Totally Spies Porn Story: Shooting Star Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

“Sam?”

“Sa-am!”

“Sam, wake up honey!”

Sam turned over under the comforter and tried to ignore her mother.

“Sam, come on. It’s time to get up.”

Sam
lowered the blankets and peeked out. The lights were off, and her
mother stood at the door with the light pouring in from the
hallway. She took one look out the window and pulled the blankets
back over her head.

“Come on, Sammie. You can’t stay in bed all day.”

Sam muttered from under the sheets, “Who says I can’t?”

“I do. Now let’s go.”

Every
day was another day Sam counted towards being in high school. However,
every day was also another day she was in junior high.

“Why do I have to? There’s nothing important happening today.”

“Because it’s a great day today, Sam.” She heard her mother enter the room and walk over to her bed.

Sam
looked out from under the covers and out the window. The low
clouds formed a continuous sky of gray. The thermometer hanging
outside the window read 40`. A strong wind was blowing
outside. Nope, no reason to go outside today, she thought.
She retreated under the covers saying, “It doesn’t look like a great
day to me. It looks awful.”

She felt her mother’s weight compress the foot of the bed. “So the weather’s bad outside, what does that matter?”

“It means there’s no point in going outside if it’s cold, wet, and windy.”

“That doesn’t mean good things won’t happen.”

Sam lowered the blankets to look at her mother. “Huh?”

“Sam,
look out the window.” Sam looked out at the cold, dark, wet day. “You
may see just a miserable day, and so do I. But the weather’s all that’s
miserable.”

“Don’t try and talk me into getting up, mom. It won’t work.”

“I
won’t, but at least listen to me first, and then you can decide.” She
took a moment to compose herself. “It’s true that the weather outside
is terrible, but people are still going about their business all the
same. We don’t know the future for sure, so every day is loaded
with possibility. You might get hurt, or you might not. You
might have an argument with your friends, or you might meet the future
love of your life. What happens today depends on what you put
into it. Just because it’s colder than you like it, or there’s no
sun doesn’t mean that good things won’t happen. It’s up to you, honey.”
Sam felt her mother’s weight leave the bed and she walked to the door.
“Now I’ve said what I wanted. Whether or not you get up is up to you,
dear.” She walked out the room and closed the door.

Sam
lay under the covers, staring out the window. Her bed felt like
the safest, most comfortable place in the world. It’s funny how
the indoor always feels better on a day like this, she thought.
Even the cold walls of the school feel cozy on cold, wet, gray days
like this. Especially with Alex and Clover. Even the worst
days are more tolerable when they’re around. Clover’s always
oblivious to anything that doesn’t directly involve her, and Alex
always looks for the sunny side to everything, and I’m always the
realistic moderator between the two. And then that little snot
Mandy always has something against us. What is her deal?

Sam
sat up in bed, still holding the covers tight around her. Maybe
mom’s right. Maybe today won’t be so bad. It’s just a little
wind. And it’s not too cold. It is just the weather, after
all. No need to let it spoil my fun. There’s plenty to do
that doesn’t require sunny skies and warm weather. She got out of bed,
shivering from the cold air in the house. She put on a bathrobe
and checked her calendar. One year, 42 days of junior high left.

Sam’s senses slowly came back to her.
She could tell she was lying on something soft, for starters. She
let her consciousness return at it’s own pace. She slowly grew
aware of a constant, comforting sound nearby. It had an irregular
rhythm, and the timbre constantly changed, never sounding quite the
same from one second to the next. Yet the pattern was always the
same, and it was very relaxing to listen to. She finally
recognized the sound; rain.

She forced her eyes
open. She felt extremely weak, and her eyelids had a hard time
getting open and staying there. The world was blurry to
her. All she could make out was the walls and ceiling at first,
and then she saw the window next to the bed. Drops falling from
the roof cast tiny shadows on the blinds, and eventually Sam could make
out individual drops as her eyesight returned to her.

With
great effort, she turned her head to look at the rest of the
room. She lay in a small bed in a small bedroom. The room
was sparsely furnished, with a dresser facing the door, and a bookshelf
at the foot of the bed and a table beside the bed. The door
opened into a hallway, where she could hear someone talking. The
speech sounded incoherent and remote.

She
started to smell something. It was faint at first, just at the
tip of her nose. The scent got stronger and stronger, until she
recognized the smell of bacon frying. The smell passed right
through her nose and seemed to rush to her stomach, which growled in
response.

Her head was still swimming, but Sam
decided to try and get up anyway. She started to sit up, but her
stomach knotted up and rivers of pain poured into her head. She
fell back into the bed and squeezed her eyes shut as the pain rose and
subsided. When she no longer felt that her head would explode,
she felt the area where her stomach had tightened up so suddenly.
She felt bandages under the shirt, and padding on the left side, just
above the waist.

She left her hand there for a
few minutes, trying to remember why she was bandaged. That’s right,
that guy shot me. The memories of the alley returned. Jacob and
me were fighting for our lives with the thugs. And then one of
them shot me. She remembered the sudden impact, followed by a searing
pain that began in a small spot and then spread through her entire body
from the inside. She remembered her senses fading one by one,
until she lost consciousness. She remembered the darkness and
stillness, thinking she was dead. It didn’t register during the
dream, because she thought she was just living out an old memory before
passing into the great beyond.

With
difficulty, she raised her hand out of the sheets and held it in front
of her face. She stared at her soft, slender hand for a while,
trying to collect her scattered thoughts.

So I’m
alive after all. I didn’t die in that filthy alley. She let
her hand fall. You weren’t meant for this kind of work, she asked her
hand, so why are you involved with these people and why do you keep
trying? Because it’s the right thing to do, that’s why.

Sam
decided to try getting up again. The person down the hall was
still talking, and now she could recognize it as being Russian or
perhaps some other European dialect. Normally she would have been
worried, but either she was too weak or just wasn’t thinking
right. She knew that just sitting up like usual would irritate
her muscles again. She gingerly turned onto her side, every inch
sending spikes of pain through her body and small waves of nausea
through her head. When she finally rolled onto her side, she
relaxed and focused, getting ready for the next move, which she knew
would hurt like hell.

Sam placed her right hand
on the bed and rotated her left shoulder to push herself off the bed.
She took a deep breath and pushed. Just as her body started to
leave the bed, her stomach sent shockwaves of pain through her whole
body in protest. She clenched her teeth and kept pushing through
the pain. After what seemed like an eternity, she was finally
sitting upright at the edge of the bed. Her body decided that since she
could deal with pain, it would resort to plan B. Wave after wave
of nausea swept over her, sending the whole room spinning. She
retched and wanted to vomit, but forced her body not to give in to that
reflex.

Her arms were sore from the effort, and
she was breathing heavily, perspiration forming on her head. A
dull, persistent pain materialized at the wound and spread through her
stomach. Part of her mind said, “Good job, you sat up! Now lie
back down, you’re still hurt bad. Don’t torture yourself!” The
other part of her mind said, “Where am I? Who took me here? Why am I
not in a hospital? Who’s here?” Her curious side won out.

She
placed one hand on the table and the other on the bed, then planted
both feet firmly on the floor. She leaned forward slightly and
pushed off the bed with both hands and strained her legs to lift her
up. She swayed forward and caught herself with the table and
maintained her balance. Once again, the effort exhausted her, and
she stood there for some time getting the feel for standing up again.
Sam noticed she was barefoot.

At length, Sam
eased one foot forward and took a step, keeping her hand on the table
for balance. Her stomach still hurt and her head still swam, but
she congratulated herself on remaining upright. She decided to
try a full step. Placing most of her weight on the table, Sam lifted
her back foot off the floor and carefully placed it in front. She
settled her weight onto her feet again and placed her hand on the wall
for support. This time the effort wasn’t such a strain, and she
let herself rest for just a few seconds before taking another step, and
then another.

When she reached the door, she
placed her hands on the frame and leaned out into the hallway.
The hall ended just to the left at a bathroom, and then continued a
short ways to the right and ended at a living room. Sam leaned
out into the hallway and fell forward, stopping herself on the opposite
wall. She flinched as a sharp jab of pain went through her, and she
instinctively placed her right hand over the wound. When the pain
subsided, she continued down the hall towards the place where she heard
the voice. She found Jacob sitting at a table, talking on his
cell phone, in Russian. He said a few final words when he saw
her, and turned the phone off.
“Hey, you’re up! I was afraid I’d lost you for a while, there.”

Sam
remained at the entrance to the room. The hallway ended at a
small living room with a couch and a few chairs arranged in front of a
stereo. A bar separated the living room from the kitchen, and
Jacob was seated at the table, sipping coffee.

“Wherewhere am I?”
“We’re at a friend’s apartment.”

“Whwho is that?”

“He’s less a friend than someone we can trust. He’s a medical student.”

Sam
groaned as another wave of nausea took her. She held her head in her
hand and shut her eyes against the spinning sensation. When she
opened them after the nausea passed, she noticed she wasn’t wearing the
same shirt she was wearing earlier.

“This isn’t my shirt.”

Jacob looked up from the magazine he was reading. “Hmm?”

“This isn’t my shirt.”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that. Yours was soaked in blood.”

“What?”

“It’s soaked in blood. I don’t think you want it back.”

Sam stared down at the shirt she was wearing, and then finally connected the dots. “You took of my blouse?”

“Well I didn’t, but our friend had to. You had been shot, after all.”

“You took off my blouse.”

“You were bleeding everywhere. We were lucky your pants came out of the wash just fine.”

“You took off my blouse!”

“You’re
really lucky, you know. If you weighed just a few pounds more, the
bullet might not have passed through you so cleanly.”

Sam was yelling now. “You. Took. Off. My. Blouse!”

Jacob
set his mug down and stared at her. “Yes! We had to strip you! Not all
the way, but it was necessary or else my friend wouldn’t have been able
to save your life! Now please calm down, as I’m sure your blood
pressure’s still low and-“

Jacob bolted from the
chair as Sam fainted. He caught her and propped her up on the
couch. A few seconds later she regained consciousness, but she
still looked furious through her half-opened eyes.

“Whywhy didn’t you take me to a hospital?” She sounded weak again.

Jacob
sat down in one of the chairs. “Picture this: A twenty-year-old male
walks in carrying a gunshot seventeen-year-old female. Naturally, the
police are going to start asking some really awkward questions which I
frankly cannot answer.”

Sam looked around again. “Where are we?”

“At the apartment of a guy we can trust. He’s a medical student at a charity hospital not far from here.”

“Where is he?”

“On duty right now. I’m hoping we can be gone before he gets back, but that depends on you.”

Sam sighed and placed her hand over her wound. “What happened after I blacked out today?”

Jacob smiled a little. “First off, that was yesterday.”

“What?”

“You’ve been asleep for a day and a half.”

“Really?”

Jacob
nodded. “After you passed out, I realized where we were, and remembered
that an old acquaintance of mine lived close by. I raced over
here as fast as I could and practically kicked his door in.”

“I almost died, didn’t I?”

Jacob’s smile vanished. “Yeah, almost. We were afraid you’d bleed to death, but we got it under control in time.”

Sam
remembered the last thing she saw before she blacked out. “I
remember something, just before I passed out. I saw you next to
me.”

“Yeah, I was there just before you went out.”

“You lookedscared. Why would you of all people be scared?”

Jacob
got up from the chair and walked over to the window. He leaned on
the sill and stared at the rain for a little. “Yeah, I was
scared. I don’t show it too often, but that time I did.”

“Why
on earth would you be so scared about me dying? Aren’t you supposed to
be a born killer?” Sam didn’t realize she had just let the secret slip.

“I
don’t know, Sam. Maybe I was just reliving a bad memory, or maybe my
guilt about dragging you and your friends into this mess was catching
up to me, but I was scared.”

“What do you mean?”

Jacob
paused. Sam saw a painful expression cross his face. Apparently
whatever happened to him was really bad. “When I was your age, I lost
someone really important to me. She literally died right in my arms.”

“Who was she? Your mother?”

“No.
She was more like an older sister than anything. Her death was so
sudden, I just lost it. I guess that’s where my intolerance
towards criminals came from.”

They were silent
for a few minutes. Sam asked him another question. “Why would you be
guilty about dragging us into this? Even I don’t have any regrets.”

“You don’t? Even after almost getting killed?”

“Yeah.
It’s weird. I almost died, I feel terrible, and yet I still want
to keep going. There’s still so much left to do. We’re doing this
because we want to. Why should you feel bad? It’s not your fault.”

Jacob smiled at Sam. “You’re very brave, you know that?”

“I get that sometimes.”

“The
truth is, I felt guilty because you’re so young. When I saw the
life leaving your eyes, something inside me changed. I didn’t see a
fellow operative, I saw a young girl with so much of her life left to
live bleeding out of her.”

“You’re not very old, either. Didn’t you say you were only twenty?”

“Yeah,
but with me it’s different. You three ought to be out going to parties,
dating guys, hanging out, and just enjoying your lives. There’s no need
for you to get mixed up in this game.”

“You’re
wrong. We have every right to get involved in this. We’re not
ordinary teenagers. We spend our free time protecting the world
from some of the worst criminals ever seen. Who are you to tell
us we can’t get involved when someone threatens our home?”

“Just a friend, I guess.”

“Friend?” Sam’s strength was returning with each passing minute. “I thought we were just ‘partners.'”

“What?”

“Outside the lab, remember? You called us your partners.”

“Yeah,
I know. I guess I was just caught up in the battle. All I could see
were my enemies in front of me. Everything else was inconsequential.”

Sam’s stomach growled loud enough for Jacob to hear it. “You must be hungry!”

“No
kidding, I haven’t eaten in over a day, like you said.” She started to
get up. Jacob walked over and helped her into the kitchen. He
opened the oven and removed a plate covered in aluminum foil. He
removed the foil and set down a plate with bacon, eggs, and a white
substance Sam had never seen before.

“What’s that stuff?”

“Grits. They’re popular in the Southeast. Nobody really eats them anywhere else.”

Normally,
such a breakfast wouldn’t have been Sam’s first choice. Normally,
she would have seen a pile of cholesterol and carbohydrates, but she
took one whiff of the food and found herself ravenous. While she dove
into the food, Jacob set a glass of orange juice on the table. “Eat up,
you’re going to need plenty of carbs and protein to get yourself back
up to speed.”

“Let me guess,” she said between bites, “no rest for the weary?”

“Nope.”

“Do you think they’ll sideline me for this?”

“Possibly. Depends on what Jerry thinks and how fast you recover.”

“What does Jerry have to do with it? Isn’t MacDonald in control of this mission?”

“Partially. He comes up with the plans and Jerry finalizes and ok’s them.”

Sam thought about what that meant. “Then, Jerry knew you were going to destroy that lab.”

“You three were probably the only ones who didn’t know.”

He
was about to apologize, but Sam silenced him with a gesture. “Don’t say
you’re sorry, it won’t do any good. We’ve been over this. It’s obvious
you’re always going to do things differently than us, so don’t even
bother pretending that you could!”

“You’re thinking it’s because I have a killer instinct, right?”

Sam stopped. “How did you guess?”

“I know everything Stephen told you in the park, and so does Jerry.”

“You followed us?”

“Bugged, yes. Followed? No. We were smarter than to go against his instructions.”

“You knew about the letter. How?”
“Think about it, Sam. WOOHP has a lot of secrets to keep.
Everything that goes in or out of the building is carefully
examined. Naturally, a handwritten letter from the terrorist is
going to raise a few red flags.”

“So you two let it get sent to our room.”

“It
turns out that Stephen had paid a cleaning lady to put it in your room.
We found out, but decided it might be better to see what happens. We
let her plant it, and then left those gadgets in the office.”

“You knew we’d search around in there.”
Jacob nodded. “That beret broadcasted not only to the earbuds, but also to a shortwave receiver outside the park.”

“Then you heard the whole conversation.”

“We also bugged your clothes for good measure.”

“And Jerry was in on the whole thing?”

“It was his idea.”

Sam
stared at Jacob, and he stared back. She saw more webs appearing over
the whole situation. Now Jerry of all people had gone behind their
backs. Jerry’s never done anything like that. He’s always honest
with us. Sam finished her breakfast in silence, and pushed the plate
away. Jacob took it to the sink. She folded her hands together on
the table and tried to sort the lies from the facts. Not the
facts, she thought, the truths.

“Something wrong?” Jacob asked.

“Not
really. No, there is something wrong. Jerry’s never been one to
keep things from us. I’m sure he has things he never tells anyone, but
when it comes to the missions he’s always open with us. It’s not like
him to be secretive.” She paused to reflect on those words, and then
she looked at Jacob and realized something. “It’s because of you, isn’t
it?”

Jacob was silent, but his face betrayed the fact that she’d hit the mark.

“I
knew it. This whole mission, we’ve been teamed up with you. And the
whole time, everyone was reluctant to tell us about you, your past,
Stephen, and your connection with him. I don’t know why I missed it! I
knew there was something different about this mission, and the whole
time it was you!”

Jacob lowered his eyes. “Congratulations, you win the prize.”

“Prize?”

“The truth.”

Sam
could feel her temper rising, but calmed herself, knowing that this was
not a good time to faint. “Who are you?” she asked coolly. “Tell me the
truth.”

“You want the truth? Okay, listen up.”
Jacob leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. His eyes darkened
as he recalled his past. “My name is Jacob Ravask. I was born in St.
Petersburg, Russia, into a family that heads one of the largest crime
syndicates in the country. They were careful to keep me out of their
affairs, preferring that I remain oblivious to their deeds.”

“When
I was about eight, I started to become aware of their activities. At
first, I thought nothing of it. I had been raised not to. Heck, I even
played a small part in a few of their activities. When I was ten,
I met the oldest son of a missionary working in St. Petersburg. He was
in his late teens, and very intelligent. The short version is he
opened my eyes to the foul nature of my family’s business. I went
to confront them about it, and I was horrified at how calloused their
hearts were. They just laughed at me when I said what they were
doing was wrong. It was then that I learned of the experiment, and that
I was its product. When I learned about the experiment, I
couldn’t stand being in their household another minute. I grabbed a few
clothes and ran straight to the police.”

“And that’s where the CIA found you.” Said Sam.

“Yeah.
It turns out they’ve been keeping an eye on my family for some time,
and still are. They decided I was too valuable to leave in the
country or something, so they brought be over here and set me up with a
foster family.”

“But that still doesn’t explain how you came to work for the government at such a young age.”

“My freedom came with a string. If I ever leaked what I knew, even accidentally, I belonged to the US government.”

“So you slipped up, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.
I’m not even sure how it happened. Just a slip of the tongue, really.
All that mattered was the next morning some people in suits showed up
and I’ve been with the government ever since.”

“Is that all, or are you still withholding part of the story?”

“That’s all that matters.”

“Stop lying to me! I’m sick of all the lies! I’m sick of all this secrecy!”

“Get used to it, kid. This business is all about keeping and stealing secrets.”

“What do you mean, ‘get used to it?'”

Jacob
started to become menacing again, like someone who knew a simple fact
that could turn someone’s world upside down. “WOOHP operates as a
humanitarian foundation just on the surface. Most of the world doesn’t
know about WOOHP – the developer of next-generation technology and
worldwide crime fighting network.”

“Yeah, I knew that. So?”

“Organizations
with secrets to keep tend to prefer keeping them. When someone knows
something extremely sensitive, the organization tends to keep them on a
short leash.”

Sam saw where this was going.

“Who’s to say that as soon as you graduate, you won’t be forced to work for WOOHP for the rest of your life?”

“Jerry wouldn’t do that. I know he wouldn’t. There’s just no way.”

“I’d say the only thing protecting you three is your age. As long as you’re minors, the government can’t really touch you.”

“And that didn’t apply to you somehow?”

“I made a deal with Uncle Sam and blew it. I’m just paying the penalty.”

They
didn’t look at each other for a while after that. Sam didn’t like the
direction the conversation was taking. Jacob was finally opening up,
and now she was making him clam up again. Eventually, she spoke
up. “So what do we do now? We didn’t get the bomb’s location. Does this
mean it’s all over?”

Jacob looked at her. “Not
by a long shot. He hasn’t set it off yet, so that means we still have a
chance, which means I’m not giving up.”

“If you’re not giving up, then neither am I.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Sam listened to the rain for a little while. “Are you going to kill Stephen?”

Jacob sighed. “A couple of days ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated to say yes. But I’m not so sure anymore.”

“What? Why is that?”

“Like
I said, when I saw you bleeding to death, something inside me changed.
Ididn’t want you to suffer the same fate as I have.”

Sam
looked at him, his eyes full of remorse. “You never got to be just a
teenager, did you? When did you say they took you away?”

“When I was fourteen.”

“Then you never got to be just a kid. You always worked for the government.”

“In a nutshell, yes.”

Sam
looked out the window. The rain still fell steadily. “If you’re
not going to kill Stephen, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No. Like I said, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I guess I’ll figure it out by then.”

“If you’re not sure about killing him, then what all the other bad guys in the world?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why?”

“I
just don’t feel like killing anymore, Sam. I wish I could communicate
how I felt yesterday. Maybe then you’d understand what I’m going
through.”

“A born killer who doesn’t want to
kill anymore. How ironic.” Sam played with her empty glass. “The
question remains, what will you do when you meet Stephen?”

“I
guess I will kill him, or at least try to. It’s going to be him or me.
He’s dedicated to nuking the city, and I’m sworn to stop him via any
means.”

“So nothing’s changed after all.”

Jacob
got up and started pacing around the living room. He stopped in front
of the window. Sam waited for him to say something, and when he didn’t,
she started. “Do you enjoy what you do?”

“What?”

“Do you enjoy doing the things your job requires, or is it just a matter of duty?”

“I
won’t lie to you. When I’m in the heat of battle, I do get a strange
sort of pleasure out of it, like that’s what I was meant to do.”

“So you enjoy killing people?”

He
sighed again and leaned on the bar. “Sam, no one ever has the right to
take the life of another. Ever. But sometimes, we just don’t have any
other choice.” Jacob decided to change the subject. “How did you get
involved with WOOHP, anyway?”

“My friends and I
entered a contest for a new dream house. We sort of forgot to read the
fine print, and wound up signing the next few years of our lives into
service with WOOHP.”

“Heh, that sounds familiar.”

“Other
than that, I’ve led a pretty normal life. Chasing boys, having fun,
doing homework, nothing like what you’ve spent your teenage years
doing.”

“Good, keep it that way.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t
be like me and get totally absorbed in your work with WOOHP. Keep being
a kid and enjoy your youth. I don’t know what the future between you
and WOOHP holds, but for now, just keep having fun.”

“Sounds like good advice from a guy who’s been there.”

“You might say that.”

“You said you lost a woman who was important to you when you were my age. What happened?”

“I literally can’t tell you. It’s classified.”

“I see. Your whole life is just one big classified file, isn’t it?”

“I know. I should have been named Manilla.”

Sam and Jacob shared a chuckle.

“You feeling better, Sam?”

“Yeah, lots. Your friend did a good job. Too bad I can’t meet him and thank him.”

“That’ll just have to be, I suppose.”

“Tell me, is your whole family as bad as Stephen?”

“Not
all of them. It’s a pretty big family, so it’s hard to keep track of
them all. I do know for a fact that one of my cousins became a nun to
get away from them.”

“Really? That’s a pretty extreme measure to take.”

“Only way she could go.”

“But if she’s a nun, won’t she be easy to track down?”

“It may sound crazy, but most of my family is strongly Russian Orthodox. They’d never harm the church.”

“You’re right, that is crazy.”

“Isn’t it, though? The important thing is that she’s safe, so I’m not worried.”

“Speaking of safe, what are we going to do about the bomb?”

Jacob was silent, and then said, “I don’t know.”

Sam
laid her head on the table. “Great, I guess we are doomed. All our
efforts for nothing.” She felt that Stephen really was unstoppable now
that they’d lost their one chance to stop him.

Jacob
placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw him kneeling next
to her. “Sam, this isn’t over. Until this mission ends one way or the
other, you and me and Alex and Clover and Jerry and everyone else
involved in this operation are going to do everything in our power to
stop Stephen.”

She placed her hand on his. “Thanks, I needed that.”

He
smiled. “You’re welcome.” He stood back up and paced back to the
window. “Besides, I don’t think he’s going to set it off yet.”

“Why is that?”

“You heard it straight from his mouth, remember?”

Sam
recalled her meeting with Stephen. “That’s right, he wanted to fight
you one last time before he detonated the bomb. That meanswe still
have time!”

“Yeah, but we still don’t know where he put it. That’s the real problem.”

Sam
crossed her arms and thought. “Well, Ramirez said it was on the roof of
a building, so that means it’ll need an accessible rooftop.”

“That’ll narrow down our search somewhat, but it still leaves a lot of ground to cover.”

Sam tried to think, but the effort only made her thoughts scatter and she started getting a headache. “Ow.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Headache.”

“Your blood pressure’s still low. Drink lots of water today.”

Jacob looked out the window. The rain was dwindling. “How are you feeling? Good enough to leave?”

She
stood up to test her strength. Her side still hurt as she moved,
but the nausea was gone and she had regained most of her coordination.
“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. Get dressed while I call for a ride.”

“We going back to WOOHP?”

“MacDonald wants me to report to the FBI district office here. I might as well bring you along.”

“Why does he want you to go there?”

“Not sure, but it’s not my place to ask.”

“How typical. Would you throw yourself off the Hoover Dam if they ordered you to?”

“Been there, done that.”

They
laughed together, and then a spike of pain cut Sam’s laughter short.
She went back into the bedroom to dress while Jacob called for a ride.