Page 108 of The Session

Mark glared at his interrogator. He could feel his fists starting to clench.

“Wow, that’s quite the reaction,” John replied, glancing behind Mark.

“What’s your question?”

“You may not know the name, but Trudy Rodriguez was the woman who actually got fired. DVDs and electronics had gone missing from the store, and suspicion fell on the employees. Ms. Rodriguez was caught leaving the store by security with stolen merchandise in her bag—items she insisted she hadn’t taken. No charges were filed. She was let go, and the thefts stopped. Of course, investigators didn’t look very far, because another employee at the store had an eBay account selling the exact same merchandise. Do you remember who that was?” John asked.

Mark knew it was his mother.

When he saw the box of DVDs in the closet and asked her about it, she told him they were defective disks being thrown away by the store.

He could tell she was lying, but he didn’t say anything when she presented him with a brand-new MacBook on his birthday.

John cleared his throat. “I don’t know that something that happened that long ago would matter to her current employer. But some might argue that the ethical thing would be to let them decide.”

Mark felt a pit of growing darkness inside him and wished it would envelop him faster. Something Max said in one of his lectures stood out clearly in his mind: We all think that we can handle pain, but we only think about exterior pain. The real pain, the kind that breaks us, is internal.

“So let’s be clear, Mark. I have something you need, and you might have information that’s useful,” John said coolly.

Mark took a slow, deliberate breath and composed himself. “I can help my mom find a better job. Devon can go fuck himself, and Alan—I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

“I need you to understand, son, this isn’t blackmail. It’s not the way we operate. I’m here to offer solutions,” John told him.

“Solutions? Sounds like blackmail to me.”

“Let me explain. First of all, the situation with your mother—you’re right. Nobody’s going to care about that; it would just be embarrassing to her. And it’s beneath me to even use that as leverage.

“As far as Devon is concerned, you’re right: He can go fuck himself. But he probably needs to be warned about this by others, and perhaps you could use some expert crisis management to prevent anything coming of it.”

“That doesn’t help Alan.” He’d never known the kid all that well, but Alan always said hello and was eager to join in on the conversations. Although Mark never mocked him or made fun of him, he’d hung with the crowd that did.

“I said that he shot himself, but I should have been more specific. He tried to kill himself but ended up wounding himself in the shoulder. Alan has since tried to get into a drug rehab program but has been denied for being high-risk and for financial reasons. He applied most recently to one last week. We have the power—no, you have the power—to make sure that he gets admitted and gets . . . we can’t really call it a second chance, but at least another chance to put his life on track.” John put his hands on the table and waited.

Mark concluded that he’d have to cooperate in some way if he wanted to get out of this situation—and hopefully fix some of the damage left behind him.

“Ask your questions, and I’ll decide if I’m going to answer them or not.”

“That’s a great start. Let’s begin with an easy one. Do you think Max Lightman, your father, poses a threat to national security?”

“I don’t even know the man,” Mark replied.

“Based on what you know, answer.”

“I have no reason to think so.”

“What about through companies Summit has a controlling interest in? For example, Constellation. Do you think that Constellation could be used for anti-American activities?” John asked.

“Based on the people I met at Constellation, I couldn’t imagine any of them betraying our country.”

“What about Andromeda?” John asked.

“That’s just a name to me.”

“But what have you heard associated with that name?” John asked.

“Just that one of the people I worked with at Constellation thought about transferring there,” Mark replied.

“Do you think this person would engage in anti-American or seditious activities?”