Game of Thrones Workbook

House of the Undying: Back to Work

It was an overcast autumn day in New York. Andrew Garrett sat on one of the benches in Riverside Park near 113th Street overlooking the Hudson River. He took the Italian sub from the Milano Market out of the paper bag and unwrapped it, taking a large bite as he watched the joggers pass by him on the running path. He chewed thoughtfully; as far as deli sandwiches went, it was one of the better ones he’d tried recently.

Andrew pulled out his phone and scrolled through his list of restaurants until he found the Milano Market, then crossed it off. There were roughly twenty-five thousand restaurants in New York, and his goal was to eat at all of them once. It would require three meals at three different restaurants each day, every day, for more than twenty years. But when one is retired at the age of thirty-five and has more money than they know what to do with, one has to find hobbies to keep busy.

Someone took a seat on the other side of Andrew’s bench. Andrew took his time finishing a bite of his sandwich, then set it down.

“What do you want?” Andrew asked without looking over.

The other man seemed surprised. “What gave me away?”

“There are a hundred empty benches up and down this section of the park and you sit right next to me.” Andrew said, wiping his hands with a napkin and looking over. “So I’m going to ask you again. What do you want?”

“How’s the sandwich?”

“It’s okay.”

“Better or worse than Barney Greengrass?”

“Barney Greengrass is overrated.”

The other man considers that. “How many have you crossed off your list?”

If Andrew was surprised that this stranger knew about his restaurant-visiting hobby, he didn’t give any indication of it.

“About nine hundred.”

“Not bad for your first year of retirement,” the man said.

“Did you track me down just so you could get some local food recommendations?” Andrew asked, an edge creeping into his voice.

“I’m here because I have a job for you.”

“Did you forget the part about me being retired? I only ask because you literally acknowledged it like two seconds ago.”

“I think you might reconsider that position,” the man said, shrugging. “Especially when your sister Kate’s life is on the line.”

Andrew looked over at the other man for the first time, his eyes narrowing. The other man held up his hands in symbolic surrender.

“I’m not threatening her, Andrew. She got into trouble on her own. I’m just here to pass along a message.”

Andrew gritted his teeth. Kate getting herself into situations that were out of her depth was certainly nothing new. When they were growing up, their parents were constantly bailing Kate out when she would do something stupid, dangerous, or both. He couldn’t count the number of times that he and their parents had piled into the family minivan at two in the morning and driving out to whatever police station, motel room, or scuzzy nightclub she managed to get herself stranded at.

Even as adults, Andrew had bailed Kate out a number of times, whether it was rescuing her physically from similar circumstances, or literally bailing her out of jail with cash.

“And what’s that message?” Andrew asked.

“That you need to bring the team back together and pull off your biggest job yet.”

It was ironic; Andrew was the real criminal in the family and yet Kate spent more time getting caught up in bad situations than he did. Andrew and his crew had pulled off some of the most elaborate and high-profile heists in the country. After getting rich, they all went their separate ways. Andrew retired to New York. Roxy Black set herself up in Los Angeles. Estelle Dorsey found a huge tract of land in Montana, and Jared Janks was last rumored to be gallivanting around Miami.

It would be a chore to get them back together, but if Kate were really at risk, he’d go to the ends of the Earth to save her.

“What’s the job?” Andrew asked.

(686 words)


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