page12 (1/2)
Annabelle said, “So what are we going to do??
??
“What can we do?” said Reuben
“Oliver may be in trouble,” she replied
“Oliver is often in trouble,” responded Caleb
“Those an Annabelle
Finn cut in “NIC Riley Weaver’s boys Heard it from a buddy of ave them what they wanted”
“Then he is in trouble,” said Annabelle “And we have to help him”
“Why don’t ait for him to ask for that help?” said Caleb
“Why?” Annabelle shot back
“Because every ti back at the enor “I’m actually on probation, a positively horrendous situation for soe and level of experience”
“No one’s asking you to risk your job, Caleb But I did find so out In fact, it’s why I wanted to meet with all of you today”
“What did you find out?” asked Reuben
“That Oliver was leaving to go somewhere”
“How do you know that?”
“I found a packed bag in his cottage Along with several books written in what I think is Russian”
“You e and found it,” said Caleb heatedly “You have absolutely no respect for property rights, Annabelle Conroy None It’s outrageous It really is”
She slipped a book from her pocket and showed it to the librarian
“Yes, it is Russian,” said Caleb as he glanced at the title He looked more closely at the title “It’s a book on Russian politics, but it’s decades old Why in the world would he be taking that with him?”
“Maybe he was going to Russia and he needed to bone up on his language skills,” suggested Finn “One way to do that is read the language”
“Why would Oliver be going to Russia?” asked Reuben “Wait a et there? He doesn’t have a passport He doesn’t have any ID at all Not to mention money for the trip”
“There could only be one way he could go,” said Annabelle
“You overnment?” replied Finn
“Yes”
“On behalf of the governovernment At least not anymore”
“Maybe that status has changed,” said Annabelle “I mean, they offered the man the Medal of Honor”
Reubenback inside After all these years, I can’t believe it”
“And after all they did to him,” added Finn quietly
“Why would he do that?” asked Caleb “If there’s one thing we know about Oliver, it’s that he really doesn’t trust the government”
“Maybe he really didn’t have a choice,” said Finn