'Sure, why?' he asked, though he knew the answer.
'The situation with Mike,' she replied.
'That wasn't easy,' Hood admitted. 'But hiring and firing are part of the job description.'
'Does he know you're investigating his new colleague?'
'No. At least, no one told him. I don't know what he might surmise or suspect.'
'So everything's under control here,' she said.
Hood picked up a paperweight Alexander had made in the first grade. It was a blue and white glazed lump of clay that was supposed to be Earth.
He held it in his fist. 'I've got the whole world in my hand, Liz,' he said.
'Like Atlas,' she said.
'He had it on his shoulders,' Hood pointed out.
'Like Atlas,' she repeated.
Hood thought about that, then smiled. She got him. He put the paperweight down. 'What do you do when you feel like your life and career are on a parallel course in the wrong direction?'
'That depends,' Liz replied. She shut the door. 'If you're patient, it's like moving around that globe. Learn what you can on the journey, enjoy the scenery, and eventually, you come back around.'
'What if you feel like you're running out of fuel?'
'Ride the winds.'
'I have been,' Hood told her.
'And?' The psychologist moved toward the desk. 'Talk to me, Paul.'
Hood hesitated. He was not good at this. He did not like to complain or to seek help. But Liz must have sensed that something was wrong.
The woman was responsible for keeping psychological files of the staff, and her antennae were always extended. Decisions made in these offices could affect millions of people. If Liz felt that someone were under too much stress, either personal or professional, she could order them to take time off. She had done that with Mike Rodgers after his Striker military unit was decimated in India.
'Truthfully, Liz?' Hood said. 'I feel like those winds have been blowing me all over the damn place, mostly away from where I need to be.'
'Do you know where you need to be?'
'Not doing this,' he said. 'Not cutting personnel and pulling back from missions. Not kowtowing.'
'That's negative space,' she said in a careful, nonjudgmental voice.
'You can't define what you should be doing by what you're not doing.'
She leaned on the desk so their eyes were level. 'First tell me this, Paul. Are we talking about home or about Op-Center?'
'Both,' he admitted.
'So you feel like your backsliding in two areas.'
'Yeah. At the same speed and gaining momentum.'
'Do you wish you were back with Sharon?'
'No,' he said without hesitation.
