A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (reading comprehension books .txt) 📗

With a nod, Danny rocked back in his chair.“For the next couple days, yes it is.”

“I don’t get it,” she said with a frown, butoddly enough Hugh did, and he offered a nod to her brother. Aye, hewas a cunning lad.

“Yer brother has offered me an alias. Alegitimate means of traveling incognito.”

Danny nodded. “That’s right. Hugh gets to goto Scotland as a real person with a personal history, Facebookpage, and blog that would have taken me weeks to create. The bonusis that this guy has already come into Canada. I didn’t even thinkabout it before, you know? Getting him out without record of himever having come in? That might have raised a few flags.”

Sorcha pursed her lips as she glanced up atHugh, and he had to wonder what she was thinking. “So, what now? Ifwe have the guy, can’t we just forge a passport?”

“Perhaps Danny isnae any more familiar wi’the seedy underbelly of yer country than ye are,” Hugh offered witha smile.

“Oh, I’m sure he is.”

“I am,” Danny said agreeably. “I am gettingto that. It is all part of the grand plan. Hugh will go home asRupert Waldroup, nice and legal-ish, but when he gets there, he’sgoing to become someone else entirely.”

“Myself,” Hugh said.

“Right,” Danny said, nodding with approval.“Really not a savage, are you? Too bad. That might have been moreinteresting.”

“Ye would hae done nae more than fear foryer sister if that were the case.”

“Who says I’m not?” Danny shrugged andturned back to the screen. “So, you’ll go to the BritishConsulate—thought you would have to do San Francisco before. Linearthinking and all that. Forgot that there is one in Vancouver.You’ll get some emergency travel documents as our guy and offyou’ll go. Poor old Rupert might have a hell of a time laterexplaining how he needs to leave Canada twice when he only arrivedonce, but, hey, that’s the challenge of life, right?”

“And then?” Hugh asked.

“Soon as you are safely in Scotland, I canerase all trace of your photo from the system and voilà,” Dannywaved his hands in the air. “The journey is as if it neverhappened. You’re a ghost, a vague image on bad airport securityfootage. Best part is, you never even have to pass through Americancustoms, where the NSA is probably watching.”

Hugh was impressed by the lad’s skills,which clearly were abnormal even in this time of technologicalwonder. “Yer brilliant, Danny. Really, ye hae my thanks.”

“No problemo,” Danny said with a modestnod.

“No,” Sorcha countered. “Big problemos.Mondo huge problemos. I could fill a supertanker with them.”

Hugh looked curiously between Sorcha and herbrother, to whom he said, “We speak the same language but sometimesI dinnae comprehend a word she says.”

Danny grinned. “I have that same issue.”

“Oh, ha ha,” she said, slapping her brotheron the back of his head. “You know what I’m talking about. Thereare holes everywhere in this! Hugh can’t get into Canada withoutthe passport he’s going there to get! And how am I supposed to gothere with him? If I flash my passport at the border, I might aswell call up Jameson myself and tell him where I’m going.”

Danny’s eyes widened with mock surprise.“Kudos on the big brain, Sis. Is that all?”

Claire was still shaking her head. “No,that’s not all. What does Hugh do in Scotland after he’s there? Hecan’t get a job or an apartment or even a bank account.”

Her brother rifled through some papers onhis desktop and came up with a slim envelope, from which hewithdrew a passport. “Seeing as the only Hugh Urquhart in theentire UK is a four-year-old kid, I figured we’re safe letting himuse his own name.” Claire thumbed through the small book beforehanding it to Hugh with a nod. She was impressed that Danny hadaccomplished so much in less than a week, but was even more so whenhe pulled out a birth certificate as well that looked suitably wornto Hugh’s age. “You’ll have to hide those well on the way over, incase he’s searched. It would be hard to explain. I’ve startedbuilding records for Hugh Urquhart in all the normal UK databasesand should have it done by the time he gets there. He’ll have topull his same story back home to replace his other ‘lost’ documentslike his driver’s license or NHS card, or maybe a tragic fire willhave burned down his family home. I’ll build him such a solid lifethat there will be nothing to link him to Rupert Waldroup orMark-Davis’s lost science experiment.”

“Okay, fine. But what about Canada?” sheasked, concerned on that one sticking point. “Surely San Franciscowould have been easier.”

“That’s a fourteen-hour drive,” Dannypointed out.

“A fourteen-hour drive inthe same country.” She met Hugh’s gaze and read the question there.“Vancouver is less than three hours from here but it is in Canada,and to get in there these days, you need a passport,” she explainedbefore turning back to her brother. “I told you we should have justmade him American!” Claire caught his incredulous look andshrugged. “Fine, you said make him an American, but why didn’t you then? Since youdecided to just replace some random guy with Hugh’s picture,wouldn’t it have been easier to get him a passport hereinstead?”

“Really? Think about what you justsaid.”

Damn, she hated it when someone was smarterthan she was, and there had been a lot of that going around lately.“Because in the U.S. you can’t just get an emergency passport tofly out of the country. Fine, I got it. So how do you propose weget into Canada?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Claire glared at her brother. Nothing wasobvious any more, other than the fact that she had gotten in wayover her head. She had no idea what Danny might be referring to.Hugh must have sensed her impulse to tackle her obtuse brother tothe ground, because he laid a calming hand on her shoulder andleveled one of his haughty, ducal glares at her brother. “Come now,lad, this is nae time tae rile yer sister so. Tell us yeridea.”

Danny sighed impatiently. “Claire, when wasthe last time your car was searched going over the border?”

“You want to sneak him into Canada?” Claireasked