After dinner Ethan went to the living room and sat down on the armchair. He invited Serena to join him. She sat down on the couch. Suddenly she felt nervous. She had no idea what he wanted, but she had a feeling it wasn't anything good.

"Serena, I spoke with Irene Fraser today," he began in a serious voice. Serena's apprehension increased and a coldness settled in the pit of her stomach. She really liked her job and didn't want to lose it. At the same time she felt that this must be about more than just her job. She kept her face blank and waited for him to continue.

"You asked for a six month leave."

Serena wondered why this would involve Irene. She had only talked to her manager about taking a leave and she was pretty sure that the CEO of the company wouldn't need to be involved with details like this. She had met Irene a few times at Martin's lab. Irene would come and pick up Martin for lunch. They seemed to be good friends and she thought she detected a special connection there. She realized that Ethan was waiting for her to speak.

"Yes, I did," she said levelly, not volunteering any further information.

"Why?"

"Personal reasons," she said curtly.

He sighed. "Please just tell me." There was some frustration in his voice. "Don't worry this isn't about your job."

"Why should I tell you?" She was getting frustrated herself.

He studied her for a moment. "Does it have something to do with the work you did for Martin Lasseter?"

She stiffened and saw that he noticed it. Her uneasiness increased as she remembered Martin. They had said it had been an accident, but somehow she didn't really believe that.

"I think you may be getting yourself into something that you don't completely understand," Ethan said gently. She looked at him and said nothing.

"Tell me why you applied for the leave," he said insistently, "I need to know all the details."

Serena took a deep breath and let it out, considering exactly what to tell him. "I've been offered a job, a temporary contract," she said. He was watching her expectantly. "I was contacted by some people from a company called Ariel Nano. They specialize in nanoscale fabrication and quantum computers. They have a website." She waved her hand in the direction of her computer. "You can check it out."

He nodded. "I've seen it."

She was surprised for a second, then remembered their earlier conversation about her browsing history. "Right," she said, with all the reproach she could put behind one word. He ignored it.

"Anyway," she continued, "I had an interview with them a few days ago and they offered me this contract."

"What exactly do they want you to do?"

She hesitated.

"Did it have to do with Lasseter's work?"

"Yes," she sighed, "I don't know... they said that they prefer that people don't find out about this yet."

Ethan studied her for a moment, then began, "They have one of Lasseter's prototypes, but no specifications," he paused to assess her reaction. She was waiting for him to say more. "They want to try to reproduce the prototype and figure out how it works." She nodded. "There is one more problem," he continued. "The prototype is not stable. Tell me, do they know about the second one?"

Serena looked at him, surprised that he wouldn't already know this as he seemed to know everything. "Yes," she said. "They asked me how much I remember about what changed between them." She sighed. "I don't know if I could reproduce it just from memory, I mean the second one. But they said that they have some genius quantum physicists who should be able to help."

Ethan nodded. "What did they say about how they got the prototype?"

"Martin sent it to them. Along with some of the experimental data. He wanted them to study it and confirm his results."

"I thought he didn't trust anyone with this research."

"Yeah, I know, I mean when I did the work for him it was all on a computer in his lab and I wasn't to take any information in any format out of the lab. He was keeping it really tight. But they said that one of their researchers was an old friend and partner of Martin's. I guess he trusted them."

"Right," Ethan said, and she thought she detected a reproach, maybe that she was so gullible as to believe everything they told her. In retrospect it did seem implausible that Martin would do this.

"I had no reason not to believe them," she said defensively. "They were very convincing. And they did have the prototype."

"They showed it to you?" he asked, more interested in that than what she believed.

She nodded.

"Was it the real thing?"

"Yes, of course, I think I can recognize my work."

Ethan said nothing and watched her thoughtfully. She picked up her glass and took a drink. Finally he asked, "Are you going to take the job?"

"I don't know. I'm still deciding. It's at some remote facility and I would have to take an overnight train there and back every week. I'm not particularly looking forward to being away from home. And I also want to still have my current job when this is done, so I'm waiting to hear about the leave."

"If the leave was all taken care of would you do it?"

"I was seriously considering it. It's not the ideal work arrangement, but they did offer me a lot of money and it would only be for six months." She sighed. "But now you're making me question it. I think they may not have been entirely honest with me."

Ethan laughed. "Yes, they may not have been entirely honest," he said, making it sound like she had just made the understatement of the century.

Then he was serious. "Serena, you have to take this job."

She was taken aback. Being told she had to made her not want to do it even more. She did not voice these thoughts as she watched Ethan take a laptop out of a case that she had previously noticed next to the couch. He put the laptop on the coffee table so that they could both see it. It was displaying a photograph of a man walking down the street obviously taken from a covert location.

"Do you recognize this man?" he asked.

Serena looked carefully at the image. She shook her head, then something caught her eye.

"That guy," she pointed to another man standing behind the one in question. "He looks familiar. Do you have a better photo of him?"

Ethan cycled through several shots taken consecutively as the men moved around. He stopped on one where the man Serena had pointed out was facing the camera more directly.

"I think that's him. One of the people who interviewed me." She looked at Ethan questioningly.

"This," he said pointing to the first man who seemed to be the boss, "is Colin Roberts. He is … a person of interest."

"Person of interest," she repeated. "What are you FBI or something?"

"Or something," he said vaguely, "More like CIA."

"Like CIA?"

"Yeah. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." After an awkward pause, where she was thinking that he sounded entirely too serious, they both laughed, except hers was more of a nervous chuckle. She didn't like where this was going. She had always had this fear of someday being involved with some kind of law enforcement. The thought that it might be actually happening now sent chills down her spine.

"If I work for them would that make me a person of interest?"

He looked at her sympathetically. "You already are," he said gently.

She leaned back with a pained expression. "Why me?" she said to no one in particular. "What did I do to have creepy people offering me way too much money and someone from "like" the CIA breaking into my house and making me dinner." She closed her eyes, trying to calm down the waves of emotion sweeping over her. "What was so special about Martin's research?" It was a rhetorical question, but she heard Ethan say, "You mean you don't know?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him. The incredulity she had heard in his voice was showing clearly on his face. She sat up, looking at Ethan intently. "No," she said carefully, "Martin never told me."

Ethan was watching her, clearly trying to decide what to do with this unbelievable revelation.

"But you made his prototypes," he said disbelievingly.

"I don't need to know what something does in order to make it," she said it as if it was obvious, which to her it was. "They give me the specs and I figure out how to fabricate it. I mean, usually, yes they tell me what they're making. But with Martin part of the deal was that I wouldn't ask too many questions."

Ethan was still looking at her in disbelief. "His stuff, these prototypes, were very complicated," she added, "I had no idea what they might be for."

Finally, Ethan spoke. "Serena, Lasseter was working on an energy amplification device. Essentially he succeeded in producing free energy."

"That's impossible." It was her turn to be incredulous.

"I know, conservation of energy and all that," he waved his hand, "But it's true, he found a way to do it without breaking any laws of physics. I don't know exactly how it works, some kind of quantum magic, moving energy around from other dimensions. I've seen it work," he said, as if he wouldn't have believed it otherwise himself. "It's real."

Serena was watching and listening to him intently, then realizing he was completely serious she sat back the implications of this information setting off little explosions in her brain. In hindsight she remembered little things she had seen and heard and it all made sense now. She understood the reason Martin had been so secretive.

"Oh, my god," she said finally, still looking at the ceiling, "What would your person of interest do with this technology?"

"Nothing good, I'm afraid."

She nodded, expecting this answer.

"Then I can't take this job. I can't help him to get it."

"No, Serena, you have to take this job."

She turned her eyes to him. He was watching her intently, completely serious.

"Even without your help, he will eventually get it," he continued, "But if you help me I will make sure that he never has a chance to use it."

She looked at him for a moment, evaluating what he said. "How would I help you?"

"Take the job. Go in there. Observe. Tell me about it."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much. We don't know much about what they're doing and we've never been able to get inside one of their facilities. They're very careful and really good at hiding. Any information we can get would go a long way." He noted the concern on her face. She wasn't buying that it was that simple. "I won't ask you to do anything that you can't handle."

She wasn't convinced that he knew what she could handle. She looked away.

"No, I can't do this," she said, "I'm no good at... well... at deception. They'll see right through me."

"Serena, there will be nothing to see. It is to be expected that you'd be nervous about starting a new job, especially away from home."

She continued looking into space, as if she didn't hear him. Her mind was busy going over the possibilities and all she could come up with was ways that this could go wrong. Ethan kneeled in front of her. She felt the heat of his hands on hers. Slowly she turned her head until their eyes met.

"Serena, you're more capable than you think," he said intently, "I know people, it's part of my job, and I know you can do this." The intensity in his eyes was willing her to believe it. "You just have to be yourself and you'll be fine."

She wanted to believe him, but it wasn't so easy. She needed some space, time to think. She pulled her hands away and stood up. The plants by the window caught her eye and she walked over to them. She busied herself cleaning up the dead leaves and watering them. When there was nothing left to do she just stood there staring. An internal battle was going on between the part of her that knew she should take the job and the part of her that really didn't want to. She knew the reasons she didn't want to were not necessarily that good, especially compared to the reasons she knew she should. Mostly she was afraid of failure, not so much of what would happen to her, and this was against the opportunity to help prevent a potentially destructive technology from falling into the wrong hands. The reward would be great, but she didn't like taking risks.

She was aware of Ethan walking up behind her. She felt the heaviness of his hand on her shoulder. She turned around to face him, but avoided his eyes. She was aware of the closeness and she thought about having his arms around her, his body pressed up against hers.

"Serena," he said it quietly, but there was a tone behind it and she couldn't help looking up. Their eyes met. He was searching her face with his probing eyes. She couldn't take it and looked away again. He put his hand gently on her face and turned her back. "Please, Serena, I need you to do this." She looked at him for a few long seconds, trying to bring up the courage to say yes. His eyes burned through her. She really wanted to make him happy, to do whatever he wanted. She nodded slightly.

Having made this decision she suddenly felt weak. She needed to be close to someone, to not be alone. Ethan seemed to sense this and he pulled her in and held her. She put her head on his shoulder and her arms around his waist, enjoying his warmth.

They stood like that for a few minutes. Then she let go and went to the kitchen to pour herself more water. She felt better and more confident about her decision. She began thinking about what she needed to do to make this mission a success. Yes, she thought about it as a mission now. She had been recruited by a mysterious agent from a super secret spy agency.