All hail Kristen! The dune buggy / tumble dryer comparison is true, although I've never been in a tumble dryer, but it did feel similar...
I don't normally plug other people's stories, but I recommend Aserene's The Cup of Red Threads. Go. Read. In fact, go read anything by Aserene. Wait, come back! Read the new chapter first!
Chapter 7: Kos Town Adventure
Cloaked by the darkness of the night, the dune buggy raced along the deserted roads. Its lights were off, to hide it better, and the warm air rushed through it. It felt like being in a tumble dryer.
Lily was driving the two-seater, while Jenny rode shotgun. Their journey was being conducted in a comfortable silence, the only sounds coming from the wind whipping through the roll-cage. They passed over a high mountain, along a road that would only allow a single vehicle to travel at a time. The sides were steep and far above the ground; the drop was a long, terrifying one.
Jenny didn't really know why she was here. Her sister had found her in a tranquil, out of the way bar, taking her time with a glass of bourbon. They'd shared a few more glasses before leaving to collect Jasper from his kids club at the hotel. Dinner was a quiet affair at a restaurant that her nephew had chosen, a fish place called Finding Nemo. Lily had agreed with it on the grounds that Jethro would never go near the place.
Jenny had wanted to stay away from her agents for a while, particularly Jethro. Being with her family always calmed her down, mainly being near Lily. Jasper had also helped; she couldn't rant and rave while someone so young was around, and Lily had played on that.
"Where are we going?" she called suddenly over the noise of the buggy.
"Does it matter?"
Jenny rolled her eyes. "If this is classified…"
"It's not classified. I wouldn't have bought you along if it was."
"So why won't you tell me?"
"You tell me if I can kill LJ, and I'll tell you where we're going."
"I don't want you to kill him."
Lily took her eyes off the road for long enough to shoot a glare at her sister. "Even after he accused you of lacking objectivity and hit several nerves about Dad?"
'Sometimes it's useful to have someone who's practically psychic, and sometimes it's a complete pain,' Jenny mused.
"Have you got a come-back or not?" Lily yelled over the engine.
"He doesn't understand why I want this case investigated."
"And I do?"
"You… you just help out, because you're my sister. And he gets all stubborn and refuses to do anything."
"I've killed for you," Lily reminded her.
"He's killed for me," Jenny protested. "When I was kidnapped. He shot James Dempsey to save me."
"To save you. Whereas I've done it because you asked me to."
"I didn't ask you, I said that he was being a pain in the ass and I wished he was dead."
"You would have shot him if I didn't."
"But you could get away with it."
"If you had joined the CIA, you would have gotten away with it too."
Jenny glared at her sister, who kept her focus on the road. "Stop trying to recruit me."
"I killed him to protect you."
"Jethro took my bullets away."
"And you call that protection?"
"He was trying to protect me in his own way. Like you did."
"Do you need him to protect you?"
"Not in the same way you do."
"I don't follow."
Jenny sighed. "You protect me because we're sisters. He protects me because he cares."
"I care!"
"Not in the same way."
"In what way does he care about you?"
"He loves me."
Lily risked a slight smile; Jenny didn't notice.
"He loves me," Jenny repeated quietly. "And he's trying to protect me."
"From what?"
"He's right. If another agent had the same background as I do, I'd tell them to step down from the case."
"So why won't you?"
"Because someone needs to take an interest. Someone needs to find out what happened."
"You think if you went home now, he would follow?"
"I think he'd stay and try to solve it himself."
"And it's taken you how long to figure this out?"
Jenny punched her sister's arm. "Sometimes…"
"Sometimes what?"
"You're a wonderful person."
"Tell me something I don't know."
They giggled together. "So where are we going?" Jenny tried to steer the conversation back on topic.
"Kos. The main town the other side of the island."
"Bet that causes a lot of confusion. Kos the town, Kos the island."
"Tourists have fun with it."
"And why are we going to Kos Town?"
"Apparently your Petty Officer used to socialize with some men out there. And these men are currently loading items onto a boat, which is supposed to be under observation by the Greek authorities."
"Supposed to?"
"My source kindly told me that the officers on surveillance are being plied with drinks before they go on duty. They spend most of the night asleep. Therefore, I think we could have a little look-see and investigate ourselves."
Jenny grinned. "How long will this take? And why aren't you borrowing my agents?"
"I have to meet an informant in Bodrum, Turkey tomorrow. It's a short boat trip between Kos Town and Bodrum. Tourists go on day trips all the time. Jasper and I are booked on one tomorrow."
"Which is why you've been posing as a tourist."
"Exactly. If I borrow your agents, I don't know if I could get back in time, and I can't afford to miss the ferry. There's only three miles of sea between the two places, and I don't want to have to swim it."
Gibbs groaned as Jasper won again. It was very embarrassing that an eight year old was able to beat him at poker, and he wasn't even losing on purpose. Admittedly they were playing for buttons, but still…
Jasper had produced the cards and buttons out of his rucksack. Apparently, he used to play with his mother in the evenings. He also claimed that Lily would give him five dollars for every button he had left at the end of the night, but Gibbs wasn't sure whether that was true or not.
To be honest, he had been shocked to learn that Lily had a child. He just didn't see her as the maternal type. She played mind games, she was a big bad CIA agent, and she had no qualms about causing havoc whenever someone annoyed her. But a mother?
Jasper presumably looked like his father. Gibbs had not seen a picture of Brigadier General Brian Thompson, but Jasper only seemed to have inherited his mother's green eyes. He seemed smart and alert, which could have been attributed to either parent, and he was good at sleight of hand, Lily's favored trick.
Gibbs was having difficulty picturing Lily married. He knew from investigating Jasper's life that his father had been murdered before he was born, dying in his mother's arms. He wondered whether Lily would have given up her CIA life to become a full-time mother if her husband was still alive.
"You want to play again?" Jasper asked, smiling a deceptively sweet smile.
"Go on then, young man," Gibbs answered.
Jasper shuffled the cards expertly and started dealing.
"Do you play this at school?" Gibbs queried.
"We're not supposed to, but we do," the child admitted. "I'm pretty good at it."
"I bet you are. Can you beat your mother?"
"We're about even. She doesn't have a tell and neither do I."
"What about her right eye?"
"It only twitches if she wants you to think that she's lying. You haven't figured that out yet?"
Gibbs shook his head when he saw his cards. "I think I'm going to fold," he announced. "Your aunt's eye twitches."
"But they're not completely the same. You just have to know the differences."
"I thought I was quite good at it."
"I'm better than you." He wasn't mocking Gibbs, merely stating a fact.
"How often do you see your mother?"
"When I can. When she's not working and she's in Washington. I stay at the school when she's working."
"Do you miss her?"
"Every day. But she takes me on vacation a lot. We went to Australia a few months ago. It was really cool!"
"How do you cope without her?"
"At school, no one sees their parents much. I see my mom more than most. She sends me postcards from all around the world. Sometimes they don't say anything; they're just to show me roughly where she is so I can look at the globe in my classroom and find her."
Gibbs smiled at the clear happiness on the boy's face.
"But what's most important is that she loves me. I know she does, and I know she misses me. She has to do her job to keep everyone safe, including me."
Gibbs was surprised at the child's understanding of the situation. If Kelly had ever gone into boarding, he doubted she would have taken to it so well. He knew, deep down though, that he wouldn't have let her because he couldn't bear to be apart from her. Going to war meant leaving her behind, and Lily had been leaving her son for years.
"Did I say something wrong?" Jasper asked.
"Nope," he replied. "But if you ever want to go anywhere when you're back at school, or just talk to someone, you let me know."
After observing the boat covertly for several hours, the sisters decided to make a move.
Although it was dark and cloudy, the night was still very warm compared to Washington. The police officers were rather obviously snoring in a car parked down the road. The sisters had found a spot at the docks when they had arrived, watching as crates and boxes were loaded onto the boat. Jenny had asked why the boat needed loading; Lily had told her that customs would sometimes search the smaller boats on suspicion of drugs smuggling, while larger boats with cargo were less likely to be checked.
As the workers took a short break, Lily and Jenny snuck along the side of the boat and jumped aboard. No one appeared to have spotted them. They made their way through the boat, locating the cargo hold that was already half full. Noticing a few corridors at the back, they edged their way past the crates and headed down the first passageway.
There were doors leading off, which they ignored. They needed to see faces or drugs to be able to go further with the investigation. The water lapped against the boat, rocking it slightly, keeping them alert. They ducked into a room as someone opened a door further ahead. Once the person had passed, they entered the corridor again and kept their eyes open.
Nothing. The boat seemed almost deserted. They reached the final room, before turning around to make their way back.
Three men stood behind them, armed with automatic rifles.
