Trimming Weeds

Carl’s gaze roamed over the large selection of weapons arranged within the shelves of the underground chamber. He let out an elongated whistle. “Now this is pretty impressive. Diego seems to be doing good for himself.”

Elena took her eyes from Jaesper to face the newcomer—the newcomer who had earlier introduced himself as a home inspector named Jim Marie. She now figured that that had to be a fake name. With his presence here, she assumed that he also worked for the same secret enterprise as Jaesper who donned a black armored bodysuit with various gadgets attached.

Carl walked through the area and gave the seated Elena a glimpse. “How’s it going?” He smiled while flipping what-seemed-to-be a silver pole in his left hand. He stepped beside his partner who finished slipping on a black leather glove over his left hand. “How’d you know our man Diego had all this hiding under his mansion?”

“I had a feeling.” Jaesper offered a little smirk before hovering his gloved hand over the wall space in-between the three monitors he had just installed. He was checking for bugs or anything that might seem out of the ordinary. “Did you put back the floorboard before you continued down here?”

“Of course I put it back. I’m not just gonna—” Carl set his index and middle fingers to his temple. “Wait a minute. You came all the way down here off a feeling? This whole time, I thought you had a personal vendetta against the guy—you know, with how you chose to use our agency’s resources instead of leaving it to the cops or the FBI.”

Jaesper moved away from the wall and pressed a red button on a remote that he had in his ungloved hand. “Wouldn’t have been good enough.”

Not good enough at all. Though he was unable to pinpoint it, the details of this case struck various areas within Jaesper.

Carl watched the camera monitors turn on, but no feed registered yet. “No?” His voice lowered. “And what about the woman? Why is she here?”

“I couldn’t risk her reporting my presence to Diego or his guests.”

“You mean the incredible Secret Agent Jaesper Hawk was caught sneaking in?” Carl chuckled. He peeked over his shoulder at Elena as he whispered. “You know she’s been staring at you, right?”

Jaesper didn’t answer as his eyes roamed along one monitor that now displayed the mansion’s parlor room where six individuals were seated at a poker table.

As the two men engaged, Elena watched them. They had entered her father’s house—her father, Diego. The man with the silver pole obviously entered under a guise while the one in the body armor had almost given her a heart attack when she unceremoniously bumped into him upon entering the reading room.

It was moments after that collision when she realized that she had seen him before.

Images of a younger man with a string trimmer had flashed through Elena’s mind. A man who tended to the mansion’s gardens and meticulously removed the weeds. A man who vanished in a mysterious wisp one night.

Now he was here again in front of her in a chamber that she never even knew existed until today.

Jaesper stepped backward, closer to the table where Elena was seated. On the remote, he activated the monitors’ audio to ensure that it functioned properly. He sent another smirk toward Carl then. “Even pressed for time, you managed to wire up the place pretty well.”

“Why are you two here?” Elena finally asked. Her eyes moved to one of the seven screens within the armory chamber. The screens displayed different parts of the mansion.

Carl faced her. “Your dad seems to be in some bad dealings. Oh, my name’s not Jim by the way. I’m sure you figured that.” He cleared his throat. “Any reason why daddy keeps around a place like this?” His finger motioned around the arsenal’s interior.

“No. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen him with a gun before. What did he do?” She looked in particular to Jaesper again who had his back to her. He appeared preoccupied with the surveillance monitors.

He still answered however. “Money laundering, arms dealing, buying off judges and mayors—take your pick. You have two children, Miss Delgado. If he keeps this up, it can affect their futures…”

…as it did mine.

He paused as his inner voice spoke to him, wondering why it had sounded to begin with.

Elena swallowed thickly. “How long have you been watching us, Jaesper?”

Carl furrowed an eyebrow at the name drop. “You guys got acquainted that fast?”

“No…” Jaesper’s attention started to suspiciously move to Elena when he finally saw the silver pole that his partner held. “What is that?”

Carl lowered the device from his shoulder to reveal a string trimmer. “My handy dandy weed whacker. There’s more to it than it seems…”

As Carl began hailing the tool’s fancy features, Jaesper’s mind received flashes of a younger Elena by a pool while his younger self tended to a garden. She had been holding a child’s hand who watched Jaesper as he…he hacked away at the weeds around the mansion.

The weeds.

“I was looking into Diego Delgado once before.” Jaesper turned around to face Elena. “That was before the agency wiped my memory for their Restarter Program.” He gave Carl a look. “It seems like something brought me back here.”

Carl had been in the middle of describing his string trimmer, but stopped at Jaesper’s words. Only agents doing highly classified missions had been selected for the Restarter Program.

“It’s because of Diego and people like him that your son couldn’t get into the Special Ed program,” Jaesper told Elena. “It’s why I didn’t stop searching for proof. It’s why I pr—”

“…promised that you’d come back,” Elena said simultaneously with him. “I never knew what you were talking about, and wouldn’t have guessed that you were some big time secret agent.” She laughed softly.

“Wait a minute.” Using the string trimmer, Carl gestured in-between both of them. “Are you two…?”

Jaesper and Elena shook their heads with the woman laughing more and answering, “No. He was…a really good friend when I needed one; and a great hero when my oldest needed it.”

Jaesper offered a little smile to her. “You can help finish what I started—give both your boys a hero in you instead.” From within a small case on his belt, he produced a set of infrared sunglasses. “Interested in being a spy for a day? Maybe find some weeds like we used to when you got bored…”

And to that, Elena returned his smile.