At some point, Kai must have fallen asleep.  He was more than alarmed to open his eyes to broad daylight and find that the SUV had been parked in a quiet street in an urban residential area.  While he could just about forgive himself for falling asleep during the darkness last night when the car had already been on the move and he’d more or less grown used to the roar of the massive engine surrounding him, but not to have woken up when Kris had put the SUV back to work after he’d fallen asleep…

He sat bolt upright.  Had Kris actually waited until he was asleep before moving the vehicle?  And where on earth were they?

The driver’s door suddenly opened and the agent in question appeared.

“’Bout time,” Kris grumped.  His dark glasses were on and he was slurping down the remains of some coffee.  “Almost thought you were dead.”

“Where are we?”

Kris just threw him a disparaging look.  “Nowhere you need to know.  Now you’re up, we’re leaving, anyway.”

Kai narrowed his eyes at him.  Considering Kris had been happy to drive on at, what, four in the morning? Kai didn’t see how his being awake made any different to what the agent had in mind.  Before he could say anything, though, Kris was in the driver’s seat and igniting the engine, his right hand dropping to the gearstick.

That was when Kai’s jaw dropped.  He could have said with one hundred percent certainty that the car he’d fallen asleep in was an automatic – because hell, who even drove a manual in America?  The dashboard display was different, too: there were actually dials on it rather than digital displays.

“What the—?”

Kris pulled out of their parking space with a jerk that threw him back against his seat.

“Get your belt on,” the man ordered gruffly.  Kai didn’t even bother reaching for it.

“Why do we have a new car?”

“Belt.”

Reluctantly, Kai did as he was told.  And then asked his question again, looking around him for any clues as to where they were.

“Did you stop off to buy some new clothes and stuff too?” he pressed on.  “And food?  Or is there an FBI dept here as well?  Where’d you get one of these monster cars at such short notice in the middle of the night?”

Kris said nothing.  Kai lapsed into silence for a few seconds.

“Or do you have, I dunno, kinda warehouse thingies and stashes with SUVs so that you can change quickly to confuse people during car chases or something?  Because—”

“Is there a particular reason why you’re trying to get hold of classified information?” Kris demanded testily.

“How is that classified?” Kai protested.  “I’m one of you guys now!”

Kris snorted, accidentally giving the wheel a hard yank to the left and nearly sending them into the other lane.  “Don’t make me laugh.  You’re barely twelve and you’re nothing near an agent until you have a badge.”

“I’m fifteen!” Kai spat back, folding his arms huffily across his chest.

“And how’s a little squirt like you who doesn’t even know his own birth date going to be of use to the FBI, let alone one of us?”

Kai gaped at him, absolutely astonished.  “I-I am of use,” he managed incredulously.  “Were you at that trial or not?  I was the perfect mole—”

“You were a convenient informant, and because of you, one of our best agents is now dead and our organisation top prodigy and his wife and baby are on the run for their lives.  One of our best crack teams that’s fought to be recognised by bungling idiots higher up is on the verge of disbandment unless this mess is sorted out pronto, and I have to babysit you until God knows when because your old gang still know who you are.”

Kai’s jaw shut with a clack.  He wasn’t sure he could continue staring at Kris without boring laser holes into his brain – though, as far as he was concerned, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, because Kris wasn’t exactly coming across as a pleasant person to know and it would probably be much nicer travelling solo, or going back to find somebody civil like Thant or Mark or Myungsoo, wherever any of them were.  Then again, burning laser holes through Kris’s brain would leave him stranded in the middle of… somewhere… with a manual car to drive.

Having Kris was a marginally better option than that.

“Just what kind of stick to you have shoved up your ?” he grumbled, turning his head towards the window.

“We have an information leak,” Kris snapped back at him.

Kai might just have been fifteen, but he was not naïve enough to miss what Kris was implying.

“And why would that be me?” he snarled.  “ you, do you think just because I’m young I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I didn’t kill Myungsoo on Brooklyn Bridge?  They left me a ing personalised message in Kevin’s ing blood!”  Kai’s voice cracked sharply with the last word as it almost rose to a scream.

“Then tell me who G is,” Kris challenged.  “Go on.  Why won’t you hand G over to us?”

“I don’t know who G ing is!” Kai screeched.  “God even knows how many people whose names begin with G there are—”

“And look,” said Kris, raising his voice over Kai’s.  “Only a tiny number of people, in Thant’s team, know about you, and you were pretty much the only one who didn’t know the court schedule.  The rest of us had to just in case what happened to Kevin happened while you were around so we could keep you safe.  It makes no sense that they’d drop into the safe house at a time when you were out when they clearly wanted you dead.”

“Maybe the boss ordered it from prison,” Kai said grumpily.  Even at a normal pitch, his voice was a little scratchy just from that one moment of screeching.  It was a little worrying.

“He was kept completely isolated.”

“He still somehow found out my name,” Kai grumbled rebelliously.