“I appreciate the letter and everything, Tom. But I’m still struggling with all this. Bowman was ten yards from me when he died, and I didn’t do anything to help him. I put him in danger and then I couldn’t save him. I have a feeling the only reason the Chinese didn’t kill me, too, was that they assumed I was working for the agency. That bothers me. And now I’m sitting in this safe house reading a thank-you letter from the director of the CIA—and I can’t talk about any of it with the people I really work for. I don’t have a sense of closure yet. There are too many loose ends.”

“I can understand what you’re feeling.” Rubino nodded his head. He was all sympathy.

“The worst of it is that the people who killed Arthur are getting away with it. They even issued a press release saying what a great journalist he was. Did you know that? It makes me crazy. I want to get even, but I don’t know how.”

Rubino listened, stared out the window, then turned back. There was a sly crease on his lip. “You know, we could help you with that,” he said.

“Come on! You can’t help anyone. And I don’t want to play any more spy games. I want to go back to being a journalist.”

“Suppose we could arrest Michel Bézy and try him in a U.S. court. With your help, we could lock him up for a long time. Would that seem like a good way to get even?”

“Of course it would. It would be fantastic, after what he did to Arthur. But how could you arrange that? And how could I possibly help? That’s ridiculous.”

“You hold the high cards, Eric. You’re the only one who knows the truth. That gives you leverage over Bézy, and we can give you more. I’ll make you a promise: if you can get Bézy to America, we can arrest him here on a terrorism charge.”

Rubino was scary, he was so good at it. He never told me to do anything; he just opened a door, letting the idea take hold. I tried to push it shut.

“Tempting,” I said. “But I’m not interested. I did what you asked in China, and I’m glad if you think it did some good. But I want my life back.”

“I understand.” Rubino didn’t argue with me. He sat there silently, knowing that I would argue with myself. “I knew it would be a long shot,” he said after a while.

“The whole idea is crazy. I mean, how would we get him here? Bézy isn’t an idiot.”