Page 61 of Once a Hero

“Don’t mention it.” Beatrice turned to Kenichi and Raynelle. “You two make quite a pair. One broken arm and one broken leg.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” Raynelle said.

“I knew you’d say that. Don’t. We did the best we could given the circumstances.” Beatrice drew a deep breath, hoping she wouldn’t cry over Dad again. “We keep moving forward. By the way, I talked to Benjamin. He wants us to go home.”

“May I come along?” Jake asked.

“What about your partner upstairs? When are they releasing him?” Beatrice didn’t want to invite him to continue the mission with her without a contract for him to sign. She hadn’t thought about liabilities, compensations, and all the other things that would make him a permanent member of her team.

“In a couple of days.”

“Don’t you want to stay with him?”

“Nah. Helen is letting him fly first class home as soon as he can, but Earl seems to think he needs to stay here a bit longer. He has some internal damages to his stomach from the gunshot wound.”

“I’m sorry.” Beatrice meant it.

“He’ll recover. As for me, I think I can keep going, like you said just now.”

“I meant myteamwould keep going forward.”

“Am I not on your team? I wore the plumber’s shirt, didn’t I? We’re practically friends. Or maybe more than friends.”

He said it so casually that Beatrice wondered what he was thinking.

“I could sweeten the deal,” Jake said. “Helen is offering a jet to fly to Europe.”

“We have our own.”

“Don’t you want to save on fuel cost? Let someone else pay for it?”

“My jet, my schedule.”

“Okay. Makes sense.” Jake seemed to be in deep thought. “What about access to data?”

“What kind of data?”

“Helen has a team who have been tracking Molyneux for a couple of years. We could combine forces.”

Beatrice waited for her people to comment.

Raynelle was nonchalant.

All Kenichi did was widen his eyes.

“You got something to say about it?” Beatrice asked.

“I don’t want to sway your decision, but I want to see what Helen has in their tracking system,” Kenichi said. “They hunt for treasure too sometimes.”

Beatrice turned to Jake. “Would Helen allow us access to the system or is she just sending us reports of her findings?”

Jake moved his leg and winced. “Well, I’m non-tech, so she just sends me stuff. But I’m sure we can talk about access.”

“Even limited access is fine,” Kenichi said. “We can reciprocate at whatever level she offers.”

“Benjamin’s computer database is off limits,” Beatrice reminded everyone. “Besides we’re already reciprocating if we let Jake here get a ride with us.”

Jake cheered.

---