Page 19 of Thunder Pass

“Yeah. Did your mom say something different?”

“I overheard her talking on the phone before we came here.” Nelson shoved his glasses back into place. “She said he was a sea agent.”

“What’s a sea agent?” Charlie frowned in puzzlement.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t really hear very well because she was walking back and forth on the patio.

But a cold chill was slowly traveling down Gunnar’s spine, an icy possibility that seemed too impossible to contemplate. “Did she say CIA agent, Nelson? Does that sound like what she said?”

“Maybe. Yeah. CIA agent.” He screwed up his face. “It could have been that.”

Good lord. If Bridget really believed that their father was a CIA agent, why hadn’t she breathed one word of it to him?

Charlie looked down at the computer screen. “I sure hope I didn’t just access classified information,” she said lightly, with just an edge of nervousness. “I don’t need any more trouble along those lines.”

Classified information? This was getting more surreal by the minute. Was a SWAT team about to rappel down the side of his shop and bust through the window? There was only one in this office, tucked under the ceiling to provide some light. Gunnar glanced at it nervously, then shook his head at his own movie-fueled paranoia. He’d watched too many of Kathy’s DVDs.

“We don’t even know what the information is. Or if it’s information at all. Maybe it’s just random numbers,” he said hopefully.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s a lot of trouble to go to for a bunch of random numbers.”

Just as she said that, the decryption program ended and the results flashed on the screen. No match.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that whatever code he used, this program doesn’t know about it. It’s very obscure, and created by someone who knows encryption.”

They all fell silent as they gazed at the computer screen. To Gunnar, it felt like one of those dividing-line moments. He could either try to figure out what these numbers meant, or he could close the file and move on.

“Maybe we should look at the other things he has on his desktop,” said Nelson. “He could have left the code somewhere else.” He moved his hand toward the keyboard, but Gunnar stopped him.

“Sorry, Nelson. I need to think about this. I’m responsible for you while you’re here, and I don’t want you to get dragged into anything risky.”

“Huh?” Nelson shoved dark curls away from his face. “Why is it risky?”

“Because I don’t know what’s going on here.” He punched the button that turned off the desktop. “You’re telling me my father could have been a CIA agent and—” He stopped abruptly as a memory surfaced. Shortly before his father had disappeared, Gunnar had surprised him coming back from a ski. His expression had been grim, far from his normally genial one. As soon as he’d seen Gunnar, he’d tried to adjust it, but too late.

“Everything okay, Pop?”

“Listen to me.” He’d taken Gunnar by the shoulders and given him that “serious life lesson” look that Gunnar always took seriously. “Everything I do, it’s for you. This place, this shop, these mountains…I did the best I could. You’re safe here. All this is for you.”

“Okaaaay…” All of it was so strange, Gunnar hadn’t been sure how to react. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Just remember all I’ve taught you. You can trust the folks here, most of them, anyway. Except the Chilkoots. Watch out for them, you understand?”

After that, he’d launched into a story about the wolverine he’d spotted near Thunder Pass.

Gunnar snapped back to attention as Nelson tugged on his sleeve. “Uncle Gunnar? Uncle Gunnar? Does this mean I can’t use the computer anymore?”

“You can use it, just stay out of my father’s part of it. You can do that, right?”

Nelson nodded, a little crestfallen, but clearly happy that he wasn’t going to lose access to the entire computer.

Charlie gave him a sympathetic pat on the back as she got up to go. “You let me know if you need me to do any research, okay?” she murmured on her way out. “I won’t do anything without your go-ahead.”

He nodded, feeling more numb than anything else. If his father had had some secret identity, did he want to know? Did it matter at this point? Would it help bring him back to Firelight Ridge? What if he was a rogue agent who was running from authorities? What if he’d left Gunnar because he’d been given another assignment, and figured Gunnar was grown enough to be on his own? Grown enough not to be heartbroken by being abandoned?

All this time, he’d interpreted that conversation with his father to mean that he was leaving the shop to him. That was why he’d stayed here after his dad’s disappearance. It was a way to feel close to him, to exist in the world his father had built for him.

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