One reader expressed surprise that I hadn't ended the story with Asmedogh's pickup. This is why; there were a few loose ends to clean up. Housekeeping, as it were.
I think the news media's abrupt loss of interest in Nick and Camilla after their release is actually pretty realistic. Few people have a shorter attention span than a reporter working on a story about which there are no new developments. Back in my early days of journalism I was taught that any story, to be considered "newsworthy," must first pass what my then-mentor called "the WGAS test." WGAS, he told me, is short for "Who Gives A Shit," and any story that doesn't attract enough public interest to fulfill this requirement isn't worth reporting. The public, whose attention span is even shorter than the reporters', isn't interested in hearing more about stories that were yesterday's headlines unless something new has happened, or been said, etc. Nick's strategem of making things "boring" for the reporters who've tracked him and Camilla down, is thus virtually guaranteed to turn off reportorial interest in the absence of anybody else who's willing to talk. And of course nobody is; the only ones who know anything worth mentioning are a few in DHS, and naturally they aren't saying anything.
The operas I mention fit the voices I've assigned to my characters as I describe them. If you're an opera buff, you'll know. If you aren't, well, there's that WGAS test again.
Thanks for reading. Once more, all my longer fiction is available on Amazon. If you don't have one of their Kindles, most tablets will accept Amazon's format, or there's a freebie emulation for PCs or Macs.