In the last chapter Ohmie’s father is surprised to see Dortch at the safety deposit box bank.

“Right now,” Mom began, “Dortch has you on points. You turned in bad intel. You went off the reservation and powdered someone… not just someone, an asset. You know the rules.”

At this point Mom looked at me like she was sorry to have to say the next part in my hearing.

“Termination of a target, or in self-defense.”

An idiot could figure termination to be whacking somebody. I knew, too, that in the defense of others was an acceptable reason, but an agent had to be pretty clear and honest. And prepared to take a polygraph test, something they had to endure on a regular basis.

Mom kept going. Probably a lot for my sake, since Dad more than likely knew it all anyway. She might have been just thinking out loud. “Dortch brought good, credible stuff. And he could concoct any story he wanted about how he came to be at Deus Comtec. My bet is that he would have found you with a self-inflicted fatal wound to the head. He searched hideouts he and you had used before.”

Dad nodded. I noticed that our family tends to nod a lot, a little conservative with words. “I need to find Dortch.”

“And what, beat the truth out of him? Kill him, maybe? He has you on points, remember?”

“You need his satellite phone,” I said to two sets of staring eyes. “He has to be in contact with somebody outside the Company. And he knows how you guys communicate, picking up phone calls and stuff. A satfone doesn’t use towers. It would be encrypted, though. And he would use a voice distortion device. I mean, look. He couldn’t be having a lot of meetings with people back home who are under constant press scrutiny. In fact, he couldn’t do a whole lot of traveling without drawing attention to himself with the Company. He could have a contact at any of the European consulates, but still… ‘Why are you here, Agent Dortch.’ Nah. He wouldn’t want that question.”

Mom and Dad both had their jaws open.

“What? I read,” I said in a kind of whiny defense.

“And I need to be able to move around without worrying about some facial recognition program identifying me and sending it to the Company. You know I left the country without notifying anyone.” Mom looked at me. “We’re not supposed to leave the country without filling out a report identifying what we’re going to do, and who we’re going to see. It’s a security thing. The official reason is so the Company can protect us… or find us.”

“But you thought the Company was sending you. Are they notified whenever your passport is checked?” I asked.

Mom nodded.

“So Ohmie and I will go to the Embassy after you leave for Minsk. Paul knows about Ohmie. I’m going to call him and tell him that he and I are filling his last days with experiences, the Alps, the arts, … no doctors. I’ll cry.”

Mom looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. I knew what she meant. She would put on a show for her boss, but would not have to fake cry.

“I’ll tell Paul that we’ll travel when we can, and rest when we must. We’ll be in that chateau we stayed at that time south of Lucerne. You know, where we spent the whole day watching the mountains.”

“You watched the mountains, I watched you,” Dad said.

They both laughed.

“You know, Paul will demand to know where I am? He’s not stupid,” Dad said.

“I know he’s not stupid!”

I flinched. It gave me a reminder of when she stormed out when this all started.

“I’m sorry,” Mom said. “I’ll just have to convince him that I did see you, but that you were trying to figure things out and would then come in. No point in lying to him on that score. He’d see right through it. I’ll let him know that my son is my total focus.”

I kinda felt bad about the burden I was giving them at that point. Oh, and Dad nodded.

“He’s, not a bad guy, Paul. He’ll see the truth, but know the spot we’re in, too. I don’t know where he stands on political issues, we don’t talk about those things. But he’ll cover for me.”

“He might surveil you,” Dad said.

“I’ll check into the chateau as Mrs. Mureaux and her daughter.” Mom winked at me. “And if I’m not there, you know where I’ll be.”

Ahh… Mom could spy, too. There was a place, my bet was somewhere in France, that only they knew about, and no amount of torture could worm a name from me that I didn’t know. It wasn’t right then, but later on that I saw Dad show Mom the inside of a passport. No doubt the name he would be traveling under. Another case of keeping me from giving him up under torture.

It’s a small room, Mom must’ve seen me observing them. After Dad left to get us something to eat, Mom told me about spy work. “Let me tell you something, Ohmie. Everyone, and I mean everyone, falls under enough pressure. We’re trained to hold out as long as humanly possible. Who knows, maybe they’ll give up, or maybe there’ll be an earthquake that frees us. But if we give up too soon, they’ll think we’re giving them false information. The other thing …”

“They’re going to kill you anyway. So don’t talk. Maybe it’ll end before you ….”

“Fall under the pressure,” Mom finished for me.

Dad came back with hot hamburgers this time. All I could eat was half mine and just a few fries. I was feeling pretty bad.