There was a thick file folder on the seat next to her. She picked it up and opened it. On one side was a slim three-ring binder. On the other side was a sleeve holding loose documents. She opened the binder several pages from the beginning.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to assume that none of you have any prior knowledge of the events, the people involved, or the strategies we plan to take.”

“Sounds good to me,” Luke said. “Boys?”

“Good,” Swann said.

“Let’s hear it,” Ed said. He eased back into his seat.

“It’s a lot of information,” Trudy said. “It might take a little while.”

Luke shrugged. “It’s a long flight,” he said. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

He listened for a bit as she went through her paperwork, describing for the others, and for Luke, the past and present of Edwin Lee Parr. Gradually, Luke drifted. He thought of Rebecca alone at her family’s country house, waiting for him to return.

He could picture her standing on the back patio, framed by the sunset, her belly large with their child. He wanted, more than anything, for this trip to happen fast. He knew that past the eighth month, that baby could come anytime. Due dates were more like suggestions or guidelines than a hard and fast schedule.

He thought of her eating dinner at her parents’ big stone house in the Virginia suburbs, maybe sleeping over. Probably sleeping over. Her parents were wealthy, and as far as Luke knew, had never worked a day in their lives. They didn’t think much of Luke, he knew. Elite special operations units did not impress them. People who joined the military were a different class of people from them, from their daughter, from their grandchild. He wasn’t sure what worried them more—that he would die during a deployment, or that he would come home alive.

“…Luke?” Trudy had said.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. What was that again?”

Beside him, Ed Newsam released a sort of sneering laugh.

“Do you want me to go over the operation plan?” she said.

“Sure. Let’s hear it.”

She riffled through some papers. She pointed at him. “Luke, your name is Edward King. They made your identity easy to remember. You’re thirty-two years old, the same age you are now. You were in the Seventy-fifth Army Rangers, which you were, in fact, in. You used to work for Blackstone Corporation, and that’s how you came to be in Iraq, but they fired you for insubordination. Now you’re on your own, looking to make a score.”

She turned to Newsam. “Ed, your name is David Dell. People call you DD. Also easy to remember. You’re twenty-five years old and you were once in the Eighty-seventh Airborne. You also worked for Blackstone, but your contract was not renewed. You and Ed King are now partners.”