same without Luke and Gunner.
“Babysitting some out-of-date nukes?” Swann said now. “I suppose I’m ready.”
“Worse,” Luke said. “We’re going to babysit some Belgians while they babysit some out-of-date nukes.”
“You really think that’s all there is to this, man?” Ed said.
Luke shook his head. “No. I think it’s deceptive. I think we need to keep our eyes wide open and our heads – ”
“On a swivel,” Swann said.
They were playing their roles, and that was good. Swann and Newsam were tiptoeing around the news of Becca’s cancer. Other than offering their condolences when they first climbed on board, they hadn’t said anything about it, and he didn’t blame them. It was a hard thing to talk about.
Directly across from Luke sat the newest member of the team – in fact, she wasn’t even really a member yet. This was her first time with them. The Secret Service had borrowed her from the FBI on the recommendation of her superiors. She had barely said a word since they’d boarded the plane. Luke turned his attention to her now.
He had seen her dossier. Her name was Mika Dolan. She had been born in China, but given up for adoption by her parents, who had wanted a boy. She was adopted by a couple of aging hippies who realized late in life that they wanted a child. She grew up first on the coast in far northern California, then in Marin County, just outside San Francisco. She was young – probably too young. Twenty-one years old and already a year out of MIT; 4.0 grade point average, graduated magna cum laude. Tested IQ of 169 – genius level, Albert Einstein territory.
Hobbies? She liked to surf. That part blew Luke’s mind a little – she was a tiny little person, with big round glasses, and looked like she had barely been out of the house, never mind out on the water. But apparently, her dad loved to surf the big waves along the Pacific coast, and had his daughter on a board starting at the age of three.
Mika was the science and intel officer, starting her second year at the FBI, and now on loan to Luke. Whatever Mika’s natural gifts were, she had big shoes to fill. Trudy Wellington was a lot of things – emotional, secretive, and quietly dangerous came to mind – but she had developed extensive networks in less than ten years, could access data no one else seemed to have, and was the best scenario spinner that Luke had ever worked with. Trudy was MIT, just like Mika. They had probably given him Mika for that reason.
“Well, Mika?” Luke said. “Would you like to start?”
“Okay,” she said, struggling to maintain eye contact with him. She lifted her tablet computer from the seat beside her. “I’m a little nervous. You guys might not know this, but you’re kind of legendary in my office.”
“Oh yeah?” Ed Newsam said, apparently pleased. “What do they say about us?”
Mika suppressed a smile. “They say you’re a bunch of cowboys. And they told me to try not to get killed while I’m with you.”
Ed shook his head. “They’re teasing you. Not everybody who comes with us gets killed.”
“Only about four in ten,” Swann said. “The rest live, although a high percentage of those are maimed for life. You’ll probably be okay. The Bureau has a pretty good disability package, as I recall. “
Luke smiled, but didn’t join in. Mika was very pretty, and the guys were flirting with her. He would let it go for another minute. It was a good way to break the ice, and maybe set her at ease a bit. This could be a hard-nosed group.
Luke himself felt wistful, not great. He doubted he could join in the banter if he wanted to. He had called Becca before they left. The conversation hadn’t gone well. It had barely gone at all. He had told her he was leaving.
“Where are you going?” she said.
“Belgium. Outside Brussels. There’s some concern about nuclear weapons stored on a NATO air base there. A terrorist cell is apparently going to – ”
“So you’re just going to leave?” she said.
“I’ll be gone two or three days. I’m just going to inspect the security measures in place, implement some upgrades if necessary, then go into Brussels and question a few people of interest.”
“Torture them?”
“Becca, I don’t – ”
“I have a Secret Service agent standing here in my living room, Luke. He just appeared on my doorstep this afternoon. Another one picked Gunner up at school today. Apparently, he walked right into the classroom before the children were even dismissed.”
“Someone tried to kill me last night,” Luke said. “The Secret Service are there for your – ”
“Protection, yes, I know. Luke, I have cancer. We were going to break this news to Gunner together. You agreed to that. Now you’re fleeing the country.”
“Someone tried to kill me last night,” Luke said again.
“Yes, I heard that part. Did it surprise you? Par for the course, I’d say. Meanwhile, my life is in actual danger, you made a commitment to me and more importantly to your son, and now you’re running away. Again.”
Luke took a deep breath. “Becca, I want to help you. I want to… do everything I can. But you kicked me out of the house the last time I saw you. And the time before that, come to think of it. When I picked up Gunner last time, I met you in a supermarket parking lot because you didn’t want me to come to the house. And I’m not fleeing the country. I’m going to be gone a few days. I assume you’ll still be alive when I – ”
She hung up on that line, and he didn’t blame her. It was a horrible thing to say. But she had gone out of her way to make his life a living hell the past several months. Now she was probably dying. Luke was sorry about that. He felt terrible about it, and about their relationship. He felt like a failure in every way – as a father, as a husband, as a person. But the way she was acting wasn’t helping.
Now, aboard the plane, he shook his head to clear it. He had to compartmentalize. He was having problems, yes. He could recognize that he was in deep, deep trouble. He didn’t know how to help his wife. He did not know how to fix any of this. But he also couldn’t bring it with him to Europe. It would distract him from what he was doing, and then he’d become a danger to himself and the people with him. His focus on the job had to be total.
He glanced out the window. Far away, three F-18 fighter jets streaked across the sky, moving fast. Below Luke, white clouds skidded by in the last of the day’s light. He took a deep breath. He looked at Mika again.
“How do you want to do this?” she said.
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