The week following their
arrival was, in Thom’s estimation, frustrating. Keegan was gone more than he
was around as the day of the election neared. That left Thom at loose ends in a
strange city where he didn’t speak the language. He did a bit of the tourist
thing, visiting shops and a cathedral that was an architectural landmark. He
even, at Keegan’s insistence, took a day trip to nature preserve. It was all
well and good, and yes he had to admit it was different and interesting, but for
all that he saw of his lover he might as well have stayed home.
Keegan, on the other hand,
was wishing for a bit of leisure time. He was getting very tired of hanging
around the present president’s xenophobic militia. They only tolerated his
presence because he had high-level, if forged, documents certifying him as an
observer there to ensure the election was carried out according to
international standards. If it weren’t for the fact that he was picking up
needed information from their thoughts that justified his assignment, he’d have
packed it in without a second thought and taken Thom on a tour of the continent
instead.
By the end of the week the
two men were sniping at each other when they weren’t relieving their
frustrations with heated bouts of love-making.
After the most recent round,
Thom asked petulantly, “How damned much longer?” Then, sighing, he apologized.
“I guess I never realized how much of your job was just information gathering.
For some reason I saw you as some sort of James Bond figure, literally fighting
the good fight while dodging the bad guys’ bullets. This trip puts a whole new
light on things.”
Keegan shook his head,
smiling. “Often it’s exactly like that, and if this had been one of those times
I have a feeling you’d still be back home with three of Alasdair’s people
watching you day and night.”
“I’ll pass on that, thanks.”
He shifted to a more comfortable position, resting his head on Keegan’s
shoulder. “So, back to the original question. The election is in two days. Is
the opposition candidate going to survive until then and do we get to leave as
soon as it’s over?”
“Yes, to both questions. His
going out of the country for a day helped. It gave his people a chance to deal
with a known assassin who had followed him.”
“One you knew about because
of what you’re doing.”
“Exactly. But with that man
out of the picture there’s still a chance another one has been brought in,
which is why we’re still here. I picked up on something from the head of the
militia when he came to the hotel. Outwardly he was just reassigning some of
his men, but he held a closed-door conference with two of them. A name was
mentioned that I recognized.”
Thom gave him a worried
look. “Tell me you’re not going after whoever he is.”
“Nope, not in my job description
this time.”
“Whew. Then two more days
and we’re out of here.”
“Exactly. And,” Keegan
smiled slightly, “I wasn’t going to tell you this until we were on the plane,
but I have been given some time off.”
Thom sat up, looking down at
him. “As in time just for you and me?”
‘No,” Keegan said quite
seriously, “I’m sending you home and then doing a little traveling on my own.”
He ceased his teasing immediately when he saw that Thom believed him. “Yes, you
nut, as in just you and me. Where do you want to go? There’s a whole world out
there and you get to make the choice.”
No comments:
Post a Comment