Page 86 of Once a Hero

On the second morning of his rest and relaxation, Jake checked in on Earl, who was chilling out in a beach house on Tybee Island.

“I think yours is a better deal,” Jake said on FaceTime.

On the screen, Earl was reclining on a deck lounger, sunglasses over his eyes. Jake could hear the ocean behind the phone and every now and then, seabirds.

As for Jake, he was sitting on his bed, his back propped by a couple of pillows. Near the bed, the doors and windows opened to the blue morning sky over Charleston. He could hear the clip-clop of horses and smell them coming up the road.

“I earned it, my friend.” Earl pointed to his stomach. “I almost died.”

“You didn’t almost die.”

“Well, I still earned it.”

“Is Helen giving you some paperwork to do to keep you busy?” Jake asked.

“Paperwork? Are you kidding me? No.” Earl laughed. “What about you?”

“I’m supposed to stick close to my new friends, and try not to get shot.”

“Good assignment. Tell me what she’s like.”

“She who?”

“Beatrice Glynn.”

Ah. Where to begin? “There are still things I don’t know about her.”

“She at the same hotel?”

“No, actually. She didn’t say, but I’m assuming she goes home to where her brother lives. I don’t know where that place is.”

“I can dig around,” Earl offered.

“You’re on sick leave.”

“So? It beats paperwork.”

“All right. Keep it on the down low.”

“Sure thing. So she lives somewhere near Charleston. The others? That Ken dude and the Ninja woman?”

Jake shook his head. “I didn’t ask. I’m assuming they have their own places they go home to whenever they’re in town. This is their base of operation.”

“They have a museum or something?”

“Well, not exactly. It’s an office with a lab attached to it. They scan and x-ray artifacts, plus whatever else they do there. She gave me a brief tour, but it’s a lot to take in.”

“A lot? You’re saying it’s a big lab.”

“It’s more like a warehouse that they turned into a lab. There’s a storage area and she showed me some old music boxes—like from the nineteenth century—that they’re trying to restore. Parts and pieces everywhere.”

“Music boxes. Does she collect them?”

“She likes them, yes.” Jake adjusted a pillow behind his head. “That’s something new about her that I didn’t know. She says her brother collects puzzle boxes and she collects music boxes.”

“She didn’t show you any that work?”

“Nope. They’re probably at her house somewhere.” Jake was curious about where she lived, but he knew he wasn’t ready to go that far yet.

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