Page 73 of Once a Hero

She didn’t want to correct him. It would invite more questions about her feelings for Jake.

“If Dad were here, he’d probably say that we need to work on patience and not desperation,” Benjamin said.

“Ben, you don’t know what he would say. It has been twenty-five years since we last saw him.”

“My observation still stands. Are you desperate?”

“No.”

“Making yourself bait is not desperate?”

Bait.

An ugly word.

“We have hidden for twenty-five years from Molyneux.” He would never call her Mom again. “If we’re patient, we’ll defeat her sooner or later. There’s no need to rush.”

“Eureka was the closest we got to her,” Beatrice explained. “My best guess is that they didn’t know we were following Jake, and when they realized it, they had no idea who we were. We were sort of a ragtag group in a plumber van.”

Beatrice admitted that giving herself away had accelerated the problem. She didn’t know whether her team had the wherewithal to handle the sudden turn of events.

“Like they say, what’s done is done.” Benjamin threw up his hands in the air.

Beatrice laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“We’re repeating a phrase with dubious origin. Who are thetheywho said that first?”

“Yeah. We say things we don’t understand fully. It could be a parody for all we know.” Benjamin drew a deep breath. “In any case, thank God that you’re alive.”

“I’ll talk to you again before we reach Paris.”

“I still can’t believe all the things that happened to you in the last couple of days,” Benjamin said. “Most of all, I can’t believe Ken rigged the brooch. It could’ve killed you if it had exploded in your pocket.”

“We had to use the magic words to activate it.” Beatrice meant for it to be a joke, but neither of them laughed. Life and death were serious matters.

“And then the brooch box. Whose idea was it to rig that?”

“Well, it was my idea to make it a GPS, but it wasn’t an original idea. I had read about the Petros eggs that Helen and her mother uncovered. You remember that? They had GPS on them.”

“Thereby destroying the value of the set of eggs.”

“And saving the lives of Helen and her mother.”

“So you think if it worked then, it would work now.”

“No harm trying.”

Benjamin made a face. “I should have been there with you to keep you safe.”

“God kept us safe.”

“I know, but I could have been part of the team on the ground.”

“You can join us in Paris.”

“Ah.” He looked disturbed, as though he had been asked to do the impossible. “I’ll try.”

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