The only true voyage of discovery would be not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes... – Marcel Proust

I’ll just say I was pleasantly surprised…­ Briel’s text to Nessa while discussing events in France.

“I can walk now, Nick. My legs have recovered.” Something in her pleading look convinced Nick not to argue with her, and as he lowered her feet to the pavement, Briel upbraided herself for her pride. Did it really matter if Jase saw her that way, completely dependent on Nick? Somehow, Briel's ego recoiled from the thought. Once again, she felt immense gratitude toward Nick and his understanding.

“You look better,” Jase smiled at Briel as he approached the trio of friends.

“I am. Thanks,” Briel agreed.

Turning to address all of them, Jase adopted a serious mien. “I've been monitoring the exit for over thirty minutes now, ever since I lost Liam, but he hasn't left through the main entrance.” Shrugging in frustration, Jase stared in aggravation up at the staircase his comrades had just descended. “Of course, considering that there are other exits that I didn't monitor, he could have managed to slip past me.”

Turning to Briel, his eyes gazed firmly into hers as he offered, “I can stay and look for him. If I need to, I'll stay all day.”

“No, Jase. Let's go,” Briel answered immediately. “All of us. If Liam has escaped, I want everyone around me when he comes.” Before she spoke, the corners of her mouth curved up, “No more of that Lone Ranger crap.”

Jase smirked at her, and Nessa, too, smiled awkwardly. Briel refused to look at Nick lest she see him gloating, but she imagined he wore the biggest grin of all. Treading past the milieu of faces, the four grouped tightly, determined to present a united front if Liam confronted them.

After a hundred yards, Jase led them to a utility van, typically cartoonish and modern like all the European cars. He opened the door for Briel and Nick to enter, and then pulled open Nessa's door and saw her seated as well.

“We need to get you to a doctor as soon as possible,” Jase determined after seating himself behind the wheel. “We passed through a decently sizable town a few miles south of here. They'll have a doctor there.”

Though Briel had much to ponder, her still-tenuous situation did not pervade her thoughts. Instead, she could think of nothing but the two feet of space between herself and Nick, a span with which she felt the greatest irritation. Jase and Nessa discussed Liam's possible plan of action, and though the details effected Briel, she could not force her mind to care. Instead, she closed her eyes, reclining the seat slightly and trying not to think.

Surprisingly, she managed to doze and did not wake until she felt the warmth of Nick's body ease into the space beside her. When she opened her eyes, he had squeezed himself into the aisle between the seats and seated himself on the floor next to Briel's chair.

“Hi,” he offered sheepishly. “I didn't mean to wake you.”

“Hi,” she returned, somehow equally abashed.

“Jase and Nessa have been inside waiting for the doctor. When your appointment comes up, Nessa will come get you.”

Briel had not realized that the van had ceased moving. For several awkward seconds, neither Nick nor Briel spoke, and for the first time she could remember, Briel longed to break the silence. Finally, her curiosity rose to the surface, and she remembered all of the inexplicable occurrences of the day.

“Tell me about the tracker,” she commanded.

“The tracker?” he hedged guiltily.

“Nicholas Alexander…”

He bared his teeth at her. “Fine. About three years ago, I did some work for the CIA, designing some computerized tools for their field agents.”

“And?” her impatience grew with his every equivocation.

“And one of the tools was a microtransmitter that agents could plant on a target for purposes of tracking.” Nick still did not answer her directly, but she could fill in the gaps.

“So, you made a transmitter?”

“I talked one of the agents who was printing the cards into printing a few for me. I just intended to keep them for souvenirs, but when you left me in Belize, I couldn't bear the thought of not knowing...”

“And you planted a tracker on me…” Briel tried to fill her tone with ire, but she could not quite manufacture any real irritation.

“In a manner of speaking. I never intended to use it. I just thought in your current circumstances, it might give me some peace of mind.”

“What if I threw the card away? What if I left my purse somewhere? You're not trained to distinguish between the random movements of a trash truck through town versus a human.” Briel thought his idea sounded ridiculously simplistic and not well thought through.

“Computer models can. Plus, I designed the card to function in tropical and subtropical climates for drug agents in Central and South America. It requires a minimum temperature for functioning of 80.6 degrees. In Mexico and Brazil, for instance, the card would transmit no matter what. The temperature pretty much stays in the optimal range most of the time in the area the agents work, so if someone puts it in his wallet, the temperature will likely remain that high. In Paris in September, however, the card would only show up if it were attached to something warm, like you.”

“You are almost smart enough to impress me,” she teased, and Nick place a quick kiss across her smile. “But that leads me to another question. How in the world did you know about ‘the code’?”

A snicker busted through Nick’s lips. “That’s a Felicity thing. She came back with it from Banff, and I thought it must be a spy thing. She said it’s for people who know each other really well, who might be in a confusing situation. She basically meant ‘I know things look bad, but I need you to give me the benefit of the doubt.’”

With a huff of a laugh, Briel peered up at Nick in amusement. “You know, I’ve wondered what that meant for eight years. It makes so much sense now. Back when Jase and I dated -”

“You dated Jase?”

Nick’s near panic was adorable, and Briel grabbed his hand. “It was a very long time ago, and we have a lot of really ugly history since then. Plus, I don’t know if you noticed he has developed a new obsession.”

“Briel, Felicity won’t – ”

“I’m not talking about Felicity,” Briel insisted, and she shot a look to the front of the van.

With a slow nod, Nick’s mouth formed an “O,” and he smiled down at Briel. “Okay, so when you dated Jase…”

“He had this friend Terrence. Jase was very strange about our relationship – now that I’m a little more experienced at our business, I think I was probably part of a training exercise for him – and I asked his best friend, Terrence, what was going on. He told me it was ‘the code,’ and I always thought it was like ‘the bro code,’ or something, and it infuriated me. It makes so much more sense. It’s more like a ‘spy code.’ Our job gets confusing sometimes, and people we trust can look like awful people in the middle of an op.”

“So, see. You were thinking something awful about me. I thought you would understand that you needed to give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“Instead, it made me think you were conspiring against me, which led me to treat you like dirt. Which leads me to my last question: I understand how you followed me, but why did you follow me. After the way I treated you, why did you come to get me?”

Nick peered at her with an indulgent smile. “You’re not as scary as you think, Brielle…” he asserted.

“Do you want me to call Jase and Nessa back here to prove you wrong? I’m a coalition spy now. I think that’s beyond even your martial arts prowess.”

“You’re not a spy,” Nick countered. With a grin, he lowered his lips to kiss her on the head. It was a patronizing taunt, but it made her laugh. If anyone else had tried it… “Why would I not, after that last message you sent me?” he continued. "I was sure I would fly halfway around the world just to find you dead, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t gonna do it anyway. If I didn’t at least try…”

When he cut off, Briel glanced up into a haunted expression. She raised her hand to his face. “I’m okay, Nick. I’m here.” He met her gaze, and the pain eased, though it didn’t disappear. She lowered her hand and smiled up at him. “You must have been really persuasive to convince Jase Hamilton to help me. He doesn’t like me very much.”

“Nah, he jumped right on it. I think your history has kind of tainted your view of him. He’s a pretty nice guy.”

“Jase is no nicer than I am,” she leveled, and a true grin finally cracked his melancholy.

“I’d ay that’s about right.” She punched him lightly with her good hand. “But anyway, I was not going to let you die with such a completely wrong idea of me.”

“So, it was your ego?”

“Absolutely,” he agreed, but not with his usual teasing. “I had to fix what I had broken. I had created your danger, and I needed to save you from my failure.”

“You said that before, at the Abbey. What do you mean you ‘created my danger’?”

“I didn’t know I had, but then you mentioned the airport tip. At first, I thought you meant my comment about grounding the airlines, but the words didn’t line up. How was what I said a tip? It made me wonder what I had said, so I did a full evaluation of all of our exchanges. I found messages, written in my name, that I had not made. I…I realized that someone had hacked my communications.”

“He didn’t hack them, Nick. He stole them.”

Nick’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean? What’s the difference?”

“Liam set the fire in my apartment…”

“I figured.”

“…but while he was there, he stole my desktop. Apparently, he had partnered with Amelie, and Jase says she’s pretty good with computers. She has also fostered ‘relationships’ with a number of male hackers who kind of worship her and help her out from time to time, so the things she couldn’t manage herself, she had a team managing for her. And she has ProtoComm.”

When Nick’s jaw clenched, Briel could see the wheels turning behind his eyes. “I just might have to do a little investigation and find out who some of these hackers might be. If we can get your desktop back, I can track the signatures.”

Briel’s heart skipped. “Nick, you need to leave this alone. I don’t want you hunting these guys down.”

“Don’t worry.” He bared his teeth. “I haven’t hunted in person in years. I only battle in cyberspace.”

Not that she was fully satisfied with his answer, but at least he didn’t intend to go on some revenge rampage. Hasn’t hunted in years? Surely, he meant hunting animals…“I swear, if you ever get any outdated ideas like ‘defending my honor…’”

“You’ll what,” he smiled. “I have finally figured out that I'm going to have to take care of you despite yourself and not necessarily with your permission. So the two of them were the ones who contacted you here on the computer? Pretended to be me?”

“My phone actually, but through our link. I’m pretty sure they managed a lot of that through ProtoComm channels. My burner phone was some off brand, and for all I know, it could have been a subgroup in ProtoComm.”

A look of dismay flooded his usual calm. “I just – Briel, this was all my fault. Liam found you because I wasn't careful enough. If I hadn't been so sure of myself; if I had been more cautious.”

“What are you talking about, Nick? Relax/” She gripped his arm, and he raised anguished eyes to her. “Whatever happened, I'm safe now. Don't beat yourself up.”

“But if I had done a better job, he couldn’t have broken into my computer and tracked the transmitter.”

“Nick…” She reached for his face. “Since Liam stole my desktop, he had all the time in the world to trace you on a device we thought was melted into a puddle. I should have checked.”

“And I should have checked,” Nick insisted, still miserable.

“But he also had a team, including ProtoComm, at his disposal.”

“But I’m better than they are – or at least I thought I was.”

“You are better than that, so suck it up and learn from it. You’ve got me now – learn some new impossible hack that keeps this from happening again, or turns it back on someone who tries, okay? I thought you were supposed to be some computer genius.”

She lowered her hand to his, squeezing it with unnecessary force – hopefully, the sensation would snap him out of his stupor. When it didn’t, she tried a different tactic, turning his tendency to tease back on him. “If nothing else,” she rolled her eyes with exaggerated disgust, “you have to quit moping and at least fake some confidence. If you get all sappy, I won't be able to bring you around my friends. Computer geeks rank right below politicians in my profession.” Leaning down to meet his eyes, she breathed in relief as she watched his mouth curve upward.

“Well, I have to be careful who sees me with you, too. Spooks aren't too popular in the hacker community.”

Briel slipped her hand out of his and pinched the skin on his wrist. “You better watch out if you want to make it out of France.”

“Uh, huh. I'm scared.”

“You should be.” Briel moved her fingers again to press lightly on a pressure point. So, he thought he was going to play tough?

Instead of wincing as most people would have, Nick raised up to his knees and leaned down toward her, wicked amusement lighting his eyes. “Oh, I am. Petrified,” he insisted, and he leaned into her space, smiling as his sights honed in on her lips.

Her renewed attraction for Nick weakened her usual petulance, and she said nothing as he pulled his hand from hers and leaned is arms on the seat on either side of her legs. She gasped, and Nick sent her pulse into a thrum as he leaned so close that the heat of his breath caressed her lips.

Raising his hand, he gently wove his fingers into her hair and finished the imminent motion, pressing her mouth to his. Briel couldn’t help herself – the corners of her mouth curved up in pleasure. She relished the contrast between this sensation and the last time someone had threaded his fingers into her hair. The air between them melded into one intense cocoon of warmth, and Briel felt all remaining stress leave her battered body when his other hand slid itself into the curve of her waist.

All at once, Briel tensed in response to some undefined data that her senses perceived. Nick noticed her change of demeanor and pulled back slightly from the kiss, searching her eyes for some indication of why she had changed. “What is it?” he whispered, obviously recognizing that the interruption had not stemmed from something he had done wrong.

“I don't know,” she responded in a hushed tone. “I heard something, I think.” She still did not understand what exactly she sensed. Had she retained some paranoia after her ordeal?

With a barely perceptible motion, Nick leaned down, reaching his hand under her seat and extrapolated some object she could not see. A faint clanking of metal rose to her ears, and still she could not make out his action. Unable to spare the mental resources to worry about Nick, Briel scoured the windows with her eyes and strained her ears to see if she could hear a repetition of the noise.

Suddenly, Nick clenched his jaw, and a look of fierce anger entered his eyes, an expression Briel had never seen on his face. Before she could ascertain his motive, an ear-splitting explosion ripped past her ears, and shattering glass tinkled loudly behind her head.

“What in the world?” Briel turned rapidly toward the window beside her. She gaped at the open hole that now replaced the glass and at the gun in Nick's hand. To her utter dismay, she just made out Liam's form ducking behind a small truck several feet away from their van.

Within seconds, before Briel could extract an explanation, she heard the sound of pounding footsteps and saw Jase's and Nessa's forms rocketing from the building toward Liam. Nessa had a better angle and reached Liam before Jase could, striking out with her right leg to meet with Liam's gut. From where she sat, Briel recognized the miscalculation before Nessa could. Liam easily sidestepped Nessa, and grabbed her from behind, one arm squeezing tightly on her neck.

“Let me up,” Briel began to protest against Nick, but he held her firmly in place, somehow bracing her injured arm against the arm of the chair so she couldn't move it.

“If Nessa can't get away, we'll go. But you're in no shape to help if you try to fight now. You'll just get in Jase's way.

Briel could hear Liam's icy tone from where she sat, but his expression hid behind Nessa's strained features. “She may be as pretty as the last whore you fell in love with, Jase.” Briel could hear the leer in Liam's voice. “Briel wouldn't let me torture the other one, but I don't really listen to you people anymore, so...”

With his words, Briel watched in horror as Nessa's face tightened with pain, an effect of some maneuvering by Liam. Though Briel could make out Liam's tensed hand on Nessa's shoulder, Nessa did not cry out, having trained, as had the entire team, to endure such torture.

Still, Briel knew from personal experience that the self-control did not lessen the agony. Briel's own expression mirrored Nessa's, and Nick pulled Briel to his chest leaving her face free to watch the unfolding events.

With a clenched jaw, Jase inched forward toward Liam, attempting to portray a nonchalance. Briel prayed that Liam would not recognize the stress behind Jase's languid stroll.

“Main difference, Liam,” Jase smiled casually, as if Nessa's pain did not affect him. “I fell in love with that one. You can do what you want with this one. But if you start interfering with my work, I'll kill you. I have Briel now, and if I have read the situation correctly, Bill will pay a pretty penny to whoever hands her over to him.” Jase shrugged at his ready opponent. “Just because I happen to be with some Team members does not mean that I am bound by the same ridiculous ethics that the Team is bound by.”

Amazed, Briel watched as Jase's hypnotic words seemed to lull Liam into a less readied posture. Liam's grip on Nessa relaxed minutely, and Briel could see the rapid movement of Nessa's shoulders as she gasped in relief.

Liam seemed intent on testing Jase's words, however, and he released Nessa's neck to grab something off of his belt. Though he seemed to move tentatively, Liam must have forgotten that Nessa could fight, if not quite as well as Jase. With his hand removed from her neck, Nessa threw her head backwards into his nose, thrusting her elbow into his sternum in the same movement.

Continuing the motion of the jab, Nessa straightened her arm and grasped his hand that searched the belt. She could not quite impede his ability to reach his desired object, but she gripped his hand with her other hand as well, twisting until they faced each other and both of their entwined fists pushed skyward over their heads.

As Briel stared, frustrated at her helplessness, she caught a gleam of metal reflecting off of the now high sun. Several passersby had slowed down to view the unlikely scene, and their presence added to Briel's anxiety.

To her surprise, Briel felt Nick's arms loosen as she stared out the window in an irritated daze. For one moment, she took her eyes off of the drama outside to ascertain Nick's intent. Nick reached back under the seat, clanging once again in the metal box and pulling out, of all things, a silencer. He proceeded to screw it onto the gun he still held.

“Nick, what are you thinking? This is not the same as shooting out a window.”

“Briel,” he insisted, “if you promise not to interfere, I promise not to hit your friend.”

“But if you kill Liam in France, you'll never make it home. The police won't let you out of the country.”

Nick assumed a frustrated disappointment. “I know; I won't kill him. Just don't move, okay.”

In her current position, Briel could not assuredly stop him, and she feared that any attempt would result in a dangerous injury. Besides, his tone spoke such confidence that Briel felt some sense of reassurance in his competence, and his steady hand seemed professionally poised to fire.

For one second, Nick gazed down the barrel of the gun, and then Briel heard the zing of the silenced bullet. A split second later, Briel could make out a high-pitched ringing as the bullet hit metal, and then the clank of the metal to the ground.

To her joy, Briel heard an angry screech from Liam, and Jase commanded someone, obviously Nessa, “Get the knife.” Nessa had stumbled out of sight immediately once the bullet hit the knife.

If Jase could give Nessa commands, she could not have suffered severe injury. Again the sound of pounding steps grew fainter as Jase took off in the direction Liam had flown.

“Nessa!” Briel finally leaned out the window in search of her friend.

A little out of breath, Nessa ran directly up to the van to comfort Briel. “I'm fine. That was a very nice shot.”

Briel looked sheepish, even in her stress. “Um, not me,” she admitted, pointing her right index finger at Nick.

With a look of amazement, Nessa turned to Nick with appreciation. “Thanks,” she breathed.

“No problem,” he offered. “Sorry about that sting when the bullet hit the hilt.”

Nessa laughed, “Considering the alternative, it was nothing.”

Briel wanted to grasp Nick by the collar and demand an explanation, but before she could, Jase returned, a marked look of frustration on his face.

“He's gone,” Jase explained. “He hopped into a car in an adjacent lot and took off before I could stop him.”

“Let's get out of here, then” Nick insisted, his tone carrying more authority than Briel would have expected.

“No, wait,” Jase assuaged him. “He left, Nick. Liam hit the road and flew 90 miles an hour out of here. I don't think he counted on gunfire from the computer nerd,” Jase smiled crookedly, and though Briel's heart still raced, she could breathe again at Jase's words. “I'm sure he planned on encountering Briel in a vulnerable moment, but he knows we're on our guard now.”

“Besides,” Nessa insisted, “Briel is next on the doctor's list. We really need to get her arm splinted until we get home.”

Though Briel agreed, she felt an unexpected sadness at Nessa's words. Briel could not return home; she had no home. With Liam in pursuit, Briel had to remain below the radar until someone could rein him in. But she did not want to move back into the empty tomb of her life before, even more hollow now that she would live in isolation.

Misunderstanding her melancholy, Nick reached up to touch her face. “He's not coming back, Briel. You'll be fine.”

“I'm not afraid, Nick,” she chastised him, though she did not pull away from his hand. “Even if your little gunshot stunt gave me a heart attack. Where did you learn to shoot like that?” To her amazement, Nick's arm had not shaken, and he had not recoiled even slightly from the power of the gun he had held. No novice could shoot that straight.

“I took a few classes,” he smirked, and his smile reminded her of their conversation on the way to the Chetumal airport.

“Are those like the martial arts classes?” Something in his innocent expression made her wonder what else she did not know about Nick. Certainly, he shot better than someone who had taken the basic firearms class.

“Something like that,” he smiled wider, and Briel felt more intrigued by him than she had ever imagined. Even Nessa and Jase stared at him with a measure of disbelief and respect.