Page 106 of The Session

An hour passed, and he was already on his third run through the alphabet—this time imagining himself riding a manatee through a canal and into an underwater kingdom—when the door opened.

Two men entered: a guard Mark hadn’t seen before, with a rifle slung around his neck, and a man with a silver-gray beard dressed in a dark-blue naval-style sweater. The bearded man took the seat in front of Mark while the guard moved to the corner behind him, just out of Mark’s line of sight.

Mark wanted to demand answers but knew that if he started talking, it could set off a cascade of words he might regret. So he folded his arms, leaned back, and continued the mental exercise—this time imagining himself being pulled through the water by a narwhal as they terrorized luxury yachts with its horn.

“What is your involvement with Summit Strategies?” the man asked.

“Who am I talking to?” Mark replied.

“For the purposes of this conversation, you can call me John.”

“That’s not what I meant. Who are you?” Mark repeated.

“I’m the person who decides whether you get to leave here.”

Mark let out a laugh that sounded more confident than he felt. “Leave here. What’s that supposed to mean? You’re going to take me in the back and shoot me if I don’t answer your questions?”

“It would be just as easy to shoot you here, but no,” John replied. “This facility has accommodations for long-term occupation, and if you’re not sufficiently forthcoming, we’ll see to it that space is found for you until you are.”

“So I’ve been kidnapped,” Mark stated.

“No, Mark. You’re in a foreign country illegally and will be detained as long as it takes to make sure you’re not a criminal and can be appropriately repatriated.”

“What foreign country?” Mark asked.

“A country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States but is cooperative with US intelligence services when it comes to matters of terrorism and state security,” he recited.

“It sounds a lot like I’ve been kidnapped,” Mark said stubbornly.

“Call it whatever you want, but you are on an island several hundred miles from the nearest city, and the only transportation from here left forty-five minutes ago. Your fastest path to leaving here is through full cooperation.”

Mark’s mind raced. He tried to figure out who had abducted him. Was it internal security at Summit? A US law enforcement agency or intelligence service? Could it be the Bolsonaro outfit, the people who tried to break into the Vault? The people who killed Kevin?

“We’re only asking you to answer simple questions, nothing that should violate any NDA or other arrangement you have that would be legally binding.”

“And I’m only asking you to tell me who the hell you are.”

“You are under the impression that there is nothing I have that you want and that if you simply wait things out, you’ll be able to walk out of here. In due time, you’ll be convinced that the latter is incorrect. For the sake of expediency, it would probably be better if I established that we could be very helpful to you,” John explained.

“And how is that?”

“You might have been made aware of an attempted break-in at a facility controlled by Summit Strategies that contains a number of their files.”

Mark stayed silent.

“This was actually a lie. The break-in was successful, and a number of files were extracted,” John revealed. “Including information about you and the people you know.”

“I’m not exactly a mystery,” Mark told him.

“Everybody says that. They insist they’re boring and that they really don’t have anything to hide. The truth is, we all do. Even you.”

“Is that what was in the files?”

“I couldn’t tell you. I don’t have access to them. I do, on the other hand, have my own files on you,” he said.

“Fire away.”

“That’s really not what this is about, but if we’re going to move things along and get rid of your skepticism, let’s start with this,” John began. “In the seventh grade, you signed up for the boys’ volleyball team at your middle school. You were on the team for three weeks, then you quit, which was very unusual for somebody like you, given how much you enjoyed sports.”