I'm mildly drunk when I arrive back at Frank's pub. Frank and Nicole are already there, waiting for me.

"Any progress?" I ask them. "Did you find Mint's headquarters?"

"Sorry," Nicole answers. "It was easy to track the people moving from one district to another because there were none. Literally, none. People don't take the risk of catching the virus, they remain where they are until the pandemic ends."

"So Mint has prepared for this from the beginning," I muse. "Nice. He had another place ready, other than the one we visited to retrieve Tobey. He might still use that one, too. It's worth a check."

"Do you want to go there?" Nicole gasps for air. "Alone?"

"Well, I can't ask Mint to come with me this time, can I?" I laugh. "No matter how convenient that would be, ask him to help me to locate him."

I find the idea hilarious. Okay, I might be more than a little drunk. I'm glad they notice nothing of it. I can hold my liquor.

"But not now," Nicole says. "Wait until you get better."

Okay, maybe she suspects something.

"You know what," I tell her. "You can come with me. You have an innate talent for this. I can tell."

"And what about me?" Frank fumes. "I have a talent, too!"

"Of course, Frank," I giggle. Okay, that sounded a bit offending. I clear my throat, and I repeat it in a serious tone. "Of course, Frank. Have you found something, by the way?"

"Nothing, captain. The police are busy with securing the city's public areas and enforcing social distancing. The situation is getting dire out there. Hospitals are full. People are dying."

"That's why we must be quick," I tell them. "And no matter what Mr. Toe said, I'll try to call the boys. He doesn't need to know, right?"

"You shouldn't make decisions at the moment," Frank says. "Mr. Toe isn't someone whose orders you want to ignore."

Okay, he might have noticed something, too.

"He likes me," I laugh. "And he thinks I like him, too. He doesn't know how much I hate him. Well, he should, because, honestly, since I found him when I was looking for Gabriel, I had no choice but to keep working for him or to be killed. So, basically, I had no choice at all."

"What the fuck?" Frank snorts. "Did you try to find a tactical controller? Were you out of your mind?"

"Yeah, that's exactly where I was, out of my mind. It happened after they told us she had died, and Mint left me, too. I was desperate and I wasn't thinking. But of course, I'd never try to find a living tactical controller, Frank. That would have put them in danger, dumbass. I just wanted to know where Gabriel was buried and who she was."

"And how did you manage to find Mr. Toe? That's a first, man."

"I'm good, that's how."

"Very good, captain." He grins. "Even better than I thought. But I still don't think you should disregard his direct order."

"It wasn't a direct order. Just a guideline."

First, I try to call the leader of our surveillance team. Then, my dearest contact at the intel. Before I manage to dial the third person on my list, I get an incoming call.

It's Mr. Toe.

"I think I made myself clear the first time, dear Duke. No contact. What is it that you don't understand?"

"I need—"

"No. You need nothing at the moment but a distance from the Agency."

"But—"

"It's a matter of mere days, Duke. The mass production of the vaccine will start in days, and then, we'll have won. After that, there's nothing to come between us and victory. Understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Toe," I answer, with an uneasy feeling in my stomach. It must be the last whiskey I shouldn't have had.

"Don't call again, dear son," he warns me again. "Stay away from the Agency. We're taking care of everything, okay?"

"Okay," I mumble.

"Maybe you should stop drinking, Duke. Alcohol is a bad advisor."

I feel I'm going to be sick. It's not the shame I feel. It's something else I can't put my finger on.

I return from the bathroom ten minutes later. Nicole and Frank stare at me without blinking. I wish I saw disgust in their eyes. But there's only concern.

"You can leave now," I tell them. "Or, rather, I can leave, because it's Frank's pub, right?"

"There's a room back there," Frank says. "Sleep a little, captain. We'll take care of the world's safety until you wake up, okay?"

"No. I'm a useless drunk, as both of you have noticed by now. I must go."

"It's not that," Frank disputes. "You're having a mild nervous breakdown, Duke. Sleep, and then we'll talk."

I want to open my mouth and tell him to stop coming up with a different diagnosis every fucking day, but I can't. The tightness in my throat doesn't let me. I also should turn around and find that fucking room before they see my tears. I'm probably pathetic enough in their eyes already.

"I have no one," I blurt out. "Literally, no one. Only you two."

I try to take a deep breath, but it turns into a sob.

"Mint works for a lunatic who wants to see half of the world's population dead, and Gabriel sided with him, for a reason I don't even know. At the Agency, something's going on behind my back, and, again, I don't even know what it is. I'm fucking useless. You two may have a better chance to save the world alone, seriously."

"That's not true," Frank says. "You're the best, Duke. We already covered that, remember?"

"And who do we have?" Nicole adds. "We have no one else, either. That's why we're a team now, remember? We have nothing on you, Duke. Or do you think we have a reason to look down on you? How?"

Their unreasonable kindness is only making my sobbing worse.

"And Edie," Nicole says, standing up and walking up to me, "I gathered that you had feelings for her. That's why you feel hurt, not because she's not doing the right thing."

"Feelings, complexes, projections," Franks enumerates, approaching from the other side. "You name them."

"Stop analyzing me," I beg.

"You're right," Frank says. "Enough of the analysis. It's time for the therapy."

They hug me from both sides at the same time. Between them, I feel stable again. And safe. And warm. I feel the anger I've been fighting since I found the traces of Gabriel's betrayal leaving my body.

"She doesn't even care about me," I mutter. "She wants to keep me alive, and that's it. I'm just a duty for her."

Nicole kisses my face. It feels good. And natural. We're a team.

"Yet, she's the only one I've ever wanted for anything else than sex," I confess. "I know it's pathetic. But sex is the only method I know to connect with people. I'm so fucked up."

"Well," Frank answers simply, "the bed in the backroom is big enough for three."