Roen nodded, though he wasn’t sure at all where this was going. “I think so,” he mumbled politely.
“So,” Louis continued, “Jill’s shelf life is almost over and she has to find a quality man soon, and by the way I figure it, she’s been spending the best years of her life with you. And while you’re getting better, it’s no big deal if you move on later because you’re still aging well, like a good bottle of cab. You know where I’m going with this?”
Roen shook his head.
I never had it figured that Louis was such a philosopher. In another time with the right Quasing, he could have been a Nietzsche or a Voltaire!
“If I find out that you wasted the best years of my little girl’s life because of your fine-wine-aging process, I’m going to kill you. Because if she thinks you’re the best she can do, and she loves you, hell, I’ll buy it. I might even call you son one day, as long as you know how to hunt and fish. But if you’re anything other than what she thinks you are, I’ll turn your fine-wine-aging ass to vinegar so fast you better hope you can get FedExed to Africa, because I will hunt you until the ends of the green Earth, so help you God.” Louis bared his teeth and then finished his beer with one big chug. “We clear, son?”
“Crystal.” Roen felt what little blood was left in his face drain to his feet. “I just want…”
Louis laughed. “I’m kidding. Actually, I’m not, but I’m glad you know where we stand. So what’re you drinking?” He gestured toward the waitress.
“Scotch,” Roen replied quietly.
“Ahh, a man with hair on his back.” Louis ordered two scotches.
Jill and Lee Ann came back a few minutes later with martinis in hand. Jill gave him a small worried smile. Her parents continued his interrogation through seven more courses of dinner until they seemed to know more about Roen than his own parents did. By the end of the night, Louis offered to pay for dinner and insisted when Roen tried to pick up the tab anyway. Her parents gave him a very neutral-sounding goodbye, saying that it was nice to meet him and that they hoped he would find a job that didn’t require so much traveling. Jill and Roen beat a hasty retreat to compare notes.
“Dad paid for the bill,” Jill said, “that means he approves.”
“From where I come from,” Roen said, “when someone pays the bill, that means it’s business and not friendly.”
She smiled. “That’s not my dad. If he doesn’t like you and you’re paying, he’ll order a thousand-dollar bottle of wine – and spill it just to see the look on your face.”
“Does that mean I pass the test?”
“And they want you to get a job that doesn’t require so much traveling. That means they want us to spend more time together,” Jill added.
“I don’t know how you can see all that meaning into that,” he said, and shook his head. “All I got was a death threat if I don’t treat you right.”
She leaned over and kissed him. “Well, that’s one thing I agree with Dad on.” Her voice changed. “Hey, listen, thanks for meeting them. It’s important to me. I’m going to Frankfurt again for the next few months. It’s important to me to have this meeting before I leave. It’s good for a girl to know she’s got someone to come back to.”
Roen felt a soft lump in his throat as he pulled her close. “I’ll always be waiting for you,” he said. In his head, he knew that he shouldn’t make promises like that with his line of work. Would Tao’s next host end up paying Jill a visit like he had with Kathy? The very thought made him shudder.
Roen, do not assume such things. Your life can be a full one. It is still your right to find love and happiness.
“But at what cost? That I leave her a widow?”
You do want to marry her then?
Roen stopped. He never even thought of it until now.
One step at a time, my friend.
“He tell you his stupid wine metaphor?” Jill was saying.
Roen nodded.
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “I don’t know how many times I’ve had to hear that. That’s a good thing though. He’s taking you seriously.”
“It’s so backward, yet true,” he mused.
“Whatever,” she murmured as she took his hand and led him out of the restaurant. She flashed him one of her bright dimpled smiles and said, “I’m still getting better with time. You’ll just have to see and find out!”
Roen looked at her and his heart suddenly swelled to the point his eyes filled with tears. Yes, he was pretty sure. He did want to marry her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: BACK INTO THE FOLD
The Chest of the Menagerie at the time was hidden well in Prophus’ hands. When the fighting first broke out in the lands once known as the Holy Roman Empire, the decision was made to move the chest to England where it would remain secure during the conflict. I am not sure how the Genjix came across this information. Were we betrayed? Did their spies find the chest? We will never know. But within hours, Armand – that is, Zoras – had assembled a small army and attacked the escort. The capture of the Chest of the Menagerie changed the dynamic of the war forever.
Roen fidgeted in a booth at the Salt and Pepper Diner, in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, as he watched the people come in and out. It was late September and he had just returned home after a two-week assignment – his most important and morally challenging assignment to date – and received new orders to come to the diner. It was an unusual order, almost like some sort of covert operation.
After that long talk with Tao, he had begun to take his job as an agent more seriously. This time though, Roen was not satisfied with just being a good soldier. He also began to care why his assignments had to be carried out. That made all the difference in the world. Slowly, Roen had earned the respect of those he worked with and regained some of the trust he had lost with Command. It also gave him purpose.
In his most recent mission, he had joined a small task force that broke out a number of Canadian dissidents, who were about to be extradited back to Canada, from a prison in northern Minnesota. He didn’t even know Canada had dissidents. After all, wasn’t Canada one of the happiest countries in the world?
But now, he knew better than to take his assignments and the Prophus objectives at surface value. Beside the fact that several of the dissidents were Prophus agents, it seemed Canada was a hotbed of Genjix activity and they were exploiting much of the natural resources there to fund Russian production of military arms, which, in turn, was being used to supply North Korea with weapons.
The Genjix were attempting to destabilize the region with their long-term objective of increasing China’s influence – a government which the Genjix controlled – in order to expand the Chinese naval sphere of dominance over more of the Pacific. The dissidents were sabotaging the Genjix operations before they were chased over the border and captured by the US border patrol. Roen might have missed a few points when he read over the report, but that seemed to be the general gist of the operation.
He had at first balked at firing at American troops. It was his government after all, and he felt like a traitor. He grieved privately about some of the things he had to do. He knew he had shot a few of the guards as they had made their escape. He prayed that they recovered from their injuries. He only hoped that the ends justified their means.
Roen knew he wasn’t that sort of agent, so he was feeling apprehensive as he waited at a booth in the corner over a burger and fries. He really missed fries a lot. Potatoes bathed in hot oil were rarely on his menu these days. He was pleasantly surprised when Stephen and Paula appeared and sat down opposite him.
“You did good work on the Happy Mounty operation,” Stephen began after the three exchanged pleasantries. “I know your moral principles must have balked at the orders.”