Wunderkind

1.05-Toothpick

LISBON, PORTUGAL

THIS HAS OFFICIALLY BECOME A FIVE-CHIP-BAG STAKEOUT

Riley yawns. Even the bag of Taquitos she's munching on isn't doing much to keep her from dozing and starting awake every few seconds. She hasn't slept properly in three days.

It all started when Sam woke her up at an ungodly hour going on about someone named Gus, but what she had to say was worth it. One of her old contacts had tracked down an "Alex Hunter" renting an apartment in Lisbon. Apparently that's one of the aliases Nick had on a faked ID hidden in his apartment. Riley had been slightly upset that Sam hadn't told her she found a stash of IDs, but it's hard to blame her. I've been a very unpleasant person to be around when anything about Nick comes up.

Patty took some convincing to let Riley and Jack follow up on the lead. She finally gave in provided Jack never let Riley out of his sight and the two of them promised not to take off in some sort of cross-continent chase if the Lisbon lead didn't pan out or Nick bolted.

Riley just can't shake the feeling that she's going to be the one who has to bring Nick in. It's got nothing to do with wounded pride, or at least that's what she tells herself, and it seems to be true enough. Yes, Nick hurt her deeply; his betrayal was more a stab to her than anyone else in the agency, but Riley's not here for revenge. She's here because something tells her Nick won't be caught by anyone else. Lisbon is where we first admitted we cared about each other as more than partners. Nick is either taunting Riley, or he's leaving her clues. Almost like he wants her to follow a trail. I'm not going to play his game, but we can't afford to ignore any lead we get.

They've been sitting around waiting for him to show up at this slummy apartment for over two days now. It's so long that Jack has started retelling the same stories over, apparently oblivious to the fact that he told her the same exact thing in the same exact words yesterday. I feel like I'm caught in a time loop.

"So I told him, if you're gonna put those suckers up, you'd better be ready to use them. And you know what? He did! He popped me right between the eyes, almost broke my snooter. But you know what I did?"

Riley chimes in almost mindlessly. "You laid him flat on his back with a busted jaw, and the brother-in-law said he hadn't seen so much blood..."

"Since his dog tangled with a muskrat in their pond!" Jack finishes with a laugh.

"I've heard that story at least ten times." Riley leans her head on the glass. "I'm starting to wonder if this is a waste of time."

"When is the two of us spending some quality father-daughter time together ever a waste?" Jack asks. He swats lazily at a fly that at some point came in and no one has bothered to shoo out a door yet. Riley's going stir crazy enough to consider naming the little guy Pablo.

"Father-daughter time is going fishing together. Or Die Hard marathons and pizza. Not sitting around in a hot car that smells like chili powder and chickens and staring at an empty apartment." She sets the Taquitos on the dashboard. "I'm getting ready to give up."

"Riley Davis? Quitting?" Jack glances at her in mock wide-eyed surprise. "I think the world might be ending."

"Come on, Jack, we've been here over two days. Something isn't right. If he's living here he should have come back by now."

"He might be staying over someplace." Riley sees Jack falter as he says it. Don't worry about hurting my feelings. Nick betrayed his country, stole a deadly virus and tried to unleash it on the world, and was okay with having me killed. So him possibly moving on with another girlfriend is the least of my issues with him.