فصل 9

Chapter 9: The Woman Out Back

That night after dinner I went out for a walk. I wanted to be alone. No, I needed to be alone. Since the moment we’d left Peru I hadn’t had much privacy, and I had a lot to think about. I suppose that I needed some solitude to let everything settle before I took on the next phase of my bizarre new life. I think Taylor must have understood because she didn’t say anything as I slipped out the back.

Even though the sun had set an hour earlier, it was still warm outside and the compound grounds were lit by a nearly full moon. I walked over to the helipad to look at the helicopter, then wandered farther back to where Taylor and I had talked the night before.

As I approached the stable I thought I heard someone crying. I walked quietly around the side of the Ranch House to see a woman leaning against the fence. The moon’s illumination was bright enough that I could at least partially see her. She was older than me, probably in her late twenties, tall and thin with long dark hair that fell over half her face. I didn’t remember seeing her at the reception.

She was crying. I felt awkward for intruding on her privacy, and I was about to turn back when she looked up at me with a startled expression. I think my glow must have frightened her. (If you’ve never seen one of us glow, it takes a little getting used to—just one of many reasons I was never allowed sleepovers as a child.) For a moment we just looked at each other.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She wiped her eyes. “You’re one of them.”

Them? I wasn’t sure how to respond. Finally I said, “Sorry, I’ll leave you alone.” As I turned to leave she said, “I’m crying for my husband.” I turned back. “Your husband?”

“He was killed in action.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

For a moment she just looked at me with dark, angry eyes. Then she said, “You should be. You killed him.” Her words rolled over me like a train. “I didn’t kill your husband.” “He was on the Ampere when you blew it up.”

For several moments I was speechless. Finally I said again, “I’m sorry.” “Me too,” she said. She wiped her eyes, then turned and walked back to the house.