The Voting Machine

Gifts from the Past

I waited alone for twenty minutes. Then Chang and Weisbein ducked into the room. There'd been a change in plans and Teresa would take me home instead.

Teresa drove me west down Lake Mead Boulevard. I watched the FBI building grow smaller and more distant in the rear window of the car.

"I am the only one you can trust," Teresa said.

"Why should I trust you? You didn't tell me anything. You didn't tell me about the games. You weren't going to tell me about Shiro."

"You can't blame me for that. You know what happens to people who talk about that."

"Do you know Shiro's real identity?"

"I have no idea. All I know is Shiro runs the games. My client wanted a seat at the games. They wanted the chance to play."

"Why do they play the games, Teresa? They don't play for money? What are the stakes?"

She didn't answer.

"You need to get out of Las Vegas, Temo. You need to be far away from this election. Go back home to LA. Convince your wife to take you back."

"That's exactly what I plan to do."

She dropped me in front of my motel room.

"One last thing," she said. "You're going to need this." She removed a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol from the glove compartment. She loaded the magazine. "It holds ten rounds. There's a safety feature so it won't discharge unless the trigger is fully depressed."

She handed me the gun. "I know you don't trust me. But you have to protect yourself."

"I am not registered to carry this," I said. "Are you trying to get me in trouble? You know I am still not in the clear for what happened in LA."

"Damn it, Temo! What's the worst that can happen? You don't use the gun and just return it tomorrow when the FBI brings you in for a status update. You must have protection! This city is not safe. He could be anywhere. He could kill you at any time."

I took the gun.

"What next?" I asked.

"Get a good night's sleep. Stevens told you. He is sending Chang and Weisbein out here in the morning to pick you up for a briefing at headquarters. The president is set to make a televised announcement in the morning."

"Stevens said they were close to solving this."

"I know. We'll see if he's right."

I passed by Annabelle's room at the motel but she wasn't home. I knew she must've heard about David's death by now. It was all over the news. I knew it would devastate her. In a way, I was glad I hadn't come across her, because I was too weak to lend her the emotional support she might need to get through this.

I was thinking about my wife and daughter. I was thinking about leaving Las Vegas as soon as possible.

"Temo," Suzy answered when I called her. There was a different feeling in her voice. For the first time in a year, she actually sounded happy to hear from me.

"I'm coming home," I said. "My six-month term is over. I'm a free man."

"I am so happy for you. Happy for us, really."

"Us?" This was the first us I'd heard in a year.

A long pause.

"It's a good time for a change," she said.

"How so?"

"I know we talked about this before, Temo. You talked about our idea of true love and I said maybe we were wrong about everything. But now I realize there's another way of seeing it. Maybe we were right about everything after all. I thought you and I were so different. I thought you were special and I was not special. Life was pulling you in a different direction than other people, because you have a part to play. We were getting farther away from each other. Maybe it's like you said. Maybe life pulled us apart to bring us closer."

"What about Davis?"

"I realized I can't trust him like I trust you."

"I don't understand."

"I realized that you and I really do fit together. Before, I thought I was a regular girl with no mission. I thought I needed a regular man. But now I know I am not a normal woman any more than you're a normal man. You said we share a mission. I believe you now."

"What happened, Suzy? What changed?"

"Temo, something happened after you went away. Something I never told you about. Gina's lawyer contacted me. He had a copy of Gina's will. She had a lot of money. Stocks. Insurance policies. She left it all in a trust to our daughter Reina. She left me as the caretaker."

"She did? You never told me?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't want to take the money. I didn't deserve it. It's like you said, I was never kind to her. You sensed she was in danger after she went overseas. You tried to help her. I forced you to break off all communication and quit the job. Think if I hadn't done that."

"But, Suzy, you can't blame yourself for that. Gina sent you an e-mail directly. She suggested that I should leave you."

"But she told you she didn't write that. She said it was a fake."

"It came from her e-mail address."

"What if it really was a fake, just like she said?"

I didn't have an answer. Here I was raising doubts about Gina's intentions and my wife was defending her. That was something I never expected.

"Why did Gina leave her inheritance for our daughter?"

"It's a trust, Temo. It's over a million dollars. But she can't touch the money until she's eighteen. The only thing we can use in the meantime is payment to fund her education. She made a donation to the private school and a Japanese school that includes Reina's tuition until graduation. Remember, Gina used to live in that Japanese neighborhood growing up in Gardena. She knew since I am Japanese that we send our kids to the special schools in Torrance."

"Why would she do this for us? Why would she give us all her money?"

"She wrote me one last e-mail before she died, Temo. I didn't want to read it. But I saved the e-mail. Finally, this month I decided to accept Gina's inheritance. After that, I read the e-mail."

"What did it say?"

"She said that she loved you, but that I misunderstood what that love really meant. It wasn't a romantic love. It was the love for someone who had saved her. She said that she knew you really loved me more than anything. And since you loved me, she loved me as well, She said that you and I would be called for a special mission. It would be dangerous and might mean the end for both of us.

"She said she was the reason we were called to face this challenge. It was all her fault. She had caused it. That's why she owed us a debt that could never be repaid. That's why she left the money for Reina, to give her a future if something happened to us."

"What's the challenge, Suzy? What did she say we'd be called to do?"

"She didn't say the details. She just said the mission is coming in the future. She said we would understand in time."

"I'm coming home tomorrow, Suzy. I'll be there for whatever challenge we're supposed to face."

"I know you will, Temo."

"I am sorry for all I put you through."

"I don't think you did this. I think it was our destiny. Just like it was our destiny to love each other."