“Well, you did tell her to hide it well so no one else would see it.”
Hegroans.
Wescoop all the garbage except for the three diapers back into the bin and stand it back upright.Thenwe take the diapers to the pull-down changing station on the wall.
“Whichone should we start with?”
Ledgerbites his lip, looking less comfortable with opening used diapers than he was with cradling a baby doll.Understandable, yet still makes my mind go right back to picturing him acting all dad-like.Thenhe points at one. “Thatone’s it.”
“Allright.Let’sdo this.”Iopen the first one, and we immediately turn away, gagging.Howcan opening thediaper release so much more smell?Itis a very foul diaper, but there is no hint of a list.
Awoman in her thirties walks in and her eyes immediately land on me andLedgeras we stand at a changing station with no kid to change in sight, looking at a dirty diaper.Hersteps halt a bit.
“I’msorryI’min the women’s restroom,”Ledgersays. “Butour toddler swallowed my wife’s wedding ring.Weforgot to tell the sitter, and she said she changed his diaper here.”
That’sa decent story.Waybetter than a retainer.Whetherthe woman speaksEnglishor not, we had to give an explanation and hope for the best.Luckily, she both speaksEnglishand has kids and therefore apparently understands.
“Oh,Iknow that feeling all too well,” the woman says, her accent thick. “Myson swallowed one of those littleLegopeople once.Doctold me to watch his poop for it.Ittook a week of searching through every dirty diaper before it showed up!”
Shegoes into one of the stalls, andLedgerandIlook at each other with wide eyes.Ina quiet voice, he says, “I’mglad we aren’t looking for something that small,” and wraps the diaper back up. “Youpick next.”
SoIdo, and he opens this one.It’sjust wet, thank heavens, but it also doesn’t contain a list.Igrab the last one and open it.Unfortunately, it is not just wet.Andit packs its own pungent smell.Butsitting right on top of the poop is a list inside a sandwich-sizedZiplocbag.Weboth let out a breath that is half relief, halfshuddering.
Ledgercarefully pulls apart the bag’s seal.Ipull off one of my latex gloves, turning it inside out asIdo, and reach with two clean fingers inside the bag to pull out the list just as we hear a toilet flush.Ipush it into my pocket without looking at it first, andLedgeris wrapping the diaper back up when the woman comes out of her stall.
“Didyou find it?”
“No,”Ledgersays with a sigh. “Iguess we have more searching in our future.”
“Goodluck!There’snothing quite like parenting, is there?”
Ihave no idea how parents do it.
Weboth throw our gloves and the diapers into the trash, tie it up, put in the new liner, and wash our hands.Ledgergrabs the trash bag and we both head outside, him heading straight toward theDumpsterat the opposite edge of the field.Hepasses by a group of kids who all look about ten or so and probably have younger siblings on the field.Theyare playing something that looks like hacky sack, but with a soccer ball.
Iwant to pull the list out of my pocket and see if any of the names on it are familiar to me.Iwon’t do that out here, in the open, butIam dying to get somewhere secure so that we can get this list to our tech ops and start researching the names.Thenwe can come up with a plan of who to impersonate and how to keep them from coming into town early.Iglance toward the area where we metMilayesterday, curious to see ifIcan spot her.Butthere are too many people to see.
Iglance back in the direction of theDumpster, sinceLedgershould’ve made it back to me by now, and see that he’s playing with the kids!He’sbouncing a ball on his knees, his ankles, and his head, and bouncing it back and forth between him and them.Iam instantly fuming.Wedon’t have time for this!
Weare in the middle of a mission, andI, for one, care about that mission.Fora lot of reasons.Notonly is it important in the grand scheme of things, butIwant to report good things back toSully.Notonly is he my director, but sinceI’mthe top operative, he’s quite often my case officer.He’salso the closest thingI’veever had to a father.Soit matters to me thatIimpress him.AndthatIkeep being the top operative.
Iwalk halfway over toLedgerand stand with my hands on my hips in a place where he has to see me.Ittakes a full minute of him bouncing the ball from his knee to his opposite ankle to his other knee to his head then to another kid before his eyes fall on me.Hegives each of the half-dozen or so kids a high-five before he walks over to me.
Weturn and start walking back toward the restrooms.Whenwe get around to the backside, where there are no people,Ihiss, “Whatare you doing?”
“Hey,” he says, stopping, soIstop, too. “Ididn’t get to play hurling inIreland, yet you got cheese in both locations.Letme connect withBelgrade!”
“Focus,”Isay. “We’vegot a mission going on here!Andnot just a mission in general— we’ve got a specific piece of intel that we need to get passedalongASAP.”
“Itdoesn’t need to get passed along so urgently thatIcan’t take five minutes to play with some kids.”
“Ifwe don’t place that tracker, we won’t find that team, so they’ll get the fortune, and they’ll do very bad things with it.Livesare at stake.Iknow you don’t take your job seriously,Ledger, butIdo. ”
Themuscles in his jaw flex.Hedoesnotlike me insinuating that he’s slacking in any way. “Iknow you do.You’dsell out your own child for a successful mission.”
Inarrow my eyes at him and study him for a moment. “Youaren’t still mad about that mission inMoldova, are you?”
“Oh, you mean the one where you soldmeout?”
