"You did what!?"
"We have arrived, you can look outside if you want to know more dear." His grandmother added to his protest.
Getting out of the car after Maggie, Nathaniel looked 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 other small annexes near it to house guests. Nathaniel could also see a path going down in the beach direction which the house was facing.
Looking around, he watched the nearby house and was not surprised to see that they were even bigger than this one. He had come here for parties often and it seemed 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 sale?" Maggie asked with awe creeping into her voice, clearly she was thinking the same thing as Nathaniel.
"Oh, that? The previous owner's wife is in my book club, I just mentioned to her that I wanted to spend more time with my grandson in LA and that I was searching for a house to buy there. She offered to sell it to me since they didn't come 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 hides a smile hearing that. He knew and had witnessed for himself how his grandmother and her ladies friends 'book club was just a pretense to get together and trade stories about what was happening or what happened in their circle. These womens were all influential and in many cases, the heads of their different households and so they always had much information to share between themselves.
"Grandma…" Nathaniel started before he was stopped.
"Dear, listen, this is an investissement. 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 pass. If someday, you want to quit acting, we will sell 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 regrets.
"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 are many things that your grandfather regrets 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 flashes a relieved smile.
"Why?"
"Well, I already contacted the hotel you stay in and your room is now empty and your things are already in your room here." She laughed, Nathaniel just shook his head at his grandmother's 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 left the alleyway, Diane took Nathaniel by the arm and started giving him a tour of the house. The mansion had a brand new security system, and the furniture was all new, even some parts of the house had been repainted beforehand. Nathaniel liked how the furniture was put together, it was recent but held a simplicity that he particularly appreciated.
"You did all of that in a day?" He asked.
"Yes, you know I'm a perfectionist dear." She smiled, 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's game. 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 ensure that nobody finds out about our hidden 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 stops 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 modify 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 has a bruise that prevents her from wearing a bikini." Nathaniel laughed thinking back when she told them that.
"Jon is working at a clinic near the tower and Na-Yung is catching up on what she missed in Columbia. Not mentioning the fact that they keep training under Scott surveillance, our first mission highlights a lot of problems that we have and need fixing."
"How is your mission going 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 kidnappers shot Lucie and woke up the whole fort. Camilla and I happened to be cut off from the rest of the team and they came after us. I took upon myself to defend the difficult passage 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 to handle, I started bleeding from my eyes, ears and nose when they came to get me and my heart was ready to burst. Luckily, Jon realized it and managed to save me. The mission was a success, we saved thirty six prisoners but lost two in the fighting." Nathaniel explained.
"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 had learned that her grandson almost died.
"The two had an impact for sure but this is not the principal reason. When I was busy fighting, I realized 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. At 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 bought me a few seconds to survive. Without it, I would have died." Nathaniel explained somberly.
"I didn't know that you learned architecture Dear or that it 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."