Guillermo was through with his debriefing. He stepped over to Dingo, looking at the man who had been duped from the very beginning.
 
 

"So, Manny never had the real Corazon de Dios when he left Cuba and was picked up by Skartsonis?" Dingo said, the words thick on his tongue.
 
 

"No, Manny was uneasy with the whole plan. He felt used by both sides, Cuba and the United States. He felt it was a set-up from the beginning…"
 
 

Guillermo sat down, sighing as he rubbed the tattoo on his forearm.
 
 

"You paid a lot for hiding it," Dingo replied, studying him.
 
 

"I didn’t hide it."
 
 

"Okay, Manny hid it…"
 
 

"No, actually, Marta hid the stone."
 
 

Dingo’s eyes brightened; "She knows where it is, really?"
 
 

Guillermo looked at him and shook his head; "If she knows where it is, it is gone forever, my friend. She is, as Martel said she was; incapable of any thought that would make sense to you or I."
 
 

"Do you realize my whole adult life was hedged on that piece of rock?" Dingo asked him, rubbing the stubble on his chin with his hand. He was thinking of Victoria. She had worn the fake stone around her neck for years before she died. He had worn it as well. The black ops had taken what he thought was real.
 
 

"Did everyone know except me?" Dingo asked then, leaning back in his chair and shutting his eyes.
 
 

"Martel…we had been trying for years to get him to come out and do something that would expose him. His obsession with it finally did do just that. You should be happy for that," Guillermo told him, firmly.
 
 

"I don’t feel happy, I feel used. Used by ops, used by the CIA…Taia…that poor little boy! What will happen to Bastion?" Dingo asked, shaking his head.
 
 

"He’ll be sent to social services, probably placed in foster care, no doubt," Guillermo replied.
 
 

"Wonder if?"
 
 

"Don’t even think it, Tyler. Your son would probably disown you!"
 
 

"Possibly take him back to Australia…Mangela might be able to help…"
 
 

"Leave the boy alone for now. Hopefully, the couple of years that you were around him, gave him some sense of stability."
 
 

"Victor Loubar’s son? I doubt any kind of stability would influence that genetic make-up."
 
 

"Let us hope that there is someone able to give him the home and support he needs, just not you, Dingo…"
 
 

"Wonder where my boy and Angela are?" Dingo suddenly asked, realizing that Rollie and Angie had been gone for some time and not come back. They would need to know about Martel and Taia.
 
 

"Don’t know…they needed some time, I guess…"
 
 

"Hope Angela’s not giving him too rough of a time…" Dingo commented, smiling.

As Angie found the clinica de medico on the third intersection from the hotel, Rollie was dressing Aidan and wondering how Angie was faring with Marta. Angie had gotten the address of the physician’s office from the concierge in the hotel. Not wanting to distress Rollie with this, she hoped that there was some kind of pills she could get, possibly a hormonal pill. She had remembered that Sarah had told her about spotting early in her pregnancy with Rebecca and she felt confident that it was something simple. She realized that she had been spotting on the plane coming over to Spain but once she had relaxed in the hotel in Madrid it had continued and now, she was bleeding more heavily.
 
 

The clinic had been receptive to the American tourist even though she spoke with a slight Cuban accent when she spoke in Spanish. Through a series of questions and finally, seeing the physician, she offered her opinion of her problems before he readied her for the exam. His face, along with his nurse, showed his concern, she thought as he gently did a pelvic exam. Rolling back then, on his stool, he ordered the ultrasound equipment to be pulled into the room. Angie’s heart began to pound faster and harder; the physician remaining calm throughout but now, Angie was wishing she had told Rollie and not gone alone.
 
 

Explaining he would have to do a pelvic ultrasound, she winced but understood it would not hurt. Watching the monitor, she kept herself focused on the screen and not the manipulation of the wand as it moved inside her. Finally, he ordered for the frame on the screen to be frozen, and a photograph was taken as well. As the wand was removed, the physician pulled off his gloves and told her she could sit up.
 
 

"Mrs. Tyler," he told her, pointing to the screen which showed a dark cavity and an light gray area encapsulated at the top of it.
 
 

"Yes…" she replied, trying to breath deeply and not be afraid.
 
 

"You are not pregnant, at least not like you think. This…" and he circled with his finger around the capsule area, "is what is know as a blighted ovum…that is an egg that began to grow like it had been fertilized but there was no fetus…just an empty sac…you see?"
 
 

"What? I’m not pregnant?" Angie asked, astounded.
 
 

"Not in the normal sense. What may have started as a pregnancy did not happen. It is what we call a anembryonic gestation, medically speaking. The bleeding is the start of the sac beginning to disintegrate…the cramping will get better. I can give you something for the pain. You should see your regular doctor back in the U.S. if the pain does not get better in a couple of days, okay?"
 
 

A tear trickled down Angie’s cheek before she could stop it and she cleared her throat before she found her voice again; "Did I do something wrong? Could an electromagnetic sound wave cause the fetal death?"
 
 

"No, there is still little we know about blighted ovums. Many women simply think they are having a strange period, that is it. In your case, you had a rather large sac, causing a lot of the pregnancy symptoms you were experiencing. As for what was that, you asked, some sort of sound wave thing? No…you were never pregnant, you see. There was no baby."
 
 

The doctor was as gentle as he could be and she realized that. Still, she felt like a freak of nature. His parting words were that nearly a fourth of the women who later went on to have children had also suffered from this condition first.
 
 

Okay, she told herself, walking out of the clinic, holding her arms against her, hugging herself, you can get through this…it just wasn’t pregnancy. You can tell Rollie you were just wrong, one of those things…she told herself. She strengthened her stride, wiping the last tear away and made her way back to the hotel.
 
 

As she started to walk inside the lobby, she saw Rollie and Aidan with the concierge and she cringed. Rollie was doing his detective work as usual, and she feared the worse. But the wise concierge had only said that she had gone out for a walk as she heard him tell Rollie as she walked up to them.
 
 

"There you are! You had me worried…I was thinking you had gone to see Marta on your own, knowing you- that strong will of yours!" Rollie said, not really scolding her but she recognized his worry, none the less.
 
 

"No, I went for a walk and well, I also need to tell you something…" she said, her voice lowering, "Let’s go back to the room, okay?"
 
 

He followed her, puzzled but knowing that Angie always meant business when she talked in that tone, he knew not to make jokes or play around. Once inside their room, she sat down on the bed and took Aidan from him. He sat across from her, just looking at her, his warm brown eyes waiting for her eyes to meet his.
 
 

"You’re scaring me," he told her, leaning forward.
 
 

"I’m not pregnant," she blurted out and smiled rather jerkily as her voice wavered, "I went to see a doctor who did an exam and said I wasn’t pregnant but that one of my eggs got a little messed up, like it thought it was and well, began to grow without a fetus inside, okay!"
 
 

"Whoa! What?" he said, putting his hand out, frowning as he stood up and sat beside her, putting his arm around her.
 
 

"Yep, no baby, just my crazy body, Rol. But hey, now we can worry about just Aidan and working. No other mouths to feed right now…"
 
 

Rollie knew she was upset. He wasn’t sure if it was because she wasn’t pregnant as she thought or because her usually perfect health and body had produced some unusual defective condition.
 
 

"Oh, I’m okay, Rol- really and I know what you’re thinking. No, I am not upset because my body decided to get chaotic on me, okay? And yeah, not being pregnant upset me but then again, I think I am also feeling guilty because, um- I’m relieved as well? That makes me feel so bad, you know?"
 
 

"Angela…God, I’m not a woman so, it isn’t going to come out right from me, sweetie, I know it. But, I’m glad that you’re okay- that YOU are okay…that’s my first concern."
 
 

She looked at him, frowning slightly and he knew he had done it, put his foot in his mouth. Putting Aidan down on the bed, she stood up and then suddenly, sat in his lap. She kissed him softly and put her hand to the lock of hair draping his forehead, pushing it back.
 
 

"I’m so glad you’re not a woman…."

The woman sat alone in her room, her long, mostly white hair platted neatly in two long braids. Her crystal blue eyes stared out the window at the villa and she stared blankly at the sky. She was muttering something under her breath as they entered her room.
 
 

"Mama," Angie said, softly as she approached her and kneeled on one knee in front of her.
 
 

The woman continued to stare out the window as Rollie and Aidan stayed to the back of Angie, Aidan curiously watching the scene in front of him as he was held in Rollie’s arms.
 
 

"Mama, it’s Angela…tu hija…" Angie said again, touching her mother’s hand softly.
 
 

The woman turned back to her, the eyes so alike appraising her as she blinked, her eyes moving over Angie’s face and then down, at the cross Angie wore around her neck. It was the cross that Manny had given her, it had been Marta’s.
 
 

"Angela….mi hija…mija dulce…" she said, rambling as her eyes returned to a blankness, and unrecognized muttering returned.
 
 

Angie was determined even though the nurses had said she had been getting worse. She slowly pushed up one sleeve of her robe, seeing nothing except her paper-thin skin and bruises. She bit her lip, thinking that once again a family lie was playing its upper hand.
 
 

"There’s no Geste tattoo here, Rollie," she told him as he stepped forward, taking a look for himself.
 
 

"Go on, take a look at her other arm, Angie. I don’t think Guillermo was telling a lie…" he told her as Aidan began to grow restless and squirm.
 
 

Carefully, Angie started to push up the other sleeve only to get a firm slap from Marta, snapping at her in guttural Spanish.
 
 

"A bit guarded, eh?" Rollie commented as Angie asked her politely if she could see her arm in Spanish, formally and soft.
 
 

Marta Ramirez’s muttering grew louder as her eyes looked up at Rollie and she trembled.
 
 

"No Senor Martel, no conozco el Corazon de Dios…no conozco…" she said, lifting her arm up at him, her palm out to him as if staying off someone hitting her.
 
 

"Angie?"
 
 

"She’s said: Martel, I do not know the Heart of God, I do not know…" Angie translated, frowning but then looked to Rollie and back to her mother’s arm, the one she had been hiding. There, tattooed into her sagging skin on her forearm, was the wrinkling word of ‘Geste’ .
 
 

"Oh God!" Angie cried, suddenly hugging her mother as the woman settled down, holding onto her daughter and not knowing it. She rocked back and forth for a moment with her, almost in peace as Rollie backed away, seeing how his presence affected her. His hair, dark like Martel’s and tall…she thought he was Martel!
 
 

"Mama! I’m so sorry," Angie told her in Spanish as she tried to calm her, "this whole horrible business of that stone, it’s a terrible, cursed rock that never did anyone any good! Our whole family has suffered over it! I’m so glad that it is lost! Stay lost, forever!"
 
 

Rollie knew Angie was telling her mother something calming, but the look in Marta’s eyes almost appeared lucid for a moment as she looked suddenly giddy and patted Angie on the back as if to comfort her.
 
 

"Mi vestido de novia….ojala! Mi hija…por su vestido de novia…y secreto…de vestido…mi regalo…" Marta’s rapid Spanish took Angie back for a moment as she stared up at Rollie.
 
 

"She’s talking about her …wedding dress?…That she wished that her daughter…would have her wedding dress and the secret of the dress was her gift…" Angie was trying to check on her own translation of what her mother had said, shaking her head, not understanding.
 
 

Suddenly, Marta took Angie’s hand and placed it over her own heart, putting her hand over top of it; "El Corazon….mi regalo!"
 
 

Angie’s mouth dropped open as an orderly walked into the room and Marta quickly went back to muttering incoherently. Rollie looked up at the man who nodded and then left and as he walked down the hall, Rollie noted the surveillance camera mounted over the door. He looked at Marta suddenly and saw her looking at him over Angie’s shoulder. He swore she winked at him.
 
 

Angie pulled away from her then, smiling and cupped her mother's face with her hands.
 
 

"Mama, I want to introduce you to my husband, Rollie and my son, Aidan, your grandson…" she told her in Spanish as Rollie once again stepped forward, putting Aidan down next to the rocker so that he could stand, holding onto to it.
 
 

Rollie smiled at Marta and touched her hand softly. He told himself he had been hallucinating for she did not appear to recognize or understand what Angie had told her in Spanish. But as Aidan’s small hand patted his grandmother’s hand as it rested near the edge of her lap, the woman looked down; eyes focusing sharply on the small boy.
 
 

"Handsome boy…" Marta commented in Spanish as she suddenly pulled Aidan up into her arms; "My name is Marta Ramirez and I am your grandmother…"
 
 

"Mama…?" Angie cried out but her mother's eyes quickly went blank as she began to mutter again, making Aidan stiffen. Angie pulled Aidan up into her own arms, overwhelmed with curiosity as well as disbelief.
 
 

"It’s time for Senora Ramirez’s medication," announced the nurse who had walked into the room as Angie and Rollie both jumped, startled by how swiftly she had come into the room.
 
 

"You must go now…she will need her sleep. You can come tomorrow…" the nurse told them in a firm voice as she carried a syringe on a small tray with her.
 
 

The nurse injected Marta quickly, rubbing her arm with the alcohol swab as Marta made a face. Angie could see that whatever the nurse had given her was taking effect faster than she had ever seen before…as her mother’s body began to sag and lean to one side of the rocker. Angie leaned over and kissed her mother softly on the cheek as Marta’s hand grabbed hers’ tightly, holding onto her in almost a last effort of communication;
 
 

"Mija dulce….tu regalo…mi vestido de novia…mi esposo, mi hermano; bona fides, hija…bona fides!"
 
 

Angie stood up, for her mother had gone to sleep, her forearm exposed as it lay over the arm of the rocker. The crinkled word tattooed so heinously into her skin had softened in color over the years as Angie tried to make sense of it all.
 
 

"What did your mother say to you?" Rollie asked her in the room.
 
 

"Come on, let’s go….I’ll tell you later," she told him, taking Aidan up in her arms and hugged him tightly.

As Angie stood outside with Rollie, the sun was setting on the hills behind Toledo. Rollie looked down at Angie who was kissing Aidan’s cheeks and smiling at him.
 
 

"What? You going to let me in on what when on in there, because I think your mother is not so deranged as everyone believes, Angie. I swear, I thought she winked at me. And, did you see the cameras everywhere? If I didn’t know any better, I would think that place was a ‘spook’ hospital for retired, sick spooks."
 
 

"Rollie, really…there are no such things as ‘spy’ hospitals. And wink? I think not, Rollie. As my uncle said, clearly she is out of it. You’re reading a lot of things into just some eye moments."
 
 

"Angie?"
 
 

"Yes, Rollie?"
 
 

"What did she say to you, there at the end, come on!" he asked her and then begged her as they headed toward the car. Angie was feeling better, in fact, she was going to have quite a good time once she got home, she felt. Bother all the rest of the crime world, the family of spies! She knew something now about her family that was so wonderful, so honorable!
 
 

That night, they made reservations to fly home the next day. As they lay in bed, the Tyler family was tired but happy. Rollie could have been happier for Angie had still not told him what her mother had said. She had certainly brightened up from earlier that day.
 
 

"So, you’re okay, I mean…about not being pregnant?" he asked her, almost before she fell asleep.
 
 

Angie’s eyes fluttered open and she could see Rollie’s eyes looking at her, their noses almost touching as she felt him put his arms around her. Somewhere, snuggled between them, Aidan made a soft little moan and made his sucking noise as Angie whispered;
 
 

"Yes, it’s okay…at first, well…I told you- don’t worry…Rollie. We’ve got plenty of time…"
 
 

"Are you going to let me go to sleep without knowing what your mother said to you?" he asked then, in a harsh whisper as he ran out of air.
 
 

She giggled;
 
 

"Okay…."
 
 

"Well?"
 
 

"She said…that her gift to me was in her wedding dress…"
 
 

"Your gift?"
 
 

"Yeah, don’t you see, Rollie?"
 
 

"No…"
 
 

"El Corazon de Dios…"
 
 

"Yeah?"
 
 

"It’s sewn into the dress somewhere, I imagine…"
 
 

"What?"
 
 

"Yep, guess that’s why my Uncle carried it to me in the States…he was Marta’s messenger from all those years ago. She was the one who knew the real secret of the stone and kept it hidden for years…."
 
 

"Bloody hell! But wait, what did she say then about your father and your uncle at the end there, that wasn’t Spanish, was it?" Rollie had pulled himself up on one elbow as Angie leaned back in her pillow, pulling her knees up as she looked up at the moonlight, reflecting across the ceiling of the hotel room.
 
 

"No, I think it was Latin, actually…something about my father and uncle upholding the truth or being true…."
 
 

"If the stone is there, Angie, what will you do with it?" Rollie asked, his mind racing as he laid back down, looking up at the ceiling with her.
 
 

"I’m leaving it there…who knows, maybe our daughter will wear that wedding dress as well…and the stone will pass on to another generation for safe keeping"
 
 

"Our daughter?"
 
 

"Yeah, our daughter…"