Oppose Any Foe

“Becca, I don’t – ”

“I have a Secret Service agent standing here in my living room, Luke. He just appeared on my doorstep this afternoon. Another one picked Gunner up at school today. Apparently, he walked right into the classroom before the children were even dismissed.”

“Someone tried to kill me last night,” Luke said. “The Secret Service are there for your – ”

“Protection, yes, I know. Luke, I have cancer. We were going to break this news to Gunner together. You agreed to that. Now you’re fleeing the country.”

“Someone tried to kill me last night,” Luke said again.

“Yes, I heard that part. Did it surprise you? Par for the course, I’d say. Meanwhile, my life is in actual danger, you made a commitment to me and more importantly to your son, and now you’re running away. Again.”

Luke took a deep breath. “Becca, I want to help you. I want to… do everything I can. But you kicked me out of the house the last time I saw you. And the time before that, come to think of it. When I picked up Gunner last time, I met you in a supermarket parking lot because you didn’t want me to come to the house. And I’m not fleeing the country. I’m going to be gone a few days. I assume you’ll still be alive when I – ”

She hung up on that line, and he didn’t blame her. It was a horrible thing to say. But she had gone out of her way to make his life a living hell the past several months. Now she was probably dying. Luke was sorry about that. He felt terrible about it, and about their relationship. He felt like a failure in every way – as a father, as a husband, as a person. But the way she was acting wasn’t helping.

Now, aboard the plane, he shook his head to clear it. He had to compartmentalize. He was having problems, yes. He could recognize that he was in deep, deep trouble. He didn’t know how to help his wife. He did not know how to fix any of this. But he also couldn’t bring it with him to Europe. It would distract him from what he was doing, and then he’d become a danger to himself and the people with him. His focus on the job had to be total.

He glanced out the window. Far away, three F-18 fighter jets streaked across the sky, moving fast. Below Luke, white clouds skidded by in the last of the day’s light. He took a deep breath. He looked at Mika again.

“How do you want to do this?” she said.