I managed to sleep a little in between the train stops. When I couldn't sleep, I kept my eyes closed so that Garrett wouldn't pummel me with questions and ideas. I promised myself I would listen to his ideas later.

After about an hour, Garrett woke me up to accompany him to the bar car, his excited body language hinted at a secret he was dying to share. I didn't have to wait long to hear it.

He started before the ice water had been poured, laying out the elaborate scheme he had constructed, "So my thought is, we have to blindside these people. We provide an alternate identity. You see? You and I are a couple, recently married on our honeymoon. Mr. and Mrs. Steinman. We are interested in the house as we are both history professors transferring from Berkeley..."

"What does this have to do with me finding my parents? I think you are missing the point of the whole expedition."

He winked one of his dark blue eyes as the waiter came up to take our orders. The decision was always a long one for Garrett. We spent the next fifteen minutes after she left discussing the oddities of English food. We were entirely, yet happily, distracted from the cover story until the food arrived.

I eyed my main course suspiciously. Knowing it was inevitable, I revisited our earlier conversation. "Anyway, I don't see why we need to have a lavish fake identity.

As the waitress walked away he leaned across the table. "We can't just waltz in there," he adopted a mocking tone, "Hello! I'm the old Harper's daughter, care to share cause of death? Will and testament?"

Garrett could be so funny when he wanted to. I laughed and almost choked trying to swallow an over cooked potato. "Fine. We can be any crazy characters you think up. But only until we figure this out and, if it gets out of hand, give it up to the FBI."

"Interpol, actually."

"Whatever. Seriously though..." I leaned forward and adopted a serious tone. "That Kael guy can be pretty convincing. About that attacker wanting us dead...do you think this is really that dangerous?"

"Do you want it to be?" He winked again, and I hated him for it. I was quite serious.

"No of course not! You know me. I just want to clean this up and go home. Nobody gets hurt." He just shook his head and moved back to his potatoes. I knew he was thinking that I was a rookie at all of this, but it wasn't him that had had a near brush with death.

We ate the remainder of the meal in comfortable silence. I finished my meal and pushed the plate away, "I'm going to head back to my seat now. Let me know how fantastic desert is. I can only imagine after these thrice baked potatoes."

He chuckled, but recovered quickly as I stood up. "Hey, I don't know if that's such a good idea. Don't think you should be out of my sight, remember?"

"Don't worry. I know cheesecake's your favorite. I think I can survive the trip to my seat. Thank you though." I pulled my denim jacket around my shoulders as I moved to exit the dining car. You would think I was the queen of England, and he was my personal bodyguard. A few moments of sweet peace to myself without Gar next to me muttering his plans to himself sounded amazing. "I promise to scream loudly if anyone approaches me."

He hesitated but knew me too well to argue. "Right. Ok then. I'll just be a minute."

"Take your time."

The cars swayed a little as I exited the dining car and moved toward our seats. The passenger cars' lights had been dimmed to allow for sleeping. Most people were resting or preoccupied with their magazines. Some faces were illuminated by the glow of electronic devices. As I walked through the shadowy passages between cars, a cold chill spread up my spine. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss Garrett's concerns.

Remembering the outcome of my last confident refusal of Garrett's protection, I approached our car hesitantly. On tip toe, I could just see through the small window in the door to our car but couldn't make out our seats. Garrett's words replayed in my head. "Don't think you should be out of my sight, remember?" Shaking my head at my own fears, I stepped inside.

I started a little when I saw Garrett's seat was occupied. However, after a moment's inspection I calmed. I was growing accustomed to Kael appearing randomly. Recovering my expression, I approached casually.

"Excuse me." I slid past him without giving him the courtesy of a glance. "He will be back soon."

"I know."

Kael looked worried again, just as he had last night. Shadows under his hazel eyes only accentuated the grave look. I sat down and leaned back with my eyes closed. I had to admit, I was a little pleased to see him. Any one of those people I had seen earlier could have been assassins. Judging by his past fighting performance I'd witnessed, I suspected he could ward them off more effectively than Garrett could. So far, Kael hadn't proven to be a threat either. Nevertheless, I wasn't about to pretend I understood him entirely. I turned and glared, trying to look annoyed. "What do you want?" When I finally looked at him, I noticed the tan coat over his arm, the hat he had worn earlier securely tucked under his arm.

"What are you doing, Harper? Why didn't you just go home like I asked you to?" He looked annoyed as well, which only fueled my frustration at his intrusion.

"I told you. Garrett's convinced these people would only follow me back home. And if they are as dangerous as you say they are, then better for me to go and settle this, than to just leave it all alone. I'm being proactive."

"Proactive? No. Proactive is checking out all the exits to a restaurant before meeting a contact in case it is a set up." He slid his gaze sideways and caught my perplexed look. He tried again. "Or, say you anticipated a book would be a best seller and had a few thousand extra copies published. You're being proactive. Taunting these people is just insanity. I can take care of this without you two tourists to worry about."

I was a little taken aback at the adamant dialogue from the man I had previously barely extracted a few words from. He was obviously tense, but the fact that the entire speech was almost whispered took the edge off. How he seemed to know I was in the publishing business also gave me pause. I was fairly sure I hadn't mentioned that last night.

My shoes off by habit, I tucked my feet up under the skirt of my black dress and turned to face him. "Well, it's a little late now." I gestured toward the crowded train. "If you would have told me you would take care of all this, I would be on a flight home."

"Really? You would have left?" He blurted an expletive under his breath.

"Of course not. I don't trust you that much." I turned away and faced the window. Truly, there was nowhere else I would rather be than my loft in downtown New York City, sipping a cup of chai and listening to persistent, asynchronous car horns all night. I had assumed he would continue his barrage, but when he didn't say anything after a few seconds I turned back around.

"You didn't miss much in that cheesecake." I jumped at the sight of Garrett taking his seat. My surprise at the silent departure of Kael must have shown in my face as he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I need to use the restroom please, Gar."

I could tell he wasn't pleased that I'd waited until he had come to take his seat, but I pretended not to notice. I pushed past his solid form and through the crowded train to the bathroom at the back. The facilities were rudimentary. Worse than a restroom found on a plane, there was one small stall in the back of the crowded car. I sighed, telling myself to stop being such a princess. I had been in far worse facilities than these but not recently.

I waited a few minutes for it to become vacant. I splashed water on my face, sincerely wondering what had possessed me to think that this trip was a good idea. I stared at my reflection. Brown highlighted hair fell around my shoulders, and my large brown eyes seemed even larger in the dim lighting. The thought that I could be on my way home and not in the midst of all of this was distressing. However, trusting a stranger to dissolve all my problems seemed naive when he had no clear motive of his own.

Someone knocked on the door impatiently. I combed through my hair quickly. Enough. I would get through this and get home as soon as I could. Garrett was confident that no one was going to get hurt. If I had learned nothing else in life, I had learned to talk my way out of things. A serious discussion with these people should set them straight. I wished I had some idea of what my father currently or historically had been involved in. His situation could be far more complicated than I imagined.

I turned and slid the lock across to open the door. The person on the other end shoved their way in before I had a chance to exit. I recognized the lady in the red coat instantly. She carried a small cross body handbag, had long dark hair, almost black, and a carefully made up face which contorted into an angry grimace as she shoved me backward into the stall and slammed the door behind her. Thankfully, I'd closed the lid to the toilet as I fell backward onto it. Not again, my mind pleaded. At least now the assailant was a woman, not a burly man. I took a moment to size her up; our heights and builds were fairly evenly matched. No matter, I couldn't imagine fighting her, but the thought of being captured or killed by this mad group also seemed beyond the realm of possibility.

*****Who could this new assailant be? Leave a vote and little comment if you like!*****