“I would have let you sleep longer, but we need to go. It’s late afternoon here and we have work to do tonight,” he says, and I can hear a little distance in his voice. I meant to apologize for putting him in danger in Pembrook after I searched everything last night, but clearly that didn’t happen.

“Right. Yeah, of course.” I slip on my jacket and grab my duffel bag.

He turns off the plane and I make my way down the steps.

“Another barn?” I say as he follows me out. Although this one looks considerably older than the one we left, hundreds of years older. “Is this a Strategia thing…parking planes in barns? Is that why you knew what we’d be looking for with that key back in Pembrook?”

He nods and offers to take my bag with a gesture, but I shake my head.

“For the places we frequent or for important meeting spots, we rent barns or warehouses year-round. And everywhere else we need to travel, we find a location that we can make work. But this particular barn is one my Family uses throughout the year,” he says, and walks around the plane to a car that’s covered with a tan tarp.

He pulls back the cover to reveal a sleek black Mercedes.

“Whoa. How rich are you guys?” I say, even though I’m sure that’s not a polite question. I’ve just never been around people who kept spare sports cars in other countries for convenience.

Ash laughs for the first time in a long time and I instantly realize how much I’ve missed our usual banter. These past forty-eight hours have been almost nothing but tense.

“We do okay for ourselves. All Strategia do,” he says, and pulls out the keys from under the wheel hood. He pops the trunk with a click and we throw our bags in the back.

“Apparently so,” I say. “Remind me to send you my holiday list when this is all over.”

Ash opens the passenger door for me and I climb in.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“The Raven’s Nest,” he says before he joins me in his James Bond vehicle.