Gwendy’s Final Task

50

THE CREW MEETING IN the conference room takes place at 0600. Kathy lays the situation out with a crisp conciseness Gwendy couldn’t possibly have matched now that the effects of her late-night chocolate treat are almost gone. They are bright men and they understand. They also understand the solution Gwendy has proposed will save a great deal of trouble, expense, and possible Senate hearings where they will be mercilessly grilled on nationwide TV.

There is only one substantive question and it comes from Reggie Black. “What happens to Winston? Or what remains of him?”

“Vaporized with the rest of the trash before we leave the station,” Sam Drinkwater says, and makes a sucking sound. “Poof. Gone.”

No one has anything to say to that.

When the meeting ends, the crew stands in a kind of receiving line. Each of them hugs Gwendy. Adesh is last. “I’m sorry,” he says as he hugs her. “You’ve been so brave. You don’t deserve this and I am so, so sorry.”

She hugs him back. “I have an envelope for you. My phone is inside, with a message for my father. Would you take it to him?”

“It will be an honor.”

He wipes his eyes, but his tears—emblems of his grief and regard—float in front of his face.

“And I’m going where no woman has gone before, so don’t cry for me, Margentina.” She frowns. “Is that right? Margentina?”

“Absolutely,” Adesh says. “Absolutely right.”