The swing was clumsy, and I ducked under it without any difficulty. Then, I brought my elbow up and connected with the hollow of his throat. Not too hard, but hard enough to make him cough and stagger back.

“I keep telling you to keep your hands up, Tony,” I admonished, pinching the bridge of my nose. “That is why. Seriously, how many times have we gone over this?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but doubled over coughing, instead. I sighed.

“Alright, let’s take a break then, shall we? I could use some water anyway.”

I crossed the room to where I had left my towel and water bottle and dropped onto a bench, dabbing sweat from the back of my neck as I did. Hearing the bench creak, I looked over to find Tom taking a seat next to me.

“You are looking a little worse for wear today. They putting you through your paces?” he asked, a little too smugly for my tastes.

“Heh, I wish,” I snorted. “But no. Cognac hangover. It’s miserable, honestly. If this is what Wallace drinks all the time, it is no wonder he is such a prick.”

“You aren’t actually supposed to drink the whole bottle in one sitting, you know,” Tom rolled his eyes.

“Agree to disagree,” I shrugged. “Look, yesterday was rough, give me a break, alright?”

“Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to be taking the day off? What are you doing here?”

“I am. This is… stress relief. It was either this of spending the whole day drinking, and I am trying to cut back on that. A bit. So here I am.”

“Is it helping?”

“Not really. I keep having to stop and instruct,” I paused, considering. “Hey, since you are here, what do you say we go a few rounds?”

“Really?”

“Why not? It’s been years since we sparred, and I am getting bored with the kids. You’ve kept your hand in, haven’t you?”

“Of course,” he scoffed.

“Well then…?”

“Alright, let’s go,” Tom rose, rolling his shoulders. “Should be fun.”

“Agreed.”

I didn’t mention that I also just really wanted to hit him, but I suspected the feeling was mutual.

Tom rose and headed towards the mats, I took a final gulp of water and followed. As we squared up, a few of the students drifted to the edge of the mats to watch. Tom smiled, pleased with the attention.

“So,” he circled to the left, watching my movements. “I hear you had company last night.”

I blocked a tentative jab.

“Yeah, Luke came by. Not surprising, is it? Yesterday was… a lot, for anyone. And he isn’t used to it. He just needed someone to talk to.”

“Of course, of course,” Tom smiled, briefly dropping his hands in a way that made it obvious it was a feint, but I humored him and took a swing anyway. He caught my wrist and pulled me forward, off-balance. “It just seemed a bit odd that he went to you, instead of to me. What did you two talk about?”

I stumbled forward a step, and as he brought his right hand up to strike, I took the opening and kneed him in the ribs on his right side. He grunted and pulled away, moving a few steps back to reassess.

“Nothing, really. He just wanted reassurance that we had done the right thing. I told him we had done the only thing we could, so there was no reason to second guess it.”

“That’s a bit rich, coming from you,” Tom chuckled.

I turned my shoulder in to take the brunt of his neck blow, but it still drove me back a step. He was certainly playing rough today. And he hadn’t been lying, he had kept his hand in. Tom may not be experienced in spy craft, but in a stand-up fight he was plenty skilled.

“Well, what have you been doing on your day off?” I asked, landing a few light blows to his chest. “Surely you have things to do other than checking up on me.”

“Perhaps,” he laughed, but there was little humor in it. “Actually, I just got back from visiting a couple of ladies you might remember. Ashley and Monica?”

“The two women we rescued from Shawn Britton? How are they doing?”

“Pretty well, actually. They are back with their families, now. They are settling in, finally free of all ubarae influence.”

“That is great news. But what made you go to see them now, after all this time?”

“Well, that is what it’s all about, right? The people we get to help. It’s nice to get a reminder, time to time. Remind myself what we are doing all of this for, you know?”

“I completely agree.”

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“And, I also wanted to question them a bit more about the day we saved them,” he smiled.

His punch caught me on the chest and drove me back a step.

“Oh? Why’s that?” I was breathing heavily, now.

“Well, maybe you haven’t heard, but Britton still hasn’t turned up.”

“Really, after all this time?” I kept my tone bland.

“No. There has been no sign of him in any of the area hospitals, no sign of his body. I was hoping they might be able to tell me something new, something they had forgotten before. About what happened that day, or about Britton himself.”

He paused at that, staring into my eyes for a moment. I caught him in the jaw with a left hook.

“Well, hopefully they are able to help. But it is always possible that he died somewhere, and his body hasn’t been found. Or that he made it to a Domini cell and was smuggled out of the country. He might never turn up.”

“True. But I thought it was worth a shot, now that they have been free of his influence for some time.”

“Did they give you anything useful?”

“Not today.”

“Well, it doesn’t sound like you really took the day off at all, then,” I observed.

“Perhaps not. But lately I feel like I need to put in some extra effort. What with the way you have been showing me up, recently.”

“Showing you up? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous? You turn up here and take my students, undermine my authority, commandeer my operation, and now you are having private little chats with the boss?”

He punctuated each point with a blow to my guard that made my teeth rattle.

“Oh, come on, Tom. That wasn’t a ‘private little chat’. Wallace wanted to interrogate me about Liz, about how I felt about her death. He was trying to see if I was going to fall to pieces on him, nothing more. It was more an interrogation, than anything.”

“Really?” Tom raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Because it seemed like he was taking you into his confidences about something.”

“Look, Tom, let me be very clear about one thing. I would cut off my own right hand before I would agree to be Wallace’s. I have no interest in working any more closely with him than I already am. And I think the feeling is mutual. I am not trying to horn in on your position, ok?”

“Absolutely,” Tom snorted, not entirely convinced.

We continued to spar for a while in silence. Some of his blows were definitely going to leave a bruise, but I knew that he wanted to look good for his audience. I doubted that he would allow this to end any way other than my capitulation. So, eventually I took a punch to the stomach and dropped down on one knee.

“Alright,” I panted. “I think that is all I can handle, for today. Thanks for the workout, Tom.”

“Any time,” he smiled, tightly.

“If you are free, stop by my room tonight and we’ll have a drink.”

“Actually, I think I will be busy, tonight. Another time.”

“Sure, another time,” I wasn’t exactly surprised. “I’ll see you, then.”

I knew that was unlikely to happen. Things had shifted between us, and I suspected it was permanent. Had Tom changed, or had I simply never noticed how he truly always was? More importantly, did this change how I needed to proceed with my plans? I frowned. It was challenging to say. It would help to be able to talk it out with someone. But unfortunately, I had plenty of enemies and very few friends, here. Fewer by the moment, it seemed. Perhaps it was simply a matter of picking the correct enemy, then.

“I will let you know if I learn anything else from Britton’s victims,” Tom continued.

“Sounds good.”

He strode out of the gym without a backwards glance. In waited until he was gone, then rose and clapped my hands, pushing my darker thoughts aside for the moment. They would need to be sorted through, but not right now.

“Alright, I hope everyone was paying attention to that, because there was a lot some of you could have learned. Now, who wants to go a few more rounds and try those new techniques, before you forget?”

I leaned back in my chair in the empty classroom, the students all long gone for the day, and studied the face of the woman across from me as I spoke.

“I mean, I have always considered myself a pretty good judge of character. My profession has demanded it, honestly. So, at first, I didn’t think I could be this wrong about someone. But I have been reflecting on it, and I realize now that I met him when I was very young. Before I gained any of the experience I have now. As a result, I suspect that he ended up being ‘grandfathered in’ so to speak. I always considered him a friend, and never really looked at him or his character through a critical eye. You know what I mean? But you’ve met him, what do you think?”

“Well, mostly I think that I still don’t understand why you are telling all of this to me,” Vicki studied her fingernails thoughtfully. “It’s, well, odd is putting it mildly.”

I sighed,

“I know. But honestly, I needed to talk some of this out with a… neutral third party.”

“And you think that is me?”

“Well, you are the closest I’ve got, anyway,” I shrugged. “I imagine you hate all of us relatively equally, at this point. That is like being neutral.”

“And you aren’t worried I am going to tell all of this to them?” she asked.

“What? That I am concerned my old friend is actually jealous of me and is working to undermine me? No. I doubt they would ask you or believe you if they did. Look, I could write into an advice columnist, but this seemed more efficient, so are you going to listen, or do you want to go back to your cell?”

“Alright, if you insist. It’s not like I have anything else going on. I can even offer advice,” Vicki smiled brightly.

“I was hoping you would. It helps me decide precisely what I shouldn’t do.”

Her smile inverted at that, and she glowered at me from under a furrowed brow. I smiled. This actually was helping. There was something about saying it all out loud to someone that was very useful, even if that someone was a murderer.

“Fine, be that way,” she folded her arms. “But if you really want to know what I think about him, I will tell you the truth. Mostly because I know it is what will hurt you most. When I first saw Tom in this place, you know what I offered him, in exchange for my freedom?”

“What?”

“Your life,” she laughed. “To be clear, I don’t mean that he wanted you dead. I mean that he wanted to be you.”

“That’s absurd. Most of the time even I don’t want to be me,” I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, but that is because you care too much about all the silly little details that he would never be bothered by.”

“Peoples’ lives? My failures?”

“Exactly! He just wants to be the hero. The little details are irrelevant. I am shocked you haven’t noticed before now,” she giggled. “If whatever you have planned involves him having your back…”

“I don’t have any plans.”

“Of course you don’t. But even so, now might be the time to rethink them, eh?”

A knock at the door signalled that the guards had arrived, Vicki sighed,

“I suppose that means our time is up for the day. Well, if you ever need another therapy session, give me a call. I consider your discomfort and disappointment to be payment in full,” she smiled as she patted me on the shoulder, and opened the door to the guards who were to escort her back to her cell. “Until next time, Ray.”