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The Energy of Sun Rays

Amanda: Spiral

Amanda knew something had gone wrong the minute she saw Lee's face go blank. There was no reason for him to do that anymore, now that she was a full-fledged agent, and he'd rarely done it before then anyway. While her security clearance wasn't yet as high as his, there was very little she wasn't authorized to know about these days — and she found out much of that anyway, at least if it involved Lee.

Spouses, she knew, were frequently offered clearance to the same or a lower level, even when they didn't both work for the government. It was so that Federal employees could speak freely with them at home if they wanted to; allowing that provided a useful safety valve and also prevented marital problems caused by keeping secrets. Both tended to be positive things for the affected employees.

Of course, to receive spousal clearance it was necessary to acknowledge the marriage first.

Squelching a sigh, she lowered her eyes to her desk and tried to focus on the research in front of her. There had been a lot of chatter about Syria and Libya recently, but it was coming to them in a jumble of bits and pieces that, on the surface, made little to no sense. She'd been given several tapes, with instructions to transcribe and then match the data up to see if the information was consistent. Muammar Gaddafi's and Abu Nidal's names had already appeared together several times, so she knew she had potentially found something, but —

"Okay," said Lee in response to the person on the other end of the phone line. "Yeah, thanks, Billy. We'll get over there as soon as possible." He paused. "Yeah, I know, and I appreciate it. I'll give you a call as soon as we know more." When he hung up the phone, he closed his eyes, rubbing them in a familiar gesture before taking a deep breath and exhaling through his nose.

"What is it?" she asked.

When he looked up, the blank expression was gone, replaced by something in his eyes. Something so awful as to be terrible.

Amanda felt her heartbeat accelerate. "Lee?"

Standing up, he came around to kneel next to her chair, turning her to face him before taking both her hands. "Amanda, I, ah. I'm sorry, I —" his voice caught. "I don't know how I'm going to tell you this."

"Tell me what?"

He swallowed. Hard. That was when she realized he was shaking.

"Lee, whatever it is, it's all right."

"No," he said, and now there was a sheen of tears beginning to form over that horrible look in his eyes. "It's not. There's…" he trailed off again. "There's been an accident. We need to get over to the hospital right away."

"An accident? What happened?"

He swallowed again. "It's…it's Phillip. And your mother."

And her world spiraled out of control.

Author's Note: During the 1980s, the U.S. Department of State really did offer spousal security clearances as I describe here. However, the practice has apparently since been discontinued.