SD: (Silence)
MD: I mean, if you’re smart enough to have tricked us all and smart enough to have taken the ASO, you’re smart enough to realize there’d be consequences.
SD: Yeah.
MD: (Sigh. Silence.)
SD: I don’t have anything good to say, Dad, I’m just . . . I was just looking for a way to [inaudible] not a victim. I mean, the world is changing, nothing is going to stop that, it’ll be powers against powers. I . . . I don’t want to be helpless. Waiting.
MD: You’re not making sense, Shade. Surely you know you’re not making sense. You have to come back and give yourself up. You don’t know the kind of people you’re dealing with.
SD: If they’re so bad, then giving myself up seems like a bad idea. Who’s not making sense now?
MD: Fine, great debating point, Shade, give yourself a gold star. But what do you plan to actually do?
SD: I don’t know yet. I have this power now. I mean, what’s done is done, I am what I am now.
MD: Sweetheart, they will catch you. If they catch you, it will be worse than if you surrender peaceably.
SD: I hear you.
MD: You hear me. And you ignore me. Same as ever.
SD: Dad?
MD: Yes?
SD: I miss Mom.
MD: Yeah. Me too, kid. Me too. I try to do her job, too, but I’m not her, I’m just me.
SD: You’ve been a great father.
MD: Don’t make that past tense, sweetheart. I am still your father. I will always be your father.
SD: And I’ll always be your daughter. But . . . But things have changed now. Things have . . . Look, I have to go. They’ll be tracking this call. I have to hang up.
MD: Shade, don’t—
[Call ends]
CHAPTER 14
A Career Setback
THERE WAS OF course only one reason for Tom Peaks to be summoned to the Pentagon: he was to be fired.
Failure had a taste, at least for Tom Peaks: it was the flavor of scotch. He poured his third scotch, held the bottle up for inspection, and laughed mirthlessly: it was Lagavulin, from Islay, Scotland. He wondered if the distillery would survive what was being called, with a confusing lack of geographical accuracy, the Loch Ness Caterpillar.
“Best enjoy it,” he told himself. “There may not be a next year for Islay scotch.”
Peaks took a sip, set the glass aside, and resumed packing his carry-on bag.
“Do you know when you’ll be back?” his wife asked, leaning out of the walk-in closet.
Peaks shook his head. “Nope. Probably just a quick overnight.”
“Well, be sure and tell them you need some time off. The kids feel like they’ve barely seen you lately.”