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Benson’s coyote-yipping laugh rang out from the next bed. “All right, you two can never again give me crap for insisting that names have power. Adam and Eve? Really, Martin? Seriously, Alice? You don’t think that’s a bit pompous? And you say I’m the one trying to play God.”
Alice turned her sharp-eyed gaze in Benson’s direction. She raised an eyebrow, then leaned towards Indy, depositing the twins into her arms. “Hold them a minute, will you?” Alice strode over to Benson, adjusting her spectacles as she scanned the maze of bandages and tape over his cuts and burns. Then she selected a choice wound, smiled sweetly, and poked it sharply with her pinky finger, making Benson howl in protest. Satisfied, Alice retrieved her children, kissed her husband briskly on the cheek, then nodded at Indy and hurried to the door like she had someplace to be and not enough time to get there.
“I’ve never seen her so happy, Martin,” Benson grumbled with a sideways glance at Kaiser. “Usually she threatens to slit my throat with her nail-file for pulling you into another Darkwater mess. She must finally be warming up to me after forty years.” He frowned at his tender wound, winked at Indy, then gestured for her to sit on a chair between his and Ice’s beds so the three of them could talk quietly. “Last night we confirmed that it was Diego Vargas who planted the explosives for Rhett. We’ve launched a full-scale manhunt. Traffic-cam footage, satellite images, facial recognition from CCTV feeds all over the east coast. We’ll find him.”
Indy nodded, scanning the men and women in the room. “Are any of these folks FBI?”
Benson snorted. “Why would we bring the FBI in on this? They’re good, but they’ve got all these . . . rules.”
Indy sighed. “You mean rules like in the Bill of Rights?” She rolled her eyes, sighed again, then got serious. “Did you identify Diego from traffic-cam footage at the scene outside the Senator’s home?”
Benson shook his head. “It was too dark. We got confirmation from the hostages.”
Indy frowned. “OK. Um . . . what hostages?”
“The ones we found locked in Rhett’s basement,” Benson said cheerfully. “A woman and her daughter. Mercy and Cari. It’s a long story, but they confirmed that Rhett kidnapped them to blackmail Diego into planting that explosive.”
Indy blinked rapidly, frowning as her sharp mind pieced it together. “Diego exposed himself to save them? Are theyhiswife and daughter?”
Benson shook his head. “Apparently they barely knew him. Didn’t even know his name was Diego until Rhett told them.”
“Strange.” Indy brushed a strand of hair from her face. She glanced at Ice, who’d reached out his hand for hers. She held his hand, smiled when he squeezed, did her best to hide her rising anxiety about what was going to happen to Ice for killing Rhett in the street. She didn’t want to ask in front of everyone, but now that Ice was out of the ER and on the mend, Indy couldn’t help but worry.
Benson seemed to sense her worry. He smiled as he pressed the lever that raised the back of his bed until he was seated almost upright. “You don’t need to worry about what happened outside the Senator’s home. Ice is clear. Kaiser took care of it. That’s what he and Bill Morris were whispering about just now. The final report has been filed.” Benson took a breath, shrugged it out, his eyes shining. “Rhett Rodgers was accidentally killed in the explosion. That’s how it’s been written up. All traffic-cam footage from that night has been destroyed. Mercy and Cari are under temporary protection in a CIA safe-house. Their statements are sealed, not part of the official record. Not even Senator Robinson knows what really happened. Official report says the explosives were planted in the storm drain beneath the car, intended for the Senator when he got back to town. Report says it accidentally went off early when my car somehow triggered the charge. Plausible enough to be believable. That’s all there is to it. The file on Rhett Rodgers has been officially closed and sealed. He’s already been cremated, so there’ll never be an autopsy. It’s over, Indy. You and Ice are safe to ride off into your sunset.”
Ice grunted. “It’ll be a while before I’m riding anything without a cushion under my pock-marked shrapnel-torn butt.”
Indy smiled, tried to laugh, but there was a tightness in her throat that stopped the celebration, a melancholy in her heart that signaled something unresolved, something unsettled.
“He loved you, Indy,” said Benson quietly, startling her enough that she jerked her head in his direction. “In his own way, he loved you. To the extent that it was possible for him, he loved you.”
“What?” she said. “Who loved me?”
Benson smiled gently, his eyes softening to a soothing gray. “Ice told me Rhett hesitated before walking away. That’s how Ice knew something was wrong. That’s what saved your life, Indy. Saved all our lives.”
Indy shook her head, tried to blink away the confusion. “He hesitated for one measly second before deciding to let me die for the third time in one lifetime? That means he loved me?”
Benson nodded. “Rhett spent his whole life in the shadows. Alone in the shadows. Yes, he was naturally wired a certain way. But he was also trained to make ruthlessly self-preserving decisions. An NOC operator needs to have a heart of cold stone. They need to literally be capable of murdering someone they love if it’s part of the mission. Rhett had something cold and deadly wired into his being. But the CIA also had a hand in creating this man, in taking away his humanity to serve a purpose. NOC training specifically pushes normal human emotions like compassion and love into the psyche’s shadow, burying it deep enough that it can’t compromise the mission. The fact that Rhett actually hesitated enough to stop and think about it before walking away isn’t trivial, Indy. It’s deeply meaningful. It means some part of the love and compassion that was once lost to Rhett’s shadow found its way back at the end. Found its way back because of you. That part of him was still human at the end. That part of him was still your father, Indy.” He shrugged. “It’s hard to reconcile, but it’s the truth. Nobody is all good or all evil. Nobody is all saint or all sinner. We’re all composites, a mix-and-match grab-bag of impulses and experiences, training and trauma. Rhett was a murderous sonofabitch who belongs in hell. But he also served his country, used his dark talents just like your mother Scarlet used hers to do what nobody likes to admit needs to be done. It takes the full spectrum of dark and light to drag America to its destiny. Rhett and Scarlet deserved to die. But they also deserve to be remembered. Kaiser has commissioned two new anonymous stars on the wall at CIA headquarters.” He glanced knowingly at Indy. “And someday, when you run your fingertips over those nameless stars carved into white granite, you might feel a stab of unnamable emotion somewhere deep in the recesses of your shadow. That feeling will be pride for your mother and father, Indy. I know it’s hard to hold conflicting emotions in your heart at the same time, but that’s something you’ll have to learn to live with when it comes to the memory of your parents. Someday you’ll find your way to that place where you can be both angry and proud.” He shrugged, tried to flash his coyote smile but couldn’t quite pull it off. “Anyway, that’s all I have to say. What you do with all that is up to you, kid.” He shot a glance at Ice. “Up to the two of you.”
Indy stared dumbly at Benson, not sure what to say, not sure what to feel.
Then she looked into Ice’s eyes, and she knew exactly what to feel.
“Are we really free to ride off into the sunset, Ice?” she whispered as someone with a laptop diverted Benson’s attention, giving them a strange moment of privacy because the room was so chaotic that they simply disappeared into the background, dissolved into the clouds, sank beneath the waves. “What does that mean for us? What comes next?”
Ice pulled her up off the chair, dragged her into his oversized hospital bed despite her protests. He cuddled her close, then pointed out a muscular bearded man grinning as he whispered something to an olive-skinned woman with curves that went on for days.
“That’s Ax with his wife Amy,” said Ice. He gestured to a big clean-shaved monster with spiky blond hair and tattoos snaking out the top of his crew-necked shirt. “That’s Bruiser with his wife Brenna, who happens to be Nancy Sullivan’s daughter. Over there with his arms crossed over his big chest is Cody. He’s from Texas. That’s his woman Cate. She’s Italian by way of the Colombian drug cartels.”
“Hold on a second, what does that even—”
“Don’t interrupt,” said Ice with a grin, drawing her attention to a stunning black woman who just walked into the room. Of course, Ice didn’t really need to draw Indy’s attention to the woman because every head turned to see the movie star Diana Jackson, who just happened to be Darkwater SEAL Dogg’s dearly beloved.
And soon Indy was snuggled into her man’s big warm body, listening like a child being told a fairytale as Ice whispered the magical mystical names in order, two at a time, going down the line from Dogg and Diana to Edge and Emma, past Fox and Fay to Gale and Gavin, hitting Hogan and Hannah and then stopping abruptly and looking into Indy’s dark shadowy eyes with his Ice-cool gaze.
“Now do you see what comes next, Indy?” he whispered as the room buzzed with energy and the world spun in delight. “Wecome next. Indy and Ice. You and I.”
Indy nodded against his body, smiled against his skin, kissed his rough lips, snuggled his scratchy stubble. They lay together in happy silence as Indy let everything sink in. Then she saw Jack Wagner notice them and start to walk over, and something occurred to her.