Two Gluttons

 250.

"I feel somewhat responsible," I offer in a hurried and weak attempt at absolution.

"You're not, nothing whatsoever to do with you or our 'agreement'," she fires back sans a second thought.

"OK, I believe you, still, I am sorry for the way things have turned. We could have - should  have - made a few moves that would have put you in a less perilous position. Food for thought."

"You are the one that told me to go with all ya got and never second-guess," she says, "There is no one responsible for what happened - the way it happened - but me. I made the choices that I felt necessary for the success of the…"

"…mission, yes I understand, but the difference is that my job entails the overall responsibility of bringing all our people back in one piece, so a degree of analysis is part of the package, that is why we so painstakingly debrief, looking for details so things like this are never repeated."

"Still there will always be risk, and we all accept the potentiality of failure. Not your fault. Forget it. I have." She tells me, again demonstrating a maturity well beyond her years.

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now, we should have had this discussion the minute you arrived in the clinic, but shit started falling outta the sky and hasn't let up yet."

"What were Cyrus' primary motivating factors - if my hunch is right - for the hit on Orlando?" I continue.

"Ambition and revenge," she says, "pure and simple. He wanted to call the shots, I was in the way, and he wanted to taste the sweetness of revenge by flexing some muscle where he saw me as being weak, like my moving to the computer science and technology fronts. He used to say that there is nothing like the smell of gunpowder and fear. I told him that was old-school crap and he didn't much care for my suggestion."

"Two gluttons at the same table, always hungry."

"Who's that?"

"Ambition and revenge."