The Puppeteer

CHAPTER 27



DREW LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW into the gray day. It was early March, spring was on its way. It was supposed to be nice, but nothing in the weather, or his mood, lent itself to ‘nice.’ If he were honest with himself, he'd admit that he hadn't had a day that felt anything other than tolerable since that night, seven months ago, when Ty Fuller didn't make it back from the mission to destroy Nicholas Frey. That they'd succeeded in ending Frey's reign of terror and even backtracked his movements and brought several more people to justice—in more ways than one—wasn't enough to get him to think back on that day as a good day in Agency history.

He hadn't spoken to Dani in months. She kept in touch with Sammy, but that was it. She'd called on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but told no one where she was or what she was doing. He'd even tried tracking her credit card statements to at least get a general idea of where she was, but she hadn't used any in a long time—long enough for Drew to get the hint that she was hiding. And after a few months of no obvious leads, he'd decided to respect her privacy and let her tell him when she was ready.

“Drew?” his assistant's voice buzzed through the intercom.

“Yeah,” he replied, already dreading the phone call. He didn't know who it was, he just plain wasn't interested in talking to anyone.

“Call on line one,” she said. When he didn't pick up she added, “It's the consulate in Côte D'Ivoire, he says they have a Tyler Fuller in their office.”

Drew's heart slammed into his chest as he hit the connect button as fast as possible. “This is Andrew Carmichael,” he barked. He was both terrified and convinced that it must be some hoax and praying it wasn't.

“Drew, get me the hell out of here. I want to come home.” Ty. Ty's voice. Ty's voice on the phone. Ty, alive and talking to him from the Ivory Coast. “Drew?”

“Jesus Christ, Ty. I'm having a heart attack here. Are you okay?”

Ty chuckled. Drew did not. He rubbed a hand over his face, pinched the bridge of his nose and, for the first time in many, many years, fought back tears.

“I'm fine. I'll tell you about it when I see you, but I want to come home. Can you arrange it?”

“Yes.” Drew had to clear his throat but he didn't hesitate, already making the arrangements in his head. “I'll have a helicopter to you within the hour. You'll have to go through Germany and then back to New York.”

“I don't care, I just want to be home. Tell me about Dani? Is she okay?”

Drew hesitated for a split second before lying. “She's fine. She didn't take it too well when, well,” he hesitated again before Ty supplied the rest.

“When everyone thought I was dead? But she's okay, right?” Ty continued.

“Yeah, I'll find her and let her know you're on your way home.”

“Find her?” Ty didn't miss the slip. “Where is she?” he demanded.

“Just get on the helicopter. I'll talk to you when you get to Germany. I'll have your documents waiting for you when you get back to New York.”

“Drew,” Ty warned.

“Just get on the helicopter. We'll talk about it when you call from Germany,” Drew

ordered.

Ty grunted his assent and the two hung up. The line was dead for two seconds before he started barking orders. Not the least of which were orders to find Dani.

* * *



Drew raked his hand through his hair and rubbed the hair growing on his chin. It was late, or rather early morning, and he'd been in the office longer than he should have, but he wasn't going to leave. Not until Ty was on his way back the US and not until he could find Dani. Which was proving more difficult than he'd imagined.

He glanced up as his computer beeped, indicating a new email message. Swinging back to the monitor, he clicked open the message and attachments and started reading.

Two fractured femurs, a couple of crushed ribs, a lacerated Achilles tendon, a broken collar bone, and a broken arm.

But nothing long term, nothing to keep Ty from living a long and happy life. As long as Drew could find Dani.

He walked back to his desk, picked up the phone and punched in some numbers. “Drew Carmichael,” he said as someone picked up the line. “I need to speak to Dr. Sinha.” It was close to five in the morning in DC, which made it well into the workday in Germany, and he was on hold less than thirty seconds before the doctor picked up.

“He's good to go?” Drew asked, without preamble.

“He was good to go the minute he walked in here,” the doctor answered. “He had an amazing recovery considering he had no experienced medical care. His bones are healed fine, he'll have a limp, but it won't stop him from doing anything save running a marathon.”

“And the blood work?”

“Everything looks good. No infections, no foreign antibodies, nothing to indicate his return to the US will pose any problems.”

“Good, is he there?”

“About to yank the phone away from me,” the doctor chuckled.

“Drew?” Ty's voice came strong through the phone.

“I've got a transport waiting for you. It will leave in twenty minutes,” Drew answered the unspoken question.

“Where's Dani? Is she there?”

Drew took a deep breath and braced himself. After everything Ty had been through, he didn't want to deliver the message, but there was no way around it.

“She's not here. She left New York a month after you went missing. I don't know where she is, but I'll find her.” His statement was met by silence. Ty's tension was palpable, even through the phone.

“You don't know where she is?” he repeated.

“I know she's fine,” Drew rushed to answer. “I spoke to her on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sammy talks to her every other day. She just needed to be on her own and we needed to respect that. If I'd known you would come back, that you were okay, I never would have let her go without giving me some way to contact her, but we did let her go and now I just need to find her.”

“Use Sam,” Ty spoke, not bothering to hide his intensity.

Drew sighed. “I plan to but she is currently on a flight to Singapore. We have people waiting for her at the airport. Dani bought herself a new phone when she left New York six months ago and Sammy is the only one with the number.”

“What about caller ID from when she last called you?” Ty demanded.

“She doesn't use the cell and usually calls from a blocked number. As soon as we can reach Sammy, we'll get Dani's number and, in the meantime, we're trying to back trace the call she placed over the holidays to see if we can unblock the number. And I have folks checking credit cards, ATM usage, and all the usual channels.”

“When was the last time she used them?”

“She used a gas card about four months ago near Albuquerque. There hasn't been any activity since then. Judging by her spending, she was steadily heading west.”

Drew heard Ty take a deep breath, then let it out. “Fine, okay,” he took another breath. “Can you get me transport to Albuquerque once I land in New York?”

“You're going to look for her in Albuquerque? She could be anywhere by now, Ty. You need to come here first and we'll work together.”

“I'm going home, Drew. My parents live in Taos. I'm going to go there, let them know I'm not dead, and then I'm going to contact my brother and have him put everything he's got into helping me find her. You may be good, but he's better.”

Drew absorbed the information in a split second and agreed that Ty's plan was the best, even though he'd prefer to have Ty come to DC for a debrief.

“I'll have your papers waiting for you in New York and a jet waiting to take you to New Mexico. There's an airport closer to Taos, you want to go there?”

“Can you arrange it?”

“I can arrange almost anything,” Drew replied with a small smile. Sometimes it paid to have personal wealth. He'd arrange a private jet for Ty, not for the luxury, but because it was the fastest way to get him home, and he deserved to be home. More than anything, he deserved to be home.

“Thanks, Drew,” Ty said, some of the tension gone from his voice now that there was a plan in place.

“It's the least I can do considering you're going to become my almost brother-in-law once we find Dani. Right?”

“If I have any say in the matter.”

Drew relaxed, hearing the affection and fidelity in Ty's voice. It would be okay. He'd make sure of that.

* * *



Ty paid the taxi driver with money Drew had made available to him and closed the door behind him. Swinging his duffel bag over his shoulder he paused at the bottom of the driveway to his parents' house and took it in. It was the same house he'd grown up in until the move to Maine, and the same house he and his brother and sister always came home to for the holidays. Only now it looked like a haven.

He started up the drive, his left leg still bothering him. When he reached the top, the family dog raced out and barked once before it realized who it was and then subsided into wiggles and pleas for head scratches.

Ty dropped his bag and knelt to give the dog a good rub. After months of living in a tiny village in the jungle, petting his parents' dog was a simple pleasure. As he rubbed the dog's belly, he glanced around. His parents' car wasn't in the drive, but he could hear music coming from the back yard. It was an unseasonably warm day, maybe his mom was out starting her garden. He had thought about calling, about letting them know right away. He had even tried to call them from New York. But when the phone rang and no one picked up, he took it for a sign of what he already knew about them. They would be happier to see him in person, to know he was fine, to see for themselves. So here was, about to show up on their doorstep.

Rising from the ground over protests from the spoiled pup, Ty headed around the back of the house. He knew being here was the right thing, but he wasn't sure of the best way to approach his parents. After all, it wasn't every day that a son came back from the dead.

He thought about knocking on the door rather than appearing in the back yard. But since their car wasn't in the drive maybe they weren't even home. Ty hesitated at the side of the house before rounding the back, not wanting to startle anyone. He would look to see if his mom or dad were in the back yard and, if so, he would then go back around to the front and knock on the front door, rather than appear out of nowhere.

He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the sight of his parents, and walked to the corner of the house.

He glimpsed around the corner and his knees almost buckled.

Dani.

His heart slammed into his chest and he reached out, putting a hand on the house to steady himself. Closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths, he opened them again. And she was still there. He blinked back the moisture rising in his eyes and drank in the sight.

She was wearing a loose-fitting cotton dress, a sweater, and sandals. Her back was to him and she was hanging laundry on the clothesline. Her hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and she was swaying to the gentle music playing on the radio.

He watched her move along the sheet, straightening it and fastening it into place with clothespins. He couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to, he was so overwhelmed with emotion. He stood, locked in place, staring.

And then she turned.

The sweater and dress were stretched around her rounded belly. A belly that held, he knew, their child.

He must have made a sound because her head shot up. He saw her blink a few times and then she reached out with a strangled noise. In a flash he was beside her, gathering her in his arms. More for him, than for her, he picked her up and carried her to the bench swing his parents loved so much. He held her so close he couldn't see if she was conscious or not and so, fearing for the baby, his baby, he pulled back enough to see her face. Enough to feel her hands grip him and hold him, enough to see the silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

He buried his face in her hair and held her, whispering words to soothe and love her. Words to reassure them both that everything would be okay.

Finally Dani pulled back and looked at his face. She raised a hand and touched his cheek. Her eyes closed and she sighed.

“Ty?” she managed to speak. He took her hand in his and kissed the palm.

“I'm okay,” he answered the question in her eyes. “I was rescued by some local fishermen. They took good care of me. I was pretty banged up and out of it for a long time. When I started to pull through, I realized I was in a village that had no phone, no satellite, no lines of communication. I needed a long time to heal and then I had to walk to the nearest city. They were in the middle of a civil war so, between that and my legs, the walk took longer than expected. I made it to the Ivory Coast and called Drew yesterday.” He needed to get it all out. There was so much more than the bare bones he was telling her now, but he needed her to know, more than anything, that he was okay.

“He got me home, but didn't know where you were. I came here to see my parents and was going to have Cameron start to find you,” his voice gave out, choked on emotion.

“Oh god, Ty,” she whispered and then raised her head to brush her lips against his. It was the sweetest kiss he'd ever experienced. When it ended her face had more color and he could see the edges of happiness creeping into her eyes. She was starting to believe he was really there, with her.

He smiled and placed his hand on her belly. “Is this why you came to my parents?”

She placed her hand over his and gave him a watery smile. She moved it to the side and he felt the baby kick. He swallowed hard.

“His name is going to be Tyler, after his father.”

He stared at her belly, wondering what he ever did in life to be this lucky. “A boy.” He repeated, rolling the words around his mind.

“Due in a month,” she added.

He looked at his hand, resting on Dani, covering their baby and then looked at the woman resting in his arms. He raised his eyes to meet hers and then smiled a smile full of hope. A smile full of promises for their future. A smile full of love.

“Then I guess I got back just in time.”



The End