“Ok, spill the beans,” Jeremy says. “What’s going on? I hate it when you leave me out of things.”

“No one is leaving you out of things, you little twerp,” Jane says. “None of us knows what's going on here. Except this imposter…” Jane indicates Johnny sitting with is big smile on a chair in the living room. Arnold and Annie are also there a bit concerned since Jane has called this impromptu family meeting.

“Why don’t you start,” Johnny says to Jane.

“I caught Johnny with a bug in his hands in the living room this afternoon,” Jane says.

“Johnny?” Annie asks.

“Mr. Martinez,” Jane says. “He also goes by “Johnny” although I don’t know what his real name is.” Again she glares at him but Arnold and Annie are still confused.

“So he found a bug in the living room,” Arnold says. “So what? I hope he killed it.”

Johnny laughs out loud.

“No, Mr. Bertoni, Jane is referring to a listening device. I found a bug in the living room and one in the kitchen. My people found six more in different parts of the house but I am confident that we found them all.”

“Listening devices?” Annie says softly.

She turns to look at Arnold with wide eyes.

“Somebody has been listening to all of our conversations?” Arnold asks, still a bit confused.

“Yes, the devices have been removed but that means that the people who were listening now know that we found those devices.”

“Does that matter?” Annie asks.

“It depends on who they are?” Johnny says.

“What I want to know is who you are?” Jane asks coldly.

Silence.

Johnny clears his throat, looks down at the floor to think and then looks up.
“My name is Johnny Quintos.

I work for an international security firm that has been hired to protect you and your grandmother, China.”

He is looking at Jane.

“I didn’t realize that we were in danger,” Arnold says dryly.

“The two German looking guys in black coats that paid you a visit a few days ago were not from the government.

And the police that came looking for China were not actually police. All of them work for a multi-national security corporation that specializes in black ops and routinely disappears people for a price.”

“How do we know that you don’t work for the same people?” Jeremy asks innocently.

“Good, Jeremy. That’s the right question,” Johnny says, smiling. “Frankly, you don’t.
And I don’t know how to prove that I am on your side.”

“You told China that you had heard stories about her as if you were an admirer when you kissed her hand,” Jane says. “What was all that about?”

“You heard that?” Johnny asks. Then he sighs. “That’s for China to tell you herself.
It’s not my place to reveal her secrets.”

“China has secrets?” Jeremy asks. “This is just getting better and better.”
He can hardly contain his excitement.

“I knew that my mother was a political activist,” Arnold says, “but what you are suggesting is that she was something more. Maybe even a spy. Is that what you’re telling us?”

“Not my place to say,” Johnny insists.

“And you wonder why we don’t trust you,” Jane says. She turns away to collect her thoughts. “Can you at least tell us what’s going on? Why are these people after China? Do you know where China is?”

“No, I don’t,” Johnny says. “All I know is that everyone is looking for her. She isn’t so easy to find if she doesn’t want to be found.”

“Again with the riddles,” Jane says. “This is my grandmother we are talking about.
She’s almost eighty years old. You make it sound like she is capable of dealing with these goons.”

“More than capable,” Johnny says quietly. “You really don’t have to worry about her.”

Silence.

“I still don’t understand who was listening to us,” Annie says. “I would like to know.”

“I have a theory about that,” Arnold says, “but it is probably impossible to prove one way or the other.”

“Tell us, Dad,” Jeremy says.

“It could have been Wenceslao Benegas. He was trying to find the treasure and he thought that we knew where it was. It makes sense that he would bug the house before he moved out to try to hear our conversations.”

“The listening devices were not very sophisticated,” says Johnny. “They could have been bought at any Radio Shack. And they weren’t hidden very well. We noticed that. So it could be.”

“What about those big German guys who came to the house to ask questions?” Jane says. “How did they know so much about what was going on here in the house?”

“How did you know about that?” says Arnold. “Were you eavesdropping on our conversation in the living room too? Do you also have a listening device, young lady?” Her dad is only half-kidding.

“I can hear every conversation in the living room from my bedroom,” Jane says. “Somehow the air vent in my room is connected with the air vent right up there.” She points at the ceiling.

“Cool,” Jeremy says.

“Not cool,” Arnold says. “No more listening to conversations in the living room.”

“Goodness,” Annie says.

“Privacy in this house doesn’t exist.”

“Sorry,” Jane mumbles.

“But it’s still a good question,” Johnny says. “Are you saying that these two guys knew stuff that happened in the house that they should not have known? Perhaps they were behind the listening devices.”

“Maybe,” Arnold says. “Or maybe Wenceslao Benegas and these two German types are connected somehow.”

“But how?” Jane asks.

“Wasn’t this Stroessner guy also German,” Jeremy asks.

Everyone turn to look at him.

“You’re a genius, Jeremy,” says Arnold. “A literal genius.