Mosaic (Breakthrough Book 5)

by Michael C. Grumley

  “Good.”

  “How long was I asleep?”

  Neely’s shadowed head tilted slightly. “A couple of hours.”

  “We’re trapped. Aren’t we?”

  “It appears so.”

  “They want what’s inside of me.”

  “No. They already have that. Now they want to understand it. To use it. For something.”

  After a long silence, Li Na spoke. “That is why you are here?”

  “Yes.”

  “They want you to help them?”

  “Yes.”

  Li Na stared through the dark at Neely, who she could see was looking back in her general direction with a somewhat blank expression. No, not that. More like a gaze of uncertainty. Li Na peered harder and realized Neely just could not see the detail in the dark that she could.

  “What’s wrong?” Neely asked.

  Li Na shrugged. “Nothing.”

  “Are you sure?”

  This time her response was slower. “Maybe.” She remained silent, thinking for a moment. “I’m feeling things. Strange things.”

  “Like what?”

  The teenager lowered her head. “The people here feel the same as the others.”

  “What do you mean they feel the same?”

  “I don’t know. I…don’t know the words. But it’s here.”

  Neely could see the dark outline of Li Na’s arm move toward her chest.

  “What is it that you’re feeling?”

  Li Na remained silent, thinking. “Um, maybe like…,” she fumbled, trying to come up with the word, “fear?”

  “Fear?”

  “Like fear. But different. And stronger. Maybe like…sound. When it’s moving.” Li Na brought her fingers together and began rubbing them together lightly. “How do you say?”

  “You mean vibration?”

  “Yes. Like vibration. But deeper. And inside. Where things like fear come from.”

  “What do you think it is?”

  Neely waited for a reply but heard nothing. She waited longer, but it never came.

  “Li Na?”

  Again there was no response. Neely leaned forward and felt for her on the bed, finding the girl’s bent knee. “Li Na?”

  “I’m here,” the girl whispered. “I was thinking.”

  “About?”

  “My father,” her voice answered. “He warned me.”

  “About these people?”

  “He saved my life and even left things to help me escape. He said they would be coming. And as long as I was alive, they would never stop trying to find me. But he didn’t just mean in my own country. He meant everywhere. But I didn’t understand. Not until now.”

  There was another pause.

  “I failed,” Li Na said. “I failed him. He gave up everything for me. His honor, and his life, to protect me. And I failed him.” Li Na’s voice began to tremble. “He sacrificed for me. Everything. And it was not for anything. He is dead now. For nothing. Because of me.”

  Li Na began to cry. “If I died in the hospital, he would be alive now. If I died–”

  “Hey, hey.” Neely gripped Li Na’s knee tightly. “Don’t say that. What he did, he did so you could live. So you could have a chance.”

  “But there was no matter. I am alive, yes, but I am here.” The teenager was struggling to speak. “I am here…and they have taken what he gave me. What he was trying to protect. I…have done nothing.”

  Neely moved from her chair all the way onto the bed, finding Li Na’s shoulders and wrapping an arm around her. “That’s not true. You are alive, Li Na. And that’s what he prayed for. I’m sure of it. You’re alive, and that means there’s hope.”

  “Hope for what?”

  “You, Li Na. Hope in you. Hope that you’ll live longer because of him. And you are.”

  “He would not want me alive if he knew I was here.”

  “Maybe. But if you’re alive, if either of us is alive, there’s still hope.”

  Li Na went quiet again.

  “Your father did not die for nothing, Li Na. I know it.”

  “How?”

  “Because my father died saving me,” Neely replied softly. “And as long as I’m alive, so is he.”

  111

  The answer to Neely Lawton’s hope was not in a form either woman would have imagined. Nor was it in the green-hulled, twelve-ton Boeing CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopter dropping from the dark Utah skies in a thundering descent.

  Its sixty-foot rotor blades tore unmercifully through the cool desert air, and a blinding light was shining down onto the ground from below the cockpit. The giant craft slowed, then rotated in a clockwise fashion before setting down onto a remote section of tarmac at Salt Lake City’s International Airport.

  The landing gear bulged and flexed under the load of the aircraft as it bounced heavily upon the concrete surface. The pitch from its three massive engines dropped. A gradual slowing of the whirling blades followed almost immediately.

  Both the forward light plus the accompanying landing lights on either side were all that could be seen from a distance until the giant side door was pulled open from the inside. Moments later, man after man appeared in the wide opening, briefly as a silhouette, before quickly disappearing into the darkness as each dropped down onto the tarmac.

  The entire craft was offloaded in less than ninety seconds. The dark line of figures ran in a single-file line toward a nearby aircraft hangar.

  When they reached the structure, one of the hangar’s giant metal doors opened, revealing a vast, well-lit area inside. When the last man reached the door, it was immediately pushed closed again, plunging the exterior back into blackness.

  Inside, both platoons stopped and scanned the expansiveness of the hangar. Clean and empty, the utility hangar had recently been vacated. And barely two hundred feet away, standing in the middle of the concrete floor, stood two individuals.

  The team’s O.I.C., a lieutenant, inspected their surroundings with a wary expression before focusing on the two waiting men. He glanced behind quickly at his team and began walking forward. Their hosts did the same.

  As the lieutenant drew near, he studied the two strangers carefully. One was taller and appeared slightly slenderer than the other. Both had dark hair and unshaven faces.

  “You Clay and Caesare?”

  The first man, dressed in loose-fitting civilian clothing, nodded. “Welcome, Lieutenant.”

  The second, wider in stature but dressed just as shabbily, grinned from under an unusually heavy six-o’clock shadow. “Glad you could make it.”

  The SEAL O.I.C. surveyed them curiously but simply smiled in return. “You guys forgot your razors.”

  “Among other things,” quipped Caesare.

  Having reached each other, the lieutenant stuck out his hand. “Darnell. O.I.C.”

  Clay shook. “John Clay and Steve Caesare, Naval Investigations.”

  “And fellow frogmen, I hear,” Darnell said.

  “In a former life.”

  Darnell grinned. “Something tells me it wasn’t too long ago.” He twisted his head side to side and scanned the hangar again. “Is it just us here, Sir?”

  “Afraid so. What have you been told so far?”

  “That would be absolutely nothing, Sir.” Darnell turned and waved over his second-in-command, another lieutenant, younger and sporting a blonde brush cut with matching stubble. He crossed the expansive floor with heavy, purposeful steps. When he arrived, the lieutenant nodded and also extended his hand.

  “Gentlemen, this is Lieutenant Ferrell.”

  Clay and Caesare both shook Ferrell’s hand warmly before looking at the rest of the platoon. “So, what do we have here?”

  “Four squads. Snipers, breachers, several heavy weapons and explosives, and climbers. And probably every one of them also wondering what exactly we’re here for. Never been deployed with two full platoons before. Want to let us in on the secret, Sir?”

  Clay nodded. “T
he target is Dugway.”

  Darnell looked at his junior officer, who shrugged. “What’s a dugway?”

  “That’s what I said,” said Caesare.

  “It’s a secret facility. Ultra-secure and remote. A little over an hour from here.”

  “Okay. What do they do?”

  Clay glanced at Caesare. “That’s where this gets tricky. It’s not exactly…a private facility.”

  Darnell frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s government.”

  Ferrell, the junior officer, lowered his brow. “You mean U.S. government?”

  “Yes.”

  Darnell’s eyes widened. “The target’s one of our own?”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  “Exactly what manner are you referring to? Last time I checked, we were all under the same government.” When neither man responded, Darnell raised an eyebrow. “So, whose is it?”

  “The CIA.”

  “The CIA?!”

  “That’s right.”

  “We’re attacking a secured CIA location?”

  “A secret Army location,” corrected Caesare.

  Darnell nodded sarcastically. “You guys have to be kidding. We could be firing on one of our own bases?”

  Caesare squinted at Clay. “Firing might not be the right word.”

  “Well, I sure hope we’re not gonna surround it and throw rocks.”

  “No,” Clay answered.

  “So, then what do you want us to do?”

  At that, Clay grinned. “We want you to get comfortable.”

  112

  Alison heard her phone ring on her way to the Pathfinder’s communications room. She came to a stop, fished it out of her jacket, and turned to face a gradually calming ocean.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, beautiful.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “Well, hello, handsome.”

  Clay’s voice sounded surprised. “Were you already up?”

  “I was,” Alison answered. “Just on my way to the comms room.”

  “Preparing for another conversation with our friends, I’m guessing.”

  “You could say that,” she answered coyly. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m watching Steve sleep.”

  “Ha ha. Very funny.”

  On the other end, Clay rolled his head against the wall and peered down at Caesare, spread out on the hard floor with his mouth partially open. Snoring soundly.

  Clay shrugged.

  “Have you heard the news?”

  “What news?”

  “Lieutenant Tay is out.”

  Clay leaned forward excitedly. “What?”

  “They got him out.”

  “That is news. How is he?”

  “Beaten up a little, with a broken leg, but he’s in good spirits.”

  “Excellent. How did they get him out?”

  Alison leaned over the metal railing in front of her, keeping the phone pressed firmly against her ear. Her hair could be seen blowing lightly in the cool ocean breeze. “That part’s kind of a long story. I may have to explain it later.”

  “Okay.”

  “So, I take it from your call that you’ve been missing me,” she teased.

  He eased his body back again with a grin. “Maybe a little.”

  In truth, it was hard for Alison to be excited. She knew without asking that the man she loved on the other end of the phone, and the man she constantly worried about, was on his way to find Neely and Li Na. And as badly as she wanted the two women to be safe, it most likely meant John putting himself in danger. Which was not easy for her to think about.

  “Where are you?”

  Clay paused for a split second. Hearing Alison’s voice, he’d almost forgotten his whereabouts for a moment.

  “I can’t say,” he replied. Then added, “But I’m stateside.”

  “At least you’re close to home.”

  “True. It’s always good to be home.” His head still resting against the wall, Clay stared blissfully up into the darkened interior of the airplane hangar––tracing the thick metal beams overhead into the blackness at the other end.

  More snoring could be heard in the distance from the rest of the men. Somewhere in the darkness, beyond the limited ambient glow of Clay’s phone, they were all sleeping on the same concrete floor as Caesare. But Clay couldn’t sleep. Anxiety and apprehension were coursing through his veins like drugs. Anxiety in the knowledge that no mission ever went according to plan and apprehension that, if things went badly, Alison would receive the worst call possible.

  Clay hadn’t been worried about that call for a long time. When he was younger, it would have been to his parents. News that their son had died, heroically and honorably, for the country he loved. But now his parents were gone. Each dying apart, years after their divorce. Leaving no immediate family to receive a call on Clay’s behalf. Just an uncle or an aunt. Or one of the cousins he hadn’t seen in years.

  But now there was Alison. The woman who had finally captured his heart. The one woman for whom he wanted to be the best version of himself. And the one whose heartache he could not even contemplate.

  It was the kind of call no one ever forgot. No matter how long or how happily they managed to live. And the possibility of hurting her, for so long, was agonizing.

  “John? Are you still there?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Just thinking how much I love the sound of your voice.”

  Alison blushed. “Are you making fun of me?”

  “No.”

  “About that voicemail thing?”

  He chuckled. Alison was referring to a confession she’d made a few weeks after they started dating. She’d found a way to directly dial his cell phone’s voice mail system for the sole purpose of listening to his voice on the greeting. It was not until she’d been caught hanging up too late, by accidentally leaving a message, that she finally came clean. To Clay it was cute.

  “No,” he said. “Not making fun of you.”

  “Because you know it wasn’t my fault.”

  “No?”

  “No. I was just…you know, bored. I actually do that with all my friends.”

  This time Clay laughed. “You should stop while you’re ahead.”

  “Fine.” Still grinning, Alison looked out over the morning ocean toward the remains of the nearby oil rig, still smoldering in the golden sunrise behind it. Both a grim picture and reminder, the view prompted her to turn and look away. “Have you gotten any sleep?”

  “A little,” he lied. “Watching Steve sleep is comforting enough. He’s adorable.”

  Alison cracked up at the visual. “I’d ask you to take a picture but…”

  “Yeah. It sounds cuter than it looks.”

  Her voice grew serious again. “I take it you’ve found Neely and Li Na.”

  “We have.”

  “And you’re going to do something about it?”

  “If we can.”

  “Am I crazy in hoping you can somehow be safe about it?”

  “I always try, Ali.”

  She smiled. “I like it when you say my name.”

  “That I say it, or just in the sound of my voice?” he teased.

  “Both. It sounds deep…and strong. Kind of comforting.”

  He grinned and changed the subject. “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

  “You’re always thinking.”

  “When this is over, how about if I take you to Hawaii. The right way. To a nicer place than a hospital room.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Maybe get a little bungalow on a quiet stretch of beach. Kiss you on the sand as the waves wash over us.”

  Alison giggled.

  “What?”

  “I would love that. But I hate to be the one to break this to you––the whole kissing on the sand thing makes a better movie than an actual experience. Especially with the waves.”

  “You’ve done it before?”

  “No. A friend did in Cos
ta Rica. She said it was really romantic until the first wave hit. After a mouthful of saltwater, it all went downhill.”

  Clay chuckled. “New plan. How about a nice hotel and room service?”

  “Now that sounds heavenly.” Alison glanced back along the metal catwalk at the direction from which she had come. “As gracious as Captain Emerson is, I’m ready for a change of scenery. And a big bed. With clean, pressed sheets. And a giant shower.”

  Clay laughed to himself. “Having you holed up on the Pathfinder may have been a stroke of genius…it sounds like my Hawaii idea may sell itself.”

  “Probably true. But you of all people don’t have to sell me on anything. I’m happy to be wherever you are.”

  Clay fell silent and breathed in deeply. “I love you, Alison Shaw.”

  She gripped the rail softly and leaned back. “I love you too, John,” she said. “Probably more than I should admit. Especially right now.”

  “Don’t worry. I have every intention of dying with you, in your arms, when we’re old and gray.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “And if it’s any consolation, Steve has always insisted he’ll die in his own bed, with a beautiful woman in his arms. And lord knows we are hell and gone from that at the moment.”

  Alison couldn’t help but smile at that. It was something she could clearly imagine Caesare saying. “I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’m taking a little comfort in Steve’s stubbornness.”

  “Let’s keep that to ourselves. I don’t need that to turn into another of Caesare’s dissertations.”

  She laughed. “You’re funny.”

  “And let’s keep that under our hat too. He thinks he’s the funny one.”

  “Mum’s the word.”

  Clay took a deep breath. “All right, sweetheart. I should let you go. Maybe I can get in a few winks before sleeping beauty wakes up.”

  Alison frowned. She didn’t want to hang up. “Please be safe. Please. I don’t want to go to Hawaii with anyone else. Room service or not.”

  “I promise.”

  Clay reached out and peeked at the small screen, using his thumb to end the call. There was something about that girl. Something that made him want to be better. And even more, made him want to protect her. At all costs.