Payback

43

They spent the day following Lia from a distance as she inspected the second set of voting machines and then went over to the UN to meet with the board of observers. Lia’s meeting took place near an Internet café, and Karr told Dean he was tempted to send his girlfriend an e-mail.

“So go ahead,” said Dean.

“The problem with working for the NSA, Charlie, is that I know how easy it is to trace things.”

“You can’t figure a way around it?”

“Somebody’s always watching. No matter how good you are.”

“How’s your girlfriend?” asked Dean.

Karr’s face flushed. He’d met Deidre Clancy during their last mission in Europe several months before. She was the daughter of the American ambassador to Great Britain and one of the most beautiful women Dean had ever seen.

After Lia, of course.

“She laughs at all my jokes. There’s something in that,” said Karr.

“There’s a lot in that,” said Dean.

“You ever been married, Charlie?”

Dean smiled — not at the memory of his own marriage but at the fact that Karr was thinking about it.

“Didn’t work out,” Dean told him. “Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work out for you. Probably would be pretty good.”

“What happened?”

“Long story.”

“We got time.”

Karr was right, but Dean didn’t feel like talking about his marriage. He glanced across the street at the restaurant where the UN people were meeting with Lia.

It wasn’t a thing to talk about — wasn’t important at all, just a passing mistake. Fortunately, it was one without many consequences — they hadn’t had kids, and no money to squabble over. Just something best forgotten.

“So?” prodded Karr.

Dean changed the subject, provoked by another billboard proclaiming Vice President Imberbe as THE HERO OF THE PEOPLE.

“You think of yourself as a hero, Tommy?”

Karr laughed. “I think of myself as a mathematician.”

Dean stared at him. It was hard to know with Karr how sincere he was being. “A mathematician?”

“That’s what I went to school for. I’m just a big geek.” Karr laughed. “I’m not old enough to be a hero. Heroes are the guys in the reviewing stands at the end of the parade.”

“Yeah,” said Dean.

Karr gave him a look. “Ah, you’re not old enough to have served in Vietnam. I know your war record’s phony.”

Coming from Karr, the joke somehow felt like a great compliment, and Dean laughed along with him.