Page 97 of Once a Hero

“If your father is still alive…”

Benjamin seemed to consider it. “It’s true that Molyneux has tried to kill him twice, and if he still had not died…”

“Someone left the postcard and key in the California cabin,” Jake reminded everyone. “Someone gave Philomena the two brooches to sell to me.”

“We have many unresolved mysteries.” Benjamin got up from his chair to get more water from a trolley by the wall. Against the wall was a tall mirror. Through the mirror, he seemed to be looking directly at Jake.

“How is the circuit board coming along?” Jake asked. “What is it? What does it say? What does it do?”

“I have no answer for you. It seems like a dead end. Would you like more water?”

“Yes, please.” Jake asked him to leave the jug of water on the table. “I’m gathering that if we put together what we have so far, they would lead us to Molyneux, and there is where we’ll find Beatrice.”

“Obviously.”

“Is it? The postcard is a dead end. The golden key, likewise. We have one brooch short of a complete set. We don’t have the original brooch box. The fake brooch box is flying out there somewhere in the world.”

Benjamin grinned. “If Bee were here, she’d tell you to stop being so negative.”

“I’m not negative. I was merely stating the facts.”

“She tells me I’m negative all the time. Maybe this was ruse to get me out of the house.” Benjamin sat down in his chair again. “Since I can’t leave the house, you have to go in my place.”

“Me?” Jake realized now that it was the reason Benjamin had invited him over.

“I’m assuming you do want to rescue Bee.”

“But we don’t know where she is.”

“We will soon know. Ken is working on it. He’s built quite a friendship with those hackers from Binary Systems. Plus, Ken has his own network of specialists. The whole world is looking for my sister.”

His words sounded cold, but Jake could feel the compassion. Benjamin truly loved his sister. He would leave the house for her if he could.

Jake leaned forward, elbows on the conference table. “I’ll go if you go too.”

Sitting on the other side of the table, Ansel looked up, concern on his face—like the concern of an older man for his ward. Ansel was about Jake’s dad’s age. Maybe in his fifties. Probably retired military. Here for one purpose only: to protect the Glynn family.

“Thank you for the invitation, but I can’t.” Benjamin’s eyes were steel gray.

“I learned that if I don’t go forward, I may regret it the rest of my life,” Jake said. “I have many stories of regret if you want to hear them.”

“Spare me.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Beatrice had no idea if she was still in the United States or outside. Abducted in Charleston, where could they have taken her in a matter of hours?

Practically anywhere in the whole wide world.

She wished she had left a trail of some sort for Benjamin and Jake to find her.

Jake.

Oh, Jake.

Beatrice prayed that Jake would recover from that blow to his head back at the lab. As the weapons were pointed at their heads, Beatrice had felt a prick in her neck just as she saw Jake collapse on the floor. The rest of her memory had faded to black, and she had woken up here, in some vehicle.

It was dark all around her, but from the way the vehicle moved, Beatrice guessed she was inside a van of some sort—not dissimilar to the vans she, Kenichi, and Raynelle drove around in California. This one smelled of grease and gunpowder, a strange combination to her nostrils.

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