"For how long?"
"Eleven months."
Thomas stared.
Calvin continued.
"They didn't know exactly who I was at first."
His voice became flatter.
"They knew enough."
Thomas pulled out a chair.
Sat.
Calvin looked toward the floor.
"I gave them nothing useful."
Thomas understood what that sentence cost.
"You escaped?"
"No."
"Then how?"
Calvin gave Nathan a glance.
"The government made a deal."
Thomas turned toward Briggs.
Nathan said nothing.
"What deal?"
Calvin laughed bitterly.
"The kind nobody puts in the newspapers."
Thomas looked between them.
"And then?"
Calvin continued.
"I came home."
"You didn't call me."
"I couldn't."
"Couldn't?"
"I was told I officially didn't exist."
Thomas stared.
Calvin nodded.
"The operation was compromised before we arrived."
Thomas's stomach tightened.
"By who?"
Calvin looked at him.
"That's why I contacted you."
Silence.
Calvin reached into a drawer.
He pulled out a folder.
Thomas didn't touch it.
Calvin placed it on the workbench.
"The intelligence wasn't wrong."
Nathan spoke.
"It was altered."
Thomas looked at him.
"By someone inside?"
Nathan nodded.
Calvin said, "Our route, our timing, extraction point. Somebody made sure we entered through the one place where they were waiting."
Thomas felt old instincts returning.
Pieces aligning.
Questions.
Angles.
Names.
"No."
Calvin frowned.
Thomas pushed the folder back.
"No."
"You haven't looked."
"I don't need to."
Calvin stared.
Thomas stood.
"You contacted me because of a viral video?"
"I contacted you because the video told me you were still alive."
"You knew I was alive."
Calvin said nothing.
Thomas saw it.
"You knew."
Calvin's silence answered.
Thomas stepped back.
"You've known where I was."
"For years."
"How many?"
Calvin swallowed.
"Seventeen."
Thomas laughed.
It wasn't amusement.
"You could've called."
"I couldn't."
"You keep saying that."
Calvin stood.
"Because every time I tried to touch the past, somebody reminded me what it would cost."
"What does that mean?"
Calvin looked toward Nathan.
Nathan's expression changed.
Thomas saw it.
"What?"
Nathan exhaled.
"Tom, there are people from that operation who built careers on what happened afterward."
"Names."
"Some are dead."
"Names."
Calvin said quietly, "One isn't."
Thomas stared at him.
"Who?"
Calvin turned the folder around.
A photograph rested inside.