“What do you mean?”
“I guess you could say I’ve become painfully aware of just how mortal I am. Being on someone’s death list tends to do that to you. Yet here I am anyhow, ready to do my master’s bidding.” He turned to her. “And what about you?”
Her response bordered on truculence. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, why has Downing brought you here?”
“Convenience, according to Downing.”
“‘Convenience’?”
“Yeah, in terms of security, anyway. Yesterday he arrives at my rehab facility far too early—0500, I think it was—and tells me, ‘we’re moving you.’ He also chooses that moment to tell me that I was the only sleeper who survived the attack in Alexandria, and that they can’t be sure of security at the base anymore. An hour later, I’m getting on a plane with him, flanked by a pair of suit-and-sunglasses types who apparently never learned how to talk. We land somewhere, Downing gets off: that’s the last I see of him. I wait in the back of the plane with the mute musclemen for I don’t know how long—better part of a day, I guess. Then we take off and after an hour or two, we’re in Athens—0400, I’m guessing. That was this morning. And here I am. Still don’t know what the hell Downing plans to do with me.”
Caine looked over at her. “Why ‘what Downing plans to do’ with you? Don’t you have a say in what comes next?”
“Not much; officially, I’m still a soldier for Uncle Sam. But apparently I’m on loan to Mr. Downing, who hasn’t filled me in on where we’re going, or what I’m supposed to do when we get there. Of course, since Downing himself is the one who told me all this, I suppose all—or a lot—of it could be a lie.”
Caine nodded, but said, “Downing walks a pretty narrow tightrope, I think.”
“Yeah, maybe—but that doesn’t mean I’m ever going to trust him. Do you? Trust him, I mean?”
“I don’t trust what he says, but I trust his intentions—I think.”
Opal raised one eyebrow. “You ‘think’ you trust him?”
Caine shrugged. “He tells lies, but somehow, he doesn’t feel like a liar. I don’t think he likes that part of his job.”
Opal leaned back. “Well, Caine, you’re a much more understanding person than I am. I know we have to have people in intelligence who lie for a living, but I don’t trust them. And now he’s taking my choices away from me. Hell, today’s run is the first real freedom I’ve had in—well, I guess about fifty-three years.”
“You like running?”
“Me? God, no—but I’ve got to work hard if I’m going to get back into shape after spending half a century frozen.” She glanced over at him. “So what’s your secret? If you were in cold storage for a few years, then how did you keep fit? Just naturally gifted?”
“I was worse off than you were when they woke me up the first time. But we can talk about that later: right now, there are far more important things for you to learn about.”
“Such as?”
“The state of the world. This car does have a radio.”
The prospect seemed to excite her. “Where are the controls?”
“Just ask.”
“I just did.”
Caine grinned. “No. Ask the car. To turn it on.”
She looked at him with wide eyes. “Too creepy.” Then she leaned tentatively toward the dashboard. “Car, please turn on the radio.”
The Irish-accented radio greeted her, then asked her to choose a channel. She asked for World News.
“Thank you. Connecting to World News . . .”
“This is weird,” she said.
Caine smiled. “That’s nothing; wait ’til you hear the news.”
Which cut directly in on the strident voice of a career newscaster: “—which leads observers to ask: has the UK now decided to confirm its membership in the New World Commonwealth? If so, this would also represent a final abandonment of the long-standing bilateral—and increasingly unproductive—efforts to integrate with the European union . Prime Minister Hadley-Singh announced that his government’s commission on assessing membership in the Commonwealth cited more benefits than detriments, despite the opposition’s repeated warnings of the United States’ preponderant influence within the NWCW. Moderates in Commons observed that accepting membership might be made contingent upon nomenclature change, with Speaker Reginald Kendrick suggesting that a more accurate name for this expanded international bloc would be the United Commonwealths and Aligned States.”