Maximus shook Dakota’s hand, saying, “Don’t let Slate get into too much trouble, Dakota.”
Dakota grinned. “I promise to do as well as you did.”
Laughing loudly, Maximus pulled Dakota in for a hug. “Touché! Well played, son.”
“Serves you right, Dad,” Slate snickered, before giving his father a hug.
Jackson hugged Dakota, and said, “Thanks, bro, for doing this for me…and, have some fun.”
“Will do,” said Dakota. “Take care of everyone for me.” Then his eyes shifted to Steel. “Promise you won’t wreck my kitchen?”
“Moí?” Steel questioned, putting a hand to his chest.
“Yeah you, brother,” Slate said. “Don’t piss off my mate or you’ll face me in the ring,” he said, assuming a boxing pose, which elicited laughter from everyone.
“Neither of you has anything to worry about,” Jackson said, “because my mate has sworn to me it won’t happen.” Opening the door just as Robert was landing the helicopter, he said, “Now, go and bring me home a dragon.”
Slate led his mate outside and over to Robert, who was standing with the passenger door open. “Hi Robert, this is my mate, Dakota.”
“Congratulations! Hello, Dakota. Ever been in a helicopter before?”
“Hi, Robert. To answer your question, nope, but my brother told me I was going to enjoy it.”
“I hope so. Any questions?”
“Not yet.”
“Good. If you have any, just let me know.”
The chopper lifted off, heading for San Francisco, and Dakota found himself sitting inside the cabin, a tightly buckled harness holding him in his seat, and headphones bridging his ears. He was fascinated listening to Slate talk to Robert about weather conditions, ETA’s, visibility, air traffic and more that he didn’t understand. During a break in the conversation, Dakota tapped Slate’s leg to get his attention.
“Do you have a question, babe?” Then, pointing to the microphone attached to Dakota’s headset, he said, “Just talk normally.”
Nodding that he understood, Dakota asked, “Do you fly?”
“Yup, I’m a licensed pilot.”
“Cool, so if something happens to Robert, you can take over and save us.”
“Uh-huh. Feel safer now?”
“Definitely!”
Slate grinned. As they got nearer to their destination, Slate directed Dakota’s attention to the window. “See that over there?”
“Yeah…what is…oh my gods, that’s San Francisco! Jackson went there on his babymoon.”
“He did, huh? Did your brother like it?”
“That would be a resounding ‘yes’ if the number of photographs he took was any indication,” Dakota said, snickering.
“Sir, we’ll be landing in five minutes and the jet is ready to go.”
“Thanks, Robert.”
~/~/~/~/~
Zane was dozing on the couch in his computer room, trying to catch up on sleep he missed last night. Running into dead ends on the two jobs Jackson had given him, he was determined to discover something before he left for Scotland. When he found out Slate and Dakota were going to Scotland, he briefly thought about askingJackson if he could leave early but scratched that; it was more important to find out who these assholes were.
