by C. G. Cooper
“And now you die,” she heard him say, his voice far off like in a dream. Then, as the pain intensified and her field of vision collapsed, the world closed in and swallowed her.
Epilogue
I don’t know who took care of the cleanup. Probably Rex or maybe even Julian Fog.
By the time we got back to the mainland, my body and mind were on the verge of collapse. I don’t remember anything after crashing onto the bed.
Rex said I slept for twenty-four hours. I believed him. While my mind still moved like sludge, my body had somehow gotten away unscathed. I’d fallen from who knew how many feet in the air, and somehow I was still alive. It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened, but I wasn’t about to think about why it had happened. I knew it was better not to think.
Why did some people come home from war and some didn’t?
That was the kind of question I didn’t like to ask.
Georgy, carried by the ever-present Vasily, was my second visitor.
After we’d talked about what he was doing to repair the damage Natasha had done (he never mentioned my role in her death, even though I was sure he knew), he brought up Anna.
“Anna does not know the truth of what happened,” he said.
I nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m sure you understand what such knowledge could do to a young girl.”
I nodded again.
“I will not ask you to lie, Daniel, but I will ask you to choose your words wisely. In one day’s time, Anna lost her mother and her father. I would just ask that you consider her emotional well-being when you speak to her.”
“I understand,” I said, even though I had no idea what I was going to say to her.
“Good. Now, I wanted to thank you for all that you have done for my family.”
Jesus. I’d just killed his only daughter and he was thanking me?
He went on. “I am a man with a long memory. I hope that you will consider yourself as I do, as I’m sure Anna considers you, to be part of our family. If there is anything you ever need, money, a place to stay, call me. Your friends Rex and Julian will know how to find me.”
“Thanks,” I said, not really feeling that I deserved his gratitude.
+++
The next time I woke, Anna was sitting on the corner of the bed. Her eyes were swollen and she held a tissue in her hand.
“How long have you been sitting there?” I asked.
“Not long,” she sniffed.
“How are you feeling?”
“Crappy.”
I wanted her to say something, to ask me one of her millions of questions. Instead she sat there, staring at me.
For the first time in ages, I opened my heart. God, please take care of her. She didn’t deserve this. I didn’t know if my plea would help, but I hoped it would.
“Poppa said you’d tell me how my dad died.”
Did she know? Was she just testing me? Shit.
“Nobody told you?” I asked.
Anna shook her head.
I let out a long exhale and said, “He died saving my life.”
I held her gaze until she nodded.
“Thank you,” she said, a glimmer of the Anna I first met in her ice blue eyes.
“No, Anna, thank you,” I said. In those four words was my hope for the future. She’d given me a glimpse into true love, into what gleeful joy really looked like. When I’d met her, Anna lived in a world with no barriers, where anyone with a dream could achieve it as long as they were curious and kind. I hoped with all my heart that she would find that peace again.
+++
Rex and Fog drove me to the train station. Along the way, Fog told me about how certain agency pricks were trying to step in and take control of The Pension operation.
“Over my dead body,” Fog said. He would be the link between Georgy Varushkin and the CIA. He was a perfect fit. Fog would keep Georgy’s secret and Georgy would provide Fog with whatever intelligence he could gather. “You know he’d give you anything you want, right?” he asked me. “He said the rest of the managing members voted on setting aside an unnamed amount of money in your name, just in case you wanted to come in out of the cold.”
“I don’t need it,” I said.
“The hell you don’t,” Rex laughed. “Who wouldn’t want a paid-for retirement plan just waiting for them?”
“Don’t dismiss it,” Fog said seriously. “It’s really nice of them to do it.”
“I know,” I said, meaning it. But I didn’t want the money. I had everything I needed, or so I thought.
When I stepped out of the car at the station, Rex offered his hand and said, “Hey, don’t be a stranger, okay?”
“I’ll try,” I said honestly.
He nodded and rolled up the window.
I made one more stop before heading in to buy my ticket west. The guy at the tiny liquor store didn’t want to break the hundred-dollar bill I gave him. He looked me up and down like I was a counterfeiter. Finally, he handed over the brown paper sack and my change.
When I got to the ticket booth, I looked up at the schedule. Ontario, Canada, at 9:30am. Then my eyes moved down the line. For some reason Seattle, Washington, leaving at 10:15am caught my attention.
“Can I help you, sir?” asked the swarthy woman behind the ticket counter.
“Do you have a quarter?” I asked.
“You don’t have any money?”
I pulled out a couple hundreds and laid them on the counter.
“Can I borrow a quarter?” I asked again.
With the reluctance of a public servant, she opened the register and handed me a quarter. I turned it over in my hand. Heads or tails?
I flicked the quarter off of my thumb and into the air. It got level with the counter before I snatched it out of the air with my left hand and slapped it onto the back of my right. I looked down and smiled.
“One ticket to Seattle, please.”
+++++
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
chive.
