"Where's Mint? Gone already?"

Gabriel nods, and she rubs her backside gingerly. She's a strange woman, full of strange habits.

"Understandably, he doesn't want to meet the police," I tell her. "I don't want to meet them either, by the way."

Gabriel nods, again. Nicole, on the other hand, shakes her head.

"Nicole," I turn to her, touching her shoulder gently.

She nearly faints. I need to counteract immediately.

"You have to call the police," I tell her firmly. "Also, you must be brave enough to lie to them."

She gasps for air. She seems to be ready, in every sense of the word. Gentle & firm method never fails.

Except for Gabriel. She's rolling her eyes.

"If my assessment is correct, you can handle this without my help," I tell her, narrowing my eyes as if I really was assessing something. A malfunctioning phased polaron cannon, for example, or a photon torpedo. Totally not a simple Beretta, or a Smith & Wesson, that I know, in fact, what to do with.

Gabriel rolls her eyes again.

I can't refrain from thinking about how much easier my life would be if I narrowed my interest to normal women only, like Nicole. I shouldn't need to challenge my inner Spock anymore, and I could be just myself.

"You're right, it's time for you to go," Gabriel says, cleverly avoiding the use of my codename in front of her starry-eyed boss.

On our way out, I notice her class playing in the garden. I already recognize them amongst the other kids.

"They all are your lambs, right?" I ask Gabriel.

She raises her brows.

"Of course they are."

"Hm."

"You look at them as if you are assessing the task," she says, with a little smile on her lips.

"I am. Now they all are my assets to protect too, right?"

"Of course they are," she laughs.

It feels like the sun's shining on me. I might be imagining this, but I can sense the heat of her mirth on my face.

"Great," I huff. "Eight little lambs. It sounds like the title of a tale. And should the big bad wolf come—"

She grins at me, shaking her head slowly. She already knows what I'm going to say.

"—again," I go on, "he'd meet the barrel of a gun. And, before he could take one of your lambs, again, he'd be neutralized. Oh, and his belly would be filled with stones, too."

"Duke, please. Tobey wasn't taken under Mint's orders."

"I know. But can I kill him if he tries to hurt the little ones committed to your care?"

"No."

I could dispute, but I enjoy her smile too much.

"Okay." I shrug. "Can I beat him up?"

"Definitely," she laughs. Even her impassionate eyes light up a little. She doesn't care for many things, but the safety of these children has a firm place amongst them.

I feel my mouth going dry. It's now or never.

"Listen, Gabriel," I tell her, resisting the urge to take her hand. "Um... Edie... there's something I want to ask."

Just before I let her frown discourage me, I take a deep breath, and I blurt out the most important question on my mind.

"Will you work with me?"

The moment I utter the last word, I notice how it sounds. Still, I can't stop hoping for a positive answer. I will. That's all I need to hear, accompanied by a gentle, caring smile, fulfilling my boldest hope, making me the happiest man on Earth.

"Define work," Gabriel says.

But, at least, with a smile. It's not a gentle or caring one, it's slightly derisive, rather, but still. It's a smile.

"The world needs your help, Gabriel," I answer. "And I'm the right person to team up with."

She doesn't seem to be convinced at all.

"This is going to be huge," I go on. "This virus will change people's lives forever. Heck, it will change the world as we know it! But you're certainly aware of that already, better than I am. You also must know that many will die if the vaccine falls into the wrong hands. And you have the capacity to make a difference. You alone could make sure that—"

"What? That the Agency gets the vaccine and not Pavlov? I still fail to see the difference."

I breathe out. Arguing with her still feels like kicking a brick wall, barefoot. So I take a different approach this time.

"I'm kinda independent now," I inform her. "From the Agency. You'd be working with me only. Not with them."

"Why?"

"I need to stay away from them, too. Temporarily."

I know, it's not an answer. Yet, she nods as if she knew everything, just by looking at me, from the formula under my skin to the meaningless power play I got into with Mr. Toe.

"What's the use in calculating everything," I ask her, "if you refuse to act, based on those calculations?"

"Why do you think I do that?"

I stare at her, suddenly forgetting my well-built argument.

"I told you already, Duke, that I'm doing what I can, in my way. But you fail to take the things I say seriously, too, just like Mint."

"I don't."

"You do," she insists. "My methods are different, but we both work for the best outcome of the situation."

"So, are you willing to cooperate against Mint?"

"No. I'm willing to cooperate to reach my endgame goal that shows a 92% correlation to the endgame goal of the world's population, in total, so—"

"But Mint is bad."

"Please," she sighs. "Don't start this again."

"But he's our enemy! Why don't you see that? He's against the Agency, siding with a psycho! He's against people! He's against you! He should be out of the equation!"

"The equation?" she hums. "It's funny that you use this word. You trust my calculation skills so much. Why don't you trust me with this one, too? Mint is needed in the equation. He's a crucial variable."

"Now you sound like Gandalf the Grey saying that Gollum still has a role."

I succeed in making her laugh, again.

"If it makes you feel better," she says, "to think about Mint as Gollum, then yes. With the exception of—"

"I know. You don't want him to die in the end. But, on second thought, Mint is much worse than Gollum. He has a fucking army! He's like Saruman, but his army of orcs was defeated in the end, so—"

"Duke, you have such clever eyes. It's a pity there's nothing behind them."

"What?"

"Why do you want Mint's army to be defeated so badly?"

I try to channel my inner Spock and come up with an answer, but I'm not fast enough.

"As long as Mint has an army, you have an army," she says.

I stare at her, speechless.

"Love never ends. It's a rare truth."

Her statement makes me blink in confusion.

"For the same reason," she goes on, "not only you, but I also have an army, as long as Mint has it. And, for the same reason, I'm standing here, instead of lying by the gardening tools, in the back garden, with three bullets in my head. And, for the same reason, you can't resist the idea of having a batshit crazy kindergarten teacher by your side, when you should be alone, and you know it. Do I need to go on?"

"But Mint... he went rogue! You can't defend him!"

"Oh, did he? Well, I happen to know someone who went rogue too, for a few months, after the Mumbai incident."

"That was completely different!" I protest. "I just needed time, and—"

"Different, how? It could have got you killed, too. And I knew very well where you ran, Duke. I calculated it."

"But—"

"I defended you too, Duke, when you went rogue. I lied for you. So it could have killed me, as well."

"Still, it was different."

"Different, my ass," she snorts. "You live."

"And that's the only thing you care about. Keeping us alive."

"You say as if it's a bad thing," she says. "But I also happen to know why you did let Mint go. You feared for his life, that's why. You were terrified of the thought that he would 'accidentally' die on you, during a mission."

I take a deep breath. Her words stir my memories of those times, and the feelings, attached to them, causing my throat to go dry. Terrified is the right word, indeed, next to hopeless, powerless, and neurotic, and so on. I couldn't sleep, I was so worried about Mint. I was certain that I'd lose him this way or another.

"Again, it was different," I insist.

"It was 100% the same, Duke."

I know she's right. I also know that I have no way to convince her. She does or does not, there's no bending her will. I clear my throat, and I repeat my question.

"So. Accepting all these things, will you work with me?"