Enemy In the Room (47 page)

Callie shook her head harder. “No.”

“Then that’s why I think you’ve been running
from him. You know, there’s a small voice in all of us. It’s been
talking to you since the first time you ever thought about doing
those movies, telling you ‘No. It’s not right’. That’s him. You’ve
been running from him. But he was there. He saw you making the
movies. Taking the drugs. It broke his heart. But he let you.”

“He saw that? All those times?”

Kristen nodded.

“How could he want me then?”

Kristen smiled. “That’s the depth of his
love. He was there when I messed up, too. But he loves us so much.
Remember, he made each of us in his image. He knows us like no one
else—every hair on our heads. He wants us back, no matter what we
do.”

Callie shook her head. “I can’t believe that
he’d want someone like me… I’ve screwed up so badly. Those movies.
And I’m pregnant! My own father would kill me, much less God.”

“You’ve been running from him, too. Haven’t
you?’

“Who?”

“Your father. You’ve been trying to get his
attention, hurt him because you think he hurt you. Haven’t
you?”

Now Callie pulled her knees up and rested
her chin on them. “I…I guess.”

“Callie, listen to me. Both God and your
father want you back. They love you totally.”

She shook her head. “Not my father. Not if
he knew I was pregnant. He just wants me to stop embarrassing him
with these movies.”

“Callie, you just told me that
you’re
embarrassed by them. So why can’t he be embarrassed, as well? I
think you’ve hurt him pretty badly, actually.”

She was silent. Finally she asked, “Who
would want me now?”

“I do. Your parents do. God does. But it’s
up to you.”

“I can’t imagine. Hey—I’m pretty hungry. Can
we, like, get some breakfast?”

Kristen smiled. “Sure. I’m hungry, too.
Let’s get dressed and we’ll drive over to the café. It looks like
it’s going to be a beautiful day.”

“Maybe we can walk on the beach.”

At the same moment David was sitting down to
dinner in an ornate private room in an elegant Moscow restaurant
with Trevor Knox, Akbar Kamali, Peter Goncharev, Andrei Selivanov,
Tanya Prescott, and four of Peter’s lieutenants in USNet’s Russian
operation. Trevor had asked David to set up the dinner as a thank
you to those who had helped in their recent growth, and they had
invited Tanya as a thank you for her hard work on the next day’s
reception. David was seated at the foot of the table facing his
boss.

After their drinks arrived, Knox said, “The
new office looks great. In the Russian tradition, I’d like to
propose a toast to all of you who have made it possible.”

Everyone smiled, touched glasses, and
drank.

“And I’d like to thank Ms. Prescott for
joining us. Here’s a toast to you and your team. May everything go
smoothly tomorrow.”

More smiles and tinkling of glasses. After
raising her glass, Tanya said, “I think it will. We’ve planned for
almost any problem, but we don’t think there will be any.”

As the toasts and the discussions continued,
David found it difficult to participate. His mind was on his
children, and Todd, not USNet’s continued success in Moscow. He
wrestled with what he should do to help Callie and Rob. And Todd.
Maybe tonight in my room I can write out steps for each
situation. And maybe even pray about it. If God will listen to
someone like me. Figure out what to do and who to call when I get
home. What if Todd is right? What has USNet been doing?

Several times during the meal he looked down
the table to see Knox staring at him.

Inside Knox’s corporate jet, parked at the
far end of the tarmac at Vnukovo Airport, Victor Mustafin manned
the control console while an armed guard stood outside on the ramp.
The door to the aircraft was closed, and its systems were running
on a nearby diesel generator. Mustafin was having an encrypted
video conference with General Beleborodov and Simon North, sitting
at their own consoles at NovySvet’s eastern base. Mustafin could
see and hear them; they only heard his slightly altered voice.

“We tracked the micro repeater all the way
across the Atlantic,” Beleborodov said. “until you switched it off
over Helsinki.”

Mustafin nodded and smiled. “Well done. And
the missile launcher?”

“Its own repeater shows that it’s in transit
to the launch position.” This time it was North. “Once it arrives,
we expect a coded signal from the team leader declaring the missile
to be operational.”

“Good. Less than twenty-four hours.”

Kristen and Callie came out of the café and
got into the car to drive back to the motel. Callie pulled her cell
phone out of her bag, switched it on, and scrolled through five
missed calls. She looked over at Kristen, who was driving. “There
are four from Alex, but one is from a number I don’t recognize. I
guess I’d better call it.” Kristen nodded.

“Hello. Oh, hi, Mom. Where? The hospital?
What? Oh, God. Rob? Listen, we’re just pulling up to a place from
where I can call you back and it won’t be so noisy. Yes, I’ll call
you in just a minute.” Kristen stopped in front of their cabin.
“It’s my brother Rob. He’s been in a bad wreck. They’re at the
hospital.”

“What next?”

“I don’t know. I gotta call.”

While Callie listened to her mother on the
phone, Kristen changed into walking shorts and shoes. When she
finished the call, Callie recounted the details to Kristen while
she also changed. She included information on the driver, and Rob’s
uncertain prognosis.

“I’m so sorry,” Kristen said, as they headed
for the door.

“Those games he plays on the internet.”

Locking the door to the cabin, Kristen said,
“I bet your mother wishes your father were home right now. I wonder
when he’s due back?”

Fifteen minutes later they had parked in a
public lot near a long stretch of open beach, moderately full for
early on a Sunday afternoon, and were beginning their walk. As they
strode out, Kristen asked, “In all the confusion of those people on
Friday, I never asked you. Why was Jane in Mexico when she died?
Was she on vacation?”

As they walked side by side, Callie said,
“No, actually many of the newer movie uploaders are going to Mexico
to spend a few days and get registered with some company or guild.
Jane was there to get registered.”

“Move to Mexico? Why would you do that?”

“The instructions on the website told us we
had to. The younger actors and actresses. I’m not sure about all
the details—something about new taxes or laws or something. Anyway,
it’s supposed to be a good deal for us. They’re going to pay us
more.”

As Callie finished, Kristen abruptly
stopped. “Wait a minute.” Callie stopped and looked at her. “You
mean the
younger
actors are being registered with a guild in
Mexico. Like the ones under twenty-one?”

Callie put her hand over her eyes to shield
the sun and nodded. “Yes. I guess so.”

“And they’re going to keep making these
movies?”

“I don’t know why else they’d do it.”

“So Knox is
not
planning to comply
with the new laws on adult movies, like he promised. All this time
I thought you knew the new laws meant that you’d have to quit
because you’re only nineteen. And you’ve been expecting to be able
to keep shooting. What a farce. I wonder if your dad knows. Or if
President Harper knows. That man Knox is simply no good.”

“What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that tomorrow in Moscow
President Harper is going to share a podium with Knox and the
Russian president. She’s going to promote Knox’s business and joint
trade, all because Knox said that he now supports these new laws. I
was even asked to check on Knox’s intentions through your dad, who
told me to believe him. But obviously that’s not the case.”

“Kristen, I don’t understand all that stuff.
I just know my roommate is dead and I’m pregnant. And when you
leave I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Kristen took her hand. “We’ll talk about
that in a little while. With eleven hours difference, it’s probably
too late to call your dad in Moscow. And he probably couldn’t do
anything, anyway. But when we get back to the cabin, let’s call
your mom and get his hotel number over there. We can call him
tonight.”

“OK. If you think it’s important.”

“I do. Believe me, Callie, I do. Now let’s
get some exercise. It’ll do the three of us good!”

Kristen need not have worried about calling
her former boss at that hour. It was midnight in Moscow, but David
was not asleep. He lay awake in bed, thinking about his family,
Todd, USNet, Omid, and the upcoming events of the next day.

After dinner he had returned to his room and
tried to write a plan for dealing with each child’s problem, and
about USNet. But past a few simple ideas, he drew a blank.
How
do you make someone want to do the right thing?
His mind raced.
Seems like it would take a lot of time and discussion—talking
about consequences. How to start when each child is in a crisis
right now? And do Todd and I just go to the police with all that he
has told me? That would be the end of my job. Or do I tell Trevor
first and ask if he knows anything?

He tried to stop thinking about his
problems. But he couldn’t relax. His mind kept going.
I ought to
be home. But I need to be here
.

So he got up and checked his email. A high
priority message came from an unknown address in Europe. There was
a link and a one-word message. Omid.

David clicked on the link, and a video
started. There was a brief title page written in Farsi, Arabic and
English. The latter said Eynali Mountain and 3 July. Then several
men were shown standing outdoors in a rocky area at the bottom of a
tall cliff. It appeared to be late afternoon; they had their backs
to the camera. They had on suits, and one of them, the tallest, was
talking on a cell phone. He looked up and waved.

The camera followed his gaze up toward the
top of the cliff, several hundred feet above. Suddenly two men came
flying off, their arms and legs flailing. The camera followed them
until they smashed into the rocks, twenty yards from the men in the
suits.

The three men and the camera walked over to
the two bodies. A hand reached down and rolled them over. David
clearly recognized, despite the shattered face, the lifeless form
of his cousin Omid. The video ended.

David stared at the blank screen for almost
a minute; then he felt weak and nauseous. He barely made it to the
bathroom before he was sick.

Early that Sunday evening Kristen and Callie
were sitting around a wrought-iron table on the patio of their
cabin, watching the low sun over the Pacific Ocean and eating
Chinese take-out.

It had been an intense afternoon of
discussion. Kristen had pointedly encouraged Callie to describe
what she did in making movies and was glad that verbalizing the
descriptions seemed genuinely to embarrass the younger woman. Then
Kristen had described several key choices in her life, and how they
had impacted her, for good or for ill. Later, and on into dinner,
they’d spoken about their childhood experiences, and Kristen had
mentioned several occasions when
her
father had let her
down. And, inevitably, they had spoken about babies and
abortion.

“I knew someone who was in a situation like
yours a few years ago,” Kristen said, as she put down a cardboard
box of fried rice and sipped her drink. “Her name was Amy. She was
the daughter of Richard Sullivan’s next door neighbor. It’s a long
story, but she was in high school and decided to have the baby and
let a wonderful couple who couldn’t have children adopt him. Then
she went back to school and is now doing well after college. And
the couple with her baby are very happy. I’ll be glad to get Amy’s
phone number for you.”

Callie looked down at her half-eaten
container of sweet and sour pork. “Uh, sure. Yes, I guess I’d like
to talk to her.”

They were both silent for a long time,
watching the sun move into the ocean. Finally Callie looked at
Kristen and spoke. “Kristen, you’ve been wonderful. I don’t know
where I’d be or what I’d be thinking if it weren’t for you. I’ve
enjoyed today and all the other days. You’ve helped me deal with
Jane’s death. You
have
been like a sister. But the reality
is that if tomorrow weren’t the Fourth, you’d be gone, and I’d be
nineteen, pregnant, and trying to cope with a lot of bad stuff all
by myself.

“I’ve done sex, drugs, booze—a lot. Now I’m
knocked up. You say there’s a baby alive in me that I shouldn’t
kill. Alex says it’s a ‘problem’ that we need to take care of. I
was embarrassed to tell you about the movies I made. But when I’m,
like, doing them, there’s a power, a rush—and a lot of money. And
then there’s my friend Jane… Now she’s dead. It could so easily be
me.” She started shaking her head. “I just don’t know what to
do.”

Kristen reached across and touched her hand.
“Callie, first, I’m not leaving until we figure this out. I’ll just
be a day or two late for my job.”

“Your new job? You can’t do that.”

“Sure I can. Second, and listen to me,
people have to make these kinds of decisions
all the time
.
You’re not alone. Big, tough decisions. Right or wrong. And it’s
impossible to make those kinds of decisions in a vacuum. You need a
framework, a value system that gives you points of reference for
why what seems to be the easiest way is not necessarily the best
way.”

“Where do I get that—that framework?”

“From the one who gave it to me—God. From a
relationship with him.”

“How? How do I do that? How do I get what
you have?”