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In spite of herself, a frown creased her eyebrows. “Not a thing. As a matter of fact, I don’t think it ever occurred.”
“Would you believe it if I showed you pictures?”
“No. Pictures can be altered. Besides, you’re not in any position to produce pictures.”
“But I have friends. You know I have friends. You’ve seen some of them. In the grocery store, you remember those people? I know them very well. I also have other friends that are always waiting for their next orders.”
“Was that a threat?” she asked him.
“No. Perhaps a promise. There’s a lot at stake, Georgie. A lot on the line, wouldn’t you say?”
“Okay, Mr. Lipori, I’m going to terminate this if you don’t come forward and let me know what it is you want me to communicate. I’m not interested in cultivating a relationship with you, prolonging whatever fictional relationship you think we had in the past. This isn’t Fantasyland, and as far as your requests, my understanding is you agreed to pull the couple off our house and our dog, our property, off of Harper and me, for me sitting down and talking to you. I’m here, so you let me know when this has sufficiently risen to the level of you permitting that awful couple to be prohibited from contacting me or my family any further. You let me know.”
“Oh, you’re so feisty. You know, when I first met you, you weren’t. You were quite shaken. I was your knight in shining armor. You know I saved you, Georgie. Remember that?”
She looked at her hands folded on the table. Her urge was to stand up and leave the room, but she had a feeling he would allow her to do so, and then she’d kick herself all the way home for not taking advantage of the opportunity she had been given. “I’m getting tired of this. I’m not interested in what you think of me. I’m not interested in anything about you. I’m here just to serve a function. That is to transmit your communication to the people in the government that have a say to what your disposition is going to be. You help them, and perhaps they will help you. I’m not a party to this, except that you asked me to be here. So I’ve flown clear across the country just to sit here in front of you. Now, does that make you happy? Is that good enough for you?”
“It’s entirely exciting. I didn’t think you would look this good so soon. You are an attractive woman, Georgie. Haven’t you ever thought about what we would be like traveling all over Europe, staying at all the finest places, drinking wine, having gourmet food? Jet-setting around the world, going to places most of the general public would never go to. You’re an adventure seeker, a thrill seeker? Somehow I think you are.”
There had been an element to this part of his personality when she lived in Florence, but his attentions hadn’t been so fixed or pointed on her. It was now that he was coming on to her, and she was sure it was all lies. She was a means to an end for him. She was just his pathway out of this unbearable place.
“I’ve been patient enough. I don’t want to listen to this any longer. Get to the point, Mr. Lipori. This is your last chance. If you don’t think I’m gonna walk out of here, you’re wrong.”
She absolutely had had enough of him and his games and didn’t want to do this anymore. He’d quickly crossed the boundaries she set for herself.
“What is your request? I will take it to the other side, and then we will get back to you.”
“You will get back to me?”
“No, I won’t. It will be somebody else. I don’t plan on ever stepping inside this room again. So once again, let me know what it is you’re asking for.”
“I’m not sure you knew everything about our mission in Africa. So indulge me while I tell you a couple of things that might surprise you. We were quite close. We worked on the mission together. We liked each other. We even went to trainings in the capital city on several occasions, and we pushed for funding from the U.N. representatives who visited the mission. I mean, we worked well and generally liked each other. You trusted me with lots of valuable information about life, about your husband, about what he liked, what it was like to sleep with him—”
Lydia’s radar began to buzz.
“Mr. Lipori, that’s not appropriate.”
“I began thinking about what it would be like to take a woman away from this big war hero who had rained Hell down on some of my little brothers and sisters in the Middle East. You would be my war prize.”
“This is nonsense. I can see this was a waste of my time.” She turned away, as if to stand.
“Well, I’m sorry, but it comes with the territory. I know you love your little family. You see, I don’t think they’ve been honest with you. I don’t think your husband’s been honest with you. He knows what I’m about to tell you. I told him when he was here. Are you interested in hearing it?”
She already knew she wouldn’t like anything he was going to say next. It was all designed that way. She was being set up to be shocked. But, of course, her curiosity got the better of her. She knew afterwards there would be lots of regrets if she didn’t, and she had worked on feeling the courage Harper had exhibited in his job. She wanted to show her fearlessness, so, perhaps at the expensive her own soul, she asked him to recount it.
“That’s better. I like it when you allow me to say things. I grew very fond of you, Georgie. In fact, the more we worked together, the more I realized you were probably the only woman in the world for me. How could somebody like me, a terrorist, win the heart of a young nurse? Well, you told me about your husband and what a big wonderful man he was, a Navy SEAL no less, and how he made your world special. I heard the stories, and I knew I could do better. Because what I wasn’t hearing in all this dedication and honor and duty was a passion for life. Not the passion for life I could give you.”
He was completely deranged. There was no way she would have discussed intimate details with him or anyone, even a woman friend. He suffered from living in an alternate universe. He was a cretin. His mental illness had progressed significantly during his lockup. In spite of herself, Lydia interrupted him again.
“You’re wrong. You’re absolutely wrong. And I don’t think we ever discussed this.”
“Well, the die had already been cast, and the village was going to be raided. I knew what day it was going to happen, because I was going to join in the raid. We were going to make a statement. It was a statement to one of General Okubo’s traitors, who had family in the village. It was the one way he could get even with the traitor, and the traitor would not be able to get him back.”
Her stomach was lurching. She was finding it hard to breathe. “I’m not interested—”
“So I devised a plan so that you and I could escape. I could still participate in the raid, but you and I would escape, and I had men available to take us safely to our destination.”
“What destination?”
