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“Er ist mein Bruder. Er ist unbewaffnet!” She’d probably said it badly, so just in case, “He’s my brother—he’s unarmed. He thought that man was following us!”
A small crowd had formed.
Perfect.
“C’mon, we didn’t do anything,” Ned said, his face against the cement floor.
Just stay down, Ned.
The first man, who Ned had grabbed, finished searching Ned and stood up. Motioned to the other two to let him up. Ned practically launched to his feet. But he held out a hand, palm up, to Shae.
Weirdly, it reminded her of something Hud might have done.
Thor, where are you? But Hud wasn’t here. And clearly this had gone too far.
“Passport,” the man said, and Ned held up one hand, used the other to unzip a pocket in his cargo pants, then pull out his passport.
“Military,” said the man. He wasn’t wearing a Polizei designation.
“Navy,” said Ned, leaving out the rest. Probably for the best.
“Do you want our passports, too?” Iris asked. Maybe if she was helpful—
“You don’t have a passport, ma’am,” the man said.
She stared at him. “Yes, I do.”
The man handed Ned’s back to him, nodded, then turned to her. “No, it was pick-pocketed in the station. We got it on camera, but I happened to be standing nearby.” He reached into his sweater pocket and pulled out her tidy blue passport. “I was trying to catch up with you without making a scene.” He glanced at Ned, then handed her the passport.
“Oh. Thank you. I…” She reached for her backpack. Sure enough, the outside pocket where she’d shoved her passport was torn. “He broke the webbing.”
“Probably hoped for money, or better, a phone.”
“He’d be sad with my phone.” She unzipped her pouch and showed him the tiny disposable phone. “Already stolen.”
“Be more careful, miss,” he said, then looked at Ned. Gave him nod.
Ned nodded back.
The cavalry left them standing there, staring at each other.
“Well, that was exciting,” her dad said. “You okay, Ned?”
“I told you we were being followed.”
Iris rolled her eyes.
“At least you didn’t lose the key, right?”
“I was pick-pocketed, Shae. I didn’tlosemy passport.” But just to make sure, Iris checked her backpack and pulled out the key.
Ned reached for it, but she pulled it back. He held up his hands.
She was really starting to miss Hud.
The locker was still secured, the third from the top, number two-thirteen. “Please let it be empty.” And she didn’t know why she wished that, because that would put them back at nil, but maybe it would be easier to believe that maybe all this was in her head.
But the manila envelope that she’d left was still propped up against the side of the locker.
