‘He’s just outside. With Macy.’
‘You brought Macy?’
‘Yeah. I wanted her to meet her great-grandmother. Properly, I mean.’
‘Looking like this? I’m more likely to send the poor girl running screaming. What about you two? Are you both okay?’
Nina indicated her bandaged arm. ‘I’ve had worse gunshot wounds. Which is kinda terrifying when you think about it, but yeah, we’re fine. I’ll go get them.’ She went to the door and called her family in.
‘Ay up,’ said Eddie. He was carrying a large bouquet of flowers. ‘You’re looking… all right.’
Olivia sighed. ‘Damned with faint praise. But thank you anyway. Both of you. If not for you, I’d be…’ She glanced at Macy, who was taking more of an interest in the monitoring equipment beside the bed than its occupant. ‘I wouldn’t be here,’ she finished. ‘You have my eternal gratitude.’
Eddie nodded, then presented her with the flowers. ‘These’ll brighten up the place,’ he said, regarding the starkly decorated room.
‘Thank you. But there’s someone here who does that much better than any number of carnations.’ She strained to sit up to see Macy.
‘Hey, no need to do that,’ said Nina, seeing that the bed had a remote control. She pushed the button to raise Olivia higher. ‘Macy, come here. I want you to meet someone.’ She perched her daughter on the edge of the bed.
Macy peered at the elderly woman. ‘You’re the lady who came to our house.’ A quizzical look. ‘Your hair’s different.’
The tight bun Olivia had worn before was now hanging in loose strands, hairstyling a low priority for the medics. ‘Yes, I am. And yes, it is.’
‘Macy, this is Olivia,’ said Nina. ‘She’s your great-grandma! That means that she’s my grandma. Say hello to her.’
‘Hello,’ said Macy politely, holding out a hand.
Olivia gently squeezed it in her palm. ‘Hello, Macy. I’m very, very happy to meet you.’ She gave the young girl the broadest smile she had managed in a while.
Her great-granddaughter returned it. ‘Are you very old?’
‘Yes, I am,’ she said, laughing. ‘Ah, children. I’d forgotten how direct they can be.’
‘They’re fun, aren’t they?’ said Nina with a grin.
‘They are. Oh, I wish I’d met you at this age…’ Olivia’s eyes became wistful for a moment, then she looked back at her visitors. ‘But at least I know you now. I shouldn’t regret what I didn’t have, but be thankful for what I do have.’
Nina nodded. ‘Good words to live by.’
‘Can I smell your flowers?’ Macy cut in. ‘They’re very pretty.’
‘Of course you can,’ replied Olivia, passing the bouquet to her.
‘What do you say, Macy?’ Nina prompted.
‘Thank you, Great-Gamma!’ Macy cried, hopping from the bed and scurrying to a chair to examine her gift.
The old lady smiled after her, then became serious as she addressed the couple again. ‘Is there any word on Fenrir or the Crucible?’
‘Yeah, and none of it’s good,’ Eddie told her.
‘We just came from the UN,’ Nina elaborated. ‘It looks like he delivered the Crucible to North Korea.’
Olivia’s face fell. ‘Where is he now?’
‘China, apparently. Where he’s going to go from there, I have no idea, but I imagine he’s got something planned.’
‘I have absolutely no doubt about that. Fenrir always thinks three steps ahead.’ She paused, regarding Nina with curiosity. ‘Laura used to get exactly the same look when there was a problem preying on her mind. There’s something else, isn’t there?’
‘You could say that,’ Eddie rumbled.
Nina nodded. ‘Yeah. They — by which I mean the UN and the State Department — want us to go to North Korea to find out if they really are using the Crucible to make plutonium for H-bombs.’
‘They want you to go?’ Olivia exclaimed. ‘Why you?’
‘Because we’re the only people the Koreans might accept as willing to sell the small Crucible. If we offer to deliver it in person, we might be able to confirm what they’re doing, so action can be taken to stop it.’
‘Action of the wheee, boom kind,’ added Eddie, miming a bomb being dropped and exploding.
Olivia nodded. ‘Fenrir told you how to profit from the Crucible, so it’s not beyond the bounds of plausibility that you might want to cash in.’ She caught her granddaughter’s disapproval. ‘Since they don’t know you personally and know that you never would, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Nina echoed. ‘It’s all academic, though. Because there’s no way we’re going.’
Eddie reacted with mild surprise. ‘Thought we were going to think about it first.’
‘What? Oh come on, Eddie. You can’t possibly want to go.’
‘God, no. But it’s not just about what we want, is it? Some fat dictator with hair like Dilbert’s boss’ll be able to crank out nukes like Volkswagens if the Crucible does what Fenrir said. That’s not a good thing.’
‘No,’ she protested, ‘but as you’re so fond of saying, we don’t work for the UN any more. It’s not our problem. And you stopped being a soldier a long time ago. You’re a dad now. You want to risk leaving Macy on her own?’ Their daughter looked up from the flowers in alarm.
‘It’s okay, love, don’t worry,’ Eddie said to her, before glowering at his wife. ‘See, that’s why we need to talk about this properly, in private.’
‘I don’t think there’s anything to discuss,’ Nina replied, bristling.
‘Before you get any deeper into an argument, may I offer some advice?’ said Olivia quietly. ‘From a historical perspective.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that while you’re both old enough to remember the Cold War, neither of you can really appreciate what it was like at its height.’
‘What’s the Cold War got to do with anything?’ asked Eddie.
‘Everything. I’m talking about what it was like to live under the constant threat of nuclear armageddon. It was a frightening time, especially in the 1960s and ’70s. When Laura was growing up,’ she added, giving Nina a look laden with meaning. ‘An anxious, fearful time, because there was nothing you could do about it. Unless you were willing to live in a concrete bunker in some godforsaken desert wilderness, money couldn’t offer you any protection. And if there’s one thing parents should always do for their children, it’s try to protect them.’
Nina lowered her voice so as not to scare her daughter. ‘Our ending up in some North Korean hellhole, or worse, is hardly going to protect Macy.’
‘There’s a bigger picture to consider, Nina. It’s not just your child, it’s everyone else’s children too. We’re living in dangerous times, just as dangerous as the Cold War — and more unstable. Fenrir giving a megalomaniacal madman a way to mass-produce nuclear weapons is not going to help matters. North Korea already has rockets; they’ll be able to target hydrogen bombs on Seoul, Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco… maybe even further afield. And who’s to say he won’t start selling them to other countries, or terrorists? That threat, that fear, isn’t something I want to live through again — and I certainly wouldn’t wish it upon anybody’s children.’ She gazed at Macy, who was counting the petals on a flower.
Eddie looked thoughtful. ‘Me neither. I remember when I was a kid, twelve or thirteen, I was on my way to school when an air-raid siren started up. I thought it was the four-minute warning! Never did find out what it was, but it scared the’ — a glance at his daughter — ‘poop out of me. Thought everyone I knew was about to get nuked! It was probably one of the reasons I ended up joining the army. At least that way I’d actually be fighting against it in some way.’