Whiplash

“Sounds like it would be right up my alley,” said Ax. “If I were looking for a job.”

“Now before you say no—”

“You’re just like your father, you know that?”

“Ax—”

“Fortunately for you, my sources indicated that this call might be coming. And I was able to do a little research into the subject.”

“How—”

“Once a chief, always a chief.” Ax raised his glass of home-brewed ale as a toast. “There are some things I can’t tell, even when retired. Don’t worry, no state secrets have been betrayed. Who would be, well, not better than me, but nearly as good?”

“I—”

“Greasy Hands Parsons. And he has far too much time on his hands now that his grandson Robert has started school. Even better, he lives not ten miles from the Pentagon, so he wouldn’t have to relocate.”

“Greasy Hands? He has to be pushing eighty by now.”

Ax laughed. “Everyone at Dreamland thought he was about sixty when he was there, right?”

“Seventy.”

“Greasy Hands was younger than most of the sergeants he had working for him. You can’t fool another chief. Especially one with access to perso

“Could he work at something where he wasn’t going to get his hands dirty?”

“Who says that’s not part of the job?”

Few nicknames had ever been as appropriate as “Greasy Hands.” Parsons not only had incredible mechanical skills; he couldn’t resist putting them to use. Brea

“Maybe I will talk to him,” she said. “You wouldn’t happen to know what his phone number is these days, would you?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER AL PARSONS FELT HIS CELL PHONE rattling his pocket, vibrating before it rang. He considered not answering it, since he was under his car examining a ball joint that had, in technical terms, gone all hell out of whack. But technically he wasn’t actually working on the car—the mechanic at the auto shop where he’d stopped was being paid to do that. And since the young man seemed to have a rough idea of the trouble now that Greasy Hands had pointed it out, he decided he’d step outside and take the call.

“Just clunk it with the fork one time and it’ll come right off,” he told the mechanic. “I gotta take this call.”

“Is this Al Parsons?” said a woman’s voice when he hit the Call button.

“Depends on who’s calling,” he answered.

“Please hold the line for Ms. Stockard.”

“Who?”

Brea

“Brea

“I’m good, Greasy Hands, how are you?”

“Bored out of my mind. What can I do for you?”

Brea

The mechanic working on his car might have said he didn’t possess it. But he was a fairly discreet fellow and wouldn’t have said anything bad about his customer, especially since his customer’s good mood led to a twenty dollar tip.

BREANNA’S WORK, ALONG WITH UPDATES ON THE SUDAN and Iranian situation, kept her in her office until a few minutes after eight; in truth, she could have easily stayed several more hours and still not finished everything. By the time she finally reached home, not only was di

Brea

She’d held that face close to hers forever, it seemed; at times it was impossible to even imagine not seeing it.

Teri glanced up and caught a glimpse of her mother behind her in the mirror. Instantly, her expression changed to a scowl. She put her head down, concentrating on her brush.

“How’s your leg, honey?” Brea

Teri didn’t say anything.

“Teri?”

The girl leaned forward to spit out the toothpaste. She was determined not to talk to her mother. She took a paper cup from the holder and rinsed.

“The doctor told me the X rays were negative,” said Brea

Mouth rinsed, Teri dropped her toothbrush on the sink and spun around to leave. Brea

“What’s wrong?” she asked, though she knew exactly why Teri was angry.

“It’s time for bed.”

“Teri—”

Brea

Teri certainly thought so, even though, if asked, she would not have been able to put her feelings precisely into words.

“I’m fine,” said Teri.

Her angry tone a

Teri grabbed it, practically flinging it into the holder. Brea

“Hey listen,” she told her daughter when she caught up to her in the bedroom. “I’m sorry I couldn’t go to the hospital for you. Dad said he could.”

“You had to talk to the President.”

“That’s right.”

Teri frowned.

Part of her thought she was making too much of this, but another part of her was just angry and didn’t care. “Listen, Teri, what I do is very important for a lot of people.”

“I know that.”

“Well…good.”

Brea

She didn’t want Teri to repeat that childhood, but at the same time, Brea

There seemed to be no magic formula to make that happen.

“All right,” said Brea

“Good night.”

Brea

“Send dad in,” said Teri sharply as Brea

“OH, SHE’S FINE,” ZEN TOLD BREANNA AFTER TUCKING TERI in. “Just a little spoiled.”

“Are you saying I spoil her?”

“Hell, no—I spoil her.” Zen rolled his wheelchair to the refrigerator and got out a beer. “But it’s not fatal. She’ll get over it.”

“I don’t think she’s spoiled,” said Brea

“And I don’t think you have to be there for her every second of every day,” said Zen.

“She does.”

“She’ll get over it.” He wheeled over to the cabinet for a bottle opener. “Believe me. Another couple of years, she’ll be saying we never leave her alone.”

“I can’t wait.”

“Me, neither.”

35

Al-Quazi

EVEN THE DIRT IN AFRICA WAS DIFFERENT THAN IN AMERICA.

It had the texture of pulverized rocks, even in a light rain. It didn’t so much meld together in the rain as dissipate; the mud was more slimy than sticky. If you were crawling through it, as Da