Page 3 of Nikolai
Parker cocked her head.“Doing?”
He always had to be careful when talking about his job.Whatever he was doing, it was always secret, for security reasons.So he had to choose his words very carefully.Plus, her voice was distracting him, taking up a huge amount of his mental hard disk.“Consulting.I’m a consultant.”
She smiled again and it nearly knocked him off his feet.“Consultant.I’ll bet you’re that big bad security guy Aunt Caroline hired to do a security overhaul of the Consulate.And I totally understand that you can’t talk about it.”She mimed zipping that beautiful mouth.“Nikolai Garin.”
“Nick.”
“Nick.”
Busted.It wasn’t that serious, though.He wasn’t here under cover.
“So Caroline Munro, the Consul General, is your aunt?”
“Sort of.Honorary aunt.She’s the stepmother of my best friend in boarding school.I’ve known her since I was ten, though Aunt Caroline was almost always away, rising through the State Department ranks.I’ve seen more of her, living here, than I ever did when I lived in Boston.”
“You live here?Lucky woman.”
She smiled again and Nick had to look away for a moment not to stare.
“Yes, it’s quite enjoyable.Better weather than London.”
“And better food.”
“That, too.Except for what they serve at the Consulate.”
He inclined his head.“Well, you know what I do.What do you do that requires you to live in this desolate, frozen outpost?”
She gave a small chuckle.“I’m a classicist.”
He cocked his head and frowned a little.
She sighed.“My doctorate is in the classics.Greek and Latin.I love the ancient world.I wrote a book and made a documentary on the Etruscans.”
A light went on in his head and he could feel his mouth fall open.
Ohmygod.
No wonder her voice was familiar.
“The Smiling People,” he said, almost expecting her to deny it.
She smiled.“Yes, indeed.I’m flattered you’ve heard of it.”
“Heard of it?I’ve watched it several times.Parker Donovan didn’t click immediately.I think I assumed it was a man.”
The Smiling Peoplewas one of the best documentaries Nick had ever seen.He saw it one evening in Afghanistan after a terrorist attack.He’d downloaded a bunch of stuff at the last minute before leaving and had downloaded some historical docs, while he was at it.The Smiling Peoplewas one of them and he had no idea what it was, just that any title with ‘smile’ in it was welcome.
He watched it on a day with no smiles.There’d been a mass suicide attack at an immunization station, and they managed to catch a couple of terrorists before they could off themselves.The men had been almost rabid, dying to die for no reason Nick could discern other than a visceral hatred of the ‘West.’Interrogating them had been depressing and even degrading.That night he’d pickedThe Smiling Peopleto watch because he thought he’d never smile again.
It had been charming and uplifting.A people who loved food and music, who lived in peace, never waging war in a thousand years.They lived on the border with Rome but never emulated Roman bellicosity.
The documentary compared the two civilizations and there was no contest.Except the Romans in the end conquered the Etruscans, and a peaceful, art-loving people were no more.
Parker had narrated it.That was why he recognized the voice.
“You weren’t in the documentary.But it was yours.”
She sighed.“I narrated it, yes, but it was pointless filming me, when there was so much Etruscan art to look at.Plus…a friend of mine did a documentary on dolphins and appeared on camera a lot and her life has not been worth living.People recognize her and either want to hug her or attack her.She’s even gotten death threats.No thanks.”
