As they made their way to the Quartermaster’s office, Lee looked at his wife. She was so beautiful even now with her brow furrowed and a frown of concentration on her face. He leaned into her and nudged her ear with his nose and whispered. “I love you, you know.”

Startled out of her thoughts by his touch and whisper, she looked guiltily around for any witnesses to their exchange. “I love you too.” He felt her body relax slightly as his thumb stroked her spine as he continued to guide her to Leatherneck’s office. She looked up at him. “Lee, who do you think is doing this?”

            Lee thought for a moment. “I don’t know but I intend to find out. We need to be ready for when whoever is pulling the strings wants you to take the fall.” He stopped for a moment and pulled her into an unoccupied conference room. “You know,” he commented pulling her into his arms, “it’s not like we haven’t been through this before. At least the Agency knows we are on the side of the angels this time.”

            Amanda stepped out of his encircling arms. “They know that you are on the side of the angels,” she replied bitterly.  “They’re not so sure about me.”

            He bent his knees to look her in the eyes. “Hey, there is no you in this. There is no me either. It’s us. For better or worse, remember?”

            “I remember.” She kissed him lightly and allowed him to pull her into an embrace. He basked in her closeness. The fragrance of her shampoo and perfume could make his brain do back flips. He pulled her closer for a deeper kiss.

She sighed as they separated. “C’mon, Big Fella, let’s go see Leatherneck.”

            Their trip to the Quartermaster’s office had been productive. They had brainstormed some ideas about electronic tracking devices. Amanda pointed out that it was necessary for whatever they gave her had to be inconspicuous and non-descript.

“Leatherneck,” Lee asked, “is it possible for a tracker to be small enough to go into a bracelet or locket?”

Leatherneck thought for a moment. “A bracelet is better than a locket. Lockets tend to be small and people want to see what’s inside. There’d need to be signaling capability to it as well. That’s the tricky part.”

“What are the requirements for the signal?” Amanda queried looking at Leatherneck. Lee could almost see her thought processes as she was working out the problem.

“It could simply be an on off switch with an established code of some kind.”

“I have a hollow gold bracelet.” Amanda replied quietly. Lee looked startled. He had given her that bracelet for the anniversary of their meeting while they were on a mission in New York.  Was she really volunteering his present to her? He thought of the inscription on it and looked at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. “It has two catches to secure it. Could one of those catches be transformed to an on off switch?”  She surreptitiously reached out a finger and tapped his hand twice. He relaxed with her assurance that she understood his concerns.

“I’m sure it could. But we’ll get an identical bracelet, Mrs. King, you don’t need to ruin yours.”

“Thank you, Leatherneck.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Ummmm…Tiffany’s, I believe.” Amanda looked at Lee for confirmation.

Lee nodded his head once.

“So Ace here has developed better taste in jewelry, huh?” Leatherneck said.

“He helped me pick it out. That’s all.” Amanda assured him.

“Hmmm…well I’ll see what I can engineer.”

“Thank you, Leatherneck” Amanda smiled as Lee began to guide her out of the office.

“Hey, Ace!” Leatherneck shouted as they were almost out of the door. Lee poked his head back in. “You take care of that partner of yours.”

“Oh, I plan to,” Lee said with a smile as the door shut behind him.