Speers sat down next to him and took his hand, squeezing it in a firm grip. “I’m sorry, I should have been there sooner. I’m so sorry.”
And she did look sorry, Devine had to admit. Very sorry indeed. He thought he saw tears bubbling at the edges of those beautiful eyes. But perhaps that was the morphine talking.
“Who are . . . ?” That was all he could accomplish.
Campbell stepped forward. “She’s with us, Devine. Special Agent Helen Speers. She fired the shot on the football field that allowed you to escape from Eric Bartlett and company that morning. Of course, she would have further intervened if you had needed her assistance. However, with Ms. Tapshaw, she couldn’t take any chances.”
“D-dead?” said Devine.
Speers slowly nodded. “Yes. It was either her or you.” She glanced at Campbell. “Can you give us a minute, sir?”
Campbell nodded and stepped from the room.
Speers pulled her chair even closer and looked deeply at Devine.
“So . . . you were my g-guardian angel?” he said.
“I was supposed to be. When Campbell was thinking of recruiting you, he had me get a room at the town house.”
“Do . . . you sleep with all your . . . ?”
“No, I don’t. I made an exception with you.” Her face crinkled into a smile even as her eyes filled with tears. “I made some mistakes in my earlier career, Travis. I guess you did, too. I don’t know if you know this, but Campbell collects people like you and me. We’re sort of like the misfit toys on that island in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Damaged but capable of—”
“—re-redemption,” he finished for her.
“Yes, redemption.”
“So, you slept with me to show you were my ally?” he mumbled.
She stared at him for a long moment, something building in her expression that Devine’s drug-induced thoughts could not readily interpret.
“I slept with you, Travis, because I wanted to sleep with you.”
“W-why did you s-search Will’s r-room?”
“I was suspicious and there seemed to be things hitting too close to that town house. I wanted to find out if we had enemies in our own camp.” She reached down and stroked his cheek, and it felt so good.
Devine nodded and closed his eyes as the morphine flowed into him, engaging in a pitched battle with the pain ebbing just below the surface of his punctured shoulder.
When he awoke again, he was feeling better, and time apparently had marched on. It had been dark when Campbell and Speers had been there. It was daylight now, and he sensed that multiple days had passed. Nurses walked in and walked out after checking on him. Doctors and specialists examined him constantly.
He eyed his vitals on the monitor. They looked closer to normal than he probably deserved.
Campbell visited him regularly, and then walked in one morning and sat down next to him. “You look much better today,” he said.
Devine managed to inch up a bit on his pillow before hitting the bed control to raise himself up more. “I think I’ve rounded the corner.”
“Good.”
“Jill Tapshaw?”
“Her mother came to claim her body. We gave her a full briefing. Well, as full as we could.”
“How did you know what to tell her about Jill? I haven’t been able to tell you anything.”
“She left a full written confession in her room,” said Campbell. “I think when she went to her office that night, she intended to kill herself using your gun. But she found you there instead. Worse luck for you. If she had killed you, she probably would have turned the gun on herself. Her poor mother was . . . devastated. She’s lost both her children.”
“Jill was a brilliant person. She did a lot to help people. And could have done a lot more.”
“She did a lot to hurt people, too,” countered Campbell.
“What about Cowl and Comely?”
“Shut down. The people behind Area 51 are still out there. But you disrupted their operations to a considerable extent.”
“But how much damage have they already done?”
“We reviewed the report your friend Valentine cobbled together. That was hardly all of it, and we’re working on finding out more. From what we can make out, foreign interests who are no friend of the United States own more of this country than most people, myself included, can even comprehend. And a lot of politicians across the country have received dark money from these same groups.”
“What will happen to them?”