Page 27 of The Hijack

Jasmine ignored me, walking toward the problem. “Do you need help?”

“Thank you, sweetheart,” a familiar voice replied.

Jasmine reached out her hands to accept the tether from the new boat, acting as if there was nothing wrong. Against my ear, my pistol quivered slightly. It had been a long time since I’d heard that voice, but there was no mistaking its high-level British authority. It sounded for all the world like...but that was impossible. There was no way she could be here. Why would she? It didn’t make sense.

Jasmine walked along the pier, drawing everyone’s attention. “Beautiful night.”

“Absolutely,” the new arrival agreed.

That’s when I knew. I stepped out of the shadows, the weapon going limp beside my leg. What kind of upside-down world had I stepped into when my nana interrupted me on the job? I had to see for myself whether it was really her, damn the consequences.

“Grandma?” I asked, coming around the boat to investigate.

Gretchen Aldora accepted Jasmine’s hand while climbing down off her yacht. “Hello, Theo,” she rumbled.

My jaw dropped.

Chapter 14

Theo

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OF ALL THE CRAZY THINGS I had ever experienced in the field, this was by far the strangest. I hadn’t seen my nana for nearly a decade. Not since she turned seventy and set out on a mission to “find herself.”

I remembered the conversation as if it was yesterday. It was so strange.

“But don’t you want to play golf with your friends?” I asked her, sizing up the two and a half suitcases she intended to take with her on her trip.

“No dear,” she responded, tapping my cheek. “I want you to think of me every Christmas.”

“You’re not even going to leave me a forwarding address?” I asked, wondering if other people had the same problem with their elderly relatives.

Surely she couldn’t be jumping off the planet, I thought. But that’s exactly what had happened. I didn’t hear from her or see her for years, leaving me to worry that something nefarious had occurred in some foreign city. About eight years ago, I had tried to pick up her trail but had no luck. She’d simply vanished. And despite all the powerful databases I had at my disposal and all the surveillance equipment I’d operated over the years, I wasn’t able to find her.

“Where were you?” I demanded, stunned to see her straighten to her full five feet two inches.

“It’s good to see you too, Theo,” Nana replied, reaching out with a fragile hand.

I gave her a hug, wondering if I’d stepped off into a dream world where little boys’ grandmothers shared center stage with international spies. She was stronger than I would have expected, though I didn’t want to push my luck. I wrapped my arms around her, trying to convince myself that it was real.

From the vantage point of our boat, Clark looked down in amusement. She hopped off the bow and came over to us, apparently deciding that the threat had passed. As soon as Nana moved away, the two women sized each other up.

“Hello, Clark,” Nana said. “I’m Theo’s grandmother.”

“I can see the family resemblance,” Clark said, offering her a hug of her own.

It was almost like a domestic scene. I’d never seen Clark hug anyone, and this was twice in the span of thirty minutes. Linc joined us on the dock, apparently expecting to get his own hug. He looked slightly disappointed when Nana didn’t offer him one.

“Well, hurry up,” Nana said.

“We have a plane waiting,” Jasmine interjected.

“Good,” Nana decided. “That will be our misdirect. But we need to get you kids out of here.”

I glanced at Clark, unwilling to follow anyone, even Nana, without running it by my partner. Clark pressed her lips together, considering our options. I wished we had more time to hash things out there on the dock. But we were burning time, and Nana was right about one thing; we had to hurry.

The original plan was to go back to America and reconnect with Lukas. If we followed Nana wherever she wanted us to go, would we have the same technology available to us? Would we have the same opportunity to seek justice?