He sat in the booth, not drinking, not reading, not listening to his mp3 player. Usually, he did all three of those simultaneously, but right now he couldn’t. His thoughts chased each other around his brain, reviewing how he’d come to this point. He kept checking his reflection in the mirror, making sure he looked at least reasonably presentable, kept patting his pockets to make sure he had everything, not that any of it would have walked off while he was sitting there. Kept avoiding thinking about what he was doing. Kept looking at the door. Kept waiting.
------
His phone chimed.
Message received, that chime said, one you really wanted to be told about.
He looked up from his reader, frowning slightly. It was the weekend, and that chime was usually for work. Not that his work was usually bounded by the work week, but normally he at least knew when something would come up after hours.
But it wasn’t as if he was busy, anyway. A quiet weekend had been on the agenda, and had already done him a world of good.
He turned to his computer, looking for the message that had triggered the “important” chime.
He saw the From line, and his blood froze.
------
Inside the envelope was a single sheet of paper. On it was an email address.
“That’s it?” Kristy couldn’t hide her surprise.
“I recognize that domain,” Lenka said. “It’s a redirection service. It’s very secure. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there were another one or two in the chain. It makes sense,” she continued. “Virtually perfect reliability with minimal chance of discovery.”
Naira seated herself at the room’s computer, logged on, and began to type.
------
I need to see you.
I can be wherever you are on fairly short notice.
Please, tell me where I can find you.
------
He read it twice before he could actually understand it.
He hadn’t forgotten. One of his greatest assets in life had been his memory. It wasn’t literally photographic, but he didn’t forget much, even when he wanted to.
He filed.
He had taken all of those memories and very carefully filed them, neatly, with a cross-referencing index and supplementary materials. He had placed them all in a file cabinet in his mind, locked it, and not gone back since. He wasn’t good enough self-deception to be able to pretend it wasn’t real--it was--but he had compartmentalized it all away. It was healthy compartmentalization, though. It had happened, but it wasn’t important anymore, and dwelling on it certainly wasn’t healthy, so there it was.
Now, the file cabinet was open, and the memories came flooding back. Memories of her, first, unsurprisingly. But memories of the others, as well. Of what he had done, what he had been involved in. Of the people he had, nonsensically, been in charge of.
He wanted to see her, of course. And he’d given her the address for a reason. He didn’t know why now, though--was she leaving Mendellia?
...did something happen there?
A couple of quick searches said no, there hadn’t been any upheavals in small Pacific Island nations lately. Well, not that one, anyway. So it wasn’t political, she wasn’t a refugee. But...
Ultimately it didn’t matter why. He’d given her the means, and she’d reached out. And given everything, she had the right to actually want to meet him in his natural environment.
After all, he finally had one.
And a good place to pick. It wasn’t quite neutral ground, but it was all right.
------
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Kristy asked.
“Who knows?” Lenka shrugged. “He was never the most reliable of correspondents even when he was here.”
“I suppose we should go back to the job at hand,” Becki mused. “He’ll get back to us when--”
The computer chimed.
Naira recovered first, clicking on the reply.
“I almost think it’s a trick,” Lenka said after a moment.
“That’s it?” Kristy blinked. “After all that? An address in San Francisco and a time?”
“Tuesday,” Becki mused. “That could work. Naira, you can take Kristy and Lenka, if they’re not busy with whatever Josh’s plans are.”
“I don’t think Josh will need me,” Kristy said, “and that’s just as well...”
“No permanent damage,” said Becki, laughter in her voice. “We’re going to need him.”
“I’m not making any promises,” Kristy replied, more darkly.
------
The next few days sped by. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday happened, but he went through them in a daze. He couldn’t even have said whether he ate, let alone what, or what he did or whether he even spoke to anybody.
Finally, Tuesday afternoon arrived, and he headed to the bar.
It was his favorite in the city, which was why he picked it. He nodded to the bartender when he walked in, collected the beer she pulled for him, and took a seat at the booth in the corner. He was early, of course. He always was.
------
“Is this it?”
Naira checked the address again. “Looks like it.”
“He wants to meet us in a bar. Plus ca change...”
“I wonder how long he’s been living in San Francisco.”
“I wonder what he’s doing in it now. He’s not more than an hour from Skywalker Ranch.”
“You think he’s still in...the business?”
Kristy shrugged. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
------
She walked in, turned and saw him, and a smile spread across his face. She looked even more beautiful than he remembered...
The smile died as he saw she wasn’t alone. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything as they approached. He simply stood.
Finally, Naira broke the silence. “Hello.”
“Hello, Naira. Hello, Kristy. What’s going on here?”