The Ties That Bind

He nodded. 'And maybe that's why it would be better if I just…went away. If I never came back and the only thing you ever saw from me again was a check once a month.'

'Is that what you want to do?'

'No,' he said. 'But I don't see a lot of other choices.'

'As my grandfather says, there are always other choices.'

'He's a good man,' Jason said. 'But I don't think he really understands what my work is.' He looked at her, his gaze catching hers. 'I don't think you really understood until you saw it up close.'

Tina held her silence, thinking about his words, then she said, 'You're right. I didn't understand. Not really.'

'Why did you leave the Room 59 offices and come out here?' he asked. 'You've got the talent, if not the full training, to do what many field agents do.'

'It just wasn't my world,' she said. 'I would look at all this information — pictures, reports, videos — and think this can't be real. Yet they still wanted me to wring some kind of sense from it. And the problem was that it never made sense to me. I knew some of the field agents and would talk with them, but it never sank in that much of the carnage I was looking at belonged to them. It was like they owned it somehow. Does that make any sense?'

'Yes, it does,' he said. 'And we do own it. We have to.'

'And that's why I left,' she said. 'I couldn't imagine a world where people would own that kind of behavior. Where they would kill someone else — another human being — without mercy. It wasn't the kind of place I wanted to live in, so…I left.'

'And now I'm here. You know what I do. You've seen what I do.'

'Yes,' she said.

'So where does that leave us?' he asked. 'Do you want me to stay?'

'To be honest, Jason, I don't know,' she replied. 'I've been lying here trying to figure it out for the past three or four days — however long I've been in here. I care for you, but what you do is dangerous. Every time you walked out the door, I'd be worried sick that you wouldn't come home to me, to our child. You talk about making the world safe, but the world is a big place. I don't know how you'd make us safe.' She sobbed quietly, hitched a breath, then said, 'I don't know what I want or what you should do.'

He sighed. 'I guess that makes two of us,' he said. He looked at his watch. 'I think we both need some time. I'm supposed to be catching a flight soon. Denny has a lot of questions that still need answering.'

'I know, I know. The mission comes first,' Tina said.

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. 'Sometimes, family is the mission.'

'We'll see,' she said, trying not to cry. 'Stay in touch, okay?'

'I will,' he said. 'You can count on it.'

Then he turned and walked out of her room.

* * *

Jason's flights took him back the way he'd come — from Nome to Anchorage, Anchorage to Seattle and Seattle back to Minneapolis. It was late when he arrived home, and rather than deal with Denny and Room 59 business right away, he tossed his suitcase on the sofa, his laptop on the desk, showered and crawled into bed.

He slept for almost ten hours, and woke no more certain about what to do in regards to Tina and their baby and his job than when he walked out of the hospital in Nome. He made himself coffee and ate a half a grapefruit and some toast, then did some light stretching. It was going to be a while before he was back to full strength again.

Once his morning routine was completed, he sat down at his desk and fired up his laptop. The glasses he used were right where he left them. He put them on and went through the log-in process that confirmed his identity.

Using his avatar, he entered the Room 59 offices and headed for Denny's door. He noticed several people giving him long, wondering looks as he passed through, but ignored them. He stopped in front of Denny's door and knocked politely.

'Come in, Jason,' Denny called out.

Jason opened the door and stepped in, surprised to see that in addition to Denny, Kate was also present. 'Shut the door, please,' Kate said.

He did as she asked, and Denny motioned for him to sit down.

'How are you feeling?' his boss asked.

'I'm on the mend,' Jason said. 'I should be mission ready within a week or so.'

Kate chuckled. 'I think we can manage a little more downtime than that. You've had quite an adventure from what I understand.'

Jason just nodded, then turned his attention to Denny. 'You know what happened on the mission?'

'Yes,' Denny said. 'Kate and I were just discussing it. Under the circumstances, we're both very happy with how you handled things. There was a little cleanup involved with the locals, but Tanuk helped with a lot of that. And we've got a team down at the sub right now, and another looking over the plans. You did well. Congratulations.'

'Thank you,' Jason said. 'So why do I feel like there's another shoe about to drop?'

'Isn't there always in our line of work?' Kate asked.

Jason couldn't help but laugh. 'Yes, I suppose there is. What's this one?'

Kate leaned back in her chair, studying him carefully, then motioned for Denny to take the lead. 'There is one complication from your trip that we have to address,' he said.

'Tina,' Jason replied. 'And the baby.'

Kate nodded. 'That's the complication, by the way,' she said. 'Not the shoe. We'll get to that in a moment.'

'I don't see how she enters into this,' Jason said. 'She works for the agency and from what I gather, you and Denny knew of her involvement from the beginning.'

'No, no,' Denny said. 'That's not it, really. The complication is that — as you know — agents who have families tend to run into problems. We don't encourage it, and we prefer to hire people who don't have a wife or a husband and children to deal with. There are too many risks. When the mission gets personal, bad things can happen. They have in the past. Even the best agent can lose sight of what he or she is supposed to be doing if someone they care about is put at risk.'

'I'm aware of the preference,' he said. 'But at this moment, I'm not even sure if I'm ever going to be more than a monthly check to them. We're both aware of the complications.'

'It gets worse,' Kate said.

'Worse?'

'Yes,' Denny said. 'Tina has requested that she return to her work here as an analyst. She wants back in to the main office work.'

As Jason started to speak, his boss held up his hands. 'Strictly an office job,' he said. 'We're considering it, but we've never had two people who were…involved…both working for us. It's a unique situation.'

'She didn't mention it to me,' Jason said. 'I assumed she'd be staying up there.' He turned to Kate. 'Is this the shoe?'

'Not exactly,' she said. 'You're very good, Jason. Better, in fact, than I thought. The fact that you were able to do what you did — including taking out Feng Li — was very impressive. The other shoe is that we're wondering if you would consider a different position with Room 59.'

'But you just hired me to be a field agent,' he said. 'You said the work was good.'

'We did,' she said. 'But we think there's a way to utilize your unique talents to benefit Room 59 even more.'

'How so?' he asked, intrigued despite himself.

'Would you be interested,' Denny asked, 'in being a prime?'

'You mean training other agents?' Jason asked.

'A prime is more than a trainer,' Kate said. 'They are the best of the best, and aside from training, they also do some fieldwork on occasion. Usually with the midnight teams.'