Chapter 21 third quarter

"A mutual friend of ours told me that last night you were on the phone saying you had enough of flying," Ben said. "That's right." Decker looked out at the pedestrians through the protective tinted windows.They carried briefcases or handbags, closed umbrellas, and other things, and walked briskly to work.They seemed far away from him. "Then why are you flying?" Hal asked. "It was an impulsive decision." "Like your resignation." "It wasn't a spur of the moment." "Our mutual friends said it seemed a lot like a spur of the moment."

"He doesn't know me very well." "He started wondering if anyone knew about you." Decker shrugged. "What else is he curious about?" "Why did you unplug your phone?" "I don't want people to bother me." "Also, one of our group knocked on the door last night, why didn't you answer?" "No, I answered, just didn't open the door. I asked who it was, and the person outside the door replied 'It's the housekeeper'. He told me that he was going in to make my bed. I told him that I had done it myself. Made it. He said he was coming with clean towels and I told him I didn't need clean towels. Finally he said he was going to put mints on my bedside table and I told him to stuff mints up his own ass go."

"That's not very polite." "I need time to think quietly by myself." Ben took over the topic and asked, "Thinking about what?" The Pontiac stopped at a stoplight, and Decker glanced to the left at the redheaded man. "Life." "That's a big subject. Have you figured out the result yet?" "I've come to the conclusion that the essence of life is that things change." "Is that all you're thinking? You're trying to change your life?" Hal asked. Decker glanced at the brown-haired man in the front passenger seat.The Pontiac started driving again and went through an intersection.

"Yes," Decker said, "life-changing." "That's why you're making this trip?" "You're right again." "Where exactly are you going?" "Santa Fe, New Mexico." "I've never been there. How's it going?" "I can't say for sure, but it looks fine." "Looks good?" "Last night, I watched a TV show where a bunch of construction workers were repairing an adobe house in that place." Pontiac crosses yet another intersection. "That made you decide to go there?" Ben interjected.

Decker turned to face Ben in the backseat. "yes." "It's that simple?" "It's as simple as that. In fact, I'm considering settling there." "I see. You know, these sudden changes of yours are what our mutual friends care about. Because you saw an old house being restored on TV, and you decided to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico on the spur of the moment. When we What do you think he'll think when you tell him that?" "It's an adobe house." "Yes. What do you think it will tell him about your other hasty decisions? Will he think you've made them carefully?"

Decker's muscles tensed. "My resignation was not a hasty decision. I thought about it for a long time." "You haven't mentioned this to anyone." "I don't think it's anybody's business." "This is a matter for many people. What influenced you? What prompted you to make this decision? Was it this event in Rome?" Decker didn't answer.Raindrops hit the windshield. "Look, I told you it was going to rain," said Ben. The raindrops were getting bigger and falling on the Pontiac's headliner with a hollow, constant sound.Pedestrians held up umbrellas one after another, or ran to the doorway to avoid the rain.Looking out of the protective tinted rear windows, the rain-shrouded street looked darker and darker.

"Tell us about that thing in Rome," said Ben. "I'm not going to tell anyone about Rome." Decker managed to catch his breath. "I daresay that's the crux of our conversation. You can go back and reassure our mutual friends that I'm furious, but I'm not going to share my anger with anyone - I'm just exhausted I am not interested in causing a sensation by exposing scandals, on the contrary, all I want is peace and security." "In Santa Fe, a place you've never been?" This time Decker didn't answer. "You know," Hal said, "when you mention Santa Fe, the first thing that pops into my head is that there are a lot of top-secret facilities in that area—the Sandia weapons testing lab in Albuquerque. , the atomic bomb laboratory at Los Alamos. And then I thought of Edward Lee Howard."

Decker felt a heavy pressure in his chest.Howard was a former CIA agent who betrayed the most classified details of the CIA's Moscow operations to the Soviets.He failed a polygraph test, which aroused the intelligence agency's suspicions and fired him.As the FBI investigated him, he emigrated to New Mexico, escaped surveillance agents, and managed to escape to the Soviet Union.The city where he once lived was Santa Fe. "Are you implying that I'm like him?" Decker sat up straighter. "Are you implying that I would do something that would endanger my country?" This time, Decker didn't try to hold his breath. "Go ask our mutual friends to go over my files again, and see if you can find any instance where I have suddenly forgotten the meaning of reputation."

"As you pointed out, people change." "Most people change careers at least three times these days." "Decker, I can't understand what you're saying again." "I started my career in Special Forces, then government, and now it's time to start my third career." "Then what will this third profession be?" "I don't know yet, and I don't want to make a hasty decision. Where are you taking me?" Hal didn't answer. "I'm asking you a question," Decker said. Hal still didn't answer. "It's better not to take me to the CIA rehab clinic in Virginia," Decker said.

"Who said to go to Virginia?" Hal seemed to have made a choice. "We're taking you where you want us to take you - LaGuardia."