Encore Job
The other end of his phone stayed silent.
“Now?”
“Yes, now. And yes, Tokyo as in Japan,” Aidan answered the next question before Jack could ask it.
“Skylar’s been in Japan for two months now. Can’t he deal with it?” Judging by his frequent texts, Skylar felt he’d landed the jackpot working with Tempest, despite Japan’s muggy summer heat.
“Wake the fuck up, Horwood. Who do you think asked me for help?”
“Can’t you send Gallant?” Jack was whining openly now, hiding the fact that he was out of bed and headed for the dressing room that held his clothes and luggage.
“Skylar needs a hacker, not a burglar. And stop fucking stalling. You’re worse than a four-year-old.”
“You should have brought me coffee. I’m more cooperative when I’ve had coffee.”
“Wake up Flynn and ask him to give you some.”
“Great idea. But I thought you wanted me at the airport.”
“Horwood…” the threat in Aidan’s voice made Jack grin, but before he could think of ways to rile the other further, Gareth took the phone from his hand.
“He’s half asleep and an arse. Ignore him,” Gareth told Aidan, then proceeded to ask all the questions Jack hadn’t bothered with.
“You have time for a shower and a cup of coffee,” he said when he ended the call.
“Pack for a fortnight. Bring your tools. Don’t forget your passport.
Taxi’s gonna be at the door in thirty and Conrad will meet you in the Mezzanine restaurant in Terminal 5.
He’ll feed you breakfast and tell you what you need to know.
You can pass out again when you’re on the plane. “
“You’re so fucking funny, Flynn. Remind me of the last time I slept on a plane?”
Jack turned away, knowing Gareth had no ammunition to answer his challenge.
When they’d served together, Jack had struggled to sleep at all, and a plane would have been the last place where he’d try.
And the flights between London and Kiruna—the only flights they’d taken together as a couple—had only lasted three hours.
“Did Conrad say anything more constructive?”
“No.” Gareth wrapped his arms around Jack’s waist and pulled him backwards into a brief hug. “Only that Skylar has need of your skills. Oh, and something about blasted blackmailers.”
“Blackmail? Someone has dirt on Skylar or on Skylar’s rock star?”
“No idea.” Gareth’s voice rumbled in his ear. “And you’re stalling.”
“True.”
“Why? I thought you’d jump at the chance to fly to Japan.”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Jack scrubbed his palms over his face and up into his hair until he could grab hold of the strands and yank.
The sting woke him a bit more, and he sighed in relief.
His favourite remedy for myriad ills still worked now that his hair was long enough once more.
“I’m not sure what bugs me most. That it’s three in the morning and Conrad is stingy with the details, that I’m walking into this blind and not knowing what’s expected of me, or that we can’t all go together. ”
“Not a lot on your mind, then.”
Gareth tightened his arms and Jack let himself lean. He breathed deep and slow, not surprised to feel Gareth’s fingertips soothe along the lower edge of his ribs, helping him let go. Out of all the points he’d listed, the last one bugged him the most.
He loved what he’d never even imagined: an ordinary family life most people took for granted. “It’s been a few years since I was last in Japan, and Conrad is leaving me no time to make a decent shopping list!” he mock-growled, knowing Gareth would catch his drift.
They’d learned to talk, not just share information, had almost stopped second-guessing each other, and only rarely jumped to conclusions.
In the months since they’d moved into their house, they’d found middle ground between their work and their personal lives, between protecting Nico and Daniel and giving them room to grow.
Their relationship was solid and gave them both what they needed—and Jack hated stepping away from it for even a short time.
“Stop whining.”
The nip to his ear and the swat to his backside didn’t surprise him. He’d become accustomed to Gareth’s way of stopping him from disappearing into his own head. It worked, too.
“And since you keep telling me you can’t sleep on planes, you have hours to construct your shopping list. Here’s your first item: I want recipes. Proper ones. Traditional dishes, the older the better. And ingredients so I can try cooking them.”
On his past trips, Jack had gone shopping for music, manga, electronics, tabi socks, and kendo gear.
Knowing Gareth, he had expected requests for knives or Japanese whisky, but he could deal with those himself.
Recipes and ingredients, though… He wondered which of his Japanese contacts might know the most about traditional food, and—in no time at all—he found himself showered and dressed for travel, with a carry-on packed, and ready to leave.
Taking that last step was hard. Jack hugged Nico and Daniel, who’d appeared as though he’d summoned them despite the early hour.
He dropped a kiss on Gareth’s cheek, the situation too reminiscent of him leaving Gareth to go undercover to hunt a drug dealer.
“I have my laptop,” he said, voice hurried.
“My phone works in Japan. If you need anything…”
“Do you really think we’ll forget about you while you’re out of sight?” Nico sounded affronted. “And after you’ve given me a job?”
“I don’t think that. No. I just—”
“Your taxi is here,” Gareth interrupted the brewing argument. “Go and come back. And don’t worry, we’ll keep you looped into the local mayhem.”
Jack swallowed, took comfort from Gareth’s tight hug, and left.
Jack recovered his equilibrium on the drive to the airport.
This early traffic was negligible, and the taxi deposited him at the entrance to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 in record time.
The departure area was without the usual crush, most check-in counters still closed.
And only a couple of restaurants had opened to early travellers in search of breakfast. Aidan had chosen the one on the mezzanine floor and a table that gave them a view of the departure hall below.
“I’m still hoping this is some idiotic joke,” Jack groused as he slid into the free seat opposite Aidan. “Since when do you take on rock star clients? In Japan, of all places?”
“Since Skylar’s dangling out there like bait on a string. We look after our own. I thought you understood that.”
“I do. Believe me, I do.” Jack drained his first cup of coffee and topped it up with more. Smart of Conrad to order a whole pot. “Full English, please,” Jack said, when the waiter appeared beside him, “with extra sausages. Toast and jam. And more coffee, please.”
“Trying to put yourself in a food coma?”
“Since you woke me before I’d properly fallen asleep, you get to feed me.”
“As if I wouldn’t do that anyway.”
They drank their coffee in silence until the waiter brought their breakfast. People trickled into the restaurant in ones and twos, yawning and dragging carry-ons.
The announcements for check-ins began, and Jack enjoyed seeing the place on the cusp of waking.
It turned his mad dash here into almost an adventure.
“Now. You say you need a hacker as if we’re a rare commodity. There are a bunch of exceptional hackers in Japan. I can give you a friggin’ list.”
“That’s not the point.” Aidan dragged fingers through his hair, pulling out the tie that secured the long strands at his nape. “Skylar was walking me through the mess he’s landed in and… I just had this feeling.”
Jack set his cutlery down, the sudden lump of ice in his gut distracting him from his breakfast. “You had a feeling.”
“Yeah. Alex said you’ve been out there on assignment, made useful contacts in the right places.”
“You think it’s that sort of trouble? The service kind?”
“I don’t know. Skylar says it’s messy and when he says that…” Aidan ticked points off on his fingers. “Tempest, that’s the star, was sent to have a private dinner with a sponsor, patron, media someone, and the guy tried to… you know…”
“Have sex with him?” Jack suggested, amused by Aidan’s reluctance to discuss bedroom activities in plain language when he had no such scruples while questioning witnesses in court.
“If you want to call it that when the guy drugged Tempest and tried to use force.”
“Rape, then,” Jack said. “Tempest had bodyguards, I assume?”
“Yes. They got him to a hospital, and the whole kaboosh was hushed up.”
“Then what does Skylar need help with? He can handle a sick bastard if the Japanese don’t want to do it themselves.”
Aidan shook his head. “There’s more to it than a sick bastard. Someone’s trying to extort Tempest’s record company by threatening to kidnap fans.”
Jack didn’t drop his cup. Neither did he throw it. He set it down with the utmost care and shot his fiercest glare at the man sitting opposite. “Who told you?”
Had Aidan tried even a hint of deflection, Jack would have stood and walked away.
But, of course, Conrad was better than that.
“Told me what? Alex said you’ve been to Japan on assignment for your previous employer.
I don’t know why, or what you did with whom.
But when Skylar mentioned the blackmail threat, Alex told me to call you. ”
Jack had no reason to think Conrad was lying, and yet… His trip to help Skylar had just turned into a chance to settle old scores.
From his expression, Aidan guessed as much. “Alex said you had unfinished business. That you might relish the chance to… tidy up. Was she wrong?”
Jack returned to his breakfast. “No. She isn’t wrong. I went to help investigate a spate of high-profile kidnappings. Victims snatched from concerts and fan events.”
“Kidnap for ransom?”
“At first. Then they started killing. Cases all over the world.”
“How far did you get with the case?” Aidan took a sip from his own coffee. “I assume you didn’t get to the bottom of it.”
“We were trying to identify the kidnappers. Analyse data from all cases, find commonalities and patterns, but we caught a live case while I was there. We managed to rescue the victim, but—”
“But what?”
Jack hated having to answer that question. “We never got far enough to catch the kidnappers or identify their backers. Task force broke apart.”
Aidan nodded like someone familiar with team dynamics. “Recriminations? Politics? Or too many egos in the room?”
“All the above.” Jack had been happy to stay and keep working. Gatting had made sure they were recalled. “Akane,” he said.
“Come again?”
“It wasn’t Skylar who asked for me, was it? It was Sakurai Akane.”
“Damn, you’re good.” Aidan looked so dismayed, Jack guessed he’d lost a bet with Alex. “I don’t know who she is, but you’re right. Skylar says she suggested he call you.”
“Akane’s one of the sneakiest hackers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. She was police when we worked together, but she’s intelligence now. They give her more scope to use her steel-trap mind.”
“You kept in touch.”
“We did.” They shared news and exploits and the last time they’d met face to face, they’d trained together in Akane’s father’s dojo.
Tokaji-sensei had helped Jack realise where he’d made the wrong choice.
And Jack, in his turn, had helped Akane see beyond the limitations of Japanese society and consider a job that challenged all of her.
Jack didn’t have a large circle of friends, but he counted Akane amongst them.
“How is Akane involved in Skylar’s problems? ”
“I don’t know. I’m assuming Skylar has his hands full with his job and doesn’t have the bandwidth to investigate kidnapping cases.”
“Fair enough.” Jack had only the vaguest idea what all Skylar’s job as “stylist to Tempest’s Asia tour” involved, but he imagined it was manic. “What—precisely—do you want me to do, then?”
“I can’t answer that one, either. Take out sleazebags? Solve the kidnappings? I only know they want your help.”
“Make it up as I go, is that what I’m hearing?”
“Pretty much. Fly in, talk Skylar off the ledge, come home would also work for me.”
“Right.” Jack leaned back to let their server clear the empty plates, mentally sorting through Aidan’s briefing. He checked his watch, realised he had time before he had to board his flight. Time to check in with Akane. Time to retrieve his notes from the kidnapping case.
Then he’d have twelve hours to read, remember, and make plans.
“I know this isn’t an ideal situation,” Aidan began and stopped when Jack shook his head.
“Akane wouldn’t call if she didn’t think I could help. And if I can help, then going is worthwhile. Let’s leave it there, and I’ll keep you in the loop.”
“Thank you.” The relief on Aidan’s face was almost comical, but Jack kept that thought to himself.