“Joseph?” Alex asked.
“A little busy,” Joseph yelled.
Max pointed to the closed-circuit security feed. The dining room had erupted in hand-to-hand combat. Couples hid under tables while the US Marines dressed as servers fought with the men who had come for the secretary of state. Max tapped the screen. Crouched under one of the tables was Hank Zutterberg. After graduated with Alex from Special Forces training, Zutterberg left the Army on a medical discharge only to start a unit with a military contractor. Alex shook her head. She caught Matthew’s eye.
“Zutterberg,” Alex said.
“Hiding like a baby,” Matthew said. “I saw him.”
“Wouldn’t want to hurt his baby toe,” Tory said.
“We could use some help here,” Joseph said over the feed.
Max switched the closed-circuit feed to show Joseph and Margaret were locked in combat in the hall.
“MJ!” Alex said. “Hallway.”
MJ jumped through the window and whipped into the hallway. He wasn’t a precise fighter. Like his father, MJ was a crazy whirl in a fight. He grabbed one man and kicked an automatic weapon from the hands of another. He threw the man he was holding into the man Margaret was fighting. Tangled in each other, the men fell to the ground.
“Come on,” MJ said to Margaret and Joseph.
They ran out to the parking lot. A Pave Hawk came into view.
“Fey Team down,” Alex yelled.
Leena and Sergeant Dusty used their bodies to cover the secretary of state while MJ, Joseph, Vince, Margaret, and White Boy dropped to the ground. Zack shot at the men in the trucks. They scattered. The team regrouped around the secretary of state.
Zack shot a missile at the vehicle the remaining men were using for cover. The truck blew into pieces, showering everyone with shards of metal. Zack landed the Pave Hawk in front of Leena and Dusty to shield the secretary of state from the truck fire.
“Go,” Alex said. “Now.”
Leena and Dusty ran to the Pave Hawk with the secretary of state. Vince and White Boy helped the secretary of state into the helicopter. Margaret guide the secretary of state to a seat and Leena buckled her into her seat. MJ and Joseph were the last inside.
The helicopter rose off the parking lot with the doors open. MJ grabbed a machine gun and tossed it to Dusty. They fired on the men the SSG were fighting. White Boy dropped down into the seat next to the secretary to protect her. Vince grabbed a rifle and moved behind Dusty. Margaret fired her rifle from her position behind MJ. Flying directly above the banquet hall, they were able to turn the tide for the SSG.
“Whoo hooo!” Zack yelled. “Curry is on you, Ahmed.”
“That’s Captain to you, you crazy fucker,” Captain Jan said.
“You’re still buying,” Zack laughed.
From Leena’s feed, they saw Vince and Dusty close the Pave Hawk door.
“Zack?” Alex yelled to get his attention.
“Yes, sir,” Zack said.
“Drive safely,” Alex said.
“Be home for supper,” Zack said. “Out.”
“Joseph?” Alex asked.
“The phoenix is aboard; we are away,” Joseph said.
In the background, Alex heard the beginning chords to “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros play in Zack’s Pave Hawk. The Fey Team whistled along with the beginning bars.
“Well done, Fey Team!” Alex said. “Out.”
Max closed his computer. Alex checked Raz’s scans before closing her computer and looking up. She leaned back in her seat.
“Is it just me, or is it freezing in here?” Alex asked.
“Freezing,” Colin said.
“Kid?” Alex asked. “How ‘bout some heat?”
“Sorry,” Cliff said. “I forgot.”
Cliff turned on the heat and the music. The playlist began with “Marching on” by One Republic. Alex grabbed blankets from behind her seat and passed them around.
“We have another hour to the Vinson,” Cliff said.
“Thank you,” Alex said. To her team in the compartment, “What did you get?”
“Video,” Matthew said. “Lots of video. I’m uploading it to the server. Troy hacked the mainframe.”
“Raz got me started,” Troy said. “I did the location work.”
He held up a USB flash drive.
“I got most of it,” Troy said.
“Most of what?” Alex asked.
“Plans for nuclear rockets,” Raz said.
“Wow,” Alex said.
“Royce took some interesting photos both from the chopper and on the ground,” Matthew said. “We’ll have to go through them when we get back.”
“Interesting how?” Alex asked.
“It looks like the Korean People’s Army have been there,” Royce said. “I saw the tire tracks in the mud from the chopper. I took an ATV to the site to be sure. Their heavy artillery was here at this mine a few days ago with maybe fifty men.”
“Huh,” Alex said.
“I also found this,” Royce held up a filthy baseball cap with the name of Zutterberg’s military contracting company. “I had to dig it out from a tire track. You think it was planted or do you think they did this?”
Royce gestured to Steve.
“No idea,” Alex said. “Anything else?”
“I had an interesting conversation with Ji’s medic,” Colin said. “Seems like they weren’t all that surprised by this action. I’m not sure, but I got the impression the timeline was pushed by China.”
“By Ji?” Alex asked.
“No,” Colin said. “Someone other than their team.”
“So China pushed the North Koreans into acting exactly at the time the secretary of state was taken,” Alex said.
“Just an impression,” Colin said.
“Good work,” Alex said. “Thank you. Rest now. We’ll have meetings in Washington on our way home, and a two-headed debrief. We have too much cleanup to do to take leave. But we’ll have the weekend.”
“Paris?” Raz asked.
“Next week,” Alex said to him. “We’ve been invited to a few meetings.”
Raz groaned.
“We’ll take leave this weekend,” Alex said to the team. “Agent Rasmussen and I are due at meetings early next week in Paris. You’re welcome to join us, but it won’t change your assignment. We’re still in the middle of this thing.”
“Yes, sir,” the men said.
She turned to Raz and Max.
“Anything I need to know before I report?” Alex asked.
Max shook his head. Raz set his laptop on her lap. He pointed to the Chinese Intelligence file on Steve Pershing’s capture. She skimmed through the report.
“Can you get me a secure line to the Admiral?” Alex asked Cliff.
“Yes, sir,” Cliff said.
“Thank you,” Alex said.
She spent the next half hour updating the Admiral on the status of both operations. He was nice, as usual, and complimentary, as usual, but she sensed an unease behind his questions.
“Any ideas about . . . ,” he said.
“I wish I knew, sir,” Alex cut him off. “Something is in play. I think we’ve mitigated the worst of the losses. The rest, I’m sorry to say, has to play out.”
“My office,” he said. “First thing. When you’re stateside.”
“Yes, sir,” Alex said and ended the call.
When she looked up, the passenger compartment was lit with the blue light that came from love, satellite Internet, and video conferencing. Matthew was having a serious talk with Erin. Troy goofed with his boys. Royce was helping his son with his homework. Colin was discussing why it was better to be a knight than a prince with his son, Paddie. Raz was IMing with Samantha. Max was talking to Wyatt.
She felt an unfamiliar pang of loneliness. Her father had always said that leadership was lonely. She’d just have to get used to it.
Shaking her head at herself, she was about to dive into the
SSG video report on the rescue of the secretary of state when Max put his hand in hers. She turned to look at him. He leaned his head forward. She pressed her forehead against his. With her head against his, she knew exactly who she was.
“John said hi,” Max said. “He was on his way to the hospital. Awful pile up on I-25.”
Alex nodded. He threaded under her elbow and leaned his head on her shoulder. Max fell asleep. Raz put his arm around her. She looked at him.
He opened his mouth to say something, paused for a moment, and then simply smiled.
“How was today?” Raz asked.
“I’m beginning to wonder if I’m too old for this crap,” Alex said.
Raz laughed. Alex watched him laugh for a moment, before smiling. He kissed her cheek.
“We have a long night ahead of us,” Raz said. “Will you sleep?”
“I will if you will,” Alex said.
He pulled a blanket up to her neck and tucked it around her. She smiled.
“I can’t thank you . . . ,” she started.
“It’s just a blanket,” he said.
“Another blessing,” she said.
He smiled. She leaned her head against him and he rested against her. They fell into a sound sleep. Cliff woke them before they landed on the USS Vinson. They got off the helicopter to allow a US Navy medical team to assess Steve’s condition. Wearing her dark, blood soaked clothes, Alex went to a debriefing while the rest of the team showered and changed. When asked if the team would like a more comfortable ride to Japan, Alex refused.
The Navy medics agreed with Colin that Steve should not be moved. He would remain on the Pave Hawk, and so would they. The Fey Team would see Steve Pershing to the United States Naval Hospital at Yokosuka, Japan. They piled back into the helicopter and took off over the Sea of Japan.
F
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Wednesday afternoon
November 10 – 2:27 p.m. PST
(November 11 – 6:27 a.m. China Standard Time)
Pelican Bay Prison, Crescent City, California
Trece woke up with a start. He sat up on the bottom cement bunk along the back wall of his eight-by-ten-foot cell. His head brushed the top of the empty bunk above him. The fluorescent light had flickered and hummed, so he’d turned it off. The cell door had honeycomb shaped perforations and was covered with unbreakable transparent plastic on the outside. Very little fresh air came into the cell. In the dim light, the stagnant air gave the cell a grave-like stillness.
He was glad White Boy wasn’t here with him. Chris Blanco couldn’t handle tight spaces. He would definitely panic at spending twenty-two and a half hours in the quiet dark of this tiny cell.
Trece was beginning to think he might panic too. He looked at the upper bunk. The prison had never been so full that the SHU had the two prisoners a cell. Just the possibility of sharing this tiny space made him get up. He took a drink of water from the sink above his toilet near the front of the cell. The water was tepid and tasted like rust. He splashed his face.
He’d already spent his hour and a half alone in the concrete yard.
He’d already eaten his breakfast and his bag lunch.
Dinner wasn’t for another few hours.
His brain felt foggy, like he was drugged or hung over. Mostly he was bored. He dropped to the cement floor and did a round of push-ups. He didn’t want to hear too much crap when he got back. He could just see skin-and-bones MJ smirking at what a lightweight he’d become. The thought of MJ made him smile and do another set of push-ups.
Then he heard it.
A military helicopter flew overhead. He felt a wave of comfort that helicopters still existed. Because if helicopters still existed, then the Jakker still existed. If the Jakker still existed, Alex was out there fighting for every hostage to come home. He let himself fall face-first onto the ground.
“Why is this cast so damned itchy?” he said out loud. Realizing the prisoners around him might hear him, he added a silent, “My arm’s not even broken.”
He rolled onto his back to see if he could find something useful to reach into the cast.
Nothing.
He stared at the ceiling in his gloomy cell, and time slipped away. He was about to get up when he heard a sound.
It wasn’t quite a tap, but it wasn’t a thump either. He pressed his ear against the side of the metal toilet bowl, and listened.
Trece’s face cracked in a huge smile. He might not have recognized it if his oldest child, the son of his heart, hadn’t been recruited into the V 13 when he’d turned thirteen. Trece and White Boy had reached his house to find Luz standing over the boy with her butcher knife. The boy had kicked and screamed when they dragged him to Evergreen Cemetery to introduce him to his fellow V-13 members buried in potter’s field.
Trece had talked and his son had tapped. Trece had grown up with that tapping. When he was his son’s age, he understood it better than English. He knew it well enough to translate his son’s new rendition of the code. Trece had wanted to cut the boys fingers off. If White Boy hadn’t been there, he might have done so.
Just when he’d lost all hope, a backhoe arrived a few plots away. They watched in silence as the backhoe dug a long, deep trench. A flunky from the county coroner’s office placed cardboard box after cardboard box of people’s remains. Three rows of forty boxes, marked only by a white stake that said “2003.”
After placing the last box, the flunky looked up and said, “Gangs.”
The man shook his head and walked off.
They had watched as the backhoe driver backfilled the trench in minutes and graded the dirt over the cardboard boxes. What had been the remnants of human lives was now an even strip of dirt in the middle of the vast lawn. When the backhoe drove off, his son gave him a long look. They walked back to the SUV and went for burgers. He son tried out for football the next day.
Trece stared at the ceiling for a while before remembering why he was lying next to the toilet. He listened closely to the tapping. By the time the tapping stopped, Trece knew what was going on in the SHU.
He wanted to cheer out loud. He wanted to do that crazy dance that Dusty did when he was happy. He wanted to kiss Luz.
He swallowed hard. No one was there.
He had no idea who was in on this scheme. The guard who brought his dinner could easily be the one ferrying the bioweapons out of the SHU.
No. Trece was alone.
His eyes welled with tears. His breath caught. His heart filled with desperate loneliness.
Then, out of nowhere, he saw Alex’s face, and he knew.
He wouldn’t be alone forever.
He was just alone for now.
Alex would never give up on him. She would never stop trying to get him out of this place. At least he was safe.
He saw a spark float around the room and wondered if Jesse was there. He held his fist out in the way he used to fist bump Jesse. Just the thought that Jesse was with him made him smile.
He climbed back onto the bottom bunk and went to sleep.
FFFFFF
Wednesday afternoon
November 10 – 4:38 p.m. MST (3:38 p.m. PST)
Denver, Colorado
“Well, I don’t like it,” Eoin said in a low voice to Cian.
“And why is that?” Cian asked.
They stood an inch apart in the living room area of Max’s side of the rooming house. Cian’s right shoulder was in front of Eoin’s left shoulder. With their mouths next to each other’s ears, they spoke in low tones.
“I just told you,” Eoin said.
“I know but . . . ,” Cian gave Eoin an exasperated look.
“Where’s Jack?” Eoin asked. “Tell me that. Where’s my brother? They made a pact never to sleep even one night apart. ‘Like Paul McCartney and Linda.’ Remember how they used to say that all the time?”
“I do.”
“How many nights has it been?”
“Four,” Cian nodded.
“I don’t like it,” Eoin said. “Something’s wrong.”
“You think they’re divorced?” Cian asked.
“No,” Eoin said. “No way.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know,” Eoin said. “I’m not the one who figures out the conspiracies! That’s your job.”
Cian laughed. Eoin smirked. There was a sound from the shared dining room, Cian turned to look. When he looked back, he gave Eoin an intense scowl.
“Well, what is it then?” Cian asked.
Eoin gave Cian an anxious look.
“Just tell me,” Cian said. “I won’t laugh.”
“I think Neev’s programming Wyatt and Samantha, not deprogramming them,” Eoin said. “Did you hear what Joseph said?”
“Alex said Joseph had decided to stick with his own therapist,” Cian said.
“He told me that they did a kind of hypnotic treatment,” Eoin said. “He felt funny afterwards, like he wanted to throw up. In fact, he said he did. He went home and threw up.”
“That’s not good,” Cian said.
“You’ll keep an eye on her?” Eoin asked.
“I will,” Cian said. “You’ll take the boys, just in case?”
“Of course,” Eoin said. “I know she’s your sister and all, but I’ll kill her myself if she hurts our boys.”
“I’ll not stop you,” Cian said.
Eoin nodded. There was a knock at the door to the sitting room.
“Are you there?” Hermes asked from the shared living area. “I think they’re in there.”
Cian moved to get the door.
“The thing I don’t get,” Eoin said.
Cian turned to look at him.
“Why didn’t Alex ask me to help Wyatt?” Eoin asked. “Neev was in the convent while I deprogrammed the boys who made it out. Hell, if I hadn’t deprogrammed Jack, he’d never have gone to her!”
“I doubt Alex knows,” Cian said. “We’ve played things pretty close to the vest.”
“True,” Eoin said.
“Maybe you should help them yourself,” Cian said.
Eoin nodded.
“Are you in there or not?” Hector James’s voice came from the other side.
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