Matthew looked doubtful.
“You’ll see,” Joseph said. “Now go on.”
With one last glace at Alex, Matthew stepped into his new role.
“Time to get ready to roll. I want body armor on everyone. I need a compiled report on the missing kids. Vince? Make certain everyone has loaded weapons. Joseph, call the Jakker. We need something fast that will hold at least ten men. Trece? Get Pershing. Also Ben… and Patrick. We’ll need their intel.
“Get moving,” Matthew barked. “We’ll be ready to go when she’s done.”
Troy winked at Matthew then jumped to his feet. The rest of the men followed his lead. They moved from the room to do what they were told.
“Well done, Matthew,” Joseph said. He put his hand on Matthew’s arm, “That’s what we talked about. And look...”
They turned to find Alex lost in her world of humming, tapping and writing.
“This kind of undisturbed quiet and space is exactly what she needs.”
Matthew flushed at the compliment then cleared his throat.
“She’s special, Matthew. No one can do what she does. In the entire history of the US military, she’s the only one who can do this. We need to create the structure to allow her to do what she does well. That’s our job.”
Matthew nodded.
“Excuse me,” Joseph said. “I have a phone call to make.”
When Joseph left the room, Matthew sagged with relief. First orders given and received with ease.
Looking up, he saw Trece return with Steve Pershing, Patrick Hargreaves and Ben. He adjusted his stance then pointed toward a couch and the men sat down. Max came back in the room holding a dragon body armor body suit. He gave the body armor to Matthew then sat down next to Steve Pershing. Colin sat down next to Max.
“Put it on,” Trece said.
“But… I don’t own…”
Matthew’s hand lovingly brushed the body armor. Designed with 5 mm body armor protection, the dragon body armor fit like a comfortable T-shirt. Alex and the Fey Special Forces Team wore them exclusively. But Alex was also a Senator’s daughter.
“It’s a gift,” Troy said. “Everyone has one. You’ve been on drugs and stuff so you didn’t get yours. Joseph made a deal with the company.”
The men trickled back into the room. Vince went from person to person making sure they had weapons while Troy checked for body armor.
Clutching a few sheets of paper, Larry ran into the room. He offered the report to Matthew but Matthew pointed to Alex. Alex looked up at Larry when he held the sheets of paper to her. She took the sheets of paper. Smiling at the pages, she went back to her work.
Larry stood in front of Alex for a moment. Matthew motioned him away from Alex. Shrugging, Larry walked to where the rest of the men stood.
Vince’s cell phone rang. After a short conversation, he brought the phone to Alex.
“Yes,” Alex said.
“Sir, we have a region but not a location.”
“You can’t be certain?”
“Exactly. Schriever’s team said something funny. They said: ‘See what the Fey can give us.’ Do they want money or...?”
“That’s got to be Hougah.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’ve worked with her before. Listen, can you patch me through but stay on the line?”
“Yes sir.”
“Alex?” A woman’s tinny voice asked. She was speaking on a speaker phone.
“How many watching?”
“Fourteen,” Hougah said.
“It’s nice to have fans,” Alex laughed. “You ready, Dani?”
“Go.”
“I’ve got Texas,” Alex said, “but maybe not Texas.”
“Yep, we’ve got that. South?”
“Um… Southern. I think they call it West Texas near Mexico. But I don’t think Mexico.”
“Why not Mexico? Mexico fits our data.”
“Mexican nationals blend into the background in Mexico… even with a bunch of white kids. The captors are South American. They wouldn’t risk Mexico.”
Steve Pershing stood from the couch and left the room.
“That’s helpful.”
“I don’t know Texas, Dani,” Alex said.
“We’re working the border, Alex.” Speaking to her co-workers and the crowd of viewers, Dani asked, “Anyone from Texas? Vacationed as a kid? Great. Ok, Alex, they aren’t in the gulf. We have a triangle in Mexico. You sure about Mexico, Alex?”
“Mostly,” Alex chewed the inside of her lip. “It has to be some place without a lot of eyes.”
“The phone is moving,” Dani said. “God, Alex. You have the best luck on the planet. Damn....”
“I know where that is,” a female voice said.
“It’s one of those translators you used, Alex. What’s your name Marine?
“Private First Class Margaret Peaches.”
“They are here from the sand.” Dani’s voice turned away from the speaker, “What?”
The voices spoke. Alex heard them speak back and forth but couldn’t tell what they were saying.
“Alex, we’ve got it down to the area around Big Bend National Park.”
“A National Park? That’s got to be it.”
“I’ll be in touch,” Dani said.
“Sir?” Alex’s Sergeant asked.
“Yes Sergeant?”
“I’ll be here as long as you need me.”
“Thanks.”
Closing the phone, Alex looked up to see the men watching her. She blushed. She looked at Matthew then each person in the room. They were ready to go.
“I need to talk to these guys.” Alex pointed to Ben and her father. “Where’s Steve? Oh Mattie? Joseph? Can you come too?”
Steve Pershing walked back into the room. Ben signaled for him to join them.
“What is it, Pumpkin?” Patrick put his arm around Alex’s shoulder.
“Remember when we met Tristan Joiner? He was at one of those rallies for Army Veterans. 2004 or so...”
“He knew the Fey was my daughter. He wanted to meet you.” Patrick nodded. “You and Max were there. That was in… Texas some place?”
“Colin was there too. We were doing Army PR to get a chance to hang out together. Can you remember where we were?”
“Odessa,” Patrick said. “We went to El Paso, Odessa…”
“San Antonio. I couldn’t remember if it was San Antonio or Odessa.”
“Why?”
“I received a telephone call from Tristan Joiner asking me to help him. He said ‘they’ were going to kill ‘us’ tomorrow. He was screaming when he got off and...”
Alex shook her head.
“What?” Ben asked.
“Someone was hitting him,” Alex swallowed hard. “GPSOC thinks they can get a lock on the phone. Ben? Steve? Where the hell is Joiner?”
“No one knows,” Steve Pershing said. “Not a soul. People are asking us where he is. It’s bizarre.”
“We’ve checked intel from every source, Alex,” Ben said. “There’ve been times when I’m sure they are not telling us something. This time? We aren’t the only people looking for him.”
“Do we have any idea what he’s into? Tristan said Joiner told his captors to kill his children rather than… I don’t know what.”
“Cee Cee Joiner has been off the radar for at least a year,” Steve said. “In fact...”
Steve glanced at Ben. Ben nodded.
“What?” Alex asked.
“We believe he might have been involved in the murder of...”
“My team?” Alex nodded. “I’d hoped everyone was wrong.”
“We don’t think so, Alex,” Ben said. “That’s why you don’t know. The Boy Scout is not talking… except for this rubbish about you assaulting him.”
“There’s a confirmed connection between Robert Powell and Joiner,” Steve Pershing said. “But South Americans? There’s no way to narrow the field. Joiner pissed off almost everyone on the conti
nent.”
“Maybe Troy can help,” Alex said.
A helicopter flew overhead. Zack.
“That’s our ride. Anything else to add?”
“We’ll work from here, Alex,” Ben said.
“Larry and Vince will stay here. They’ve been working on Joiner,” Matthew said. “Max and Colin?”
“Max works for me,” Steve said. “He can be very useful.”
Matthew nodded.
“Colin?”
“I think we’d have to kill him to keep him from coming,” Alex said. “He can be very handy in a fight.”
“He’s a medic,” Matthew said. “God knows we need a medic.”
“Pack it up,” Joseph said to the men.
“I don’t think you should go,” Alex said to Matthew.
“That’s my call, Alex.”
Matthew’s voice was firm but his eyes betrayed his nervousness. Joseph patted Matthew’s back with his hand then moved away. Alex shrugged and Matthew let out an anxious breath. She didn’t fire him.
“Trece and White Boy come with us,” Alex said. “We need the Texas Rangers, Border Patrol, Park Service and whoever else patrols the region.”
“We’ll take care of it, Lieutenant Colonel,” Vince said.
Turning to her fathers, she said, “Dad? Benji? You’ll tell everyone right? We should be back by morning.”
Ben nodded as Patrick hugged her.
“Yes, Pumpkin, we’ll tell everyone. You feel okay to go?”
Alex smiled slightly.
“Life comes to us, Daddy,” she said. “We have only to respond with honor.”
Patrick hugged his favorite child as she repeated one of his favorite sayings. With a pat on her back, he let go. Ben hugged her then kissed on her cheek.
“We’ll be here when you need us,” Ben said.
Looking up, Alex saw Trece and White Boy waiting for her. While she walked, she checked the handgun holster at her sacrum for ammunition. Taking a second handgun and clips from Trece, she followed the men out of the house.
She stopped walking when she saw the Black Hawk Helicopter in the narrow street in front of their house. Shaking her head at Zack, she stepped into the chopper. White Boy closed the door. Alex sat in the spot Raz saved for her near the middle of the helicopter.
“Now is the time for rest,” Joseph said. “If you can sleep, do it. If you want to read or write, that’s fine. When we hit the ground, we work until we’re done. Get your rest while we’re in the air. That is an order.”
‘Yes sir’ was the men’s immediate response.
Alex raised her eyebrows at their compliance. Maybe, just maybe, these men could become a team. She nodded to herself. Raz slipped his arm around her.
. “You should sleep while you can,” Raz said. “Really, you should have stayed home. You just had major surgery...”
Alex held up her hand for him to stop speaking.
“I know you’re trying to care for me. I don’t feel like I have a choice this time.”
“Just ass-isting.”
They laughed. She rested her head on his shoulder. In the safety of his arms, and the rocking sensation of the helicopter, Alex gave in to her exhaustion. She was asleep in moments.
F
CHAPTER TWENTY-Three
Three hours later
Friday night
March 28 – 11:34 P.M. CDT
Somewhere over central Texas
After pitching a major fit, the Jakker agreed to allow a Super Hercules team to fly them to Texas. While everyone conceded that Zack could fly the Super Hercules, a feat he proved at take off and again while they were in the air, the Air Force pilots wanted to fly the Fey some place, any place. The Jakker huffed and puffed. But when Zack arrived in the passenger compartment, he laughed about Alex’s video enhanced notoriety.
“Do we know where we’re going?” Zack asked Alex.
“Big Bend National Park, that’s all I know,” Alex said.
“I’ll head to the cockpit,” Zack said. “You haven’t heard from GPSOC?”
“I have. Just nothing certain. It’s not a huge park, but we have to cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. They want to be sure.”
“You’ll let me know.”
Zack moved toward the cockpit. As if on cue, Vince’s cell phone rang when Raz stood to use the restroom.
“This is my call,” Alex said.
The men looked up. No one knew where they were going and they had little idea of what they were involved in. Max stood to use the restroom. Alex opened the cell phone and held it to her ear.
“Fey,” Alex said. She waited for voice recognition to confirm her identity.
“Lieutenant Colonel?” Alex’s Sergeant asked.
“Yes Sergeant.”
“I have Sergeant Flagg, Captain Vardee of the Texas Rangers and our intelligence friend on the line. I also have a full update from GPSOC.”
Alex smiled at her Sergeant’s use of ‘our intelligence friend’ instead of naming Ben.
“Texas Rangers first, sir,” her Sergeant said.
“Ma’am, this is Captain Vardee. I’m in charge of Texas Ranger Midland Company.” Captain Vardee’s deep voice spoke with a thick Texas accent. “We’d like to thank you for involving us at this stage. We’re usually included in these activities as they are going down. We appreciate the heads up.”
“We’ll need your help, Captain Vardee,” Alex replied.
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “We’ve been working with the National Park Service. They have records of a party entering the park near Maverick Junction.”
Feeling movement near her, Alex looked up when Raz sat down. He pointed to the National Park Service Map of Big Bend National Park on his laptop. Alex smiled her thanks. She pointed toward the east end of the park.
“That’s the east end of the park, ma’am. Do you have a map?” Captain Vardee asked.
“Yes sir, I’m looking at the National Park Service Map,” Alex said.
“Sir,” Alex’s Sergeant said, “I put the topos and satellite maps to your project area.”
“Thank you Sergeant. We’ll pull them down. Please continue Captain Vardee.”
“Ma’am, the Park Service says five men and two boys entered the park near the end of last year. There’s no evidence they ever left the park. They were supposed to clean up in the area around the Mariscal Mine. The Park Service has checked for them a couple of times and has never interacted with them. They have a trailer and equipment near the mine, but the park ranger says they disappear when anyone gets near their location. We have no verification that any work has been done at the location.”
Alex pointed toward the tip of the national park. Raz reoriented the map.
“This area of the park isn’t well monitored. There’s not a lot of visitor traffic and frankly, there’s a lot of border related crime. We’ve spoken with the border patrol agents in charge of the region. They’ve received a report of a few boys swimming in Rio Grande near Tally Campground, near the tip of the park, about two months ago. When they approached, the boys were clearly United States citizens so they did not intervene.”
Closing her eyes, Alex paused. It never ceased to amaze her how many times people see hostages, and know something isn’t quite right, but never think to intervene.
“Captain Vardee? Does the border patrol state how many boys?”
“Ma’am, how ‘bout I call the officer and find out?”
“That would be very helpful. We’re not certain the number of boys. It could be two or as many as nine boys. A date and a number would help.”
“Ma’am, we’ve moved a team of men into the park. They’re waiting for your command at the Castolon Visitor’s center, down river from the sighting. You won’t be able to use a chopper or motorized vehicles in any area of this park. Sound echoes in this terrain. These villains will hear you from miles away. We have canoes and river guides for waiting you. Once you’re near, you’ll need to walk.”
“I’ll get the information for you.” Captain Vardee clicked off the connection.
“Sergeant Flagg? Can you hold a minute?”
Turning to Raz, she said, “Can you get into my project area? My Sergeant has sent us some more maps.”
“Got it,” Raz said.
“Ok, Sergeant Flagg. What do you have?”
“We’ve contacted all of Joiner’s ex-wives, girlfriends, and miscellaneous mothers of his children.” Larry stumbled over a few words then stopped talking. Vince said something encouraging in the background. “Sir, we believe the mothers are lying to us.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Alex said.
“Oh. Oh. Okay. Um… We researched the missing persons report for Tristan Joiner. It was filed in Long Beach right after Christmas. The Long Beach police canceled the investigation after Tristan’s mother, Buffy Joiner, assured them that Tristan was with her. We telephoned the person who filed the report and spoke with... Uh… Beth Ann Lopez and her father, Robert Lopez.
“Bear with me a moment, sir. This is where it gets complicated. Tristan was living with the Lopezes in Long Beach until two days prior to Christmas. He left Long Beach to visit with his mother for three days. He was to return to Long Beach. Sir? He was enrolled at Long Beach High School last fall as a transfer student. The school records state that Robert Lopez and his wife, Estefanie, are Tristan’s legal guardians.”
“Are they?”
“Not legally.”
“Sergeant?”
“Yes sir?” Larry and her assistant asked in unison.
“Not you Larry.”
“Yes sir,” her assistant said.
“Can you make certain the girl and her family gets into protective custody? You know what? Can you arrange travel for them to Denver? I need to speak with them in person.”
“Yes sir,” Alex’s Sergeant said.
“Please continue, Larry.”
“That’s about all we have.”
“In a nutshell, we don’t know how many kids are missing but we think the mothers know more than they are saying.”
“We’re guessing that there are seven boys missing,” Larry said.
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