Sebastian glanced up after reading the short plaque and his heart stopped. “Jaxsen?” He looked around frantically but saw no sign of his son. He followed the glass of the monkey house wondering if maybe Jaxsen had just stepped around the corner. His panic welled inside him until he felt as if he were going to burst when he still saw no sign of Jaxsen. Sebastian called his name in hopes that he was somewhere nearby.

“Jaxsen?” he called a bit louder. A man fifteen years or so older than Sebastian wearing an orange vest approached him. 

“Sir, is there something I can help you with?” The man was kindly spoken, his smile normally would be a reassuring thing, Sebastian thought, if his son hadn't vanished from sight.

“My son. Jaxsen. He’s gone. I looked up and he’s gone.” Sebastian was trying to not let panic and paranoia overtake him completely. He took a deep breath, his military training kicking in to mask his fears.

“What is he wearing, sir? Do you have a picture of him perhaps?” The man lightly gesticulated as he spoke, and Sebastian wondered how often in a single day he asked these same questions. 

“A blue t-shirt. Just a plain blue t-shirt and khaki shorts. Black Nike shoes.” Sebastian pulled out his phone and showed him a recent picture. Over a radio attached to his shoulder, he called three employees over to where they were standing. Sebastian didn’t hear the man talking to the young associates, his eyes scanning the crowd for that familiar face. 

“Don’t worry…”

“Sebastian Green.” He spoke his name dismissively, listening and watching, his heart ever picking up speed.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Green. We’ll find him. If you’d like to help search, please go with Ryan so that you can be contacted if one of us finds him.”

Sebastian nodded and he and the boy, Ryan, walked in the direction Sebastian had begun to walk before. 

Deciding he had come from the other way, Jaxsen turned to make his way opposite what he was facing. “Umph.” He quickly looked up from where he’d landed on the floor and gasped. He knew those eyes. By the proximity of the two of them from where he’d landed, it was as if the familiar stranger was going to grab him. The fear he felt when he realized who the stranger was and what it meant to be staring her in the eye was paralyzing.

She smiled. An evil sneer that twisted what once was a beautiful face. She bent slightly at the waist and began reaching, reaching. Somehow Jaxsen managed to get his legs under him and began running. 

He ran in a panic away from the stranger without looking back to see if she’d followed. How did she find him? In a very different form of excitement than his previous, he again blindly turned corners with the hopes of finding his father. With blurry vision he ran on, turning various ways, this and that until he ran into an object that halted him in his tracks.

“Are you Jaxsen?” The employee was in his early twenties, his bright orange vest standing out among the earthy tones of the monkey house. Before he could turn and run away again, the employee reached down and lifted him to his feet. He repeated the question but in all his panic the words didn’t register in Jaxsen’s head. Instead Jaxsen screamed, kicked the man in the shins, turned and began to run. He only made it a few steps before he found himself being lifted into the air. He screamed and fought until the calling of his name finally made it through the panic and fear. Sebastian’s face came into view and all the fight left him.

“Daddy?” Jaxsen threw his arms around Sebastian’s neck as he cried, relief flooding him that he was safe. Sebastian hugged him back, rocking him gently, with equal fervor. He willed his own heart to calm down and he held his son close.

“I’ve got you, Jack. Daddy’s here.”

“I didn’t mean to scare him, sir, when I grabbed him. I was just trying to help him back up.” The boy rubbed the back of his neck in a long time nervous habit.

“No, you’re fine. Thank you for finding him.”

The boy smiled. “I’m glad he’s okay, Sir. I’ll let my boss know he’s okay so you can take care of him.”

When they exited the monkey house Sebastian attempted to set Jaxsen down to make sure that he really was okay, but the boy would have none of it.  He did not scream, or panic, or make a scene. He simply whimpered and held tighter to him.

“No, Daddy, don’t put me down. Take me home, Daddy, I wanna go home.”

Sebastian nodded. “Okay, sweet boy. What happened, Jack?” Jaxsen, who was already trembling, began shaking quite a bit more. 

“Th-th-they found me, Daddy.”

While still walking Sebastian glanced around, his stomach falling to his toes. He saw no one that struck him dangerous, but kept a sharp eye out nonetheless. When they reached the truck Sebastian had a hell of a time trying to convince the boy to let him go to get inside his seat. When he let go, Sebastian buckled him up and wiped gently at the boy’s face. 

“What do you mean they found you, Jack? Who found you?” But he already knew the answer, he just really wanted to be wrong.

“Take me home, Daddy. Please. I wanna go home now.” His voice sounded so small as he made this plea. Sebastian looked at him a moment, his eyes cast downward, his lip quivering, fear obvious in the slight vibrations running through his tiny frame. Sebastian decided not to question him further just yet. Get him home. Get him comfortable. With a nod and a worried expression, Sebastian closed the back door and climbed in the driver’s seat. 

The ride home was made mostly in silence, the radio serving as the main source of sound. Sebastian kept a close eye on any cars that followed behind too long, or too close. He kept a closer eye on his son. They stopped to eat twice along their way. They pulled through the drive-through and parked in the lot. Silent sill. 

When they finally arrived at the house it was nearing dark and Jaxsen was anxious to finally be home and out of the truck. Nizhoni stood in the doorway and knelt down to embrace Jaxsen as he came to her.

“Baby boy,” she said cooingly as she swayed gently, watching Sebastian grab their bags and walk up the step. She kissed him and stood back up before moving to allow entrance into the house. Sebastian hadn’t been able to tell her much over the phone, but she had drawn conclusions of her own, and had her suspicions.

“Baby boy, I got you. Try and relax. You thirsty?” Sebastian lifted the child once again, Jaxsen wrapping his arms and legs around his father. Nizhoni met Sebastian’s eyes while the child shook in his arms. He followed her to the kitchen. “Let me set you down, Jack.” Nizhoni kissed his forehead when he’d detached himself to be set on the counter.

Sebastian waited until Jaxsen had handed the water glass back to Nizhoni before he began his line of interrogation. “Jack, I need you to tell me the truth now. Absolutely with nothing omitted. Do you understand?” 

Jaxsen recognized the all-business military tone from his father. He nodded. “Yes, sir. What do you want to know?”

“Who was following you? You said they found you. Who found you?”

Jaxsen took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “My parents were…it wasn’t just some random burglary. They were professionals. Th-they were supposed to kill me too, but Mommy put me in the safe room.” His eyes watered and he wiped his face.

Nizhoni looked at Sebastian with warning in her eyes. He’s just a baby, Sebastian. Not one of your men. Sebastian nodded slightly in acknowledgement and looked back at Jaxsen. 

“I know it’s hard, Jack, but I need to know what I’m up against here. If someone was there at…” He paused, a thought suddenly coming to him. “Did you see this person at the water park?”

Jaxsen nodded. “But I didn’t know who they were.”

“What was your dad working on for someone to put a hit on him?” Sebastian frowned, the question more to himself than directed at Jaxsen. But he received an answer nonetheless.

“No, Daddy. The hit was for us all. Daddy was still working for the military. They contracted him out for certain secret jobs.”

“What kind of jobs?”

“Code breaking. He let me help. While he was fluent, I had a better grasp of how each code was created. It was a puzzle and I was always good at that kinda stuff. I wasn’t supposed to work on it…but one day I snuck into his office and was looking at stuff…and I cracked the code…I got into a lot of trouble…but he let me help him after that.”

He smiled before going on. “What codes were you two breaking?” He did not have a good feeling, and the more Jaxsen told him, the worse the feeling became.

“Mostly German. Some Iraqi. The person at the zoo…she’s German. We’d been working on a particularly difficult puzzle when they…came that night.”

“What had you found out?” Sebastian crossed his arms, not believing what he was hearing. Why would Glen involve his son? No matter how smart he is or how well he cracked the codes. Involved or not, he would have still been in danger. Sebastian rubbed his eyes tiredly. 

“A rogue group of former German military washouts were causing a big up-roar in the domestic terrorist line of work. They had plans to become the modern day Gestapo group. The only thing is they were bombing Jewish temples and Catholic cathedrals alike. No one really could figure out what they wanted. The German military called our CIA for assistance because they had ties to American arms dealers that were selling the weapons to them. Daddy’s superior told him they were intercepting transmissions they were passing via a webpage on the internet, but they couldn’t make heads or tails of it.”

Sebastian frowned. “There is no way that Glen would have asked you, his son, to help him…did he?” He was flabbergasted that Glen would do something so out of character.

“No. Not at first. Like I said, I got into a lot of trouble for messing with his papers. But then he saw that I cracked it...he let me after that. I just…knew what most of it said. The rest I was able to…deduce from context.”

Sebastian knew he spoke the truth. “Jesus.” He looked at his son. “You’re sure, Jack? It was the same woman?”

Jaxsen’s fear and anxiety and memories ambushed, rushing at him all at once.