess as well as you play poker."

"Not quite as good, but good enough."

"How about bridge?"

"Nope. I think my parents play, on occasion."

"A lot of our life is like chess, John. We make a move, thinking where we want to go. Then someone else makes a move, we reevaluate, and move again."

"Ok," I responded, wondering where this was going and why he wanted to say this to me away from everyone else.

"Bridge has only one similarity to poker. You wager, or bid, that you can win. Unlike poker, you are counting on your partner to tell you, without saying it outright, what they have in their hand. A good partner can make your bidding easy. A bad partner can make you look like a fool. After the wagering goes back and forth, you have to do what you say you can. If not, you lose."

"You're not talking about games at all," I replied.

"Agent Barnes is my partner. I know where she is, in the game."

"What did Agent Woods do now?"

He raised his eyebrows, but didn't answer that question.

"The problem is, John, that sometimes you have to play chess, bridge, and poker ... all at the same time."

I had been thinking about Agent Woods, ever since I had heard he'd blown the cover. He didn't fit any agent model that I could see. There was something not right.

"Is it his father, or an Uncle, that keeps Agent Woods in the agency?" I ventured.

"You should be glad no recruiters are around to hear questions like that."

"I was thinking of joining the CIA, myself."

"Oh?"

"You said they have all the toys," I said with a grin.

He chuckled at that and then got down to business.

"John, the other agents will be here in," looking at his watch, "about an hour and a half."

"I thought they would be here in an hour ... well, an hour from when we were in the car, so that would be very shortly."

"They would have been, except they are stopping en route to pick up a search warrant."

My mouth opened, but that was in stunned response. I knew there was only one person who could have and would have done something like that.

"John, I have to go and be the front man. That's my job and part of why I play poker well. I don't like to lose."

"You're taking Agent Barnes with you as well," I said, understanding what he'd been saying about the bridge games.

"I don't like the idea, one way or the other. Understandably, I'd like her with me. On the other hand, that would only leave Woods and Ling here."

"That's it?" Jessica said. "I thought it'd be some complicated recipe."

"Sometimes," Theresa said, "it is the easy ones that feel so much like home." Turning, she saw Fiona and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I don't understand it. You two have ... well ... you have fun together."

Theresa glanced at her sister before replying.

"You don't have fun with your mother?"

"I used to. I think I'm more like my dad. Mom doesn't know what to do with me. She spends all her time ... Oh, never mind."

Jessica could see her friend was having a hard time with the conversation, so butted in, asking, "What's next and who has to set the table?"

"Everything is ready, we're just waiting for things to finish in the oven. I think you get the job of setting the table," Jeanie said. "If I remember right, we're doing this dinner because of you."