Smile

34.HS

"A... A... A... Excellent," Luke says as he goes through Samantha's homework assignment grades while they sit in a diner for breakfast.

"Thanks, Dad," Samantha responds with a smile on her face as they fist bump.

"Yes. What's that?" Luke says as he notices what Samantha had been working on while Artemis helps Lucas color.

"Um, it's a social studies assignment," Samantha replies as she picks it up to hand to her father. "It's a family tree. It's just a sketch."

"Oh, yeah!" Luke excitedly says as he looks at the sketch of a tree with five leaves on it. One leaf contains Samantha's name, one with Artemis, one with Lucas, and one has his name in it but the fifth leaf has a question mark in it. "That's our family tree right there, it's, uh, it's... super easy to read and very clear, yeah."

"But... I was going to use this," Samantha says as she pulls out an old picture, handing it to her father. "I found it in the garage drawer. That's you, isn't it? Who's Jonah? Is that your brother?"

"Yup, that's my brother," Luke responds with a sigh as the memories of the past come back to him while Artemis raises an eyebrow since she did not know that Luke had a brother.

"Why don't you ever talk about Samoa? Did something happen?" Samantha questions as Luke looks away from the picture.

"Look at this, perfect timing," Luke changes the subject as a waitress goes to hand him a plate with a small stack of pancakes on it. "Oh, no, this is for the mini. Thank you so much."

"Cheat day?" A waitress asks as she sets down a plate with a dozen pancakes on it.

"Cheat day, yeah! Thank you so much," Luke agrees with a smile as he hands the other two plates to Artemis and Lucas before they begin to eat.

Luke is eating the last of his pancakes while Samantha works on her homework and Artemis wipes Lucas' hands off.

"Lucas Rebecca Hobbs," A man says as he walks over to them, causing Luke to freeze mid bite. "I haven't seen you in forever."

"Rebecca?" Samantha asks as she looks at her father confused, causing Luke to shake his head.

"Daddy, who is this guy?" Samantha asks confused as she sits beside her brother while Artemis analyzes the man.

"Well, this guy is, uh, is Locke. And he works for the CIA," Luke explains as he motions over to the man, known as Agent Victor Locke.

"Well, you must be wondering why I called me here," Locke says with a smug smile.

"Not really," Luke says with a shake of his head while Samantha says, "Doesn't make sense."

"Your dad and I are old friends," Locke explains as he looks over at Samantha while changing the subject.

"We're not old friends," Luke corrects while shaking his head again before Locke pulls out a friendship necklace and shows that he has the same exact tribal tattoo as Luke.

"You have one minute to tell me what you want before I knock one of your lungs loose," Luke tells him with a glare before Artemis squeezes his thigh while glancing at Lucas.

Luke gives her an apologetic look before handing her a pair of headphones from the bag beside him.

"You and I are after the same thing," Locke starts explaining while holding up a paper from a file. "Say hello to the CT17 virus. It's a programmable bio-weapon of biblical proportions. Affectionately codenamed the Snowflake."

"What does a Snowflake do?" Samantha asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing much, just, uh liquifies your internal organs. Basically, it turns your body into a giant bag of hot soup," Locke answers her with a straight face, not even batting an eye at how young she is.