Trotter had come to the veranda door. McGarvey could feel his presence behind him. “All right” he said, without turning. “I’ll do it”
“We’ll brief you in Athens on Tuesday if we get the green light. But we’ll have to keep you at arm’s length, you understand this”
“Yes”
McGarvey said tiredly.
“Are you up for this, Kirk? I mean if the president gives us his go-ahead” McGarvey shrugged. “How do any of us know whether or not we’re up to something, unless we actually do it” Again there was a silence.
“I’ll get back then” Trotter said. “But I brought someone with me”
McGarvey turned around. “Who”
” Lorraine Abbott”
“Why”
“Because she insisted”
“Take her back with you, I don’t want to see anyone now. “She doesn’t know about this, of course, and she mustn’t.”
“Take her back with you, John, I mean it”
“I can’t”
McGarvey put on a shirt and walked back to the village with Trotter. They didn’t say much to each other on the way over, both of them lost in their own thoughts. The afternoon sun beat down with a vengeance, the interior of the island extremely hot, and they were sweating freely by the time they made it across. Most of the men were out with the fishing fleet. The village had a deserted air to it. Lorraine Abbott sat at an outside table in the tavema just across from the dock. The only boat was the long, sleek hydrofoil that had brought her and Trotter over from LAVRION on the mainland. She was in the shade, but the mass of her blond hair made it seem as if she were under a spotlight. She wore a short khaki skirt and military blouse with epaulets, a thin gold chain around her long, delicate neck, and simple earrings.
“Hello, Kirk” she said, her voice soft, mellifluous. McGarvey hadn’t heard anything like it since he had come to this island, in fact not for years, since his ex-wife. His own reactions were disturbing to him.
Excess baggage is the bane of any field officer. Hadn’t that been drummed into his head? Wasn’t it true? “What are you doing here” he asked a little more harshly than he had intended. “I came to see you”
“No” McGarvey said, shaking his head. “Go back on the boat with John.
Return to the NPT. “I’m no longer with the service”
“Then return to your lab, Doctor”
“I’m on a leave of absence”
“Not here” McGarvey insisted. “You don’t belong anywhere near me. You can’t know how close you were to being killed. Christ, this is not polite society” He turned on Trotter. “Tell her, John. Take her back with you”
“I tried” Trotter said, spreading his hands. “I hope to Christ someone is still watching her”
“The Bureau is taking care of it”
“Then why isn’t she at the safehouse” Again Trotter spread his hands.
“I signed a release” she said. “I won’t be cooped up any longer”
“Then they’ll try again to kill you, and this time they’ll probably succeed”
“Not as long as I’m with you” McGarvey’s jaw was tight. “You can’t know how wrong you are, Doctor. How terribly, tragically wrong you are. Go away from me. Leave now while you still have the chance. “No”
“I’m leaving here in a few days”
“Then I’ll come with you”
“That will be impossible, Dr. Abbott” Trotter said.
ie looked from McGarvey to him “You’re sending him out again” she asked incredulously. “You can’t be serious. “I can’t say anything more, you know that” Trotter said. “The man was nearly killed. He lost a kidney, for God’s sake. Are you all crazy” She turned again to McGarvey. “Tell him, Kirk.” she started, but something in the look in his eyes stopped her. “Now, will you go back with John” he asked.
“No” she replied firmly. “If you’re leaving in a few days I’ll stay here until then”
“You don’t owe me anything” McGarvey said, raising his voice. “Yes I do.
I owe you my life. But I didn’t deserve that remark. I’m here because I want to be here”
“Why” Her eyes were wide just then, and she blinked. “Because.” she started. McGarvey just stared at her. “Because I have nowhere else to go” she finished her sentence.
It was late evening. The air had cooled down as it did every night, and a soft breeze blew across the veranda at the lighthouse. They had remained in the village tavema until the fishing fleet had come in, and then had had a simple dinner and listened to the concertina player and watched the men dance. All through the evening they had avoided touching each other, and for the most part their conversation had been desultory.
Not once did they bring up what had happened to them since Israel, or that he would soon be going back into the field. On the way up the path in the darkness, she slipped and nearly fell, so that he reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her. The contact had been electric for both of them, nearly taking McGarvey’s breath away. She was like his ex-wife Kathleen, in many respects yet she was different. She was softer around the edges, more sincere, even little-girl-like at times. It was confusing. He had taken a shower, and he stood now in his robe smoking a cigarette and staring out across the dark sea, listening to the waves against the rocks below, and wondering what was happening to him. He had come a long way since Santiago, and in many ways an even longer distance from his life in Switzerland, and then Paris. Lightyears, in fact. The question was: Where was he going? But then, that was the question everybody asked themselves. He didn’t know if there could ever be any good or accurate answer. You just took it as it came, a step at a time.
She came from inside and stood beside him. He could smell her pleasant, clean odor and see her from out of the corner of his eye, but he did not turn to look at her. “It’s very beautiful here” she said after a time.
“Yes, it is”
“But it’s odd, somehow. There’s a strange flavor to it. Maybe it’s just the Greeks, but it feels very, very old. Almost as if we were living in a graveyard. Do you know what I mean” McGarvey had felt almost the same thing. “I think so”
“When I was a little girl, thirteen or fourteen, I think, I went back to the Midwest to visit some of my cousins. There was a county fair we all went to one night. Ferris wheel, bumper cars, Tilt-a-whirl, cotton candy, foot-long hot dogs, all that. And there was a palm reader, an old woman in a tent at the end of the midway. My cousins teased me about it, but I had my palm read. It was something that just hit me at the time”
McGarvey finally turned to look at her. She was dressed only in a short silk nightgown with thin straps. From the dim light inside he could see that her complexion was slightly flushed. Her chest rose and fell too fast, as if she were trying to catch her breath.
“What did she tell you” he asked, his voice nearly catching at the back of his throat. She turned to him and smiled a little uncertainly. “I don’t remember 0 of it” she said. He said nothing. “She told me that I would fall in love, but that my life would be difficult”
“Why”
“Because he would be a dangerous man. But she told me it would be all right, that he would be there to protect me”
“Why” McGarvey asked softly. She shook her head. “I don’t know” He took her in his arms then, and as she came to him she sighed deeply as if she had finally been able to take a deep breath, as if finally she were out of danger. He had tried to tell her, but she hadn’t been ready to listen then, and he was of no mind now to repeat his warning. They kissed deeply, and afterward he picked her up and carried her inside to the big bed upstairs.