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Bound in his restraint chair like a low-rent Prometheus, Evan returned the gaze she’d launched from the monitor. Now he understood even better the heavy-duty cable, the encryption code.
“Orphan X,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“Is that rhetorical?” he asked. Just a little light banter between himself and the leader of the free world.
Donahue-Carr pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Yes.”
“In that case,” Evan said, “fine, thank you.”
Safely out of view of the monitor’s camera, Naomi suppressed a grin.
“You’ve violated the terms of your informal pardon,” the president said.
Evan said, “Okay.”
Her face made clear she’d been expecting something less succinct. “We’ve hunted you down as promised. And now we have you in custody.”
He felt the bite of the choke chain once more against his throat. “That’s apparent.”
She blinked twice with discomfort, her second nonverbal tell. “We need to decide what to do with you next.”
“Okay.”
“Your conduct is not just beyond the purview of American and international law, it’s also treasonous beyond any reasonable doubt.”
“Okay.”
“My predecessor would certainly agree.”
“Were he around,” Evan added.
This gave Donahue-Carr the briefest pause. “As such, your actions are punishable by death.”
“Okay.”
“Unless …”
The used-car-salesman routine seemed beneath the commander in chief, but who was Evan to judge?
The president looked flustered by his no-response response. “Agent Templeton. You there?”
Naomi stepped into view of the camera. “Yes, Madam President.”
“Can we trust him?”
“Yes,” Naomi said, with an immediacy and a conviction that did not surprise Evan at all.
The president’s focus shifted back to Evan. “Can we trust you?”
“I can’t imagine any circumstances under which I’d care less to answer your question.”
“Well,” she said, “there’s that.” Another sidebar with Naomi. “You sure about this, Agent Templeton?”
“As sure as I can be about something this insane, Madam President.”
Donahue-Carr parted her hands, noticed she’d done so, laced her fingers once more. “You’re it,” she told Evan. “You’re the last Orphan.”
“Not quite,” Evan said. “There are still bad ones out there.”
