The boys’ round eyes stared at her.
“Daddy, too?” Hermes asked.
“I don’t think so,” Alex said.
“Yea!” Hermes and Hector James cheered.
“Hey!” Alex laughed. “What about me?”
“We will miss you, Mrs. Alex,” Hector James said.
“It’s just that Daddy is Daddy,” Hermes said.
Alex laughed.
“You’re leaving?” John asked from the doorway to the dining room.
The boys turned to look at him, and the eggplant began to burn.
“There you go, Johnny,” Cian said. “Burning the eggplant again. Will you and the missus go deal with your problems and leave us kitchen slaves to our work?”
“Yeah,” Hermes pointed the spoon at John. “We’re kitchen slaves.”
John grinned at Hermes. Before he could respond, Alex took John’s hand. They went upstairs to their room.
“You’re leaving again?” John repeated when the door closed.
“I have to get to China,” Alex said. “They are killing off the pestilence known as Cee Cee Joiner.”
“China,” John sat down on their bed. “Again.”
“I know,” she shrugged. “I have to talk to Joiner. Maybe he knows something.”
“Well,” John gave her a soft smile. “I’ll miss you terribly.”
“I don’t want to go,” she nodded.
“Yes, there is that,” John said. “Before you go, can we talk about a few things?”
“Of course,” Alex said.
Alex pulled their old stuffed green armchair over and sat across from him. He smiled.
“I like that about you,” he said.
“What?” Alex smiled.
“You make time for me,” John said. “I’m sure you have things to do, a team to order around, spy work and such, but here you are – with me.”
“You’re really all that matters to me,” Alex said. “I can boss everyone around from the plane. This is my chance to look at you, talk to you, to be right here with you. That’s really all I want to do.”
He smiled.
“Neev’s here,” he said.
“Cian said those same words,” Alex said. “I arranged for her to come; you paid for her travel. I feel like you’re telling me something.”
“She’s my oldest sister,” John said. “Cian’s too.”
“Ah,” Alex said. “It’s like when Samantha used to visit from Washington.”
John nodded.
“Is she staying with us or Max?” Alex asked.
“She’s staying on Max’s side,” John said. “Her Jack will probably be here in a day or so. Wait ‘til you meet him. He has a personality that could fill up the entire rooming house. We figured they had more space on Max’s side.”
“He sounds fun,” Alex said.
“Plus, wherever they go, their kids tend to show up,” John said. “Especially since Fionn’s living here. By the time you come back, the house will be filled to the brim with Kellys and Mac Kinney’s”
“Like last Christmas?” Alex smiled.
“Speaking of filled to the brim with Kellys . . . ,” John’s eyebrows pressed together with worry.
Even though she knew what he was going to say, she waited for him to finish his thought.
“I . . .” he started. “You . . .”
John cleared his throat. His face flushed and he looked away. When he looked up, she smiled at him. She nodded to encourage him to speak.
“Don’t you want a family?” John asked.
She smiled.
“Okay, okay, we have a family,” John said. “I know, I know, but . . .”
“Stop,” she reached for him. He took her hand. “You’ve already decided what I’m going to say and what you’re going to say. Ask me the question. Let me respond?”
Nodding his head, John panted to catch his breath. When he looked at Alex, she smiled.
“Do you want to have children?” he asked.
She opened her mouth to respond.
“With me? Have children with me?” he asked.
She raised her eyebrows to see if he would let her respond. He gave her a “go-ahead” nod.
“I get it. I do,” John said. “We have a house full of people, and Troy’s boys are here. I know you have work, and I have more than enough work, and we can’t bear our own children – which I’m totally fine with, absolutely totally fine with. You know I don’t care that you can’t get pregnant; I just want to know if . . . We can always hire a nanny. We make enough money now to do that. Hell, we could hire one of my siblings’ kids or ten of them, for that matter. I think they are all unemployed and . . .”
“Stop,” Alex said. “Please. You’re way ahead.”
He scowled. She watched him try to reel in his anxious thoughts.
“Let’s go back to ‘does Alex want children with her wonderful husband, John?’” Alex said.
“Do you?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “I do.”
“You know, we’re not getting any younger, Alex, and . . .”
Alex raised her hand. He stopped talking and gave her a sheepish grin.
“Would you like to have a surrogate for our biological child or adopt a child?” Alex asked. “If we adopt a child, would you like to do that in the US or a child from another country?”
John blushed.
“What?” Alex asked.
“I never got that far,” John said. “I thought you didn’t want to have kids.”
Alex shrugged.
“I should have asked you,” he said.
“Yes, that would be good, and . . . ,” Alex moved to sit next to him on the bed. “I understand. This life we live, it’s . . .”
“Not easy,” John said.
“We take all the survivors,” Alex said.
“Certainly, we have the space.” He glanced at her and quickly looked away.
“What?”
“I like it when you’re my Alex and not the Alex in my head,” John said.
She gave him a crooked smile and he kissed her. Her face was an inch from his face when his phone rang.
“It’s hard to be the port in the storm,” he said.
“You’ll think about it?” Alex asked.
“I will,” he said. He looked at his phone and frowned. He tossed the phone into the empty green armchair.
“Anything else on your ‘talk-to-Alex’ agenda?” Alex smiled.
“That was the head of surgery,” John nodded to the phone. “He wants to know if we’re going to his holiday party. I think I told you about it. Did I tell you about it?”
Alex shrugged and he nodded.
“It’s been mad,” he said.
“As always,” Alex said. “When is the party?”
“Next weekend,” he said.
“I should be back in time,” Alex said. “Friday night?”
“I think so,” John said. “He’s asked me to any number of parties, but there’s always something. He wants to meet you. He talks on and on about the military. He seems quite fascinated.”
“About what?”
“I don’t pay much attention to him.”
“Hmm. Well, we always have so much going on,” Alex said. “It’s hard to include the niceties like a little office party into our schedule.”
“It’s some kind of swap party,” John said. “A white something or another. Actually, I haven’t paid much attention because . . .”
“Who knows if we can go?” Alex smiled. “Is it a white elephant?”
“Sure,” John shrugged.
“I’ll get a gift while I’m in China,” Alex said. “I bet we can find something really weird for the gift swap.”
“You’re leaving for China?” John looked surprised. Alex smiled. “Why do you have your clothing on?”
“Now that’s an excellent question!” Alex laughed. She stripped off her clothes. “Are you going to join me?”
“I was just thinking about
the Alex in my head,” John said.
“And?”
“She’s really a dud,” he laughed and pulled her to him.
F
CHAPTER NINE
Saturday evening
November 6 – 9:54 p.m. MDT
Between Denver and Honolulu
Alex looked up when Raz sat down next to her. He gave her a soft smile.
“You know, it’s kind of nice,” Raz said.
“Kick off the dust of having a team and just go do spy work?” Alex smiled.
“You’re right,” Raz said. “It’s not that nice.”
Alex laughed.
“Where are we picking up Max?” Raz asked.
“Japan,” Alex said. “He had last-minute diplomatic stuff to do for this trip. He’s trying to make sure we don’t get stuck there.”
Raz nodded. He put his arm around her, and she leaned into him.
“I always get so cold on these flights,” Alex said.
“I know,” Raz said.
“Damned Hercules,” Alex said.
“Super Hercules,” Raz corrected.
Alex smiled.
“Did you call Sue Ann Joiner?”
“I thought I’d call in the morning,” Alex said.
She smiled when she thought of Cee Cee Joiner’s third wife. They’d met after Sue Ann’s children had been killed by their father. They had forged a solid bond of respect and friendship.
“I’d suggest you call now,” Raz said.
“Oh yeah?”
“State Department is paying a visit to Buffy Joiner in the morning,” Raz scowled at the mention of Cee Cee Joiner’s first wife.
“Guess I missed that memo,” Alex said.
Raz chuckled.
“Oh sure,” Alex said. “Leave the phone off for a few hours and suddenly life passes me by.”
Raz laughed and she smiled.
“Do you think Buffy Joiner knows more than she says?” Raz asked.
“I was just going to ask you the same thing,” Alex smiled.
“You first,” Raz said.
“Okay,” Alex leaned back and stared off into space. Used to her silences, Raz waited. “I’m wondering what Trece, me, you, Steve, and Cee Cee Joiner have in common. Trece’s tidily tucked away; Steve’s off the map; you and I are going to China after Cee Cee Joiner; that creature Buffy is getting a visit from the State Department; and then there are all of those mind control subjects.”
“What do you, me, Steve, Trece, Cee Cee, Buffy, and the mind control subjects know?” Raz asked.
“Better question,” Alex said. “What problem is solved by tucking Trece away in Pelican Bay? It was easy enough to make it happen. Get his psychotic cousin out of Pelican Bay and hand him over to the cartels.”
“Swap the files,” Raz said. “Easy to do.”
“If you can do it,” Alex nodded.
“We’d talked about it before,” Raz said. “It’s on our threat list.”
“I know,” Alex nodded.
“Did you know when his cousin escaped?” Raz asked.
“No. I wasn’t informed.”
“I thought you were to be alerted on his state of affairs.”
“I did too,” Alex said. “Sergeant Dusty checked everything – spam filters, email, phones – everything. We did not receive notification.”
“Did they send it?”
“They did,” Alex said.
“You’re sure?”
“FBI sent a field officer to Pelican Bay to check,” Alex said. “They definitely sent it. In fact, they were surprised I didn’t get back with them. They sent daily updates until they learned he had crossed the border.”
“Caught in transit?” Raz asked.
“I guess,” Alex shrugged. “It happened while we were in China last time.”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Raz said.
“Exactly, and get this,” Alex nodded. “When they didn’t hear from me, they sent a letter by carrier. It disappeared in transit.”
“Disappeared?” Raz asked. “Do you think someone at the base intercepted the letter? Dusty?”
“I don’t believe it’s Dusty,” Alex said. “But I don’t know and chasing after the who’s and what’s keeps me from looking at the big picture.”
“Which is what?” Raz asked.
“Exactly,” Alex said. “Your turn. What do you think?”
“Do you know about Ben’s project?” Raz asked.
“He’s tracking the events of my life to see what was going on in the world,” Alex said. “Dad said he added his life. They’re working on adding everyone from the Fey Team and Dad’s team.”
“But your father and the team haven’t been called away,” Raz said.
“Right,” Alex said. “Did he find anything?”
“Only that things like Cee Cee Joiner’s disappearances and your assaults both happened at fairly regular intervals,” Raz said.
“Huh,” Alex shrugged. “Maybe that’s when Joiner went out into the field?”
“Probably,” Raz said.
“But what if it’s something else?” Alex asked. “Did he come up with any ideas?”
Raz shook his head.
“Why me?” Alex’s voice came out in a whisper.
Raz pulled her closer to him.
“The dark still comes,” she said in the same low voice.
“I know,” he said.
“What did I do to ever deserve . . . ?”
“Nothing.” He kissed the top of her head.
“The more we know, the more personal it feels, you know?” Alex nodded.
“It does,” he said. “And what if it is personal? What if all of this is about you, Alex? What if that’s true?”
It took Alex so long to respond that he leaned forward to look at her. She was lost in thought. Seeing his concern, she smiled and shrugged.
“What if it is all about me?” Alex asked. “What if ‘what’ and ‘why’ are the wrong questions?”
“They are ones we can’t answer,” Raz nodded.
“What’s left?” Alex asked.
“How is this about you, Alexandra Lea Hargreaves?”
“How indeed.”
“You’re a twin.”
“I’m a single zygote male-female twin,” Alex said.
“Yes,” Raz said. “You’re a woman.”
“I’m Army.”
“You’re the Fey,” Raz said.
“Doesn’t it start earlier than that?” Alex looked at him.
He nodded.
“You’re Patrick Hargreaves’s daughter,” Raz said. “You’re Ben and Rebecca’s daughter.”
“It’s because I can figure it out, isn’t it?” Alex nodded.
“I think so,” Raz said.
“Then maybe I should set about figuring it out,” Alex said.
“I thought that’s what you were doing,” Raz said. “What we were doing.”
“I like being in the field,” Alex said. “Going from place to place. I never respected the brass that stayed at a safe distance while the action was unfolding. It always seems kind of cowardly to me. But maybe I should sit out . . .”
Alex’s head exploded with pain. She grabbed her head and leaned forward. He rubbed her back. Her ears filled with the sound of dripping blood.
She jumped from her seat and ran to the toilet. She fell to her knees and threw up. She tried to catch her breath but she had to throw up again.
“I’m going to kill you and everything you love,” a man’s voice said.
The voice was so real that Alex looked around the airplane stall to see if someone was there. Even though she knew Raz was standing right behind her, her ears heard blood dripping in rhythm to this man’s voice. Her vision clouded and the airplane slipped away.
“Hargreaves!” The man’s voice yelled.
Her eyes focused on an expanding pool of blood, her blood. Her mind told her that the blood would be hell to clean up. The blood would probably stain the limestone. She
couldn’t stop the pool of blood from expanding. She couldn’t stop bleeding. She gasped.
“Jesse,” Alex said before she passed out.
FF
Alex found herself marching through thick fog. She couldn’t see the ground or the sky. She had the sense that she was marching in the middle of a pack of men. The fog was so thick that she couldn’t see the person beside her.
She kept marching until a man’s voice called them to halt. She instinctively stood at attention. She felt an angry man – hot and belligerent – move through the formation.
“Hargreaves!”
Although she couldn’t see him, she felt the man stop right in front of her.
“Where is it?” the man yelled. Heat and rage emanated from his body. Like a ball moving toward her face, she felt him lean in. “Don’t lie to me! Where is it?”
She tried not to flinch when spittle from the man’s angry words sprayed her face.
“Where. Is. It.”
“Alexandra!” Jesse’s voice came from the fog.
Without thinking, Alex stepped forward. No one was standing in front of her. She ran in the direction of Jesse’s voice.
“Jesse!”
“Aquí!” Jesse yelled.
She saw tall evergreens overhead and felt the gentle push of dirt and pine needles underneath her boots. The fog settled around her. When a breeze whispered through the pines, she knew where she was.
She was standing in the Uwharrie National Forest where she had aced her Special Forces war games test. She and Jesse had been placed on separate teams. When push came to shove, Alex’s CO allowed her to save Jesse and his team as long as she guaranteed her team would win. Her team won by six hours. Running fast, she swatted at the tree branches to keep them out of her face.
“Jesse?” she yelled. She stopped running to listen.
“Aquí!” His voice echoed.
She changed directions and ran toward his voice. The scenery around her changed. Jesse appeared in the near distance. He waved her forward. She sped in his direction, and then he was right there. She had to skid to a stop.
“Jesse!” Alex smiled.
He gave her a solid hug.
“Where are we?” Alex asked.
The fog cleared, and they were standing in a small, tiled room. The walls and floor were covered in a pattern of one baby-blue tile to every two white tiles. A small metal table and a chair sat just to the side of the drain in the center of the room. A variety of sharp utensils and cutting tools were lined up on the metal table. Hooks lined the ceiling along the back wall. A wheeled cart with an automobile battery and leads sat along the wall.
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