“Do you know what I’m looking forward to seeing,” she said. “The Macaulay Salmon Hatchery and Glacier Gardens in Juneau. Then there’s the Saxman native village and the Alaska rain forest sanctuary in Ketchikan.”
“I wonder if there’ll be time to see the lumberjack show,” Frank said. “It’s apparently the most competitive on the planet.” He pulled the folded brochure out his back pocket and opened it to the sights at Ketchikan. “Probably not, unless we intend to spend the entire day there. Something I have no intention of doing.”
“The Gulf’s Inside Passage is going to be fascinating,” she said, taking the brochure out of Frank’s hand and paging forward. “Look,” she pointed. “Glacier carved fjords, whales, dolphins, bald eagles, tufted puffins, and that’s just the wildlife.”
“I was reading that in the booklet we purchased at the ship’s tourist shop,” Frank said. “With the towering granite cliffs, cascading waterfalls and the thousands of untouched islands, it’s an absolute haven for birds and animals.”
“When we get back home from our cruise, we’ll need to take a vacation from our vacation,” she said, and hugged him a little tighter.
While Mr. and Mrs. Frank Harris were starting the best years of their lives, the chief of police had very little clear notion of what his future held. Under pressure from Baltimore’s mayor, he was forced to resign amid unfavourable public opinion. With all the sensationalism about the wrongful arrest of J. Levin Müller, the chief had very few congenial things to say about CNN’s Kendra Kentrel. Her teeth appeared whiter than ever, as she gleefully reported the screw-up made by the police department. The chief was under no illusions that the department and his precinct in particular, had nothing to do with it. The screw-up was his and his alone.
There was certainly truth in the saying that the choices made today influence the rest of your life, he thought. Had he paid closer attention to Detective Harris’s warnings about not closing the case so quickly, he wouldn’t be in this predicament of uncertainty.
Ice cold beer in hand, Miguel Gonzales watched the dazzling sunset from his hacienda just outside Los Mochis on Mexico’s West Coast. Tomorrow, he would sign the papers for full ownership of a small trucking company being sold off. He stood up and casually walked a short distance to the sandy shoreline. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a key and looked at it in reflection. He then threw it as far as possible into the ocean. Nobody would be using that gate outside Mexicali ever again to smuggle migrants into America.
James was fully in favour of Obadiah’s suggestion to install facial recognition software. Analysing video feeds from specific cameras on the thirty-first floor, another layer of protection was added outside the confines of Info Tech. It was obvious that Sven had his sense of humour back. Each time Nathan came near a camera, a warning sounded on Emily’s computer with an accompanying image of a fierce gorilla wearing half-moon glasses, and with extremely skinny arms and legs.
Newly appointed Director of the NSA, Yvonne Baird, had a lot of damage control to contend with and worked many long hours. Her weekends however were reserved for trips to New York.
Epilogue
“Date night?” Emily asked Sven, who was getting ready to leave a little earlier, as was usual on a Friday afternoon.
He blushed, bid everyone in the open-plan office of Info Tech a good night and wished them a pleasant weekend.
Sven, Kayla, Yvonne and her twins were enjoying a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant that catered especially to young energetic children.
“I heard that J. Levin Müller was awarded over two million dollars by the state for wrongful imprisonment,” Yvonne said, between mouthfuls of Tortellini Alfredo. “They’ve also erased all records of the criminal charges against him. Well, at least they claim they did.”
“I feel sorry for the old politician,” Sven said, shaking his head. “Imagine finding out what your son has been up to all these years and more so, the true cause of Mrs. Müller’s death.”
“One consolation,” Yvonne said. “At least Joseph wasn’t his biological son.”
“Some consolation,” Sven said. “I still find it unbelievable that you were working for a mass-murderer.” Sven reached out and touched her hand. “At least justice was served.”
“In more ways than one,” Yvonne agreed. “He actually scared me when Trish and I testified against him in court. He was completely mad, you know.”
“Well, now you have his position,” Sven said. “And well deserved. I guess I’ll have to behave myself as an ‘ethical’ hacker now that you’re running the National Security Agency.”
She smiled, knowingly. “At least I got to choose my own office. We’ve closed off Joseph’s for now, with no intention of using it in the near future.”
“I doubt anyone would want to use it,” Sven said.
“You wouldn’t believe what they found on the hard drive recovered from his trashed computer, and I’m not just referring to the videos of the women’s washrooms either. He ended up being his own worst enemy in his egotistical stupidity of keeping photos of those hookers he killed.”
“Even so,” Sven said. “Müller wouldn’t have been able to evade those murder charges. That Detective Harris was really diligent, much to the detriment of Baltimore’s Chief of Police.”
“If Müller’s mother hadn’t kept a sperm sample…” Yvonne left the rest unsaid.
“I wonder why she did that,” Sven said in thought. “It goes to show that interbreeding is not a very good idea.”
“Oh, did you hear?” Yvonne said, changing the subject. “CNN fired Kendra Kentrel. Apparently, she was giving the media giant a bad reputation with her ‘Oscar Nominee’ smiles, covering disastrous or horrific stories. It was deemed as inappropriate conduct.”
After dinner, they took the girls to a nearby park, so that they could work off some of their excess sugar.
At the end of a perfect evening, they walked into Sven’s spacious and airy apartment, where Yvonne and her girls would be staying, as they normally did, for the weekends.
Kayla looked at the twins, her new very best friends, and then up at Sven. “Daddy,” she said. “Are Arianna and Aurora going to be my sisters?”
Sven’s heart and soul had always been with Elena, yet now, he understood with certainty that the time had come to let go. Looking down at Kayla, he knew that he would always have a part of Elena with him. He beamed at her, and then shared a very intimate smile with Yvonne.
Trish LaForgue, Director of the Office of Security, looked at all the supportive evidence in front of her. Should she let things ride as they are, or approach Sven Labrowski?
Dear Sven, SkyTech’s whizz-kid who had changed her life forever. She brushed the back of her fingers along the side of her face, and then looked at her smooth, unblemished arms and hands.
The OS would have a formidable asset on their hands if they could get Sven, aka Trinity, on their payroll, she mused.
Characters
EMILY HURST
Programmer and Graphics Designer◦– Info Tech
JAMES WORTHINGTON CLARK (JW)
Owner and CEO◦– SkyTech Aeronautics & Communications
NATHAN MCINTOSH (NATE)
Manager◦– Info Tech
OBADIAH BROWN
Head of Security◦– SkyTech Tower
SVEN LABROWSKI (TRINITY)