“I want to talk to her,” I say.
“Why? So you can mess her life up even more than you have already?”
“She’s my friend,” I insist.
“Mr. Thornell, it’s okay,” Viv says, nudging him aside. “I can… I’ll be fine.”
Checking to be sure, Thornell decides to take her cue. He steps about two feet away. Viv gives him another look, and he heads back to the display cases, where Dan and the other FBI agent are. For now, we’ve got the corner of the gilded hallway all to ourselves.
I look over at Viv, but she avoids my gaze, dropping her eyes to the floor. It’s been eight hours since we’ve last spoken. I’ve spent the past three trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say. I don’t remember a single word.
“How’s your eye?” “How’s your arm?” we both ask simultaneously.
“I’ll live,” we both reply.
It’s enough to get a small smile out of Viv, but she quickly pulls it down. I’m still the one who got her in this mess. Whatever she’s feeling, it’s clearly taking a toll.
“Y’know, you didn’t have to do what you did in there,” she finally says.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m not a moron, Harris — they told me what you said…”
“Viv, I never-”
“You want me to quote ’em? That you forced me into this… that when Matthew died, you threatened me into helping you… that you said you’d ‘break my face’ if I didn’t get on the private jet and tell everyone I was your intern. How could you say that?”
“You’re taking it out of context-”
“Harris, they showed me the statement you wrote!”
I turn to the classical murals on the wall, unable to face her. There are four murals, each one with a woman soldier in ancient armor, representing a different stage in a nation’s development: Adventure, Discovery, Conquest, and Civilization. They should have another one labeled Regret. My answer’s a whisper. “I didn’t want you to follow the ship down.”
“What?”
“You know how these things go — who cares if we saved the day? I made bets on legislation… misappropriated a corporate jet… and arguably contributed to the death of my best friend… Even if you were there for the very best reasons — and believe me, you were the only innocent in the whole crowd — they’ll take your head off just because you were standing next to me. Assassination by association.”
“So you just twist the truth and take the fall for everything?”
“Believe me, Viv — after what I sucked you into, I deserve far worse than that.”
“Don’t be such a martyr.”
“Then don’t be so naive,” I shoot back. “The moment they think you were acting on your own is the exact same moment they put you on the catapult and fire you.”
“So?”
“Whatta you mean, So?”
“I mean, So? So what if I lose my job? Big whoop. It’s not like they gave me the scarlet letter. I’m a seventeen-year-old page who lost her internship. I wouldn’t quite consider it the end of my professional career. Besides, there are more important things than a stupid job — like family. And friends.”
Staring me down with one eye, she holds the ice pack to the other.
“I agree,” I tell her. “I just… I just didn’t want them to fire you.”
“I appreciate that.”
“So what happened in there?” I ask.
“They fired me,” she says nonchalantly.
“What? How could they-?”
“Don’t look at me like that. At the end of the day, I still broke the cardinal rule of being a page: I went off campus without authorization and stayed overnight without permission. Worst of all, I lied to my parents and the principal, then flew off to South Dakota.”
“But I told them-”
“It’s the FBI, Harris. They may be hard-asses, but they’re not complete idiots. Sure, maybe you can force me on a plane, or to run an errand or two, but what about getting me to the motel, and to the mine, then down the shaft, and into the lab? Then we gotta catch the return flight back. You’re a lot of things, Harris, but kidnapper’s not on the list. You really thought they’d believe all that crap?”
“When I told it, it was flawless.”
“Flawless, huh? Break my face?”
I can’t help but laugh.
“Exactly,” she says. Viv pauses, finally taking the ice pack off her face. “I still appreciate you trying, though, Harris. You didn’t have to do that.”
“No. I did.”
She stands there, refusing to argue. “Can I ask you one last thing?” she says, motioning to the ground. “When we were down there with Janos… and you were stuck in the hole… were you standing on that little ledge the entire time?”
“Just toward the end… my foot stumbled on it.”
She’s silent for a moment. I know what she’s after.
“So when you asked me to swing the golf club…?”
There we go. She wants to know if I was really willing to sacrifice myself, or if I just did it to distract Janos.
“Does it matter?” I ask.
“I don’t know… maybe.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’d have asked you to swing either way.”
“That’s easy to say now.”
“Sure is, but I didn’t find the foothold till the last second, when he broke my grip.”
She stops as the consequences sink in. It’s no lie. I would’ve done whatever it took to save her. Foothold or not.
“Take it as a compliment,” I add. “You’re worth it, Viv Parker.”
Her cheeks rise uncontrollably. She has no idea what to say.
Up the hallway, a cell phone starts chirping. Viv’s lawyer picks it up and puts it to his ear. Nodding a few times, he closes it and looks our way. “Viv, your parents just checked into their hotel. Time to go.”
“In a sec,” she says. Sticking with me, she adds, “So still no word about Janos?”
I shake my head.
“They’re not gonna find him, are they?”
“Not a chance.”
“Think he’ll come hunting for us?”
“I don’t think so. FBI told me Janos was paid to keep things quiet. Now that the word’s out, his job’s over.”
“And you believe them?”
“Viv, we’ve already told our story. Security cameras got pictures of him entering the Capitol. It’s not like they need us as witnesses or to identify him. They know who he is, and they have everything they need. There’s nothing gained now by putting bullets in our heads.”
“I’ll remember that as I check behind every closed shower curtain for the rest of my life.”
“If it makes you feel better, they said they’d assign security detail to both of us. Besides, we’ve been sitting here for eight hours. If he wanted us dead, it already would’ve happened.”
It’s not much of a guarantee, but in a warped way, it’s the best we’ve got. “So that’s it? We’re done?”
I look back to my lawyer as she asks the question. After a decade on Capitol Hill, the only person standing in my corner is someone who’s paid to be there. “Yeah… we’re done.”
She doesn’t like that tone in my voice. “Look at it this way, Harris — at least we won.”
The FBI agents told me the same thing — we’re lucky to be alive. It’s a nice consolation, but it doesn’t bring back Matthew, or Pasternak, or Lowell. “Winning isn’t everything,” I tell her.
She gives me a long look. She doesn’t have to say a word.
“Ms. Parker — your parents…!” her lawyer calls out.
She ignores him. “So where do you go from here?” she asks me.
“Depends what type of deal Dan cuts with the government. Right now, the only thing I’m worried about is Matthew’s funeral. His mom asked me to give one of the eulogies. Me and Congressman Cordell.”