Read Online I, Spy? by Kate Johnson - Free Book Online

fondly.
    “There isn’t even a tape deck.”
    I frowned. “There’s a ghetto blaster under your seat,” I said. “But the batteries are flat.”
    Luke shook his head. “You’re a weird girl.”
    “…thank you.”
    He didn’t say anything about my parking, but I could feel him wincing as I pulled into a rather small space. And if government agents have any kind of dispensation for free parking, then Luke didn’t share it with me.
    I was half expecting another hidden Smith’s Guns type place, and was mildly surprised when we walked into The Link and Luke picked out an expensive Nokia package. I wanted to wail that I didn’t know how to use a Nokia. They confused me, all the punctuation was in the wrong place when you wanted to send a text—but he didn’t listen, carded it and handed me the bag.
    “Do you belong to a gym?”
    I shook my head in faint horror.
    “Join one.”
    “Sir, yes, sir!”
    Luke gave me a sideways glance. “Are you on the Pill?”
    I stared. “Excuse me?”
    He handed me a slip of green prescription paper. “Present for you from Lexy. She’s a qualified doctor. This is a no-period Pill. Maria takes it. Carry them in your bag, take them religiously, and even if you’re captured and tortured, explain that they keep your heart beating or something.”
    He looked slightly flushed. Men never grow up, do they?
    “Okay.” I took the prescription. “So we’re going to Boots?”
    “Yeah. I need toothpaste anyway.”
    Just to embarrass him a little more, I made him come with me to Marks and Spencers and help me pick out a sports bra. If I was going to be tumbling down any more baggage belts, I’d need proper support, right?
    We took all my new stuff home, Luke playing with my new phone and setting some numbers into it. He called Maria. “Does Macbeth have a phone yet?”
    “Half a dozen,” I heard her say in despair, “none of them his.”
    I smiled at that. I think I was beginning to like Macbeth.
    My answering machine was flashing when we got in, and I listened to a message from Chalker. “Don’t you ever answer your bloody mobile?”
    I took it out. Network Search . Crap. I hoped the Nokia had a better network.
    The second was from my mother. “Are you coming home for tea? We’re having lasagne. Charlie’s bringing someone to eat with us,” she added with faint despair.
    My mother is the only person in the world who calls my brother Charlie (no one in the entire universe has ever called him Charles). He’s been Chalker ever since we were at school and he used to have to chalk out lines all over the blackboard every lunchtime for some new misdemeanour.
    Luke’s mobile rang as I was listening to my mother’s message, and he went into the bedroom to answer it. I called my brother back.
    “Vegetable lasagne?” I asked. “Or vegemince?”
    “Vegemince,” he said. “And garlic bread.”
    “The nice kind?”
    “We have dough balls…”
    “I’m there.”
    Luke came back in and abruptly took the phone from my hand and put it down.
    “Hey! I was talking to my brother—”
    “Don’t care.” He handed me my bag, his face stony. “Something’s come up. Get your pass.”
    I picked up my airport pass and followed him, confused. We drove in silence up to the airport, Luke tense and still in the passenger seat. We dropped the car outside the terminal, and when one of the traffic wardens started yelling, Luke showed him his warrant card and pulled me after him.
    “What is going on?” I asked as I was tugged into the terminal.
    “You’ll see,” Luke said, dragging me past the Ace desks as I tried to cover my face. Wasn’t I supposed to be off sick today?
    He pulled me up to VP9, one of the Validation Points where staff go through to airside, and I went towards the scanner, dumping my bag on the belt in a reflex action.
    Luke picked it back up again, showed his red pass to the BAA woman and pulled me through the gate without getting me scanned.
    I remembered the