They drove Julie home and watched her go inside. When the door closed behind her, Reel said, “That is one special young woman.”
“I got that a long time ago. You two really seem to have hit it off.”
“We’re a lot alike in many ways. When I first saw her you know what I thought?”
“What?”
“That she could be me, only twenty-some years younger.” Reel gazed out the window. “And I thought something else.”
“What was that?”
“That she might make a great recruit for the agency.”
“Not what we do?”
Reel glanced at him and then shrugged. “Maybe not. But she’s got the brains and the intuition to excel as an analyst. She could serve her country well.”
“Maybe. But that’s up to her.”
“What, like it was up to us?”
“We had choices.”
“We had bad choices, Robie. And we picked one. Or at least I did. You know far more about my past than I know about yours. In fact, I know nothing of your past.”
“You know some of it,” he corrected.
“Some,” she agreed. “But far from all.”
“There’s not much to tell. Hardly worth listening to.”
“And how much of that was a lie? All of it or just most?”
“I don’t look back. I look forward.”
“I looked back in Alabama.”
“But not for long. Now you can look forward.”
“And it’s scaring the crap out of me. My future.”
When they got back to Robie’s apartment, Robie made some tea for himself and, at her request, poured out a tumbler of Scotch for Reel. They sat and talked until it grew quite late.
“I need to find a place to live,” Reel said as she took a last sip of her drink.
“You’re welcome to stay here until you do.”
“I’m not sure how well that would work.”
“Why not? We just bunked together at the Burner for way too long.”
“There were cameras there, people watching.”
He looked at her curiously. “Not getting your point.”
“I propositioned you on a flight one time, Robie. And got turned down. I don’t like getting turned down. It hurts my pride. I’ll try again. It’s just how I’m wired.”
Robie stared at her. “The refusal had nothing to do with you. I explained that.”
“Exactly. That’s looking in the past. You said we needed to look to the future.”
She rose and held out her hand. “How about we try this again?”
“Are you sure about this?”
“No, but I want to do it anyway.”
Robie was about to stand when his phone buzzed.
“Shit,” exclaimed Reel. “I don’t care if that’s Marks, Tucker, or the president himself. Don’t answer it.”
Robie looked at the phone screen. “It’s Nicole Vance.”
“Then really don’t answer it.”
Robie clicked a key and said, “What’s up?”
He grinned at Reel, who was making a slicing motion with her finger across her neck. Then Robie’s grin disappeared.
“On my way.”
He clicked off and looked at Reel, who was now looking deadly serious.
“What?”
“It’s Julie.”
Reel’s mouth sagged. “Julie? What happened?”
“She’s been taken.”