Ava offered him her sphinx’s smile, a flash of her dark eyes.
The last months had passed at a dizzying pace. It was a period of uncertainty. Of triumph and joy; of doubt and recrimination; of questioning ... well,everything. There was no chance of Mac Dekker simply disappearing once again, of resuming life as Robbie Steinhardt as he had after his brief adventure over a year before. The cat was out of the bag. Everyone knew that Mac Dekker was alive. There was nothing the CIA could do about it. Not that they wanted to. Mac was a hero, a credit to the Agency. He had stopped an attack more heinous than any known to the Western world in recent times. Ava’s role, though far more crucial—it was she who discovered the plot in the first placeand conducted all the legwork in defiance of her own government, at considerable risk to life and limb—was kept quiet. If the world might be happy to accept TNT as its evil successor to bin Laden or ?Arafat or Carlos the Jackal, it could not be allowed to put Itmar Ben-Gold in the same basket. In the end Samson had belonged to Israel, and it was upon Israel that ultimate responsibility lay. A decision was quickly made by France, Israel, Qatar, and the United States to deny the entire incident. Samson had never been lost. Tariq al-Sabah had not purchased it from Hamas. Itmar Ben-Gold had not supplied him with the detonation codes. No nuclear device had been smuggled into the Palace of Versailles inside a champagne bottle or anything else. None of these things had happened.
And to make sure none of these nonevents ever happened again, Mac and Ava were subjected to countless debriefings from the intelligence services of all countries involved, and a few that weren’t, as a gesture of goodwill.
Personally, it was a season of détente. Talk of the future was put on hold. There were no discussions about whether Provence or Porto might prove the nicer place to settle down. Ava, for her part, was in Tel Aviv so often that she had no opportunity to find Zinal dull. Mac’s debriefings took place mostly on Zoom, though Vincent Dalin visited once “looking for a retirement home” and had proved to be excellent company, even if he made a large dent in Mac’s wine cellar.
There had been a memorable day in November when Jabr al-Sabah had paid a visit to award Mac Qatar’s highest honor, the Pendant of Independence. The medal came with a cash gift of $10 million, honorary Qatari citizenship, and a residence of his choosing in Doha. Nothing exceeds like excess.
In fact, both Mac and Ava were so busy that they never seemed to find the right time for their “big talk.” Mac’s sense of betrayal and distrust—hers of him and his of her—faded as the weeks went by. He was still angry that she hadn’t whispered a word of her “mission” to him. Jane’s explanation that Ava hadn’t wanted to jeopardize all that they hadbuilt—especially Mac’s relationship to Katya—rankled him less and less. The flip side was that Mac began to blame himself more and more for having failed to spot anything anomalous about Ava’s behavior. (Just how in the hell had she managed it without him suspecting for even one second?) It seemed to be the tenor of the era in which they lived that fault must be spread evenly. Gray was the Pantone color of the year. Deep down, Mac knew it was malarky, but to say so risked upsetting his world as much as Ava feared. He had to accept that maybe he would never really know her. Mystery had always been a trait he’d found most attractive in her. Philosophically speaking, he thought, how much do any of us know about the ones we love? Especially the ones we love most dearly? In the end, we see what we want to see.
And Mac saw a smart, formidable, overwhelmingly attractive woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Nothing, he realized, could change that.
Katya disappeared around a corner, and Mac called for her to slow down.
“Let her play,” said Ava. “You can’t protect her from everything.”
“But I’ll never stop trying.”
“No,” said Ava. “I know you won’t.”
The forest fell away. The path emerged in the sunlight and offered a panoramic view of the valley, stretching as far as the eye could see. If ever there was a right place to do it, this was it.
Mac felt in his pocket for the jewelry box. Check. He dropped Ava’s hand and turned to face her. “Well,” he said. “Should we try this again?”
“Are you sure?”
“I am.”
“Go ahead, Mr. Dekker. I’m listening.”
“I’m paraphrasing.”
“Just go!”
“It’s been a tough year,” he began. “The operation. All the work to get better. Both of us taking care of a little girl. A daughter. On top ofthat, wondering if and when they were going to come after us ... well, me, at least. I think we managed pretty well.”
“Very well,” said Ava.
“What I mean to say is that I enjoy being with you.”
“I enjoy being with you,” said Ava.
“We make a good team,” said Mac.
“We do.”
“And we both agree we have to find a new place to live,” he said.
“I’m glad we do,” said Ava.
“What I want to say is that I love you very much.”
“I love you too.”
Mac’s hand tightened on the box.Here goes nothing.“So, I wanted to ask you ...”
Just then, Mac’s phone rang. “I wanted to ask you ...”
