Chapter Twenty-Two

The last few members of the class of '72 said their good-byes, exchanged e-mail addresses and made promises to keep in touch that none of them intended to keep. The pleasantries were as phony and the promises as empty as the end-of-high-school greetings each had scrawled to one another over their yearbook photographs thirty years ago.

Everyone had been so very happy to see Stuart at the reunion. No one seemed to remember that they never signed his yearbook, or question why he hadn't graduated with the rest of the class. Those that did were too polite to ask, and Stuart wasn't about to satisfy their curiosity, not now, not ever. It was enough that he had returned to his hometown with a mission to finish. A mission that had begun long before he joined U.N.C.L.E.

Stuart got into his car and waited until he saw Wyatt pull out of the parking lot before starting the engine. Keeping at a safe distance, he followed the black Mercedes as it proceeded through the streets of Abbe