me first-class, thanks to Annie, he’s been cooped up way too long. He can run here to his heart’s content. He missed Murphy so much back in the beginning. He wouldn’t eat and he got sick, and we were in a foreign country. It was just awful. When I told him we were going home, he was a new dog. They like each other,” she said, pointing to the two dogs, who were nuzzling each other. “And now he has four additional playmates. Win! Win! Oh, God, Myra, I am so very happy to be here again. I am never, ever going to leave these shores again. Write that down, everybody, because I mean it.”
“There is no need to write it down, darling girl. We will not allow any of you to separate from us again. We had our fill of being alone, and none of us liked it. Family is family, and we’re sticking close this time around,” Myra said happily.
Yoko smiled through her tears as she cuddled one of the pups close to her chest. No one missed the concern in Harry’s eyes.
Small talk continued as Charles poured wine. The toast was simple. “To family and togetherness.”
The gathering trooped into the dining room as the dogs headed to Little Lady’s lair and the pen where the pups slept.
“Voilà!” Charles said, throwing open the door to the dining room.
“It’s like Thanksgiving!” Ted said. “I want a drumstick!”
“Everything, just like Thanksgiving,” Yoko said. “We do have so much to be thankful for today.”
“I wish the others were here,” Maggie said.
“They are, dear, in spirit. See, Charles set places for them. Joseph is going to take some pictures and send them on to Bert and Jack,” Annie said. “We’re hoping when they see us all here at the farmhouse, they will put it together and get in touch somehow. That is, if the pictures make it through cyberspace.”
Espinosa stood up behind his chair as Charles poured yet a second toast. He captured forever on film the sparkling glasses being held aloft, the smiles, the beautiful table setting, the succulent turkey, and the pups—who, fortuitously, had just escaped their pen.
Myra said she thought that on this day, and during this particular dinner, she was the happiest she’d been since being granted her pardon. Her declaration was received with whoops of agreement from all those at the table. Underneath, the pups whined, demanding to be picked up. Little Lady and Grady picked them up, one by one, by the scruffs of the necks and returned them to their pen.
The “Thanksgiving” meal progressed until the men loosened their belts and the women sighed with contentment, all professing they couldn’t eat another bite. Well, they finally conceded an hour later that maybe they could eat the pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream. Hazelnut coffee was served, and the meal was truly over.
“I hope we can all be alert and not fall asleep when we do the video conference with Lizzie,” Maggie said.
The dining room and kitchen were a beehive of activity as everyone fell into their old routine—I cook, you all clean up. One of many rules Charles had initiated early on.
“You have no idea how I missed all of this,” Yoko said, motioning to everyone scurrying about. “We worked so well together. It was as if we could read each other’s minds.”
“Don’t you dare start boo-hooing, Yoko,” Alexis said fiercely, a catch in her voice.
Yoko sucked in her breath and smiled. “Is it time yet?”
“It is now,” Charles said as he turned the dial on the dishwasher. “Follow me.”
Their steps were light, their murmurings hushed as they followed Charles to the secret war room they’d utilized beneath the old farmhouse in the early days when they had all come together for the first time.
“It seems like forever since we’ve been here,” Alexis said as she took her old seat at the huge, round table. “This,” she said, pointing to the chair on her left, “used to be Julia’s chair. It’s Annie’s chair now. Nikki sat there, Isabelle over there. Myra was the head chair, and Yoko is sitting where she always sat,” she said for the benefit of the others, even though they were all aware of the previous seating arrangements. She was babbling, and she knew it but was unable to stop herself. “It’s like we’ve come full circle somehow. And yet…I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a feeling not unlike what I felt the first time I stepped into this room. Back then, I knew that my life as I knew it was going to change and never be the same again. I feel that way right now. This might sound trite to all of you, but I feel like I, personally, am at a crossroads this very moment. Do…do any of you feel like that?”
Every hand in the room shot in the air. Alexis sighed in relief.
“Has anyone heard from Isabelle?” Maggie asked. Every head wagged back and forth.
Myra stood up and cleared her throat. Her hands were steady on the table and not at the pearls at her throat. That fact alone told the others something serious was about to be discussed, and this meeting was not just about a video conference with Lizzie.
“Charles, I want you to sit at the table with all of us. We have some things we need to share with you before we do the video conference. I suppose it’s possible you already know of our concerns and have not voiced them to us, and it is also possible we’re going to tell you things you don’t know, things that have just come to light that concern…our little family that really isn’t all that little anymore. I’m going to turn the floor over to Maggie now.”
Maggie stood up the moment Myra sat down and started to talk. Only Charles appeared shocked, or as Annie later put it, stunned. Maggie wound down her report and motioned to the others at the table. “They’ve all tendered their resignations to Global, Charles. We’re having no luck reaching Bert, Jack, or Isabelle. If you know anything you haven’t shared, this might be a good time to speak up.”
Charles’s arms flapped in the air. He looked genuinely shocked. “I think I would have…no, correct that to, I would have known something was going on if you’re right in your thinking. Snowden has always been on top of things, along with all my other people.”
“With all due respect, Charles,” Ted said, “Jellicoe is so far up the food chain, your people are novices compared to him. That guy and his people seem to have a lock on the covert-security world. I’m talking worldwide, not just here in Alphabet City. Look at us! We’re the proof. And you didn’t know we quit until now. Admit it, and let’s move on here.” There was such a bite to Ted’s tone that, to everyone’s dismay, Charles flinched.
Myra reached over and patted Charles’s hand. “It’s all right, dear. We just found out ourselves thanks to Annie’s return and Maggie’s keen instincts. We have to figure out what is going on, and more important, why it’s going on.”
To everyone’s surprise, Espinosa, who usually observed rather than being vocal, spoke up. “Like Ted said, with all due respect, Charles, do you mind telling us what you’ve been doing for the past year and a half that you aren’t up on what’s going on? Or should we just assume that once the girls’ pardons came through, the world stopped on a dime.”
Alexis scooted her chair a little closer to Espinosa’s. The move told the others that she was on his side and she, too, wanted an answer.
“It’s a fair question, Joseph. And to a certain extent, you’re right. I did let the world stop in a way once the pardons came
