by Jan Thompson
Ex-wife.
Sometimes Marie wondered how far they had fallen. How horribly they had treated their marriage vows before God. Even without an extramarital affair, they had destroyed their relationship themselves.
“Who were those people who invaded your stateroom?” Logan asked.
“You heard the man on the phone.” Marie sat down in the armchair. It was lower than the bed. But it was very comfortable.
Logan got up and changed position. Lying sideways, his head was at the foot of the bed, his left arm on top of him.
“Buchanan. Who is he?” Logan asked.
Marie couldn’t say.
“I heard what he wanted from you. Revenge or something. Talk to me, Marie.”
Marie wondered how much she could tell for her story to be believable enough that Logan would stop asking more questions. How much could be declassified though?
“If I tell you anything, and Buchanan finds you, he will torture you to death for what you do not know,” Marie said.
The way Logan looked at her, he seemed to believe her.
“If I put two and two together, I can say that some time ago, you translated for a man named Buchanan, but you heard too much. He tracked you down and found you here.”
“Three years ago.” Marie decided that it would be best if Logan led the discussion. Then she could tell him enough to satisfy his curiosity and keep him and Jonas safe.
“You were in Europe,” Logan said.
“I flew back and forth to the Middle East. Part of the job.”
“Was it around the time my PI found you?”
“I was back in Europe…” A sudden awareness washed over Marie. “Could that be how Buchanan found out my real name?”
Logan winced.
“I was under watch all the time when I worked on the project.” Marie tried to sit straight up in her armchair, but her muscles ached. “Buchanan might have seen your PI interacting with me.”
“Probably. Remember what Buchanan said?”
“Yes. You were how he found me.”
“I’m sorry I got us into this mess.” Logan rolled on his back.
“There’s enough blame to go around.” Marie quickly thought about her next step. “We need to find out whether your PI had interactions with anyone from Buchanan’s organization.”
“I could call him.”
“No. I’ll ask Espy. She’ll send someone.” She would probably send the same security personnel. “We don’t want your PI freaking out.”
Marie purposely did not mention INTERPOL. It would be too much for Logan to handle.
Then again, he had already heard Buchanan mention the CIA and the State Department.
Marie watched Logan lying upside down on the bed. “Don’t fall asleep like that. I can’t turn you back to put your head on the pillow.”
“I’m just thinking about everything that happened tonight—how much we know and don’t know.”
The don’t know part was what bothered Marie. There were many things she didn’t know.
“Your ex-employer hating on you. Zaid coming to our rescue.” Logan’s eyes met Marie’s. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
That was an impossible question.
If Logan had asked her if there was something she needed to tell him, then her answer was no.
Now she had to lie and lose her family—or what was left of it—all over again.
Or tell the truth and lose her job.
“I’m still looking for the truth myself,” Marie said. “There are so many moving parts that I’m not completely certain what’s going on.”
“What are you saying?” Logan sat up at the edge of the bed. He looked serious, and maybe a tad unhappy.
“You need to get some sleep. Jonas will be up soon, and we need to take turns to watch him.”
“Stop changing the subject, Marie.”
“This is not a good time.”
“When is?”
Marie didn’t reply.
“There’s never a good time for us, is there?” Logan asked. “We will always be keeping secrets from each other.”
“Not always.” Marie’s voice was cracking now. “But for now… Until we get to the bottom of it…”
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll report what happened tonight to my boss. They need to take it from there.” Marie got up from her armchair. She started to push it back to the sitting area.
“So there is nothing else you can tell me.”
“Not much.”
“That’s why our marriage failed.” Logan walked toward the door. “Your job is a giant black hole to me. I don’t even know if you’re really a translator. The way you took down the gunman… It was so fast, like a blur. Where did you get that dagger?”
“It was in a sheath on his thigh.”
“How did you know it was there?”
“I’ve seen that kind before.”
“At work?”
Marie nodded. “I see many things at work I can’t talk about, Logan. Most of them are classified. If I talk about them, people will die. We can’t have that.”
“Die? Do you work for the CIA?” Logan asked.
“Well, they do outsource translation to our company from time to time.”
Marie didn’t say that the CIA had actively tried to recruit her out of INTERPOL. Their reasoning was that she was an American citizen with French parents. They could use her help tracking down terrorists and working with multilingual informants. She turned them down because she didn’t want to stay in Europe anymore.
“There’re not the only ones who need translators. Every federal agency needs translators,” she explained. “There are translators in the State Department and even at the United Nations.”
“You used to do freelance translations,” Logan reminded her.
“Those were the days. I can’t go back now.” The country needs me.
“In many ways, you’re like soldier and I’m a civilian. Sometimes soldiers have to do things they can’t talk about to civilians.”
“Something like that, but I’m not a soldier. I’m only a translator, and when I work, they want me to keep my ears on the ground.”
“Makes sense.”
“I haven’t told anyone else, but to tell you the truth, I don’t want to do it anymore. I’ve missed four years of my son’s life. He will be going to first grade soon. Am I going to miss the rest of his grade school?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m glad you’re there for him, but Mrs. Ping is only a substitute mother.”
Logan was at the door, and Marie expected him to open it to let her out, but he didn’t.
“You will always be Jonas’s mother,” Logan said softly. “That will never change.”
“Birth mother in name only.” Marie held back her tears.
Chapter Thirty-One
Marie had never seen Logan this paranoid. If only he knew the awful truth of all the worst possible things that could have happened, he would have considered the events of the previous night not as bad.
However, Marie couldn’t tell him. She wished she could, but there was no way to breach security protocols without letting him in on what she had to deal with at the time of their separation and divorce four years before.
Jonas was still bawling, thumping his arms on his bed. “Wanna see geezers! Daddy, please?”
“I don’t want to lose you.” Logan looked at Jonas first, then at Marie.
Marie wasn’t sure what he was implying. Surely the little incident in Ketchikan couldn’t have affected Logan this badly. Had something happened back in Atlanta that Marie didn’t know about?
“You can see the glaciers from the lounge.” Logan tried to put shoes on Jonas with one hand, but the boy was kicking. “It’s on the top deck with windows all around.”
“No-no-no-no!” The poor brat protested. “Wanna be outside!”
“It’s cold outside.”
“I have a jacket, Dad! You m
ade me bring it, remember?”
Marie glanced at Mrs. Ping, who busied herself opening and closing drawers, and wiping the same tabletops multiple times.
Marie looked inside her purse. She didn’t want to do this, but maybe an RFID brooch on Jonas might help—
No.
They were still on a ship. How far could Jonas go? Into the water? If Jonas was in any kind of danger, it wouldn’t be from an abduction.
Jonas screamed.
“Aargh.” I can’t think.
Marie took Jonas’s shoes from Logan’s hands, and motioned for Logan to step aside. It was her turn to deal with their son.
Lord, You made this child. You created him in my womb. Help me deal with him according to Your perfect will.
Marie sat down next to Jonas on the edge of the bed. “Jonas.”
Jonas sat up. “Yes, Mommy?”
“Do you know why glaciers are blue?”
Jonas shook his head.
“Do you know that light has seven colors?”
“No.”
“Do you know that blue light has short wavelengths?”
“What?”
“Exactly. Now all that information is important if you want to know more about glaciers.” Marie dug inside her purse and produced a small notebook with a pen attached to it. “Do you know what this is?”
“Paper.”
“And pen.” Marie held the notebook gently in her hand, as if it were the most fragile thing in the world. “Are you a big boy, Jonas?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“I’m going to give you this notebook and the pen—it’s not a pencil—and I need you to take notes when the geologist tells you anything new about glaciers.”
“What is a joe gist?”
“A geologist is someone who studies rocks.”
“Wow. People study rocks? I just throw them and see if they smash!” Jonas eyed the notebook. “Is that a real pen? Daddy won’t let me touch a pen.”
“Because he opens it all up and spills the ink on the carpet,” Logan said from where he was sitting.
“I can only use pencils.” Jonas curled his lips.
“Well, today is a special day,” Marie said. “If you promise to give this notebook back to me with new information about glaciers, I will let you use my pen for the day.”
“I can’t write, Mommy.”
Marie glanced at Logan. “He’s five. I wrote when I was three!”
Logan shrugged. “He’s normal. You’re not.”
“I don’t know about that. Does he know his alphabet?” Marie felt a tug on her sleeve.
Two eyes filled with tears looked up at her. “Will you teach me to write with that pen, Mommy?”
Marie hugged her son. “Of course. We will start today.”
“Today?”
Marie nodded. She handed the notebook and pen to Jonas. “Do you have a pocket?”
Jonas pointed to the pockets on his pants.
“Too small. We can put it in your backpack then.” Marie waved to Mrs. Ping to bring her his backpack.
Mrs. Ping emptied out the crayons and toys from Jonas’s backpack.
“You might want to put the crayons and drawing pads back into the backpack,” Marie told her. “Jonas might want to draw glaciers.”
Jonas’s eyes brightened. “Yes! I love to draw.”
Marie handed Jonas his shoes. “You’re a big boy and you can put on shoes yourself, right?”
“Yes. I also know left and right.” Jonas set out to prove to his mom that he could press the Velcro over his shoes too.
Velcro. The invention for all ages.
“Well, good. We need to go now if we want to see the glaciers.” Marie put her notebook and pen into Jonas’s backpack, next to the drawing pad and crayons.
“You’re going to need your jacket,” Marie said.
Logan let out a giant sigh.
“We’re going outside?” Jonas asked.
“We are all going to put on our jackets, but your job is to take notes with my pen,” Marie said. “In order to take notes, you’re going to need to sit at a table so that you can have nice handwriting.”
Jonas nodded. “I hope they have tables outside.”
Marie smiled. “We will find a table, where we can still hear the geologist when he explains this and that.”
“So that I can write down this and that.”
“Exactly.”
Mrs. Ping held Jonas’s hand as they walked toward the door. A worried look was on her face. “Where to?”
“We’ll go together. Take the elevator up to the top deck.” Marie zipped up her own jacket.
She was following Mrs. Ping out of the stateroom when she felt someone grab her arm. Before she could ask Logan what he wanted, he answered her question without a word.
As soon as their lips met, Marie could see their wedding day on Cumberland Island once again, barefoot in the sand, surrounded by wild horses and old ruins. She could see the way Logan had stared at her in her simple wedding gown, with only a sheer veil separating him from claiming her lips.
She could hear the preacher pronounce them husband and wife. The cheers of their family. Their happy reception at the historic home across the water in the small town of St. Mary’s. Their excited dash to the private plane that flew them to London for their honeymoon.
Three years later, they were divorced.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“If you stay close to Mommy and Daddy, like holding our hands all the time, we can be safe. Okay?” Marie said to Jonas.
Her voice sounded so serious, like it was the most important thing in all the world.
Logan wasn’t sure what to do at this point. He had specifically told Jonas they were not going outside. And here they were, in the elevator, going to the top deck.
He glanced at Marie, but could not read what was on her mind. To be honest, all he could think of were her warm lips—
He cleared his throat.
To be fair to Marie, he had no idea if she was going to lead them outside. Also, the lounge was on the top deck.
On the one hand, Logan could insist that he was the head of this household, and that Marie—who did not have custody of their son—should not have overridden his instructions to his own son. It made him look bad in front of both Jonas and Mrs. Ping. The latter might think that Marie had undermined his authority.
“Daddy, you better hold my hand.” Jonas reached for Logan’s right hand. “We don’t want you to fall over since you only have one arm left.”
Logan chuckled. Thanks to the painkillers, his broken elbow-in-a-cast didn’t hurt.
He almost forgot what he was thinking.
Logan wished he knew more about what was going on in Marie’s life—whether her job would continue to endanger all of them. He wanted her to quit. He earned enough to support all three of them for the rest of their lives. They didn’t need Marie’s salary.
He whispered in Marie’s ear, “I need to talk to you tonight about something.”
As if misreading him, Marie said something else. “This is the only time we get to see the glaciers up close. Tomorrow we’ll be in Victoria, then Seattle, then home.”
I get it. Still…
The elevator door opened.
People were walking back and forth, some carrying binoculars. There were multiple doors leading here and there—at least two going outside and two more leading to the lounge where Logan had originally planned to take Jonas.
Above their heads, the intercom broadcast something. “To your left, you can see seals jumping onto small icebergs. If you look through your binoculars, you might be able to see mountain goats climbing up and down the side of the mountains.”
Marie stepped to one side of the hallway. She knelt down so that she could be at eye level with Jonas.
“We’re going to send Dad outside to check the wind and weather, okay?” Marie said. “We don’t want to get sick if it’s too cold outside.”
Jonas nodded.
“So we’re going to wait in the lounge. There’s a door we can send Dad out. You can help me close the door, and then we have to open it again to let Dad in.”
Jonas rolled his eyes.
“What?” Marie asked.
“You’re making a very big deal out of this, Mommy.”
“I am? Safety first.”
“Are we going outside or not?” Jonas’s voice was breaking up.
“We will make a decision based on the information that Daddy is going to gather for us.”
Jonas looked puzzled.
Oh dear. Logan squatted down. “Like Mommy said, safety first. Would you prefer I check outside or shall we send Mrs. Ping?”
“Send Mrs. Ping. She’s nice to me.”
Mrs. Ping laughed. “I don’t spoil him ever.”
“I’ll go if you wait in there.” Marie pointed to the lounge. “Find a table, Jonas. Save me a seat. Can you order hot chocolate for me?”
“They have hot chocolate?” Jonas asked.
“Inside.” Logan wasn’t sure if it was true or not. He was also sure they could take their cups outside. But whatever.
“If the coast is clear, we’ll go outside now and drink hot chocolate later,” Marie said.
Reverse psychology or what? Logan tried to keep a straight face.
“I want hot chocolate now.”Jonas tugged at Logan’s good arm. “Let’s go, Daddy.”
Ice cream and hot chocolate.
That’s all Jonas needs.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The first person Marie saw outside on the deck was Zaid. She looked around to see if Aliyah’s entourage were there, but no. She wondered if Abdul would have liked to see the glaciers too.
The ship was cruising very slowly. The sunny day made everything look bright. A chilly breeze swept across the deck, and made her nose feel cold, but otherwise Marie liked the weather.
She could hear echoes of glaciers breaking off in the distance.
“In a few minutes, we will reach our first glacier,” the geologist said through the intercom.
Enough time for Marie to go back inside and get Jonas.
The deck was not as crowded as Marie had expected. She was able to look past the crowd, toward the distance, where two cruise ships were making their way back. Those ships were probably why this ship had to wait its turn until this afternoon.
