A plate of spanakopita for his lunch was all Reuben had asked for in the small café outside his temporary home. Having arrived in the morning after an overnight ferry ride from Santorini, he had taken the bus from the terminal to his rental flat, greeted his landlady, and then taken a nap.

By the time he awoke, it was past two o’clock in the afternoon.

After the late lunch, he went to a local electronics shop to find the cheapest smartphone he could afford. Then he walked home to charge up the battery and read the small print on the instruction manual.

A few hours later, on a wooden bench under a tree in a courtyard, he tried to bash two things together: the manual and the phone.

Busy pushing buttons he didn’t understand, it had taken a while for Reuben to notice that a shadow had settled in front of him.

He looked up.

And was surprised to see her.

Helen Hu.

“I need your help, Reuben. How much do you charge per hour?”

Reuben pointed to the other end of the bench. “Please do sit.”

“I don’t have time.”

“You need a breather.”

“I don’t have time to…”

“Breathe?” Reuben patted the bench again. “Exactly. Two minutes and we’ll go find your mom, okay? In fact, that was why I bought this phone. I was trying to text you.”

“You don’t have my number.”

“Actually, I do. Your mom gave it to me.”

“But you didn’t have a phone.”

“I still don’t, at this time. I’m about to hurl this into the trash can.” He almost meant it. Perhaps technology wasn’t for him. He usually left those kinds of things to paid employees who worked for Father.

“Shall we see what we can salvage?” Helen opened her palm out.

“It’s in Greek.”

“To you?” She laughed.

“It’s really in Greek.” At the corner of his eye, Reuben spotted a black car drive by beyond the low brick fence and black wrought-iron gates.

“Oh. Switch to English, please? I’m illiterate in Greek.”

Reuben did as Helen asked, and handed over the phone and manual to Helen. The manual had several languages on it. Regardless of the language, Reuben couldn’t set up his phone.

“You don’t have Wi-Fi,” Helen said. “What you wanted to set up requires it.”

“Why what?”

Helen rolled her eyes. “You also don’t have enough bandwidth to download anything.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you can only use this phone as a dumb phone.”

“Dumb?” Reuben laughed. Then he spotted another black car drive by. It seemed to be the same size as the first one a couple of minutes ago.

“To make phone calls,” Helen said. “That’s all you can do.”

“What about sending messages?”

“Says here that texting will cost you money.”

“No wonder the phone was cheap. The plan was cheap too. I guess I didn’t realize there were add-ons.” He packed away the phone. “I’ll return it to the shop.”

“How do you make phone calls, then?”

Reuben didn’t answer. He looked past Helen toward the gate and brick wall. Through the gate, he could see the vehicle’s side.

It’s that black car again.

This time the car slowed down. Something glinted through the window.

“Get down!” Reuben yanked Helen’s hand. They both went down on the ground.

He pointed to the back door of the apartment complex. “Can you get to the door?”

“Crawling?” Helen pointed to her skirt.

Why one earth would she be wearing a skirt today?

“You’ll skin your knees on the concrete floor.” He heard two car doors open and shut.

“Run!” He grabbed Helen’s hand, and they rushed toward the building door, heads down, almost duck-walking, just as shots rang out.

Pushing Helen into the house, Reuben slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Whoa. What was that?” Helen followed him down the dark hallway.

“I don’t know. But we have to get out of here.” He reached for the keys to his landlady’s car. His landscaping lorry didn’t have the power to outrun a car.

“Did anyone follow you?” Reuben asked as they ran down the steps on the other side of the building, toward a busy street where the landlady’s car was parked.

“Not sure.”

“Not paying attention?”

“I’m usually not followed.”

“So it could be me then.” He unlocked the car door. “They could be coming after me.”

Helen climbed in. “Why?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

They buckled in and sped off.

In the rearview mirror, Reuben saw two men coming out of the back of the building. He had no idea who they were or what they wanted.

The black car came up behind the men, and they climbed in.

“God help us,” Reuben muttered as he merged into traffic, trying to get away from the black car now coming after them.

Helen glanced back. She probably saw the same thing. “Who are they?”

“I’m not sure I want to find out.”

Helen was on her phone when Reuben turned a corner. “We go to the police station.”

She nodded. Texted and nodded again.

“Who are you sending a message to?” Reuben asked.

“Why? Do you have to know?”

“Please tell me you called the police.” Reuben waited for an answer.

“I sent out an SOS.” She paused. “You’ll need to call your landlady when we get to the police station. She could report a missing car.”

“Yeah.” Reuben tried to change lanes. Traffic was getting heavy.

Not being used to driving around town except in his landscaping lorry—which followed a regular route—he now made a wrong turn. The police station was in the opposite direction.

“Let’s see…” Helen tapped her phone several times. “Nearest police station.”

“Your phone can do that?”

“It’s only a map.” Helen shrugged. “We still have to follow instructions.”

As if on cue, the map program spoke. “Make a U-turn as soon as you can.”

Reuben heard the phone loudly and clearly. “I’m trying!”

A car swerved in front of him.

Reuben slammed on the brakes. He looked in the rearview mirror and spotted the black car coming toward them at a high speed.

Before Reuben could tell Helen to get out of their car, the black car rammed them.

The airbags deployed.