“I found out the place she’s volunteering at is dangerous. Like, she could die kind of dangerous.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Why would she take a risk like that?”
“Because it’s incredibly important to her. It means something to her.”
Understanding dawned on him and he shook his head. “That poor girl.”
I found myself feeling defensive. “You don’t have to feel sorry for Finley, Dad. She’s literally the strongest person I know. She helped me out of the dark hole I’d dug for myself and that was a feat, let me tell you.”
He nodded. “I’ll be grateful to her forever for that. I tried so hard to help you, Ethan. I’d wished every day I could have fixed it for you.”
“No one could fix it for me but myself, old man. She just made me see what I’d been so blinded by. She’s an enlightener. I don’t think anyone else could have done it.”
He looked at me, his lips pursed in a thin line, his brows furrowed. “You should contact her then and apologize.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She was peeved I’d found out where she was. If I called, I think she’d flip. If she wanted to talk to me, she’d have called already.”
He sat up in his stool, folding one arm under the other and using his free hand to roll the broken paper binding that had bound his utensils together.
“How dangerous is it? This thing she’s doing?”
I looked at him square in the eye. “The organization’s leader is being hunted by his opposition and the government there isn’t really doing anything to help him.”
He squeezed his eyes together and shook his head. “You should go there. Protect her.”
I looked at my dad like he was crazy. “What?”
“Ethan,” he spoke steadily. “She needs to do what she’s doing. You obviously care for her. You’re very capable, son,” he said, emphasizing the word capable, implying something else unspoken. “You also don’t have anything going on right now. Take your savings, buy a one-way ticket and get gone, boy.”
I stared at my father, realizing for the first time that although he was a steadfast, quiet man, he was no fool. He observed with a keen eye. He memorized and analyzed. He would have been quite an asset, I believed, to the FBI or CIA.
And he was right. I was very capable. I knew if I went to her, I could most definitely guard Finley. I could help her fulfill this insane desire of hers.
I let out a deep, even breath. “You’re right.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I’d sat at the airport in Seattle for seven hours, desperate to board my plane to Seoul. I couldn’t believe I was flying to Vietnam. Once I’d decided to do it, I didn’t hesitate. I knew if I hadn’t bought the tickets, I’d have convinced myself I was overstepping, so I just purchased them without thinking. I tried calling Finley but she didn’t answer and the place she was working at, Slánaigh, didn’t have a direct line that I could find. It was almost completely unheard of, I’d discovered. I assumed that was because they didn’t want information about where they were, etc., getting out to the ones they opposed.
I’d just nodded off in my plastic, uncomfortable bench airport chair, when I heard them call for my flight. My nerves immediately shot off like a rocket, adrenaline waking every single fiber of my body. I stood in line, jittery and, frankly, from the expressions a few people around me, I’m pretty sure they thought I was up to something. When I made it to the front, I handed the woman my ticket, she scanned it and gestured with a swift flick of her hand for me to move forward.
The flight over the Pacific, was uneventful, though long as hell. When I landed in Korea, I realized what a douche I must have seemed to Finley when she’d called me. I was dead tired and irritable and couldn’t believe I only had a two-hour layover before I’d needed to be on yet another plane to Hanoi. That flight, thank God, would only be four and a half hours, a bit more tolerable than the eleven-hour flight to Seoul.
Once I’d de-planed, I passed by a row of pay phones, recognizing them as the ones Finley must have rang me from. When I passed the last phone, I had a vision of a tall, earthy, beautiful Finley leaning against the platform the phone sat on, twirling her hair around her index finger as she so often did, talking to me. I smiled to myself. Fantasizing about her? I shook it off. Pretend. Pretend. Pretend.
I boarded the plane to Hanoi with little to no plan on how I was going to find Slánaigh once I got to Hạ Long City. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to find her the morning I landed. I knew the locals would either have no idea what I was talking about or, as I more strongly suspected, would act like they didn’t know. Because of this, I prepared myself to stay the night in a nearby hotel if I had to.
My first impressions of Hanoi was that their airport didn’t differ all that much from any you’d find back home. It was clean and architecturally similar and they were also kind enough to have an English translation on all their signs, which helped with how nervous I was already feeling. I could not believe I was in Vietnam. Finley’s gonna kill you, dude. Like, kill you dead.
I stood by my baggage claim area hoping to see my bag as quickly as possible. It helped that I was a foot taller than those around me. It didn’t help the anxiety coursing through my veins that all those eyes were on me, though. Yes, yes, I wanted to say. I’m a behemoth.
Thankfully, my bag was the second out on the conveyor and when I excused myself, the other travelers parted like Moses and the Red Sea.