“Right,” Kara said. “So you know what I mean?”
“True, but then every once in a while you get lucky and the odds turn in your favor.”
Hail’s expression oscillated from happy to sad so quickly that Kara thought he may have experienced a sudden physical pain of some type.
Hail looked away from Kara and down at the table.
Kara asked softly, “You are talking about your wife Madalyn, aren’t you?”
Hail didn’t look up. He just nodded his head.
Kara continued, “I’ve never been married, therefore I can only imagine what you have been through, losing your wife and both of your daughters.”
Hail looked up at her.
Kara thought that his face had changed dramatically in just those few seconds. The sorrowful lines in Hail’s face had become deeper, making him look callous and uncaring. His former kind-hearted eyes looked somewhat scary, dark and bottomless, as if he had transformed into an irreverent purveyor of death.
“Do you know what today is?” Hail asked in a voice almost as scary as his look.
Kara looked at him straight on and with great composure she said, “Yes I do. You know I read your file and they expect me to remember things like that.”
“Then you know?”
Kara decided it was best to get it out on the table.
“Your family was killed on this day two years ago.”
Hail looked at her as if she were the enemy for just saying it.
Then he looked back down at his plate.
The waiter arrived with a tray that had a bottle of sake and two empty glasses. He also had two glasses of ice water. He set everything on the table and asked, “So what will it be for you tonight?”
The waiter’s indifference to the situation snapped Hail out of his self-pity. Hail motioned for Kara to order first.
Kara, who hadn’t even opened her menu said, “I will have the avocado roll and the salmon sashimi.”
The waiter jotted it down with a stylus on his tablet.
“And for you, Sir,” he asked Hail.
Hail said solemnly, “I will have the usual.”
“Very good,” the young man said and darted off.
Hail looked back down at his plate.
“Hey,” Kara said. “Look up here.”
Reluctantly, Hail looked up at the CIA woman.
Kara was smiling in an attempt to pull Hail out of his funk.
“What’s is your usual?”
“Chicken lo mein.”
Kara laughed. “All of this great food and you order chicken lo mein? Marshall, you need to get out more and live a little.”
Hail flattened his lips and gave a little it is what it is expression.
Hail took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, as if he were expelling poison gas from his fatigued lungs.
Kara redirected the conversation by saying, “So you met Gage at MIT and then both of you went through bad marriages and then how did you two get back together?”
Hail seemed more comfortable talking about his subject.
He brightened a little and said, “The idea for the traveling wave reactor was first proposed in the 1950s. The theory has been studied all the way up to the first 600 megawatt prototype that was built by TerraPower in 2020. But there were big problems with their design, as there are with most prototypes. Both Gage and I were newly divorced and very bored teaching at MIT. We were looking for something to sink our teeth into, something of importance. We became aware of the challenges that TerraPower was having with their new reactor and that technology intrigued us. So Gage and I put our heads together and came up with a new reactor design, as well as a more sophisticated way to bundle the fuel. That collaboration and our new designs resulted in one of the first commercial traveling wave reactors.”
Kara poured a glass of sake for each of them and asked, “How did you get the startup money?”
Hail let out a single laugh and said, “That was the funny part of it. Bill Gates was a huge proponent of the traveling wave reactor and even sat on the board of TerraPower and funded its operations. Gage and I met with Gates and showed him our new designs. He had some people he trusted look over our designs and within a few months Gates backed our startup and we were in business.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Kara said.
“Yeah. The cool thing about Gates was that he just wanted the technology to move forward. He didn’t care who did it or who got credit for it. He just wanted the new technology to be successful. Gates understood that energy was the key to making a better world. A longer lasting world. He understood that free energy could help millions and millions of people who were living horrible lives.”
Kara held up her glass.
“Cheers to that,” she said.
Hail picked up his own glass and toasted her offer with a little clink.
They drank and drifted off into their own thoughts.
Kara went back to looking out the fake windows and Hail became lost in the memory of his family.
A few minutes ticked by and Hail resurfaced. It was time to get down to business.
“Well, enough about my life history,” he said, “There are some things we need to discuss. Some business related items.”
Kara looked surprised at the sudden change of topics.
Hail continued.
“I would like to know more about the man called Kornev that you mentioned in Washington. I would like to kill him.”
Kara smiled at Hail’s brashness.
“Just like that, huh? Just kill him?” Kara asked.
“No. I would actually like to know more about him and then kill him. I first want to make sure he is the right guy. You indicated he was the man who sold the surface to air missiles to The Five terrorists.”
Kara set her elbows on the table and placed her chin in her hands and stated, “The CIA has pretty strict rules about their agents telling non-CIA private citizens about classified information. I’m sure you understand.”
Hail knew there would be some form of bartering that would take place if he wanted the information, but his first tactic was to go dark on Kara Ramey and see how she reacted.
“How about we place you in a lonely room at the bottom of the ship until you tell me what I want to know?” Hail said, doing his best to sound menacing.
Kara laughed, slapping both of her hands on the table so hard that the people at the other tables tuned to look at them.
“You are funnier than shit,” she said, all smiles and giggles. “You are the biggest teddy bear I have ever met. And trying that sinister man behind the curtain shit, man, that is a riot!” She continued to laugh.
Hail felt foolish and went with what he initially intended to go with.
“After dinner tonight, we are going to complete a very important step of the operation. Right now, as we speak, the first step is taking place. It’s your choice. Do you want to tell me about Kornev or do you want to spend all of this critical time in your comfortable stateroom instead of our mission center where the action is taking place?”
Kara stopped laughing.
“Now you have my attention,” she told Hail. “Can I take photos with my phone of your mission center?”
“No,” Hail said, “but you will probably try anyway.”
“Probably,” Kara agreed. “I will take that deal. So what do you want to know about Kornev?” Kara asked.
Hail thought for a moment.
“What was your part of the mission concerning Kornev?”
“What do you mean by my part of the mission?”
Hail thought that Kara sounded more confrontational than cooperative. He took a moment to sip some sake and collect his thoughts. He wanted to know how she collected information so he could determine if the intelligence she collected was worth considering. After all, if she watched Kornev at a distance from a hill overlooking his hotel, then how important could that information be. However, if she was intimate (to choose a word) with Kornev and his operations, then maybe her information was worthwhile.