She shivered in the desert night air and pulled her jacket tighter around her as she paced near her car.  Above her thin wisps of cloud scudded like white capped waves across the moon, obscuring and then exposing the sliver that was all there was of the new moon, creating shifting shadows that made her start each time they moved. 

He should have been here first.  The other one had always been there first knowing she hated to wait, that it terrified her being out here alone.  He should have been here and he wasn't.  She dug a cigarette out of a pack in her pocket and lit it, watching the flame from the bic lighter make the shadows worse, sucking in the nicotine and wanting a drink or a pill or something, anything, to stop the crawl of her nerves.

When this one had told her the other one had disappeared she'd been ready to run, just get in her car and drive as fast as she could to someplace else.  But she couldn't.  She had a kid and his father, the louse, had a court order keeping him in Nevada and there was no way she was leaving without him.  She was doing this for him, to be free of the louse who lived to screw her around and the freedom to leave this dust pit that had wrecked her life.

He should have been here by now.  She was doing him a favor, risking her life for them and he shouldn't be treating her like this.  She ground the butt under her heel.  Screw him, screw them all.  She'd take her kid and disappear.  The cops wouldn't waste a second on a nobody like her and the louse only did it to bust her chops, he didn't give a crap about his son.  If he gave a crap he's pay more child support.  He'd show up for visitation on time and without his bimbo of the week, or bozette of the hour on his arm, choking the air in her lungs with the cheap smelling cologne that cost more for an quarter ounce than she made in a week. 

She ground her heel into the butt again savagely, pretending it was his face and the face of everyone else in this dust pit who'd conspired to wreck her life and make it so she had no choice but to be shivering out here in the desert in the middle of the night, so scared she was about to pee her pants.  He should have been here by now.  And she wasn't waiting any longer.  She glanced in the back seat, making sure the kid was still asleep and shoved the key in the ignition. She was history.

She'd started her car when another car came up the narrow road. She turned it back off and waited. She couldn't get by the car anyway.

He pulled up next to her and said, "Hi Diane. Sorry I'm late. I was worried about another car. I wanted to make sure no one had followed me. I'm Terry." 

As he spoke to her through the rolled down windows he got out of the car, holding his hands in sight of her. She eyed his hands and then the rest of him, taking her time, making sure about him, making sure he was right, that he felt right, or as right as a cop ever felt.  When she was sure she got out of her car, moving slowly, careful to keep the door between them.  "Yeah," she said, sliding past him, giving herself room if she was wrong, room to run if she had to. 

"So," Terry said, leaning back against his own car, lighting up a cigarette, "you wanted to see me?"  He didn't want to rush her. She was obviously terrified.

She scowled and dug out a cigarette of her own.  "Yeah.  But before we get to that when are you getting me and my boy outta here?  I swear they know something and I can't keep doing this shit.  That was our deal."

"Yeah, I know. What do you have for me?"

She scowled again and sighed.  The jerk, they were all the same.  Selfish pricks, everyone of 'em.  "There's something getting ready to happen.  Something that's got 'em all jumpy and angry like.  So they're bringing in more security and the top floor, they're doing something up there to the penthouse getting ready, but I don't know what.  And I should, ya know?  It's my job dealing with the vendors.  So it's real weird."

"Okay, that's good. You hear anything about our agent?"

She shifted restlessly, not looking at him.  She shouldn't have waited.  She shouldn't ever have come at all, or told them she'd heard something.  "I was waiting, with checks I needed signed, you know?  Ones I needed countersigned 'cause of the amount.  And they were talking, it was the morning after I saw him last.  And Mr. Gelton wanted to know how it went, was the problem taken care of, ya' know?  And Mr. Lewis, he said it would be as soon as they got what they needed outta of 'em.  Then, he said, he'd finish with 'em, prolly by that night.  And it was the way he said it, ya' know?  Creepy like, but like he was pleased too, and kinda looking forward to something."

Terry frowned. It was something. Not a lot. "You look scared. Why?  Russ said you were pretty cool."

"I told ya'.  Because," she ground out, wondering how men lived past ten they were so stupid, "they know something, they're watching me all the time, 'specially now.  And a couple of times, I think someone was watching the house, kept driving by, ya' know.  In a car I'd seen before, like at the store and picking up Danny at the sitter's."

"All right. I get it. I know this can be scary. You've been wonderful. Tell you what. Let me see if we can get you out. I want you to go home, pick up Danny like always. Don't do anything different. Don't pack. Don't do anything at all that's not usual, okay?"

"I already got Danny in the car," she said, licking her lips.  "I'm taking him to my sister's.  It's her kid's birthday this weekend and we're staying over."

"Okay, good. Go to your sister's. Act like usual. Nothing different. I'll call in the morning when I've got it set up."

She nodded, her mouth dry and her head pounding with relief.  "Don't screw me on this," she said, half pleading with him. "I did everything you wanted.  So don't screw me on this."

"I won't, " he promised, a promise he expected would cost him arguments all night. She wasn't a Zoo resource, she was DEA's. They weren't gonna be happy but he was getting her out of there one way or another, even if he had to call in every marker he had at DEA.  "Go home.  I'll call you by 6am. I want you moving like you're taking Danny to school like always. Understand?"

She nodded, almost dizzy.  He meant it, he was gonna get her outta here and she'd be safe again.  She started to say something more and just stopped.  Then she flicked the butt away and nodded again.  "Thanks," was all she said as she turned to the car.  Then she added, "I'm sorry about Russ, he was a nice guy, ya' know."

"Yeah, I know. And he wanted you and Danny out safe, so we're gonna make that happen."

"Yeah," she said and shoved her key in the ignition.  "'Night."

He was already on his cell as he watched her drive away. "It's me, Coop. I want her out. Tomorrow morning first thing. She's terrified."

He hung up and let Coop take it from there. And he'd follow up with DEA when he got back to the apartment. He waited 20 minutes, and then drove off back to the city.

Diane first noticed the car behind her when she pulled into her subdivision, the same one she'd seen before.  She griped the steering wheel hard, the sweat on her palms making her hands want to slip around and concentrated on making it home.  She saw her driveway and wanted to sob with relief as she hit the door opener for the garage.  She turned carefully into her driveway and was planning dinner in her mind when she saw them step out of the shadows in the garage, three of them, just standing there, casual and sure and waiting.  She slammed on the brakes and ripped the gears into reverse, then floored it to get out of the driveway, to get away, stifling the scream she wanted to scream so bad it made her whimper, but she couldn't, she didn't dare with Danny in the back seat.  So she bit her lip hard, tasting blood and felt the car jerk and then move backwards as she automatically looked behind her. 

She did scream then, while her foot hit the brake like it was trained to do to avoid an accident, to not hit the car that was parked across the driveway, trapping her in the car, with her son  starting to cry in the back seat.  But she didn't scream when they slid into the car with her, she begged instead.  She promised everything she could think of, everything she had, offered them everything she knew, if they'd just let Danny out the car, and she kept begging, all the way to the end.

It had been a long night for Terry. He'd spent most of it on the phone. Luckily Leroy and the Jo's hadn't needed him. He'd argued with the DEA, talked to Coop and Rimes and even gotten the Refuge to agree to step in if DEA wouldn't move. Then, finally, around four am, DEA had agreed. Terry, exhausted, worried, had fallen asleep over his monitors. He awoke when the phone rang, giving him the details for getting Diane and Danny out. He wrote them down, and waited until ten to six to call her. When her phone kept ringing, and she didn't answer, he felt sick to his stomach.

Leroy jerked out of a troubled sleep. It wasn't much beyond dawn. It took him a minute to realize what had awoken him. He lay there listening to the sounds around him and finally recognized what it was. Chatter on radios. He got up and looked out his window. There were a dozen cop cars, two ambulances and and lots of cops milling around in the parking lot. He spotted the crime scene tape and then saw a body covered with a tarp.  Shit, shit, shit.

He called to Terry mentally and asked for info.

Terry, getting the call, felt even sicker.  He was on the horn in a second and what he learned made it worse.

 

Leroy lay on his bed listening to the all too familiar sounds of a murder investigation. He couldn't get back to sleep although he'd only gotten a few hours having gotten off work at midnight and been restless after that. So when Terry sent him a tight beam mental shout and a summons to the op center just up the street, he drew on clothes and zapped over there within only a couple of minutes of the call.

Betty Jo was the only one awake when the call came in.  It took her and her sisters a few minutes longer but not more than a few to get there.  "What's up?" she asked, foregoing hello.

Leroy's eyes sped to Billie, checking every inch of her in just the merest heartbeat just to reassure himself she was fine.

Terry looked like hell. It was clear he'd gotten even less sleep than Leroy. "Our informant is dead. That's the body that was in your parking lot, Leroy, I'm so sorry. I was trying to get her out this morning."

Billie eyes flew to Terry's while Betty Jo just shook her head slightly and sat down on the sofa next to Bobbie.  "Oh god," she said, her voice almost inaudible.  "Oh no."

Bobbie reached for her hand and squeezed it gently.

"I'm gonna go see Coop and Rimes. Decide what to do now. I'm thinking we're probably gonna end the op. It's way too dangerous."

"No!" Betty said, not a doubt in her voice.  "Not yet." 

"Yeah, not yet," Billie said, looking at Bobbie who was nodding her agreement.

"Look, we know it's dangerous. But we've still gotta find those agents. If they're alive we've gotta have a chance to get them out, Terry. Make that happen," Leroy said. "Cuz, I'm tellin' you right now, until I know one way or another, I'm not leavin'."

The sisters just nodded.

"Look, I know. But I don't like how that body just happened to turn up right where Leroy is staying. Leroy, you better damn well be extra careful."

"Yeah, I know, Terry," Leroy said. "I will be."

Billie looked at him and set her jaw.  "We'll all be extra careful," she said. 

"I hope to be back in a couple of hours," Terry added. "Sam from DEA will be sitting in here until I get back, and Coop will be monitoring from the Refuge."

They all nodded.  "Tell 'em all we said hi," Betty told him with a smile.