by Matt Lincoln
“That’ll be her,” Harry beamed as he turned around in his chair to head that way. He adored his daughter and granddaughter and loved it when they came to visit.
“I’ll get it,” I stood quickly. Part of me was still on edge, and I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. I stood up and moved toward the door. I could see through the decorative glass panes surrounding the door that it really was Eliza and her daughter Amber outside, so I let out a small sigh of relief before opening the door to let them in.
“Hey Charlie,” Eliza smiled as she pulled me into a one-armed hug and kissed me on the cheek.
“Uncle Charlie!” Amber screeched at a pitch that caused my ears to ring. She ran forward and latched onto my leg.
“Hey, little monster,” I growled as I crouched down to pick her up, noting as I did that she seemed heavier than usual. “When did you get so big? You weigh twice as much as you did the last time I saw you!”
“Nuh-uh, you’re just getting old,” Amber smirked.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say,” I frowned, flipping her upside down and causing her to screech with laughter.
“Well, what do you expect?” Eliza teased as she stepped through the doorway. “She hears the way you talk to Dad. It was bound to rub off on her.” I put Amber down so she could run to see Harry.
“How have you been, Eliza?” I asked as I took her coat and closed the door behind her.
“Oh, same old, same old,” she shrugged as we moved through the foyer and into the den. “I still haven’t decided if I want to take that cruise ship job.”
“What cruise ship job?” I asked as we sat down. Amber had dumped the contents of her backpack onto the floor in front of us and was busy setting up camp with all of her toys and coloring books.
“Dad didn’t tell you? They offered me a position as the head chef on a luxury cruise line,” Eliza grinned proudly. “It sounded exciting at first, and I thought it would be fun for Amber to get to go on a big ship and travel to different countries. But apparently, the crew’s quarters are really small, and then there are diseases to contend with. It’s a lot of people in an enclosed place, after all. I wouldn’t want Amber being exposed to all of that.”
“I don’t know if a job on a cruise ship is the greatest idea,” I frowned, thinking back to my own experience with cruise ships and ferries.
The last time I’d been on one, Junior had ended up with a concussion, and we’d both almost been mauled by wild animals. Of course, it wasn’t like those were things that happened every day on cruise ships, but the entire experience had shown me just how easy it was for criminals to smuggle illegal goods. There was no telling what or who could be lurking around in the bowels of a ship. “If something happens, then it’s not easy to get help quickly. It might not be the safest place for you and Amber.”
“That is true, isn’t it?” Eliza agreed as she looked down at Amber. “If we needed help for some reason, we’d be all the way out in the middle of the ocean. That’s kind of scary to think about. Not like here where we have you and dad to keep us safe.”
“Damn straight,” Harry nodded. “Better to stay right here where we can keep an eye on you. You know I worry about you and Amber living all alone out in California. Honestly, I wish you two would just move in here with me. I have enough room.” Eliza smiled and rolled her eyes. She and Harry had been through this conversation before, and by now, we all knew exactly what she would say.
“We’re fine, dad. We live in a really safe area, and Amber is about to start school. The only school up here is twenty-five minutes away, and it’s nowhere near as nice as the school out where we live.”
There was no hint of annoyance in her tone, even as she repeated her reasoning for what must have been the hundredth time. Eliza was amazing that way. She never seemed to lose her patience and was kind and generous to everyone she met. However, that kindness came with naivete. While Harry and I shared a cynical perspective and were naturally suspicious and cautious, Eliza embraced everything and everyone with open arms. Harry and I both constantly worried about her and Amber’s safety. She wasn’t stupid, but I knew better than anyone the kind of insidious people that lurked around every corner waiting to prey on people like her.
“Besides, Charlie’s only twenty minutes away if anything ever happens, which it never will,” she emphasized. “I know he’s got my back if I ever need him.” She was right about that. Even though we hadn’t gotten along when we’d first met, over the years, we’d grown close. Aside from Harry, Eliza and Amber were the only people in the world that I considered family. Even if we weren’t related by blood, I would do anything and everything I could to keep them safe.
“Uncle Charlie?” Amber suddenly chimed in from her position on the floor.
“Yeah, little monster?” I asked.
“Are you going to bring Junior over again soon?” She asked as she put down her crayons and sat up straight.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” I responded. Junior had come with me to Harry’s house on Thanksgiving and again for Christmas. Once Harry found out that Junior would be spending the holidays alone, he had insisted that Junior join us. He hadn’t been around since then, though. “Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering,” Amber shrugged before quickly gathering up some of her things and sprinting out of the room. Once she had left, Eliza started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“I think she has a crush on him,” Eliza whispered, glancing around to make sure Amber wouldn’t hear us.
“A crush?” Harry asked a little too loudly as his eyes went wide with disbelief. “What do you mean, a crush? She’s too young for that! She’s only four!”
“Calm down, dad,” Eliza giggled. “It’s just puppy love. I think he just reminds her of the prince characters in all those movies and shows she likes. You know how she is about princesses.” Harry frowned and continued to grumble about how she was way too young to be looking at boys.
“Anyway, what’s going on with you, Charlie?” Eliza asked, decisively changing the subject. “You’re heading out on a mission tomorrow, right? Where are you going?”
“Japan,” I answered before taking a sip of my beer.
“Ooh, that’s so exciting,” Eliza gasped with a wide-eyed expression that made her look just like Amber. “I’ve always wanted to go to Asia. Everything is just so different, you know?”
“Well, unfortunately, it’s not a pleasure visit,” I reminded her.
“Oh, don’t be such a wet blanket, Charlie!” Eliza chided, playfully shoving my shoulder. “You can set aside a bit of time to have fun while you’re there, can’t you?”
“Whatever you do, don’t forget to bring Amber something,” Harry interjected.
“Oh, yeah! That would be great,” Eliza nodded. “She really loved that necklace you brought her back from Greece. And if we can’t do the cruise ship, I’d love for her to get a bit of culture some other way.”
“Yeah, yeah, I won’t forget,” I responded, waving them away.
“So what’s on the menu for tonight, then, Eliza?” Harry asked, making no effort to keep the excitement out of his voice.
“I’m thinking of making some seafood gumbo,” Eliza hummed. “It’ll take a while to make, but it’ll be nice and warm. Plus, there’ll be plenty of leftovers for you, dad.”
“What did I do to be blessed with such a sweet daughter?” Harry cooed.
“Oh, stop it, dad,” Eliza rolled her eyes again. Amber came bounding back into the den a second later.
“Okay, the movie is ready!” She announced proudly.
“What movie?” I asked before finishing off the last of my beer.
“Part four of Sparkle Princess Heroes!” she yelled, holding the plastic movie casing toward me. “Remember we watched part three at your house, Uncle Charlie! Mommy bought me this one, and I said I wanted to wait to watch it with you. I already put it in Grandpa’s Blu-ray player, all by myself.”
; “All by yourself?” I asked exaggeratedly as I scooped her up off the floor and onto my shoulders. “There’s no way.”
“Yes, I did,” she grinned. It was cute how accomplished she looked. “So let’s all go downstairs to the movie room and watch it. Please?” I pretended to think about it for a moment before agreeing. She cheered, and I had to tighten my grip to keep her from falling off of my shoulders. The three of us decided to head into the basement which Harry had converted into an entertainment room. We spent the rest of the afternoon down there, except for Eliza, who would occasionally run back upstairs to check on the gumbo.
The sun had already set by the time I left, and I felt a little sad as I drove away. I really didn’t like how sentimental I’d suddenly become, but it was hard not to be after everything that happened. The thought of Harry suddenly receiving a call that I’d died, or of not being there for Eliza and Amber, made my blood run cold. I knew that I couldn’t let either of those things happen. Tomorrow, I would fly out to Japan, and I was determined to catch our guy and come back to my family.
15
Junior
As I buckled myself into my seat and turned to look out the window, I thought about how much I really hated flying. I liked watching as we took off and while we landed, but the actual flying part was absolutely arduous. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go at thirty-eight thousand feet. My usual tactic for passing the time was video games, but even that got boring after the first few hours. The flight to Japan was going to be sixteen hours long, and unlike Charlie, I did not possess the ability to sleep in bumpy, cramped places.
Knowing that I wouldn’t be getting any sleep, I decided to pull out my phone and play the language acquisition game I’d downloaded the day before. Even though I knew I probably wouldn’t retain much between now and whenever we landed, I wanted to learn as much Japanese as I could in that short amount of time. It had been extremely frustrating to have to rely on others to communicate while we were in Greece. Hopefully, I’d be able to learn enough to at least get around.
I’d actually been working on learning both Spanish and Chinese ever since our first case. After English, those were the two most widely spoken languages in the world, and I figured that they’d be the most likely to be useful in our travels. I had hoped that since Chinese and Japanese shared an alphabet, I’d have an easier time learning the latter, but unfortunately, I was wrong. Even though the alphabet was the same, each language used the characters differently. It felt like I had to relearn the same alphabet all over again. Ultimately, it ended up being harder since I kept mixing up the Chinese and Japanese meanings of each symbol.
After about an hour of studying, I got frustrated after mixing up a word for the third time in a row and closed the app. A few seats away, Charlie was sleeping like a rock, even though it was still nine in the morning. I glanced behind me toward the back of the plane to see if Fiona was asleep too since she hadn’t made a noise since we boarded. To my surprise, she was not only wide awake but was sitting up in her seat, ramrod straight. She looked extremely tense, and I wondered if she might still be feeling anxious from the attack at her house. I stood up and headed toward the back of the plane.
“Hey,” I murmured quietly as I sat down in the seat next to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied, leaning back in her chair as she did. “I’m just a little nervous. I’ve never been on a field mission before. I’ve never even been outside of Nevada before, and suddenly I’m on a plane to Japan. It feels weird like I might wake up any second and realize it was all a crazy dream.”
“I know how you feel,” I sighed, thinking back to my first overseas mission. Even though I’d been a federal agent for two years by the time I joined MBLIS, it was still so new and exciting to be investigating a crime so far from home. I still felt that way, even now. No matter how many cases we solved, there was always a feeling of trepidation at the unknown and excitement over what the day would bring. “You’ll do great, though. You’ll be staying back in the hotel, for the most part, basically doing what you do back home but in Japan. We just need you close by so that we can have any new leads looked into ASAP. You’ll be totally safe, and Charlie and I will be just a phone call away.” She seemed to relax as I spoke. Her shoulders weren’t as hunched, and her breath was evening out.
“You’re right,” she nodded resolutely. “I can do this. Wallace wouldn’t have asked me to come with you guys if I couldn’t. I can do this.” She smiled at me, and I smiled back encouragingly.
“How does he fall asleep so fast?” Fiona asked as she nodded toward Charlie. “I swear, I looked over as soon as we reached cruising level, and he was already out. We haven’t even been on the plane that long.”
“I wish I could do that,” I lamented. “We still have something like fourteen hours to go. I can’t sleep in a seated position or even hunched over as he does. It’s going to be brutal once we land, and we’ve been awake for so long.
“I have some movies on my laptop we could watch,” Fiona suggested as she reached into her bag to retrieve her laptop. “I brought it to work with me the day my house burned down, so at least that didn’t get lost.” She sounded sad as she spoke.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.
“Not really,” she sighed, shaking her head slowly. “I appreciate the offer, but it's okay. It was just stuff. I mean, my gaming PC is gone, and it’ll be a huge pain to replace all of my tech, but I managed to get Beau out in time. That’s all that really matters.”
“Beau?” I asked. She’d never mentioned anyone named Beau before.
“Oh, my dog,” she smiled. She scrolled through her phone for a moment before handing it to me. On the screen was a photo of a fluffy white dog with fur so thick I could barely make out its eyes and nose against the fur on its face.
“He’s my baby,” she informed me. “He was home alone when I got to the house. Thank goodness the bedroom hadn’t caught fire yet by the time I got there. Nelson’s watching him for me while we’re in Japan.”
“I’m glad you were able to get him out,” I said, handing her phone back to her. I didn’t have any pets, and I couldn’t imagine how scary it must have been for her to come home and realize he was trapped inside a burning house.
“Me too,” she smiled as she put her phone away. “But anyway, enough of me being gloomy. I have a terabyte’s worth of movies on here, so take your pick.”
“Did you obtain all these movies legally?” I asked as I took the laptop from her and set it on the tray table in front of me.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to,” she smiled. “Do you think we should use headphones? I don’t want to wake Charlie up.”
“Nah,” I shook my head as I scrolled through her extensive collection. There really was a bit of everything in here. “He’ll sleep through anything. On our last flight, we had some pretty bad turbulence, and I accidentally shattered a drinking glass. He slept through it all.”
Fiona laughed before leaning against me so that we could both see the laptop screen.
We landed in Narita many hours later, and it shocked me to discover that I had actually managed to fall asleep in the middle of our fourth movie. I winced as I sat up straight. I wasn’t sure exactly how long I’d been asleep, but it had clearly been a few hours. My neck and back were now aching as a result of being locked into such an uncomfortable position for such a long time.
“Hey Junior, finally up?” Fiona called from the front of the plane where she was sitting with Charlie. “I’m teaching Charlie how to play War Race.”
She smirked as she said this, and I knew it was at Charlie’s expense. Fiona and I had initially bonded over our shared interest in video games, and I knew that War Race was extremely difficult, even for skilled players.
“What the hell? Why didn’t it die?” Charlie grumbled angrily. “I shot right at it!”
“You have to make sure to charge your attack. Otherwise, you won’t
do any damage,” Fiona explained as she tried to explain the mechanics of the game to Charlie.
“Eh, screw this,” Charlie grumbled as he shut off the game and closed the laptop. “We’re here, so let’s just get going.”
Fiona glanced back at me, and I couldn’t help smiling back. It was kind of funny seeing Charlie get all riled up over something as innocuous as a video game.
By the time we made it off of the plane and through the airport, it was already past ten in the evening, thanks to the time difference. We realized that the trains would stop running in less than an hour, so we hastily made our way down into the lowest level of the airport. There was a train station there, and if we hurried, we would make it in time for the last train of the night.
Luckily for us, Nelson had arranged everything for us before we even left. We already had money, so we wouldn’t need to stop to exchange any, and our phones were equipped to take international calls since the nature of our jobs required us to travel so much. We made it down into the underground station just in time to purchase train passes and board the train to Shinjuku. Since that was where the electronics shop was located, we’d decided to get a hotel there so we could begin investigating right away.
It was eerily quiet this time of night. Everything I’d researched about Japan had led me to believe that the country was a fast-paced, crowded place completely brimming with people. It felt strange to board a nearly empty train. I’d never ridden in a subway or bullet train before, so the experience was very new to me.
By the time we got to Shinjuku, it was already eleven. Even so, there were still people milling around on the street. It was a surprising sight, as even back in Las Vegas, there weren’t always this many people around during the day, let alone at night. We were scheduled to meet with the local police the next morning, so for now, all we had to do was get to our hotel and get some sleep.
We were disappointed to discover that the bus that would have taken us to the street our hotel was on had stopped running at eight pm. We tried to arrange a taxi, but after several minutes of struggling to figure out how to find one, we decided to just walk. Our hotel was only a twenty-minute walk from the train station, and I was secretly glad to have the opportunity to look around the city.
