“What the hell do they want?” Dani turned to Luke. The mic on her headset was connected to the headsets everyone in the helicopter wore, so private conversations were out. Luke decided to concentrate on putting on his shoes and socks, not exactly keen on having a discussion everyone could hear.

“They want the USB!” Edwin shouted into the mic. Marcus turned the little craft east and laid on the speed.

Luke’s head shot up. “West! Head west” he shouted, casting an uneasy glance behind them. The mansion was already lost in the trees.

Marcus looked at Edwin and raised an eyebrow. “Airport’s east.” He shook his head, shooting a glance at Luke that said he clearly thought his passenger was crazy.

“Yeah, and if the cops saw a helicopter, they’ll figure out we went to the airport. There’s police helicopters there, too. We need to go west.”

Edwin turned to Marcus, and after a long moment the older man nodded. Marcus spun the copter in a lazy arc and headed into the sunset. “What’s west?”

“Katie melted the stick,” Luke said, tying his shoe and straightening. Dani was still lacing her left boot. “If you had tennis shoes you’d be done by now.”

She shot him a look, her eyes half hidden by a curtain of long blond hair, still wet from the shower. “You in a hurry?”

He looked at the helicopter and the two men in the front seat. “Yes!”

She paused for a moment and shrugged, conceding the point.

“Wait, what?” Edwin spun around in his seat. “What do you mean ‘melted’?”

“She put it in the microwave,” Dani said, finishing her laces and sitting back. “Is that why you came back? For that?” Edwin said nothing, and Dani barked a laugh. “I should have known. You didn’t care about me. You don’t care about anyone. You’re just trying to save your own skin.”

Luke reached for her hand. Her fingers were cold.

“I tried to save you from the wedding,” Edwin shot back. “Marcus killed Katie to save you. We tried to pull you to freedom. You refused!”

“I wasn’t going to leave without Luke!”

“What?” Luke looked between them. “You came back for me?”

“Where am I going?” Marcus jerked a finger at the city skyline. “There’s a lot of empty that way.”

“You mean you could have left without me? You risked your life?”

“I told you he showed up at the wedding!” Dani said over the thrum of the engines, “And that one shot Katie!” She jerked a thumb at Marcus, who wiggled his fingers in a half wave.

“Destination?”

“May I remind you he saved your life!” Edwin shouted, apparently forgetting that they were all wearing headphones and could hear him just fine. Three people simultaneously winced.

“Where. Are. We. Going?”

“And what the hell did you mean about my mother? She’s dead!” Dani screamed as the helicopter dropped and rose again, slamming them into their seats.

“I said,” Marcus answered calmly when everyone turned to look at him, everyone except Dani white-knuckling the armrests. “Where am I going?”

The other three looked at each other, then as one Edwin and Dani turned to face Luke.

“Have enough gas to Orlando?”

“No,” Marcus said, “but there’s a truck stop on the south side of town.”

Dani blinked. “You planning on getting gas at a truck stop?”

Marcus turned the machine south and kept it low. Luke noted he was trying to stay under the horizon; police helicopters and small aircraft would have a harder time seeing him if the light wasn’t behind him. It was a smart move, and Luke’s estimation of the man rose a notch. Dani stared outside, her gaze never leaving the ever-changing scenery as the world zipped past the open the door.

Edwin, on the other hand, was nearly hysterical.

“What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us all killed?”

Dani sighed and turned to stare at her father, arms crossing. “Dad! It’s okay, just relax.”

Edwin turned to her slowly, staring at her in a sort of dazed wonder. “You haven’t called me that in years.”

Dani shifted in her seat, and stared at the ceiling as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world suddenly. “Yeah, well... it worked, didn’t it? Now shut up and let the man fly.”

The sun was nearly below the trees by the time they got to the place Marcus had chosen. A huge neon sign split the darkness, advertising an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet and Diesel Fried Chicken. They also seemed inordinately proud of their public scale and their showers.

Just past the truck stop, as the last of the sunset leached away into the darkness, Marcus set the bird down in the shallow courtyard of a U-shaped building. Luke had a momentary loss of breath when he saw the narrow area Marcus had chosen, but he set it down with almost surgical precision.

“Air Force?” he asked through the head set when he could breathe again.

“Navy,” Marcus corrected, drawing himself up with a certain pride.

“Where the hell are we?” Edwin demanded, leaning forward, trying to see the building in the semi-darkness.

“It’s an old motel,” Marcus said as he shut down the engines. The loud copter had strangely gone unnoticed. No police cars tore up to block off the open end of the courtyard. No curious onlookers rushed over from the truck stop. The building around it was deserted. Luke wasn’t sure where this was in relation to the city, but it had to be rather remote; all the windows in the old motel were still intact. A miracle in this day and age. “We should be able to get something at the truck stop,” he said, shutting down.

“How did you know about this place?” Dani asked him while climbing out.

“None of your business,” Marcus replied shortly, and Luke looked at her.

He mouthed the words ‘No-Tell-Motel’ and Dani’s eyes grew larger and she covered her mouth, not quite successful in her attempts to stifle a sudden attack of the giggles. “Him?” she whispered. Her face crumpled up in a mixture of merriment and disgust.

“Yeah, whatever,” Marcus said, stepping down onto the cracked pavement with as much dignity as a man could muster when trying to exit a helicopter. “I was young once, you know?”

“Sorry,” Dani mumbled, and to Luke’s complete shock she really did sound humbled.

“Someone care to tell me what’s going on?” Edwin shot out from behind. The three of them hadn’t realized he’d fallen back. Although Marcus was close in age to his employer, he had obviously kept the physique that he’d gotten in the military, or at least had maintained a semblance of it. Edwin, whose FBI record reflected a brush with a little football in junior high, had no particular shape to maintain.

They stopped to let him catch up.

“What was on that stick anyway?” Luke asked.

“Does it matter?” Edwin said, his expression lost in the darkness. “If it’s destroyed, then it’s all over and there’s not much point anymore.” He bent at the waist, and held himself upright by bracing his hands on his knees while he struggled to catch his breath. “We should probably just split up now. Call it a loss.”

“Running away again?” Dani sniped at him, hands on hips, not looking like she was going to forgive him anytime soon. For anything.

“Yes, dear.” Edwin took on the tone of a man patiently explaining to a small child the thing that should have been obvious. “That is what we have been doing for a half hour now, running away.”

“No! No, you don’t get to bring up my dead mother like she’s waiting for me and then split again! All this,” she waved her arms, indicating the darkness, the motel, the truck stop, and everything she’d been through, “ALL of this is because you ran away!”

“HEY!” Luke yelled over her, before Edwin could scream back, “Might I just say ONE WORD please?”

“WHAT?” Dani yelled.

“BUFFET!” Luke yelled back at her, pointing to the monstrous orange sign flickering in the darkness just over an entire fleet of parked semis. “I’m starving.” He turned and headed to the truck stop.

Marcus stopped and stared at the sign as though it were something holy, and turned to Edwin. “I’ll be taking my lunch break now, sir,” he said.

Luke smiled without looking around. He could hear Marcus running to catch up to him and then, after a moment, Dani’s light steps as she jogged to catch them both.

They crossed the street and waited there for Edwin to catch up again.

“Damn, please let them have beer,” he huffed as soon as he joined them. The three of them looked at each other and left him there to catch up on his own time.

The buffet had the standard truck stop four food groups: Starch, Salt, Grease, Sugar. Edwin piled his plate high, Dani poked at some wilted iceberg lettuce, and Luke and Marcus both risked the fried chicken.

“What’s on the USB?” Luke asked Edwin again as they sat around a table that wobbled dangerously to one side, and had enough food stains on the tablecloth so as to render the menu unnecessary.

“Is?”

Luke said nothing.

Edwin sighed. “The destruction of kings,” he said quietly after a long minute, his gaze distant as though seeing something magical a long, long way away. “Several secretaries, ministers...”

“Priests and admin assistants?” the waitress snapped as she came to get their drinks orders. “I heard that one. Didja hear about the goat and the barmaid?” She laughed, revealing bright yellow teeth. She picked up the tray of assorted jellies and jams, assortment in this case meaning Grape or Raspberry, and pried off something with her thumbnail before setting it back, her attempts at organizing clearly finished for the night. “Whatcha gonna have?”

“Gastric distress, I think,” Dani said, trying to find the piece that had flown off the jelly holder and into the table of food, landing somewhere in among their plates.

“Water,” Luke said with a hard glare at Edwin, who opened his mouth and closed it again. “For all of us.”

“I’ll try the coffee,” Marcus said, his expression rapturous as he bit into a chicken leg.

“Navy,” Luke mumbled, shaking his head.

“Bravest of the bunch,” Marcus agreed.

***

DESPITE THE DIRE PREDICTIONS, Dani was pleasantly surprised to find that her constitution could manage a truck stop buffet. But then, she’d had several meals in her lifetime of having to eat what she could kill, or sometimes scrounge—and not always cook—so she had to have a tough stomach. But it was still a close call.

Marcus was just showing off with the coffee. He even added cream to it. Small flecks of undissolved white chunks floated lazily on the film on the top of the mug. He put in a spoon and pulled the skin off the coffee, and then drank the rest.

Her father went hungry. He’d piled his plate; the allure of comfort food called him and he responded, only to be betrayed by the consistency of lumpy potatoes and creamed corn with little specks of cob to add flavor. Dani supposed she should be happy when he made a mad dash to the restroom. It was fitting that the betrayer should feel the sting himself. But after eating a hearty serving of grease and salt with a side order of betrayal, all she could feel was queasy.

Edwin returned, looking slightly pale, his hands shaking a little as he sat and pushed his plate aside, and looked speculatively at the glass of water. “It took a very long time...” He was answering Luke, but he was taking his own sweet time about it.

For his part, Luke was wolfing down the fried chicken and sucking down his water like he hadn’t eaten in a month. Knowing Benny, chances were he hadn’t.

“Navy?” Marcus asked when Luke went back for seconds.

“Marine.”

“Figures.”

“Do you mind?” Edwin gave his hired man a hard look. “It took a long time to gather all of the info. I have... video, names, dates, financial transactions... everything. I have a minister of finance, South American government, I have American and European governments, hired killings, tax evasion, conspiracy, treason by high- ranking officials.”

“How did you get all that?” Dani asked, startled, wondering at the sheer number of hours it must have taken to compile. “How—?”

“Why?” Luke interrupted.

Edwin chose to answer him first. “Dani’s mother.” He turned to his daughter, meeting her gaze squarely. “When you were very young, your mother... she left me. You thought she was dead, and for many years I thought she was, too.” Edwin held up his hands to forestall her protests. “Look, it was just easier that way. How do you explain such things to a child? And you were a child at the time, Dani. I don’t care how grown you thought you were. I made that decision, and I’ve always stood by it.”

Dani looked down at her plate. For the first time in her life she felt uncertain. She, who had always been so ready to blame her father for everything. But what should I feel? If he’s telling the truth... then who should I be mad at?

And that was the problem. Why should she accept her father was telling the truth? She glanced up at him with narrowed eyes, watching him closely as he continued his story.

“Benny was just one cog in the wheel. He was a player, but most of this was above his level. But, Dani, your mother, she was... she was recruited. She knew things about Benny that led to others, and in order to keep her safe her death was faked. She was given a new life, new name, everything.”

Arranged? By whom? She shifted, glancing now at Luke. Government agencies did things like that, didn’t they? At least they always did in movies or books. But if that was the case, how would her father know where she was?

So, someone else had done the arranging perhaps.

Dani’s father took a sip of water and reached in to pull something off his tongue. He spat once, looked at the water, and sighed. “Damn, I’m hungry.”

“Go on,” Luke said around a mouthful of chicken. Dani stared, and seriously debated if she still wanted to kiss him or not.

“Anyway, she only left because...because they were coming after you, Dani. She was afraid for you. That was why your ‘Uncle’ Benny came around so much; that was why he seemed to prefer you to David. He was watching you, making sure that no one else could get you before he could. I don’t know if he ever believed your mother was dead or not, but he started working on me, getting me deeper and deeper. Markland was started with your mother’s money. I had a good company, we were just getting into the black from a rough startup, but we were making it, and then Benny came in and took over.”

He stopped and stared into his water glass, though his gaze was distant. Seeing something that wasn’t there. “I couldn’t say anything, do anything, I swear I thought he was taking you from me, and I’d already lost your mother. I couldn’t lose you, too.”

When he looked up at her, his eyes pleaded with her to understand. She looked away. No, she wasn’t ready to forgive him. Hell, she wasn’t ready to believe him. “When did you know she was alive?” she asked, her voice so harsh that even she flinched a little even as she said it.

“A few years ago. You joined the military, and then you kind of vanished for a while. I didn’t know where you went, but I later learned that you had some...” He looked at the other two men there, and hesitated while he decided on a word. “...assignments. David was off at college when she contacted me.”

“What did she say?” Dani asked, leaning across the table, hanging on every word despite her intention to keep a distance. To not ask.

“I walked into my office at Markland one morning and she was there, behind my desk, her feet propped up on the blotter. I almost didn’t recognize her; it had been what...a dozen years?” He smiled and shook his head. “The first thing she said was, ‘Drop your ass in that chair’.”

“Lovely,” Luke smiled, his lips bright with grease. Dani shuddered.

“Touching,” Marcus added, drinking the last dregs of his coffee. Dani wondered if he could read his fortune in the grounds that clung to the bottom of the mug.

“She’d been collecting information for years, and needed me to help her. I got some of it, she got the bulk of it.” He turned to Luke. “You would not believe some of the people on that stick. Important people. From all over.”

“Like Ray...” Luke murmured. Dani could see the pain that memory caused him, and placed her hand on his arm.

“Former boss,” Dani said, turning her head in an aside to her father and Marcus, figuring they may as well have the truth of it. “FBI.”

“FBI?” Edwin chortled, and shook his head. “Please. I’m talking senators. CEOs of multinational corporations. The people who form the foundation of society.”

The four of them let that soak in for a moment.

“So, tell me,” Edwin asked Luke, “why are we talking about this in the present tense? If Katie burned it....”

Luke cleared his throat, his turn to look awkward as he looked from Dani to her father. “Er... There’s a copy.”

“You can’t copy an encrypted drive,” Edwin protested. “The device and the file...”

“...are considered the same thing,” Luke finished. “Not in Unix. At least in Ubuntu. You can copy the file independently of the device.”

“But...” Edwin thought for a moment. “It’s still worthless without the key.”

Luke gave him a sharp look. “Which I presume you have?”

Edwin nodded.

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Marcus said quietly, dabbing at his lips with a napkin as though he’d just finished a divine gourmet repast, even if the napkin was paper, and torn from having gotten caught in the dispenser on the table. “But it seems to me that simply knowing about such a device is enough for several foreign and domestic governments to want to kill us. This is a very, very bad thing to have.”

“You’re Navy,” Luke smiled. “Bravest of the brave.”

“I’m also a single person against several countries.” He looked at the other three, arms crossed across his broad chest as he leaned back, vinyl protesting as he shifted position. “And, I’m a hired hand. This really isn’t my fight. This is a lot bigger than anything I signed up for.”

Dani quailed inside. She hadn’t thought about it from his point of view, and she should have. He was right: he was a bodyguard, not a merc. This wasn’t his fight, and it was a hopeless situation. But somehow everything seemed a little bit scarier when she considered facing whatever came next without his calm demeanor.

“Anyone else know how to fly a helicopter in the dark?” she asked, wondering just how much she remembered from a certain lesson she’d been given once, entirely off the books. Yeah, she was a Ranger. But she’d never done any night-flying. No one moved. “You’re stuck,” she informed Marcus, “There’s no hope for us now, you have to stick around.”

“As flattered as I am that you appreciate my flying skills, there isn’t enough money in the world to hire someone on something like this. It’s a suicide run.”

“Marcus,” Edwin said, picking up a roll and examining it carefully before putting it down again. “You’re bored as hell and you know it.”

Marcus looked at his employer for a long moment, and swore in a fashion that Dani envied. Only military training could have produced the profanity he said, and it was all without emotion, as though he were reading it off a menu.

When he was spent, he only nodded and looked at Luke. “I’m in.”

“Where’s the stick?” Dani asked.

“I gave it to my mommy,” Luke said, and dropped several twenties on the table. “Let’s find a car.”