I fed her one of her own lines. “I’m doing the best I can, and that’s all you can ask from somebody.”

She smiled. “Well, all right, then, Poppa. Just as long as the best you can do puts all As on your next report.”

About a block from the school I gave Jannie and Damon their hugs—so as not to embarrass them, God forbid, in front of all their cool-ass friends. They hugged me back and kissed their little brother, and then off they ran. “Ba-bye,” said Little Alex, and so did Jannie and Damon, calling back to their brother, “Ba-bye, ba-bye!”

I picked up Little Alex and we headed home; then it would be off to work for soon-to-be Agent Cross of the FBI.

“Dada,” said Little Alex as I carried him in my arms. That was right—Dada. Things were falling into place for the Cross family. After all these years, my life was finally close to being in balance. I wondered how long it would last. Hopefully at least for the rest of the day.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

NEW-AGENT TRAINING at the FBI Academy in Quantico, sometimes called “Club Fed,” was turning out to be a challenging, arduous, and tense program. For the most part, I liked it, and I was making an effort to keep any skepticism down. But I had entered the Bureau with a reputation for catching pattern killers, and I already had the nickname Dragonslayer. So irony and skepticism might soon be a problem.

Training had begun six weeks before, on a Monday morning, with a crew-cut broad-shouldered SSA, or supervisory special agent, Dr. Kenneth Horowitz, standing in front of our class trying to tell a joke: “The three biggest lies in the world are: ‘All I want is a kiss,’ ‘The check is in the mail,’ and ‘I’m with the FBI and I’m only here to help you.’” Everybody in the class laughed, maybe because the joke was so ordinary, but at least Horowitz had tried his best, and maybe that was the point.