Page 45 of The Hijack

“I thought you were dead,” Z cried.

“I nearly was,” Clark shared.

I shook Lukas’s hand before drawing him aside. “Is there anyone else in the house?”

“No,” Lukas said. “All clear.”

Clark and I went to investigate every room anyway. It was standard operating procedure, and I needed the added reassurance that Z and Lukas were telling the truth. I took the rooms on the first floor while Clark went upstairs to investigate the bedrooms and the operations room. When we met up again in the foyer, we gave each other the ‘all clear.’

“I wouldn’t set you up,” Z assured us.

“You can never be too safe,” Clark replied.

“I’m going to take a shower,” I announced. It would have been nice to entice Clark into the water with me, but I knew that was a dead end. She was eager to hear the latest intel from her foster brother and sisters, and I placed a distant second.

Nobody said anything, giving me free rein to walk around the house. I went upstairs to find the first bathroom with a shower stall. Someone had removed what was probably a tub in the original design and replaced it with two side-by-side shower stalls. It looked like Abernathy wasn’t given to decadence. Allowing two teenagers to shower simultaneously probably suited his needs far more than allowing one to relax.

I stripped naked and hopped into the stall on the far right. It felt like a public restroom for all intents and purposes. The walls of the shower stall were cut just below the knee and only rose to shoulder height. There was no indication that you should take your time, but I didn’t mind. I just needed to clear my head and rub the travel grime off.

Afterward, I dressed in my old clothes, a business suit that was getting dirtier by the day. If we were going out into the field, I would need something new, but for the time being, it would suffice.

I found the gang gathered in the kitchen, right where I’d left them. To be fair, I had only been gone ten minutes. Someone had arranged sandwich fixings on the metal island, and I helped myself to a turkey on white.

“I’ve just come back from Europe,” Lukas informed me.

“The bombing?” I guessed.

“That’s right,” he said. “We’ve lost a lot of good agents. And the distressing thing is that it’s not just that single bombing.”

“You mean there are more targeted killings of Dark Sparrow operatives?” I asked.

“That’s right,” Lukas said. “I’m getting reports from all across Europe and from South America. We’ve lost five to date, including the group that was killed in Poland.”

I checked with Clark to get her take on it. We weren’t the only ones with targets on our backs. Now every Dark Sparrow agent was food for the slaughter mill, and the people collected in that kitchen were part of a dwindling number of spies still alive. It didn’t bode well.

“Where’s Linc?” I asked.

“He’s still in Europe, trying to get to people before New Dawn does,” Lukas replied.

“New Dawn was run by your foster father,” I observed.

“That’s right,” Jasmine agreed.

I turned to look at her, considering everything I knew about Clark’s other contact. She had been with us in the Marshall Islands, having flown in reportedly to provide us with an extraction. But at that moment, Nana had swooped in and rescued us, saying that the airport was hot and that we would be killed if we went along with Jasmine’s plan.

That fact meant that either Jasmine was not that good at her job, or more likely, that she had a separate agenda. I knew she worked closely with both Clark and Z, so I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. But Lukas was an independent agent. He might have a different take on the matter.

“There’s something you need to look at in the garage,” I told him.

Clark looked up, her sandwich halfway to her mouth.

“The sound system in the car we stole,” I lied.

It was just plausible enough that I was being a guy’s guy and wanted to show off some electronic equipment. Possibly everyone in the room knew it was a fib, but they let me go anyway. Lukas followed with a curious glance, leaving the women behind in the kitchen, although in terms of gender politics, the kitchen was the last place I would expect to find any of them.

Once outside, I slowed down on my way to the garage. “What’s your take on Jasmine?” I asked confidentially.

Lukas shook his head. “She was here when I returned from Europe, but that was just a few hours ago. Why? Do you know something?”