2

SAUSALITO

It was a memorable calm before the storm. Lynn and I were enjoying each other more than any time in recent memory, as if we somehow knew that we would soon be torn apart. This little getaway must have happened at just the right time, because for once she wanted to make love as much as I did, if not more. During those afternoon hours of alternating tenderness and passion, even the slightest touch never failed to make my heart race, and it felt so good that I wondered why we didn’t do this more often.

Now happily exhausted, we were enjoying the sunset from the divan, which had slid from inside the room to the deck outside it. We lay intertwined, as comfortably as we could manage with Lynn’s pregnant swell. She was six months along—a factor that had contributed to the recent infrequency of our intimacy, but also had made this day all the more enjoyable. During her first pregnancy, I had found it hard to be attracted to her physically, because I was still so heavily influenced by the assumption that a woman had to be shaped like a model to be beautiful. But somewhere along the line, perhaps because we lost our first child, my perspective changed completely. I now loved her body like this, and I was telling her so as I moved my hand across the soft skin of her belly.

“I don’t believe it,” she said, as usual.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” I said playfully. “Or do I have to show you again?” I nuzzled her ear, through the streaked blond-and-brown hair that always smelled so good.

“There are so many young and thin women,” she continued. “Why would you want fat old me?”

I found myself wincing a bit, as the reference to women with nice bodies brought thoughts of Tara back into my mind again. I had been trying to keep them out during the trip, because I didn’t want to let them ruin this good time with Lynn. So I focused on my wife again and made it seem like my expression was a result of what she had said about being fat.

“Don’t talk like that,” I said. “I want you because you’re the mother of my baby—my babies. Besides, you’re only fat in the right places.” I spread my hand out and pressed slightly until I felt a little kick from the baby, and then moved it up to the other part of her body that had gotten bigger recently, and whispered into her ear. “You’re beautiful everywhere.”

“I think you have a mental problem,” she said, “but I guess I won’t complain.” Giving up the argument, she gazed out at the wisps of orange cloud that hung above the bay, colored that way by the sun that was setting in the west. “Now that is beautiful.”

I grunted in agreement, as the colors reminded me of Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise. The bright orange of the clouds was similar, of course, and so was the aqua blue of the deck of the house, which visually pulled the darker greens and blues of the bay beyond it in its direction. The only thing missing from Monet’s vision was the sun itself, which was on the other side of the mountain from us. But the shining cityscape of San Francisco, in the distance to the right side of our view, provided an attractive alternative.

We had bought this hillside house for moments exactly like this. And we had bought six properties surrounding it, with my company’s version of eminent domain, to create a cushion as a part of the obligatory security plan. I knew that my cyborg bodyguard was below us on the street in front of the house, probably worrying about our level of exposure on the open deck, and that there were seven other agents at various places around the perimeter of our little retreat. Wondering whether a machine-man like Min was capable of an emotion like worry, my focus drifted away from the sunset and my wife, and back to my job.

“What are you thinking about?” Lynn asked, pulling a light blanket over her.

“The same stuff, about BASS,” I said.

“How ruling the world is boring?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“You know, meetings and hearing about what other people have been doing was okay for an old man like Saul, but I miss the action of being a peacer, even if it was only occasional.”

“Why don’t you just go out and find someone to arrest, or shoot?” she asked.

“With my entourage of bodyguards and advisors, and half the world press stalking me?” I adjusted myself on the divan, so I could share some of the blanket. The sky had now turned darker, and the temperature was dropping. “I never asked for all this, you know. The old man brought me to BASS, and he cooked up the plan to leave me in charge. It’s like I’ve been carried along to where I am today—it’s not like I wanted it or chose it myself. Maybe that’s why I’m not really that happy…”

We lay silent for a moment, then Lynn said, “Maybe you just need to find out why.”

“Pardon me?” I asked, beginning to notice her against me once again. I shifted a little, and it felt even better.

“Do you know what part you’re supposed to play?” she continued. “I mean, Saul brought you here, left you his empire. Do you know why?”

“Hmmm,” I said, after thinking awhile. “I suppose I don’t.” I put my hand on her belly again. “You may be onto something there, Mama.”

“If you find out what Saul had in mind for you,” she continued, “maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you’ll like the part you’re supposed to play.”

“And then I’ll be happy?” I asked.

“Maybe.”

“That’s a lot of maybes,” I said, and tickled her side.

“Stop!” she growled through clenched teeth, and I did.

“What about you?” I asked. “Have you been thinking more about taking over the school?” Lynn had grown up in the orphanage that Saul’s wife started on the grounds of the Presidio, and that kind of work was right up her alley, compassionate and domestic as she was.

“Yes, but I want to have the baby first and bond with her, before taking something like that on. I don’t need a job to be happy.”

“I don’t need my job to be happy either,” I said, not sure it was really true, but trying to forget about it for now and get back to enjoying the moment. “I only need you … and Lynley.” I moved my hand back down to the baby. “You believe me, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” she said with a smile and turned from her side to her back.

“What will really make me happy,” I said, touching her belly button now, “is when this gets all stretched out, so there’s no hole anymore. That’s cool.”

“It won’t be long,” she said, and soon we were kissing and caressing again, with Lynn pausing periodically to stop the blanket from slipping off. She was insecure about her body, despite my compliments, and also a bit paranoid because she knew there were so many security people in the vicinity of the house.

Her modesty turned out to be providential, because just as it was getting good again, we were interrupted by what felt like an earthquake, as five hundred pounds of Chinese cyborg jumped from the ground below the deck, soared over the art-deco railing, and landed with a shocking thud on the floor next to us. Lynn shrieked and pulled the whole blanket to herself, as if the greatest danger was that Min might see her naked. The giant had no interest in that, however. He stood with his forearms extended in combat readiness, and his eyes scanned the inside room, through the wide doorway, with a superhuman speed and perception.

Then he spoke, which was a rare phenomenon. “I’m sorry, sir. My sensors had been registering some anomalies within the security perimeter—nothing to bother you with. But when one of the diagnostic programs suggested that a foreign object may have entered your vicinity, I felt it necessary—”

“You’re saying someone’s in there?” I looked toward the room. I felt naked without my clothes, but even more so without my guns, which were inside.

“I do not know,” said the big man, his gaze never leaving the darkness of the room. “There is an anomaly in my readings, but I have now scanned the room in four modes, and found nothing.”

“It was getting rather exciting out here,” I said. “Maybe that set off your—”

“Michael!” Lynn scolded me, in disgust. She wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, and checked to see if anything was showing.

“I can turn the lights on from out here,” I said, then to the room: “Lights on.” Nothing happened, so I said it louder, and they finally came on.

Just inside the room, a man was sitting in one of the plush aqua chairs. He was holding both of my guns, and pointing them straight at us.