Crossing Borders

Crash and Burn

Without thinking twice she dials the number given, and on the first ring a man answers.

"You alone?"

"That's none of your business." She says.

"That's just so you Astrid." She frowns, surprised, not because he knew her name, more of she knew that voice. "Seriously, can't you just lay alone for once?"

"Derek?"

"Yeah?" he answers as if he was not kidnapped at all.

"What the hell?!" she whispered- yell on the phone starting to walk in circle. "Where are you? You have all of us worried and you are calling me as if you're on vacation?!"

"Relax hun, I'm fine." He says. "I'm at the Ozawa's and, well, I've uncovered several things."

She runs a hand over her face, groaning. "You met him?"

"Him?"

"Han."

"So you know?"

"I've done deals with him before." She mumbles.

"But I thought you killed-"

"Supposed to kill him."

"What do you mean?" he asks.

She closes the lid on the toilet and sat down, resting her elbow on her knew with one hand over her eyes.

"The day Tenshi's mom came to talk to me was the same day that I was called in by Father Chzarles, the assignment was to kill her. She was his mistress for years. A little over after she married Han, Chzarles planned to use her to get to Han didn't work out, so he needed to eliminate her, she on the other hand fell in love with him." She sighs, "Instead of doing the usual creeping around and killing I wanted to see Han and see what kind of man he was. There was no reason to kill him Derek, he's good. He didn't deserve to die. So I slip a drug in his drink, making it look like he was dead. After turning down the assignment of killing the mother, Father Chzarles gave it to Kale and he killed her. So Father Chzarles still got what he wanted."

"And Tenshi?" he asks.

"I promised the mother that I will take care of her if anything happens. I didn't want to take her away from her father but she asked for it. I can't take her so I gave her to Kale. I can't have Father Chzarles see her."

"Why not?"

She frowns, it was a secret she kept for so long. Not even Kale knows, much more Dimitri. "Tenshi is Father Chzarles' illegitimate child."

"Oh..." was all he could say. Which was good as Astrid didn't know what else to say if he asked any more questions.

"Yeah..." she shrugs and shook her head, "It's all crazy, really. But what you sent me is just crazier."

"Well, I guess it's my turn to explain." He breathes through the phone, "The girl you have there is the eldest of the quadruplets of the Ozawa house, the heiress you might say. Her real name is Hera Ozawa, she was a sickly kid so she was always with her mother. So I'm guessing that when she told you that you should take Tenshi with you, she forgot to mention that she had a younger daughter, the real Tenshi Ozawa."

"Hans cleared a few things too, the wife had been having troubles financially at the time she asked for your help, she was even planning to run away with another man, which I guess is Chzarles. But seeing she died and she never clarified to you which daughter was to be taken, you took the wrong girl."

Astrid processes everything that Derek had just told her and came to a conclusion.

"Astrid..." this time his tone was dead serious. "Her father wants her home, the file that was sent to you isn't a to-kill-file, it's a search and recover assignment."