"You did what!?" "We have arrived, you can look outside if you want to know more dear." His grandmother add to stall his protest.
Getting out of the car after Maggie, Nathaniel look at the house in front of him. It was more appropriate to call it a Mansion than a house. It was two stories tall, approximately three hundred feet long and a hundred feet large. It had a large garden with a long pool in it and another small annexes near it to house guest. Nathaniel could also see a path going down in the beach direction which the house was facing.
Looking around, he watch the nearby house and was not surprised to see that they were even biggers than this one. He had come here for party often and it seem it was a place particularly appreciated by actors and movie executives to live. Nathaniel also knew that it was a place where money did not suffice to buy a house, you needed status, power and influence to get in.
"How did you manage to find that house for sell?" Maggie asked with awe creeping into her voice, clearly she was thinking the same thing as Nathaniel.
"Oh, that? The previous owner wife is in my book club, I just mention to her that I wanted to pa.s.s more time with my grandson in LA and that I was searching a house to buy there. She offer to sold it to me since they didn"t came much here these past two years."
"Well, clearly we don"t have the same type of people in our book club." Maggie shook her head.
Nathaniel hide a smile hearing that. He knew and had witness for himself how his grandmother and her ladies friends "book club" was just a pretense to get together and trade story about what was happening or what happened in their circle. These womens were all influential and in many case, the head of their differents household and so they always had many informations to share between themselves.
"Grandma…" Nathaniel start before he was stopped.
"Dear, listen, this is an investiss.e.m.e.nt. We talked around us and everyone is saying that unless something untoward happens, you have the talent and the charisma to do a lot more film in the future. Secondly, a house like this in here will only gain values the more years that pa.s.s. If someday, you want to quit acting, we will sold it but I know how much you like the beach and I would like to spend more time with you in it. What"s more, we barely saw you in the past couple of weeks."
"I"m sorry grandma but I had too much to do. I should have made more to find time for you." Nathaniel regret.
"Yeah, I know. You are so much like your grandfather in this case that I almost find myself forty years into the past ah ah. But there is many thing that your grandfather regret about the past, he would have wanted to take more time with us and you should do the same. Take time for you and your loved one or you will regret it."
"You are right, I will try and okay, you win. I will live here with you." Nathaniel gave in.
"I"m so glad you said that." His grandmother flash a relieved smile.
"Why?"
"Well, I already contact the hotel you stay in that your room was now available and your things are already in your room here." She laughed, Nathaniel just shook his head at his grandmother antics. "Maggie, we can house you here if you want to but I have the feeling that you prefer to be on your own so the limo is ready to bring you back to your hotel."
"Thanks for the offer but yes, I prefer to live on my own. We will see each other tomorrow, we will need to talk. Bye Spider brat." She waved her hand before getting back in the car.
After the limo had leave the alleyway, Diane took Nathaniel by the arm and start making him a tour of the house. The mansion had a brand new security system, and the furniture were all new, even some part of the house had been repaint before hands. Nathaniel liked how the furniture were put together, it was recent but hold a simplicity that he particularly appreciate.
"You did all of that in a day?" He asked.
"Yes, you know I"m a perfectionist dear." She smile, happy that he like what she did.
"I should have hired you in my team." Nathaniel laughed.
"I"m too old for that, this is a young people game"s. Talking about your team, I had a question. What are they doing when you are away? You can talk freely, I had our security scan the place from top to bottom, we are good."
"Well, Lina is installing and creating security protocols for the official side of the company. I thought that the best way to insured that n.o.body find out about our hideen activity is to create a real branch to the company. Thanks to grandpa and mouth to mouth, we are racking a nice profit every quarter. I believe you know our best client by the way, Lyndon label." Nathaniel laughed.
"What? You are making your own blood pay?" His grandmother had a fake scandalised expression on her face.
"That"s exactly what grandpa said, I just remind him that he was making me pay when I use our own studio to make my music. Well, I"m not a total monster, I made him a little discount on the deal."
"It never stop to amaze me how much you are alike the both of you." She laughed. "And the rest?"
"Hans is busy modernizing our computers in the bunker. They are the best in the market right now but he kept telling me they are trash so I let him modified them while we are between cases. Camilla was injured in the operation but she"s already back and she"s busy with Scott doing security for the tower. Lucie was also lightly injured but she"s currently in Canada doing thermal therapy, she"s not really happy to cancel her beach trip because she have a bruise that prevent her for wearing a bikini." Nathaniel laugh thinking back when she told them that.
"Jon is working at a clinic near the tower and NYung is catching up of what she missed in Columbia. Not mentioning the fact that they keep training under Scott surveillance, our first mission highlight a lot of problem that we have and need fixing."
"How your mission go by the way? You mention some of your team members getting injured and you were really vague when you came back."
"I"ll tell you but please don"t say anything to the others about it or they will be worried."
"Of course dear, you have my word." Diane nodded seriously.
"Okay, it was a close call grandma. The mission was going as planned when one of the kidnapper shot Lucie and wake up the whole fort. Camilla and me happened to be cut off from the rest of the team and they came after us. I took upon myself to defend the difficult pa.s.sage to stall them but I pay dearly for it. I got shot four time, two in my left arm, one in the gut and one in the leg. The leg wound was the worst since the bullet cut my femoral artery. I managed to heal myself using my soul but it was almost too much too handle, I start bleeding from my eyes, ears and nose when they come get me and my heart was ready to burst. Luckily, Jon realize it and manage to save me. The mission was a success, we saved thirty six prisoners but lost two in the fighting." Nathaniel explain.
"Is this why you are preoccupied? Is this the fact that you almost died or is it the fact that you failed to save two of the hostages that make you think?" Diane asked, not at all pleased that her grandson to learn that her grandson almost died.
"The two had an impact for sure but this is not the princ.i.p.al reason is something else. When I was busy fighting, I realize that I was going to be overrun. I could have saved myself by retreating away to a more defensible position but that would have condemned Camilla for sure. In that moment, I suddenly remembered that between 1870 and 1950 in south Asia, they were using a technique to build arch using a steel cable to reinforce the structure. it was later proven that it was in fact the opposite and the steel cable created a weakness in the arch and so the method was abandoned. Using this information, I managed to shoot the cable and the whole arch went down which buy me a few seconds to survived. Without it, I would have died." Nathaniel explain somberly.
"I didn"t know that you learn architecture Dear or that was an interest of yours but I"m glad that it saved your life." She said, relieved.
"That"s the thing grandma, I never did."