Riddles in the Dark

The spinach wilted on Elena's plate, a swamp of green I couldn't stop staring at. We'd been married for seven years, and I still didn't know if she hated vegetables or just the conversation that always accompanied them.

"You're doing it again," she said, not looking up from her wine. "That thing where you disappear inside your own head."

I forced a smile. "Old habits. Hard to turn it off."

Being a spy had been easier than this dinner. At least when I was watching the Chinese diplomat through hotel room keyholes, I knew what I was looking for. Secrets. Proof. Something I could hold in my hand and say, *Here. This is true.*

But Elena? She was a riddle I'd been trying to solve since that night in Prague when she'd approached me at the hotel bar, asked what I was drinking, and somehow known I was lying before the words even left my mouth.

"You're like the Sphinx," I said now, testing the waters. "Sitting there with your secrets and your riddles, waiting for me to get it wrong so you can devour me whole."

She finally looked at me, really looked at me, with eyes that had seen too much of the same darkness I carried. "Or maybe I'm just tired of being the only one who's real in this marriage."

The silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating. I thought about the dossier in my safe at home—the one my handlers had given me last week. The photographs. The transcripts. The truth about who she really worked for.

I thought about how I hadn't opened it yet.

"Spinach," I said suddenly. "That's what we're talking about. The spinach." I reached across the table and took a handful from her plate, shoving it into my mouth.

She watched me chew, something like amusement flickering across her face for the first time all night. "You're disgusting," she said softly. "I think that's what I love most about you."

Outside, Prague's cobblestones glistened with rain. Somewhere in the distance, a clock tower struck midnight. I swallowed the spinach, bitter and metallic, and decided some riddles were better left unsolved.