Page 63 of Nikolai
“You should eat something, Parker,” Dylan said gently.
“No thanks.”She shook her head sharply, her stomach heaving.“I’ll have some tea.”Her own antibiotic.Tea cured so many things.
Dylan poured her a cup.“Sugar?Milk?”
She shook her head no.
Dylan was stacking a small plate with sandwiches and poured himself a Coke.“We’re getting the super white glove treatment.They don’t usually offer refreshments in the waiting room.It’s because we’re heroes.Nobody knows quite why, but they know we’re heroes.”
Parker didn’t feel like a hero.She felt like someone who had escaped something terrible, and Nick had paid the price for it.
Nick had to live.
She kept coming back to that idea.Nick simply couldn’t die.She wouldn’t let him.
Dylan kept getting phone calls, and he’d exit the room so he wouldn’t bother her.Either that, or the calls were confidential.She didn’t care either way.
He came in, staring at his phone.“So, Nick was hired to check if there were any leaks in the Consulate and he got the job done.In a roundabout way.”
Parker looked at him.What was he talking about?
“We had our in-house computer genius analyze the Consul’s phone and it was hacked.There was a hidden app that sends all the calls and texts the Consul receives to a specific phone.And we were able to locate that phone and it did indeed belong to a consulate staffer.George Stillwell.Who immediately called Lorenzo de Luca, the local head of the Camorra.That Stillwell guy is going away forever.”
Parker stared.“George?George Stillwell?A traitor?”
“Yes, ma’am.And he’s been selling secrets for a while now and has a nice little stash in Aruba which he will never spend.”
She sat with that for a while.George Stillwell.Weedy, ineffectual George.George, who couldn’t play sports, could barely drive, but who was super smart.But how smart was he really if he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison?
“I can hardly believe he’d have the nerve.”
“Well, he did.And if not for you and Nick, we could have eight nukes in the hands of either the mob or, more likely, they’d have sold them to terrorists.Lots of groups in the Mediterranean with money who’d pay a lot to have nuclear weapons.You guys stopped something really serious.”
Parker didn’t know what to say.
Dylan touched her arm.“Though you do understand that you can’t ever talk about it, ever.To anyone.That’s clear to you, right?”
“Absolutely.”As long as Nick lived through his ordeal, Parker didn’t even want to remember it.As long as?—
The door opened and a short, stubby man with a salt and pepper beard walked in, carrying something.He was in scrubs, a surgical mask around his neck.“Dr.Donovan?Mr.Gardner?”
They turned to him.“Dr.Crowley?”Dylan asked.
“Yep.”He didn’t turn to Dylan but to Parker.“Dr.Donovan, I couldn’t believe my ears when someone said that Parker Donovan was in the waiting room.It is such an honor to meet you.My wife and I lovedThe Smiling People.We’ve read the book and watched the documentary.My congratulations.”
He held out his hand and Parker just looked at it.Then took it and he pumped her hand up and down enthusiastically.
“Beautifully written and beautifully filmed.We enjoyed it tremendously.”He held out his other hand and she recognized what he was holding.A book.Herbook.“We would both be honored if you could sign the book.”
Dylan looked amused.“And we’d both really like news about our friend, Nikolai Garin.”
The doctor was holding the book out, open to the title page.“If you could just sign here…” He pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.“As for Mr.Garin,” he said casually, “he’ll be fine.The bullet missed all vital organs.In fact, the biggest danger was blood loss, but he was transfused during the medevac flight, which mitigated the blood loss.”
Parker felt numb.“He’ll—he’ll live?”
“Oh, yes.”The doctor blinked.“Yes indeed.He’ll be out of the hospital in a day or two.Now if you could just sign here…” He held out a pen.“To Bernie and Esther.”
Parker’s knees felt weak and again she felt Dylan’s steadying hand.Tears sprang into her eyes as she signed and a big fat drop plopped onto the page, right where she’d written Parker.
