I sank into the sofa indulgently. “Ah, that’s the good stuff.”

Paul grinned. “So the dim sums were to your liking?”

“Delicious. I lost count of how many I had.”

“That’s fine, Mekong Dim Sum Buckets have thirty-six pieces each and I don’t think you can finish two of them.”

“Don’t challenge him, Dad,” piped up Anne. “You haven’t seen Andrew binge. Like, really binge.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“Please. When you got home from the Damini you ate half the food in the fridge. We had to go shopping the next day to stock up, remember?”

“I stand by my statement, and offer my stable body weight in evidence.”

“Considering how many calories you burned in today’s training, I’m not surprised.”

“Well, at least I didn’t hog the ice cream.”

“Hey! The girls paid for their ice creams. You can afford to get your own.”

“What’s this?” Paul inquired.

“Anne and some of the Phoenix Company members got some delicious Ben & Jerry’s this afternoon. And she refused to share.”

“You should’ve joined us for the ice creams.”

“They don’t know your identity, do they?” Paul asked, concerned.

“Don’t worry, Dad, they know me only as Nanocloud. I didn’t take off my helmet. Neither did they, for that matter.”

“The Ben & Jerry’s folks must have had a bit of a shock, what with several of you showing up there in armor.”

“The ice cream joint is on the base, they’ve gotten used to having us around.”

“I’m glad you're making friends. I was afraid you’d have a very boring summer.”

“Dad, I’m going to London this summer. Hardly boring.”

“I would prefer something a little less exciting for your vacation. What are your school friends doing, anyway?”

A shadow passed over Anne’s face. “Marty’s parents moved. There aren’t that many kids in my grade that I know now.”

“Let’s wait for August. Once the school year starts I’m sure you’ll make some new friends.”

“Sure, Dad. Andrew, any idea on when the aliens are hitting London?”

The quick change of topic caught me off guard. “Nothing so far....”

“Yeah, Agni says waiting is the worst part.”

Paul cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve gotten pretty close to her.”

“Me? Andrew’s the one who spends the most time with her.”

“Hey! We just work together. Trying to figure out how to counter a Carnotaur.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. She does find you cute.”

“She’s too old for me!”

“She’s twenty-six,” supplied Paul unhelpfully, “and you’re eighteen. It’s not an insurmountable gap. Besides, you can always see where it goes in time….”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Not helping!”

“We’re just kidding, bro. It’s funny how easily you blush…”

My Unplottable Smartphone buzzed. For something intended to be difficult to find, it was amazing how easy it made me to reach….

I snatched it up. “Hello?”

“You free tomorrow evening?” Agni’s voice.

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“A couple of options that might interest you. Meet me at the Cinder House Blues club. Dress nice.” The supervillainess hung up.

As I explained the call, Anne’s face lit up. “She does like you. The Cinder House Blues are a nice place for romantic dinners.”

Paul cocked his eyebrow. “I know we were kidding around earlier, but is there something actually going on between the two of you?”

“No, Dad. We’ve just been working together a lot this past month.”

“Seen a few relationships that started like that.”

“She tried to kill me the first three times we met.”

“Seen that too, doesn't stop people from getting into relationships. Your grandma was like that with Mike Benning.”

“.... wait, who’s Mike Benning?”

“I never told you about your grandmother?”

Anne shook her head. “Dad, Andrew doesn’t know. You told me some of this stuff a few years ago, and I remember Grandpa Benning a little.”

“Ah. Hilary’s mother Sangeeta was a bit of a troublemaker wherever she worked. She used to work in software….”

“Game development, Dad.”

“Yeah, she used to develop computer games back in the ‘50s. Anyway, she joined this company called Wolfram Studios in 2057. The first day, she meets Michael, who was an old-timer at the company, and totally loses it with him. They argued for several hours, until she lost her temper and stormed out.”

“What was the fight about?”

“No clue, neither of them ever told us. Anyway, they kept fighting over one issue or another for months. Things came to a head at the company picnic, when they got into a roaring screaming match in front of a dozen other people.”

“That must have been embarrassing.”

“Well, their boss was fed up with the fighting, so he told the two of them to stay back at the hotel and work out their issues.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. The rest of the people headed home, the two of them were stuck at the hotel… Three days later, they’re in a relationship.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all. Don’t know how they managed it. Hilary found them kissing on the front porch, which was extremely awkward considering she was thirteen when this whole thing happened. They had one intense relationship, got married a year later.”

“Wow, that’s… impressive. Wait, Hilary was thirteen? What about her dad?”

“Yeah, well… Michael Benning was Hilary’s step-dad. She never really got along with him, though.”

“Why not?”

“Hilary and her mother didn’t get along either. My in-laws had massive family drama.... Anyway, Hilary’s dad is a guy called Marcus Albing - he’s a big-time developer at a game studio.”

“.... Is? He’s still around?” I mentally restrained myself from saying ‘alive’.

“Yeah. Doesn’t want anything to do with us, though. Can’t blame him, seeing as he was already married when he had an affair with Sangeeta and … got her pregnant.”

“Ouch. That must have been awkward…”

“Very. Technically Anne has a couple of uncles - Hilary’s half-brothers - living somewhere in California, but we don’t much care for them. Nor they for us, actually.”

“That’s fascinating,” I scratched my head. “Any other secrets I need to know about? Hidden relatives somewhere else?”

“No, that’s it.”

“You’re forgetting Great-Grandpa X,” Anne interjected.

“Who’s Great-Grandpa X?”

“Grandma Sangeeta’s dad. According to Mom, her grandmother - great-grandma Annalise - had an affair with Great-Grandpa X, who vanished afterwards. Left great-grandma and Sangeeta when they were kids.”

“Wow. This gets more morbid and fascinating by the minute…”

“Yeah, so Grandma Sangeeta tried very hard to find him. Spent years looking for him, no clue or trace or anything. It’s one of those unsolved family mysteries.”

“We seriously couldn’t trace him?”

“Not a clue,” Paul said solemnly. “And Sangeeta did a lot of detective work on it, too. She put together a folder of all the clues she’d been able to piece together to retrace his steps, which she handed down to Hilary. Anne’s got the folder now, I think.”

“Actually, I lost it,” Anne admitted sheepishly. “The main folder was on my phone the day of the attack, and the files got wiped.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. The aliens don’t use ECM or jammers - how would your data get wiped?”

“You know what, you’re right. It shouldn’t have gotten wiped… I just checked afterwards and found the files were gone.” Anne scratched her head, puzzled. “I didn’t know about the ECM thing before….”

“Doesn’t matter, kiddo. Your mum had a copy of the files in the HMS server. You can re-download them again. Did you ever figure out the riddle?”

“Oh, that’s good. No, I didn’t.”

“What riddle?” I asked.

“Grandma sealed the files with a secret question. I haven’t been able to figure out the answer. Need that to actually see the files.”

“Wow. Secret files, mysterious unknown great-grandfathers, hidden step-uncles and clandestine affairs… the Quentin side of the family sounds awesome. What about the Drakes? Any juicy gossip there?”

“Nope. My parents were very boring, normal people who got married and had me, and their parents were very boring normal people who got married and had them.”

“Tch. So dull.”

“It’s a Drake family tradition to get married before you have kids. Also to make sure your kids know their parents’ names. We’ve stuck to that tradition for at least the last three generations, and I trust you two will adhere to it.”