I mean, I'd seen movies with private jets, but this wasn't some cramped corporate shuttle with fold-down tables and airplane food.This was basically a flying five-star hotel with cream leather seats that probably cost more than my parents' car, a bathroom bigger than my bedroom back home, and a minibar stocked with wines I couldn't pronounce.There was even a small bedroom in the back, which seemed excessive for a ten-hour flight but what did I know about royal travel?
Captain Steiner and Lieutenant Commander Vasseur had barely spoken during the flight, which gave me plenty of time to process the fact that my entire life had been turned upside down in the span of a single afternoon.Every time I started to convince myself this was all an elaborate mistake, I'd remember the way they'd fired Derek with a single phone call or the casual ease with which they'd purchased the café.
These people had money.Serious money.The kind of money that could make problems disappear and create new realities overnight.The kind of money that made my request for a mortgage payoff look like asking for spare change.
About two hours into the flight, Captain Steiner's secure phone started buzzing with incoming encrypted messages.She glanced at the screen, frowned, then moved to the far end of the cabin to take what looked like a very serious phone call.I tried not to eavesdrop, but the cabin wasn't exactly soundproof, and fragments of her conversation drifted back to where I was sitting.
"...confirmed positioning in the Black Sea..."
"...doubled deployment as of this morning..."
"...time-sensitive defense arrangements..."
Lieutenant Commander Vasseur noticed me listening and cleared his throat pointedly."Would you care for something to drink, Your Highness?We have an excellent selection of wines."
"Coffee, please.And you can skip the 'Your Highness' thing.I'm still processing the whole princess situation.Also, I'm pretty sure I have milk foam in my hair from this morning, which kind of ruins the royal mystique."
He moved to the plane's galley without commenting on my hair situation, but I could still hear Captain Steiner speaking in urgent, clipped tones.
"...NATO base agreement needs to be operational within the sixty-day window..."
"...Congressional approval contingent on the alliance treaty..."
"...if Putin moves before we have assets in position..."
I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the airplane's overly enthusiastic air conditioning.Whatever was happening in Valdoria wasn't just about finding a long-lost princess.This was about something much bigger and more dangerous.Something that involved submarines and NATO and a sixty-day countdown that sounded distinctly ominous.
When Captain Steiner returned to her seat, her expression was grimmer than before.She and Vasseur exchanged a look that spoke volumes about whatever intelligence she'd just received.These two had clearly been working together for years, because they could have entire conversations using only their eyebrows.
"Everything all right?"I asked.
"Just routine briefings," she replied, but her tone suggested it was anything but routine.
"Routine briefings about NATO base agreements and sixty-day windows."
Both of them went very still.Like deer who'd just heard a twig snap.
"You have excellent hearing," Vasseur said carefully.
"I have excellent survival instincts.Three years of working for Derek taught me to always know what's being said about me when people think I'm not listening."I took a sip of my coffee, which was excellent and probably cost more per cup than my hourly wage."And right now those instincts are telling me that I'm not just going to Valdoria to meet my long-lost grandmother.I'm going there because something bad is about to happen, and somehow my sudden appearance is supposed to help prevent it."
Captain Steiner and Vasseur looked at each other again, having one of those wordless eyebrow conversations that people in intelligence services seemed to specialize in.
"The Grand Duchess will explain everything when we arrive," Captain Steiner said finally."But you're right that there are larger political considerations at play."
"What kind of political considerations?"
"The kind that require someone with your particular heritage and legal status to help resolve."
Great.So I wasn't just a kidnapped princess.I was a kidnapped princess whose reappearance was crucial to some kind of international crisis involving NATO and Congressional approval and sixty-day deadlines.Yesterday my biggest problem was running out of oat milk.Today I was a pawn in international geopolitics.
The career progression was really something.
"Is the investigation into my kidnapping.Is it still active?"
"Technically, yes.But there haven't been new leads in over a decade.The separatist groups disbanded years ago.Most of the members we identified are dead, and the ones still living claim they had nothing to do with it."She paused."There's evidence they received outside funding, possibly Russian, but the money trail goes cold in the early 2000s.Whoever planned this, they were patient and careful."
"So I'll never know why someone stole me from my family?"
