Chapter 2 Top-Secret Mission: Humiliated by My Wife

I knew who he was. Bob, director of national intelligence.

"Bob, you've seen my discharge request."

I stared impassively into my beer.

Bob was frantic.

"Alan, someone is going to try to kill the President at tonight's dinner. We haven't found the assassin. The President is asking you to take charge of security. I'm begging you, Alan."

I went on as though he hadn't spoken. "Bob, do you remember that mission in the Middle East? I gave up a vacation with Sophia to take it."

Sophia was furious, and she did not cancel the trip, because she had also invited Kane.

I lay in the desert for three days and three nights just to take out one terrorist commander.

When it was done I couldn't wait to call her.

Sophia was lying on the sand in a bikini, and Kane, in nothing but swim shorts, was working oil into her skin.

"Alan, was there something?"

"Ha ha ha, Kane, don't touch me there... ha ha ha."

Kane's hands moved over Sophia's back, her ass, and her thighs. She did not object; she was clearly enjoying it.

Kane looked into the camera at me in challenge and bent back over her with the oil. It was painful to watch, yet my absence was my own fault.

Sophia said, "If there's nothing else, Alan, I'm hanging up," and ended the call.

Now I understood that Sophia and Kane had already fallen in love by then.

Bob's face was full of guilt.

"Alan, I'm sorry. The President can explain who you are to Sophia himself. You know that if you hadn't saved his life three times, the Warren family would never have received a hundred-billion-dollar contract."

I smiled bitterly and finished the beer.

"Sophia and I are finished. I don't want to pick up a weapon right now. I'm sorry."

I put a tip on the bar and got up to leave, and no matter how Bob pleaded I did not look back.

He followed me out and called after me, "Alan, do you remember Cancelo?"

I stopped. Cancelo had been a shy young man, once my intelligence officer.

Bob's voice was full of pain. "He's dead.

"It was my fault. I should never have had him follow those people. They found him.

"They hacked off his limbs, knocked out his teeth, and gouged out his eyes. The medical examiner said he was still conscious while they tortured him."

I trembled, fists clenched, rage burning across my face.

Watching me walk away again, Bob despaired and sank to his knees. If I did not come back, if the President were assassinated...

I opened the door of Bob's car and looked back at him.

"What are you waiting for?"

Bob's head came up in shock and he scrambled to his feet. "God damn it, Alan, I knew it!"

I rode with Bob to the dinner venue.

When we got out he had someone bring a formal suit and handed it to me.

"Alan, I know you don't like anything this formal, but if you walk in there in short sleeves, God, the reporters will make the President out to be a miser."

I changed into it.

"Bob, the assassin may already be inside. I need to sweep the venue."

Bob quickly handed me my weapons. Two pistols, several magazines and two knives.

"Done. You can go anywhere you like."

I entered the banquet hall and saw Sophia and Kane surrounded by people. I regarded them with the calm detachment I reserved for strangers.

I started at the perimeter and checked every corner.

Sophia was smiling and introducing Kane to the people around her.

The most powerful people in the country were gathered here, and she was introducing him to William Harvey, chairman of the largest bank in the country. They were chatting amiably.

But something caught my attention: William's son, the young man standing behind him. Something about him was wrong.

"Alan? What are you doing here?!"

Sophia had spotted me and she was stunned.

"Who let you in here without my permission?"

Kane looked at me in surprise.

"Weren't you supposed to be ill, Alan?"

I ignored them. I wanted a closer look at William's son.

Sophia scolded me under her breath. "Leave, now. The dinner is about to start!"

"Well, look who this is."

Sophia's friends turned to me. They clearly knew about the trouble between us and about Kane.

To them, without Sophia I was nothing, merely a stray they could mock at will.

"Sophia, I had no idea you had a taste for this sort of thing, bringing Alan along."

Sophia's voice turned cold. "He stole my invitation and got in on his own."

"That explains it. Anyone who didn't know would take him for a waiter. Alan, here's your tip. Fetch me a glass of champagne, would you?"

A balding guest stepped forward and produced a banknote.

Kane looked at me smugly. "I think Alan feels the tip is too small."

They humiliated me and made sport of me, and Sophia did not stop it.

Bob came up behind me to intervene and I stopped him with a look.

"I don't care what any of you want. Stay away from me."

Just behind Sophia, I saw William's son constantly scanning the room. His jacket bulged at the waist, and I was certain he was carrying a weapon.

I saw a button in his hand. A detonator?

Was there a bomb in the venue?

I moved to get closer to him and Kane blocked me.

Kane pointed at me in anger.

"Alan, everyone here means well. Why would you speak like that! I order you to apologize!"