Mick looks into her eyes, his heart aching. “I-I love you, Dominique. I’ve loved you since the day we met, since the day you showed me a simple act of kindness. I’m also indebted to you and Edie. But right now, I have to see this thing through, even if it means losing you. Maybe you’re right. Maybe this is all just some grandiose schizophrenic delusion, passed on to me by my two psychotic parents. Maybe I’m so far over the edge that I can’t even see the playing field anymore. But don’t you see—whether it’s real or just a fabric of my imagination, I can’t stop now, I have to see this thing through.”

He picks up the ultrasonic inspectroscope, his eyes glistening with tears. “I swear to you, on my mother’s soul, that if I’m wrong, I’ll return to Miami on December 22 and turn myself in to the authorities. Until then, if you want to help me, if you really care, then stop being my psychiatrist.”

“Be my friend.”

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

DECEMBER 10, 2012
UNITED NATIONS BUILDING,
NEW YORK CITY

The packed auditorium grows quiet, the television cameras rolling as Viktor Ilyich Grozny walks to the podium to address the members of the United Nations Security Council and the rest of the world.

“Madame President, Mr.Secretary-General, members of the Security Council, honored guests—this is a sad day. Despite mandates and warnings from the General Assembly and the Security Council, despite the exhaustive efforts of preventive diplomacy and peacemaking by the Secretary-General and his special envoys, one nation—one rogue, but very powerful nation, continues to threaten the rest of the world with the most dangerous weapon in the history of mankind.”

“The Cold War is long over, or so we are told, the virtues of capitalism triumphing over the evils of communism. While the economies of the West continue to grow, the Russian Federation struggles to rebuild. Our people are destitute, starving by the thousands. Do we blame the West? No. Russia’s problems were created by Russians, and it is our responsibility to save ourselves.”

The angelic blue eyes project a childlike innocence into the camera. “I am a man of peace. Through the diplomacy of words I have convinced our Arab and Serbian and Korean brothers to lay down their guns against their sworn enemies, because I know and believe in my heart that violence solves nothing and that the wrongs of the past cannot be undone. Morality is a personal choice. Each of us shall be judged by the Creator when the time comes, yet no man has a God-given right to inflict pain and suffering on another in the name of morality.”