The Black Silent (54 page)
"Much better. And with the part of me that is my mother. We're in the game, she and I.
There is no rule that says we can't succeed."
"Amen. Or Pacna, if you're Tilok."
"My life with Ben and Helen is a testament to the fact that my mother's gift worked." -
He kissed her then, hoping to end the dialogue and begin the peace. She climbed in his lap and they continued until he realized it might be a breach of the public's peace. Then they talked, and he said all the things he might have said thirteen years previous.
Sometime, he knew, she might ask about the other women and how he could have fallen in love with them. Then again, Haley was a big person and she might never get around to that one.
"Ben call today?" he finally asked.
By some quirk of the Great Spirit, Ben had been alive when Ernie's boat arrived. Ben and Sarah were recuperating together at an exclusive place in Switzerland, with Ben holding court for the scientists of the world. Each visitor thought he would successfully ply the old man and separate fact from fiction. The idea of retirement to a small island with a little laboratory had come up.
The passengers in the coast guard helicopter had also survived, with varying degrees of injury. Ernie had rescued them all. Rachael and Lew were together and beaming, though Sam hadn't seen either of them on San Juan Island in the last couple days. Sam had given them a bottle of champagne and a week's reservation at the most romantic spot he knew. They took it and went. That boded well, he guessed.
"Ben wants me to come to Switzerland at Christmas. He said he'd love it if you would come too. And after what you just said, you better not hesitate for one lousy second."
"I will," he said.
Her mouth dropped open.
"Not hesitate," he clarified.
"Wow," Haley said, "just like that! The mysterious Sam will go with me to Switzerland at Christmas?"
Sam's mind weighed the pros and cons, still feeling the sleuth, the spy, the nameless man who doesn't draw attention, eyes shifting to see who might be watching. Then the moment caught him and he gave way, locking his mind and spirit with hers.
It was a rhetorical question.
DAVID DUN
lives with his wife, Laura, on a redwood-covered mountainside in far northern
California. When he's not practicing law or writing, he works out, takes forest walks, scuba dives, and cruises the Inside Passage of British Columbia. He is at work on his nextnovel. Visit the author at his Web site: www.daviddun.com.