GODSFALL

The Call He Never Hung Up

The encrypted audio link on Ethan's phone stayed connected.

Lena had no idea about this. She thought she was having a private secure conversation. She was wrong. Ethan's mirroring software operated silently and stealthily in the background of her phone, turning her phone's microphone into a live transmitter.

Ethan did not move for twenty minutes. He just stood in the suite and listened. He was not trying to gather information because he already had enough. He had seen Lena's face when she read Marcus's name on her screen. He knew how she felt. He had seen that look before. It was like her attention was divided; a part of her was already with Marcus in the hospital.

Ethan stood there and listened because that is what he does. He finishes what he starts, even if he does not want to.

The audio feed was crystal clear. He heard the ambient sounds from the hospital corridor and the ding of the elevator. He heard the sharp click of Lena's heels on the linoleum floor. He heard the nurse giving her directions, the heavy door opening, and then Marcus's voice.

It was weak but warm. Lenas voice was full of concern when she answered him. She always gave her attention to people. That was one of the things Ethan loved about Lena.

Lena and Marcus talked for sixty-three minutes according to Ethans phone timer.

He sat on the edge of the bed. Listened without showing any feelings. He told himself not to feel what he was feeling, which was a mix of sadness and a calm professional feeling. The professional feeling took over like it usually did. This was either a thing or a bad thing and he had stopped trying to figure it out.

What he heard during sixty-three minutes of talking in the hospital room was this: a man being vulnerable on purpose. Every story Marcus told was planned. He talked about his father who was never good enough. He talked about his childhood. How he felt pressured all the time. He talked about being scared of dying. Marcus chose each story to affect Lena in a way to make her feel sorry for him and want to help him. He was playing her like music he had practiced.

Lena was listening with all her heart like she always did. Ethan did not think she was wrong to do that. People who care about others a lot often get taken advantage of. They give to everyone. They do not always know when someone is using them.

The phone line was quiet for a while. Then he heard the nurse talking. Then he heard the sound of the hallway. Then the elevator. Then he heard noises from outside a car door closing and the sounds of the city.

Lena had not called him yet. He looked up at the ceiling. Then he looked at the flower petals on the floor. Then he looked at the champagne, which was not cold anymore.

He got up and went to the window again. He thought about a lot of things slowly and carefully like he used to do. His old bosses used to call him unusual because he thought about everything at the same time; not one thing after another.

Then something stopped him.

Through the open line, beneath the muffled friction of Lena moving and the distant hum of city traffic, there was a different sound; new. It came from the hospital end of the line. It was from the room he had been listening to for the past hour.

It was a satisfied sound.

It was a chuckle. It was barely audible. It was almost not there. It sounded like a man in a room who had just reviewed his own performance and decided it was good enough.

It lasted two seconds.

In those two seconds Ethan changed. He was no longer the man whose wedding night had just been interrupted. He became something. He became something older. He became something less forgiving. It was something he had worked hard to overcome for three years.

He picked up his phone. It was the one he had not touched since morning.

He found a number he had not dialed in fourteen months.

The phone rang once.

"I'm outside, " the voice said. "I've been outside since eight PM. I thought you might need some time first."

"Come up, " Ethan said.