Ch 5
Holly hurried into the living room, brandishing a bottle of red wine, a corkscrew, and two large glasses.
She placed her goods on the coffee table, sat down on the sofa, opened the wine bottle with a flourish and poured two glasses, handing one to Robert with a look of anticipation.
Robert picked up the bottle and read the label. "Australian. Good choice."
"Get on with it, Robert. We can discuss wine later"
Robert thought to himself, "There probably won't be a later once you hear what I've been up to", but launched into his story.
"You remember, the last time we spoke, that I was chasing after Anna and Faison," Robert began.
Holly makes a "hurry it up" gesture with her hand.
"So I did, but by that time I had already begun to suspect that Anna had decide to return to the DVX. I still don't fully understand why, all I know is that she had decided, once again, to stuff the family we were building with Robin."
Holly nearly bit her tongue, so hard did she try to keep a "were you really that surprised?" comment to herself, instead asking, "Were you on the boat when it exploded?"
"I was," Robert confirmed, "I had found the evidence that proved that Anna and Faison were working together."
"So Faison blew up the boat to try and destroy you and the evidence?"
"Are you going to let me tell you what happened or not?"
"Sorry, carry on." Holly sat back with her glass of wine.
"The explosion was set by the WSB. They had had enough of the double agent game. It seems I may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or as far as the Bureau was concerned, the right place at the right time, because they were getting fed up with me as well."
"But what had you done?" interrupted Holly.
"They figured there was a pretty good chance that I was in on things, otherwise, why would any sane husband put up with it?"
"You must have been badly injured?"
"Nothing major."
Robert paused for a drink of wine. He took a deep breath before his next words. "Anna, on the other hand, was quite badly hurt. Brain damage, amnesia, several broken bones. But because of the amnesia, they decided to leave her alone. On certain conditions, the main one being that I had to return to the Bureau." Robert paused again. "Unfortunately, it wasn't 'welcome back, Robbie, here's a nice new computer and a secretary.'"
"Covert ops. Hired gun. I was the new clean-up guy". Robert broke eye contact with Holly and began to play with the corner of a throw pillow.
Holly pieced things together, and as she was about to ask, Robert filled in, "And they made it very clear that if I didn't do as I was told, they would kill Robin, and Anna, and I figure if I resisted long enough, they would get around to you as well."
"Are you still working for the Bureau? Is that why you were avoiding me?"
"No. There's a new director. We were pals way back. He knows that I didn't have anything to do with Faison or the DVX, and he figured 8 years was enough. Plus if I kept going, I suppose they would need to start up a pension fund."
"I can't believe you couldn't get messages through to us, during all that time. Why not something encrypted, to one of us?" demanded Holly.
"I didn't want to put you in danger," Robert stammered. "Plus by that point, I would have rather you all remember the old me, not the one that was jetting all over the world taking people out."
"I just can't believe after everything we have been through, you would not have let me know that you were alive." exclaimed Holly.
"And I would have thought that you better than anyone would have understood my reasons for not contacting you. We were divorced, you could move on, find someone who would make you happy,"