Episode 147
The rain poured down without pause, lashing against the windows. The safe house where Isaac was hiding was a shabby building, little different from an abandoned ruin. Dampness seeped in with the rain, and the old wooden floor let out lonely creaks even when no one stepped on it, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Agent Wilson let Sasha in first, then closed the door behind him. He knew it was only proper to give the newlywed couple, reunited after so long, some privacy, but unfortunately, this safe house was intact only in the entryway and the living room where they stood.
There was one place that could barely be called a room, but the rain that had fallen for days on end had flooded it until the water reached one’s ankles. Rather than endure the stench of stagnant water and rot in a place like that, he thought it would be better to simply pretend not to exist and remain here like a ghost.
Since that had been his specialty to begin with, Wilson quietly stepped back after closing the door and stood with his back to the entryway, watching the two reunite.
Because of where he was standing, Wilson could only see Sasha’s back. Instead of immediately rushing into her husband’s arms or reproaching him, she first folded the umbrella she had brought and leaned it against the wall.
Her husband, for more reasons than one, looked at him with a flustered expression. Belatedly, Isaac shot a sharp glare at Wilson, who had been erasing his presence as if to blame him, but his cheek was soon seized and pulled downward, forcing him to bend awkwardly first.
“How did you……?”
Whether Isaac rolled his eyes and muttered or not, Sasha held his cheek and turned his face left and right in turn, first checking to see whether he had been injured anywhere.
Instead of answering Isaac’s question, Sasha said this.
“That gentleman came to me first. I wondered if perhaps you had sent him, but it seems you hadn’t.”
The woman spoke softly, in a voice that sounded utterly calm.
Wilson wondered whether he ought to just get lost even now. But before he could move, the woman who had been standing with only the back of her head visible turned toward the door and looked at him.
“Isn’t that right? Excuse me, but what should I call you?”
“You may call me Wilson.”
“Yes. Mr. Wilson. This isn’t our first meeting, is it? I saw you back then, when I was being put through trouble because of some delusional madman. You were so shameless that I nearly let you inside along with the police. I still remember it vividly.”
Wilson and Sasha looked at each other and smiled.
“Sasha.”
Isaac cut into that uncomfortable atmosphere and turned his wife back toward him.
“You shouldn’t be here. Go back at once.”
“No one followed me. Mr. Wilson confirmed it.”
At this rate, he could not run away even now. Wilson, awkwardly caught in the conversation between the two, said, “That’s right. I confirmed it.” Isaac glared at Wilson again.
“Now that the ruling is over and she can no longer receive protection under the guise of court surveillance, it will be safer for your wife to remain with our side from now on. We’ve already selected several agents separately……”
“‘Protection.’ Before, it must have been purely for the sake of surveillance, wasn’t it? How long have you been watching the madam?”
Wilson, like an intelligence agent, raised his eyebrows as though he was accustomed to hearing this sort of interrogation and resentment. Surveillance of civilians carried out under the pretext of national security. Sasha was clearly aware of it, and she was mocking him.
As people who belonged to places like this usually did, Mr. Wilson offered no excuse, gave no apology, and merely smiled faintly with a neat-looking face.
“Probably longer than you imagine, madam.”
As soon as Wilson answered, Isaac cut in again.
“Go back at once. Sasha.”
For a moment, Sasha looked at Isaac with a face devoid of any expression.
Wilson could not stand by and interrupted.
“For now, I brought your wife here in part so that we could report each other’s circumstances.”
“Report? My wife has no need to receive anything of the sort.”
“No, Captain. I say ‘report,’ but……”
“I know. That is precisely why I’m saying my wife has no need to know anything about this.”
His attempt to intervene had been for nothing. Isaac was now openly looking at Wilson as though he found him unbelievable.
Sasha had been listening to the exchange between the two men with an expressionless face, and soon she quietly cut in.
“I have no need to know?”
“That’s right.”
When she asked, Isaac answered as if he had been waiting.
“This is the work of my world, and this matter belongs entirely to the general and me. You have no need to know. I explained the situation sufficiently before, didn’t I?”
Yes. He had explained it in some detail, in his own way, and he had told her it might become dangerous.
But he had not told her that she might be wanted nationwide on absurd charges like conspiring to assassinate the queen and treason.
He had not told her it might become that insanely dangerous.
“……You only explained the situation to ask for my understanding. You must have been in steady contact with that man all this time, making plans.”
“Sasha. In this line of work, maintaining the confidentiality of classified information is basic. A civilian like you has no need to hear anything, and must not hear anything.”
Isaac sighed as he looked at her, then said so.
A civilian.
It was undoubtedly a perfectly reasonable fact. Sasha was, before she was his wife, a civilian. But what grated on her even more than that were the words Isaac had been using for some time now—“this line of work,” “this place,” and the like.
Of course, he had long been a soldier, and at one time he had served in a special operations battalion in charge of classified missions, so he must have lived drawing a thorough line between civilians and people like himself.
Sasha stared quietly at Isaac, who was reacting as if her asking such a thing was utterly absurd.
It felt as though the conversation was repeating like a broken record. She did not even wish for the detailed circumstances; the question of whether he could not have given her even the slightest hint, enough that she would not faint from shock, rose to the tip of her throat.
From the moment Sasha had entered, Isaac had been briefly flustered, but he had continued to fail at hiding his displeasure. As if her very presence were a hindrance.
Given the situation, and if she kept pressing any further, she alone would be seen as an immature wife who did not understand the gravity of matters and was merely airing her hurt.
……Before long, Sasha put on a familiar fake smile and nodded.
“……All right. I understand.”
“…….”
“Don’t worry. I won’t stay long.”
She turned and headed toward the place where the umbrella stood.
Wilson, who had missed his chance to leave and had ended up hearing the entire conversation between the two, quietly cut in.
“The rain has gotten heavier, so please stay a little longer before you go. And there are some matters you should hear regarding what is to come, madam.”
“Agent.”
Not realizing he was being helped.
Isaac, his face now ominous, glared at Wilson instead.
“My wife will remain at the mansion. Just prepare the security personnel you mentioned earlier.”
“Captain, I understand how you feel, but you seem to have forgotten that your wife is also one of the parties involved in this matter.”
“My wife knew nothing, and she was merely used by that old man. She knows nothing at all about the evidence you people want, did she not say……”
Isaac’s words could not continue any further.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation, but is there a teapot? I always carry tea bags in my bag. If it’s all right with you, how about a cup of tea?”
“We don’t need tea.”
“There is one teapot. I’ve only been boiling water to drink all this time, so that is a welcome suggestion.”
Ignoring Isaac’s words, Wilson spoke quickly.
Sasha nodded and turned around, then walked into a place that could hardly be called a kitchen without so much as glancing at Isaac.
“…….”
“…….”
And once only the two men were left, silence fell. Isaac, still with a stiff face as though he intended to hold Wilson responsible, turned to look at him.
Wilson was truly dumbfounded.
“Captain. I’ve only been married four years myself, so I can’t say I know much about this sort of thing.”
“This was a matter between my wife and me. Agent.”
“……Yes. So go after her, apologize, and settle it between husband and wife.”
Isaac raised his eyebrows as though he found that absurd.
“That conversation is over. My wife said she understood, didn’t she?”
“It seems you failed to sense the difference in nuance. Your wife said ‘I understand,’ not that she accepted it.”
Wilson explained as kindly as he could, in his own way.
Isaac said nothing for a moment.
Isaac was particularly oblivious in matters like this, but he was not stupid, so he soon understood. How could he detect the slightest suspicious sign from an enemy so quickly, yet be so hopeless at this? No, in truth, it would be more accurate to say he had become especially dull only when it came to Sasha.
Because he was half blind now. Because, precisely because she was his wife, his excessive protectiveness had been wrapped over his eyes like a blindfold.
“……Damn it.”
Isaac, who had been awkwardly about to sit on the sofa, rose from his seat again.
Wilson looked at Isaac as if to say, See? then turned up the collar of the coat he was wearing and buttoned it closed. Then, without hesitation, he opened the door and stepped outside into the pouring rain.