Fifty-Four

The next morning, Hollis and Finn boarded a boat to tour the Beagle Channel. It was a small tour boat with only about ten people. They’d had to visit the expensive outdoor shops to buy good boots and warm jackets, something that made Finn remark about how expensive being a spy had turned out to be, but Hollis didn’t care.

She also didn’t care that they had missed another day of school. The official story was that they’d both come down with the flu. A little suspicious maybe, but that was the third thing she didn’t care about. She was just excited by the chance to see a little of the extraordinary beauty of this legendary part of the world.

It was odd, the sheer terror, followed by a moment of bliss, like this one. Pretending to be someone else, then forgetting themselves as they explored another culture and another life. She linked her arm with Finn’s. They could have gone their whole lives without knowing each other the way they had these last few months, without ever depending on each other for their survival, or seeing just what the other person could do when the chips were down.

She was glad they were safe and that bad men were dead. But she was just a little bit sad that it was over.

Just as the boat was about to take off another passenger came on board. “All that talk about seeing penguins and seals last night,” Peter said, half blushing. “Even with a hangover I knew I had to come.”

He took a seat next to Hollis and the three of them watched as the town got smaller and the sea and mountains around them took over the view.

Soon they stopped at a small island, no more than a large rock, where seals were sunning themselves. Everyone, including Peter, took out cameras and phones to snap pictures. It was a situation the seals were well used to; they seemed to pose for the cameras. It must be odd, Hollis thought, to hang around a rock all day and watch a boat full of humans come to take pictures of you. It was finally a life stranger than her own.

“I’m glad you two are done being amateur spies,” Peter said as the boat moved toward another rock, this one containing small birds.

“We are too,” Finn said. “I mean, it was fun in a way. I had no idea what either of us were capable of until we were required to step up, but …”

“But you’re not trained,” Peter said.

“Exactly.”

“And you’re not being paid.”

“That’s another thing.”

“How would you like to be?”

Hollis looked at him. “Are you hiring us to work for Blue?”

“Not full-time. Your cover as professors is brilliant.”

“It’s not a cover,” Finn reminded him. “It’s who we are.”

“Is it all you want to be though, mate? Because I’ve seen your skills in the field, and you could be so much more than a guy behind a book. Besides, don’t you want to know who Sato is, or where Declan has gotten off to? And the next time someone shows up at your house with a dead body, wouldn’t it be better if you actually knew how to use a gun?”

Finn swallowed hard but said nothing. Hollis had imagined she would jump at an offer like that, or run screaming from it. Now she just felt numb.

“Is it what you want, Holly?” Finn asked.

“Sometimes,” she admitted.

He smiled. “I think sometimes is what Peter’s offering.”

“What do you want? I think you’re awfully good at this, but I don’t want to push you into it. And we have to get your heart checked.”

“My heart is fine,” he said. “And so is yours. You had faith in Declan all along.”

“Except he obviously was still playing us. He did steal the book, if only for a day.”

“So you want to say no?”

Hollis hesitated. “Either way. As long as we’re together, no matter what.”

“Better or worse, richer or poorer, in failed assassination plots and despite crazy art forgers …”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t think that’s how that goes.”

“It does for us.” Finn leaned in and kissed Hollis.

The boat stopped again at an island where penguins were watching the tourists watch them. Tomorrow would be back to classes and raking leaves and making sure they brought the trash out in time for the garbage men, but today there were penguins in a city at the end of the world and an offer to chase some of the world’s worst bad guys around the globe.

A sometime spy, Hollis realized, was the balance they’d been looking for.