Under No Circumstances

The Kennedy Affair

As always, sorry for the delay on this. It's kind of heavy, but there's a lot of Karlie backstory! Check out the end note for a discussion of what goes down in the chapter if you're worried about triggers. Without further delay, The Kennedy Affair!

Taylor's dress was long, blue, and low cut. Karlie's eyes stayed on her from across the room, trying not to look down to where Taylor's hand was clasped in Senator Conor Kennedy's.

Jane Hernandez, the other senator from New York, leaned over to Karlie, "So, once you two are done protecting us, what do you do?"

"We head home to get some sleep, I guess," Karlie said. "Taylor likes to debrief in her living room with her cats, so I guess we'll end up doing that too. But I think I see the ambassador from Bulgaria over there, and he owes me a ten."

Jane raised her eyebrow and started to ask what for, but they were interrupted by the sound of a glass shattering. Karlie had pushed Jane behind her and reached for the gun strapped to her thigh by the time she registered that everything was okay and that it was Taylor herself who had broken the glass. With the high ceilings and multitude of windows in the ballroom, the sound had echoed and worried Karlie more than she would like to admit.

Taylor's voice carried across the room. "I'm so sorry, Mister-what did you say your name was?"

Jane touched Karlie's arm lightly. "Would you like to dance?"

Karlie nodded and lead her to the floor, but as they spun around she looked over Jane's head rather than into her eyes, still surveying the room. Taylor could be clumsy, but never on the job. She had broken the glass on purpose.

"What are you looking at?" Jane asked.

Karlie spun her around. "Do you see the man over there? At your four o'clock?"

"Yes," Jane said. "Do you think he's here to hurt Conor?"

"No," Karlie said. "He's here to serve as a distraction. No real THRUSH agent would be so obvious. He's an arms dealer. He's been smuggling guns into the US for five or six years now. He's gotten guns to most of the gangs in New York, plus quite a few outside as well. This has all been at THRUSH's bequest, of course. Even when they cannot actively cause the trouble, they like stirring the pot until the trouble causes itself."

"If you know all of that why don't you just take him into custody?" Jane asked.

"He's low level. If we take him, they'll have him replaced in minutes. Fighting THRUSH operatives like him is like fighting the hydra. Cut off one head and another two pop up in its place. But with him, we can mark all of his weapons and keep an eye on what the larger plan might be."

"And what is their larger plan?" Jane smiled at a woman over Karlie's shoulder. She was pretty sure it was one of the deposed princesses-but that was a different affair.

"Their largest plan is world domination. And my larger plan is to explain to you why I know who is about to try to kill you, and why I haven't stopped them before-NOW!" The last word came out as a shout as she pushed Jane to the floor and landed on her, cradling Jane's head in one hand to soften its impact. Karlie stayed down even as her instincts were yelling at her to run, to find who was shooting and take them out. She was there to protect Jane from the hail of bullets.

Jane hadn't even had time to register her shock before Karlie tackled her. Across the room, Taylor had pushed Conor to the ground as well, but had left him to the care of two secret service men. She kept close to the ground as she headed to the closest exit, following the woman who had fired the first shot.