Chapter 5
When they finally made it to their destination Everett parked the car outside and told N'Jadaka to wait while he checked the house.
Everything seemed fine inside. He opened the garage door and went back to the car.
Everett left N'Jadaka in the house with an instruction to lay low and went to check the block. It might've been a bit suspicious for people who lived here to see a mailman at this time, but those people weren't his concern. The ones who might've followed them here were.
All clear. Thank god. Everett might go out again later today but for now he didn't see any sighs of his colleagues or any other interested party.
Still, he took a mazy route home and sneaked in from the back door.
"It's me, agent Ross," he announced once in the house. Friendly fire or a freaked out prince were the last thing he needed.
When Everett heard no response he went looking for the prince. He found N'Jadaka in the small office, buried in cables and computer parts.
"I can't believe people still use this tech!" he said, a bit excited and genuinely surprised.
"Well, we're not all Wakandan billionaires."
"Yeah. I'm almost finished. Did what I could. It's not perfect, but at least now this thing is encrypted and untraceable."
"Thank you. It will be really helpful." Wow, he was gone for what, half an hour at best? And in that time N'Jadaka built new computer almost from scratch? For a while there he forgot who was his charge, too preoccupied with getting them out of danger. Now he felt like an idiot. "Oh, hm," he cleared his throat nervously. "I must apologize for the way I spoke to you earlier, Your Highness. I might not be as good in crisis as I thought if I let my temper out like that. You have my sincere apologies. When this is over I will report to my superiors, giving them all the details of our exchange. I'm sure they'll appoint someone new."
"No problem, agent Ross. Today's events were not the best for a clear line of communication and etiquette. You did what you could to get us out of there. And honestly, I kinda liked it. It's good to be treated like a regular person for once. In fact, I insist that we forego all that formal stuff and just be two people stuck in a complicated, life-threatening situation. You can call me N'Jadaka." He smiled reassuringly at agent Ross.
"Okay. Call me Everett, then." He was glad he didn't offended the prince.
Especially considering they had to trust and help each other to get out of this mess alive.