The Sparrow Read Free

Giuliani thought stubbornly. It’s not as though we have so many priests that we can write one off without an effort. He’s one of Ours, dammit. And what right have we to declare the mission a failure? Seeds may have been sown. God knows.
    Even so, the allegations against Sandoz and the others were very serious.
    Privately, Vincenzo Giuliani was inclined to believe that the mission went wrong at its inception, with the decision to involve the women. A breakdown in discipline from the beginning, he thought. The times were different then.

    R UMINATING OVER THE same problem as he walked back to his lightless room on the eastern side of the Rome Ring, John Candotti had his own theory about how things had gone wrong. The mission, he thought, probably failed because of a series of logical, reasonable, carefully considered decisions, each of which seemed like a good idea at the time. Like most colossal disasters.

2
    ARECIBO RADIO TELESCOPE, PUERTO RICO:
FEBRUARY 2019
    "J IMMY, I JUST heard they assigned you a vulture!" Peggy Soong whispered, and the first step toward the mission to Rakhat was taken. "Are you going to cooperate?"
    Jimmy Quinn continued to move down the line of vending machines, selecting arroz con pollo, a container of bean soup and two tuna sandwiches. He was absurdly tall, finally done growing at twenty-six but not really filled out yet, and constantly hungry. He stopped to pick up two packets of milk and a couple of desserts and checked his debit total.
    "You cooperate, it’s that much harder for the rest of us," Peggy said. "You saw what happened to Jeff."
    Jimmy went to a table that had only one open seat and set his tray down. Peggy Soong stood behind him and glared at the woman sitting opposite Quinn. The woman decided she was done with lunch. Peggy moved around the table and sat in the still-warm chair. For a while, she simply watched Jimmy fork in piles of rice and chicken, still amazed by the sheer volume of food he needed. Her grocery bill had gone down by 75 percent since she threw him out. "Jimmy," she said finally, "you can’t duck this. If you’re not for us, you’re against us." She was still whispering but her voice was not gentle. "If nobody cooperates, they can’t fire us all."
    Jimmy met her eyes, his gaze blue and placid, hers black and challenging. "I don’t know, Peggy. I think they could probably replace the whole staff in a couple of weeks. I know a guy from Peru who’d take my job for half what I’m making. Jeff got a good recommendation when he left."
    "And he’s still out of work! Because he gave the vulture everything he had."
    "It won’t be my decision, Peggy. You know that."
    "Bullshit!" Several people looked up. She leaned toward him from across the table, whispering again. "You are not a puppet. Everybody knows you’ve helped Jeff since he got sacked. But the whole point here is to stop them from sucking us dry, not to minister to the victims after the fact. How many times do I have to explain it?"
    Peggy Soong sat back abruptly and looked away, trying to make sense of people who couldn’t see the system reducing them to bits. All Jimmy understood was work hard, don’t make trouble. And what would it get him? Screwed is what it would get him. "It will be your decision, to cooperate with the vulture," she said flatly. "They can give you the order but you have to decide whether to follow it." Rising, she gathered her things from the table and stared down at him a moment longer. Then she turned her back on him and walked toward the door.
    "Peggy!"
    Jimmy got up, came close enough to reach down and touch her lightly on the shoulder. He was not handsome. The nose was too long and no particular shape, the eyes too close together and set deep as a monkey’s, the semicircle smile and the red curling hair like scribbles in a child’s drawing; for a few months, the aggregate had charmed her senseless.
    "Peggy, give me a