Jack worked the muscles in his jaw and he nodded. “My father… he was busy. But he was a good man.”
“He was that.” Oliver breathed in deep. “At the end of the meal, he told me he was worried about you, Jack.”
“Me?”
“Yes.” Oliver looked straight at the young man. “He didn’t want you to work in politics or law or the military.” Maybe Oliver should’ve said this sooner. But there was no time for doubt now. “Your dad wanted you to have a different life, Jack. He wanted you to marry and have children and be present in their lives. Coach their Little League teams and play with them on the beach.” Oliver hesitated. “The way he wished he had done with you.”
Jack stared out the window. His eyes glistened, but he didn’t cry. Finally, when he had more control, he looked at Oliver again. “Thank you, sir. For telling me.” He nodded. “I’ll… keep that.”
“Yes.” Oliver studied his top agent for a moment. He was going to miss him. “Now… what did you want to tell me, Jack?”
“Sir… My anniversary with the FBI is at the start of July.” Again, Jack seemed to fight his emotions. “I wanted to tell you… I’ll be leaving at that time.” He was doing his best to hold it together. “I do want you to know… I have loved everything about this job, about working for you and the bureau, sir. I have loved it all.”
“But… there is someone you love more.” Oliver raised one eyebrow. “Is that it?”
The hint of a smile played on Jack’s lips. “Maybe.”
Oliver grinned at him. Jack didn’t need to answer questions about Eliza. The two hadn’t crossed any lines, and in fact their work together had been brilliant. “I’m going to miss you, Agent Ryder. You’re one of the best. And you never… ever give up.” He paused. “But I have to say… I think you’re making the right choice.”
“Thank you.” Jack looked like the weight of the world was suddenly off his shoulders. “Let’s just say… I’m going to make my father proud.”
* * *
TEXAS WAS NO longer an option for Eliza, not with so many traffickers aware of her identity. So in August she had been sent to headquarters in D.C. Her new case agent there handled her assignments. Through the fall she worked at a school near the capital, and in November she became a junior at a troubled academy in Virginia.
Through it all, with every mission and tense moment, she thought of Jack. She wore the necklace backward, but she wore it every day. His words as close to her heart as they could possibly get.
January saw her in Maine and February in New Hampshire. With every school, she helped bring down another gang of traffickers and drug dealers until she was one of the most hated informants in FBI history. Even so she wanted to see her year out.
Her case agent sent her to New Mexico in March and to Oregon after that. Traffickers weren’t organized enough to figure out where she was headed or who she was going to take down next.
Along the way, Eliza found another copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She had lost hers during the raid at the Palace, and never had a chance to finish it. But in April, she made the time.
The story was everything Eliza had hoped it would be. And as she finished the school year in California she fancied herself much like Queen Lucy, the valiant. Brave enough to take on whatever task was asked of her, and certain that Aslan of Narnia was looking out for her.
Because once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.
Between moments of danger, Eliza also read the Bible. She read how with God at her side, there was nothing man could do to her. Because man could only take her physical body, but never her soul. That would belong to God alone, forever.
The way her heart would belong to Jack.
She spent the last month of her service as an HLCI in the office, identifying traffickers from surveillance footage and helping decipher illegal solicitations. And then suddenly it was July 9, her twenty-third birthday, and her years of working for the FBI were over.
To celebrate, the bureau surprised Eliza with a ceremony. In the room were every case agent and teammate she had worked with except Jack. He was completing a mission in Honduras. One fraught with the very worst kind of danger.
Oliver had flown into Washington, D.C., to join the celebration. He handed over her final check. “Your record has been expunged of all charges. We will set you up wherever you’d like to go, Eliza. You’ll have a new name, a new identity.”