Page 33 of The Hijack

“How did you monitor our situation?” I asked, deciding to be honest about my suspicions.

“I have some surveillance equipment,” Gretchen mentioned, sipping on her own beverage.

“It must be some equipment.” I hinted at the fact that I felt there was more to the story.

“It may or may not have been liberated from MI6 without permission,” Gretchen admitted.

“And how did you know which channels to monitor?” I continued.

“Sugar, when you’re as old as I am, there’s really nothing much left to do. I have plenty of time on my hands.” Nana winked.

“So you were keeping tabs on me,” Theo surmised.

“That’s right,” Gretchen said. “You can’t blame me for wanting to help my grandson.”

Theo turned red, which took me by surprise. I considered him a rugged man for a Brit, and this show of embarrassment seemed out of character. Of course, it would humble any self-reliant adult to be followed around by their grandmother. I supposed that was it, and I spared my boyfriend a sympathetic smile.

The oven timer dinged, and Gretchen stood up. Theo made to go with her, but she waved him back into his seat.

“I can handle a meal by myself,” she admonished.

George seemed to have disappeared. Without excusing himself, he was no longer visible in the room. I wondered if he had his own room or even his own house on the grounds. It seemed as if he was as much a part of the house as the dock or the hills, a personal face on the land that protected her.

“Come sit at the table,” Gretchen instructed.

Theo and I got up without a word, moving to the back of the house where a formal dining room was sheltered between a library and a sunroom. There were a variety of plants in each corner, some resting on stools, others in pots on the ground. Their presence brought the flavor of the island inside, giving us something to look at while we ate to our hearts’ content.

“You were known as the Sleeper,” Gretchen said to me, shocking me into a cough.

I narrowly missed inhaling a piece of beef. The dinner had been so lovingly prepared, roasted for hours until the meat nearly dissolved in my mouth. Still, what remained of it threatened to lodge itself in my windpipe if I didn’t act quickly.

Theo reached out to clap me on the back, his eyes simultaneously worried and amused. I swallowed thickly, breathing in once my airway was clear. I gave him a thumbs-up, glancing over at his grandma with watery eyes.

“How do you know that?” I croaked.

“I have my sources, dear,” Gretchen said. “I was known as the Weaver.”

After the shock of my own unmasking, Gretchen’s revelation seemed almost commonplace. Of course, we were both deadly operatives, living lives out of the spotlight. I don’t know why I hadn’t made the connection that Theo’s grandmother was also an elite assassin.

“Why the Weaver?” I asked, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“I played the long game,” Gretchen said. “I would take weeks, sometimes even months to get close to a target.”

“How were you doing that as a wife and mother?” Theo asked. Though he meant it as an innocent question, I could hear the accusation in his tone. He was worried that she had given too much of her life to the job and not enough to her family. I couldn’t blame him, but it seemed a little out of place. I wondered if he would have asked his grandfather the same question.

“It was a juggling act,” Nana allowed. “But I think I managed.”

“The Weaver?” I repeated, calling her attention back to the game.

“Yes,” she reminisced. “I’m particularly proud of that nickname.”

“Because you would weave a fantasy for your marks?” I guessed.

“That’s it exactly. And why were you called The Sleeper?” she asked.

“Because Clark put people to sleep permanently,” Theo answered.

Nana looked at me, making sure that Theo was on the right track. I could sense a kindred spirit in her, someone who had been down the same road as I’d traveled. She let Theo get away with being presumptuous because he was a man and didn’t know any better. But her secretive smile told me that she was in control. She only let him think he was standing out front. In reality, she was the senior player in the room.