EPILOGUE
David stared at his laptop screen, heart pounding.
He turned his screen away from the bed and glanced over at Faith.
She was still sleeping, a soft smile spread on her face.
The two of them had enjoyed a long conversation when she got home.
David apologized for being distracted and tuning Faith out lately.
Faith asked him about work, and David had told yet another lie.
"One of my civilian patients has kidney failure.
She's been on dialysis for a while, but it's not working anymore.
The owner asked about a transplant, but she's twelve years old.
The transplant board won't approve a new kidney for a dog that old.
Even if they did, the chances of her accepting the new organ are like ten percent. "
Faith, of course, had reacted with extraordinary sympathy. She had been affectionate and sweet. Very affectionate and sweet.
And for the first time since meeting her, David felt dirty after having sex with her.
They were going to have sex even if he didn’t spin some bullshit sob story about a dying dog, but it still felt sleazy to him.
He would have declined if he didn’t know for certain that doing so would tip her off to the fact that he was still hiding something.
He’d had to deal with dying dogs before, and he had never once refused sex.
It bothered him how good he was becoming at lying.
Faith was exhausted after days with almost no sleep, or she would almost certainly have seen right through him, but it still concerned him that his story could roll off the tongue so easily and with just enough detail to sound real.
It bothered him that he could still go to bed with her right after lying like that, and it bothered him that his first reaction upon opening this email was to turn his screen away and look at her to make sure she hadn’t seen it.
What is happening to me?
He didn’t have a good answer to that, so he turned back to the screen.
The message contained fourteen images. Five of those images were of the outside of his Subaru Outback, three from when he climbed up the hill overlooking the base, and two from when he left. The other nine images were pictures of him pointing his camera and technically committing acts of espionage.
The message below those images was blunter than the previous communication. It made no pretense of being professional.
Dr. Friedman, we know what you’ve been doing. Stop inserting yourself into Marine Corps business, or we’ll take steps to ensure that you no longer can.
There was no signature line on this message, but David didn’t need to be a detective to know that it came from Colonel Chastain. He had been seen spying on them, and Chastain was stopping just short of saying, we’ll kill you if you don’t stop.
He should tell Faith. He should tell her now. Even better, he should forget about this. He should do exactly what Chastain told him to do and let this go. He should help the dogs he could help and not put himself and Faith in danger over something that he couldn’t change.
He looked back at Faith. She had rolled over and was now on her side, hands folded under her face. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful, so perfect.
She wouldn’t let this go. She would see this through. He had to do the same. Just because it was dogs in danger and not people didn’t mean he could just ignore it.
But he couldn’t put Faith in danger. It broke his heart, but he would have to keep lying to her. This was his fight, not hers. It was bad enough that they knew who he was, but if she didn’t get involved, then maybe he could make sure that he was the only one at risk.
He would have to be more careful, though.
He couldn’t be so explicit in his movements from now on.
He’d have to find a way to follow up on this without leaving himself vulnerable.
Maybe if they were convinced they had scared him off, they’d stop paying attention, and he’d have a chance to dig deeper without being seen.
But he’d figure that out in the morning. He deleted the email and closed his computer. He returned to bed, and Faith rolled over and kissed him softly. “Love you, baby.”
He kissed her back. “I love you too.”
She kept kissing him, and David allowed her to pull him close. He hated himself right now, but he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t. Not until every dog enslaved by the 93rd Testing Brigade was freed and the entire operation shut down.