“In case you’re wondering, I’m delaying a trip to Pakistan,” the Admiral said.
“I understand tempers have flared since the SSG ruined that awards ceremony,” Alex smiled.
The Admiral gave her a rueful look and shook his head.
“When this is over, sir,” Alex started.
He looked up at her.
“Yes?” he asked.
“I’d like to take leave,” Alex said. “A month or so.”
“To get your affairs in order?”
“Yes, sir,” Alex said.
“No,” the Admiral said.
“But sir . . .”
“No. You are on active duty,” the Admiral said. “Your country needs you. You’d better figure out a way to remain on active duty.”
Alex smiled at him, and he nodded.
“When your team is back together, Captain Ramirez’s extended vacation is over, I will agree that you and your team can take a month of leave,” the Admiral said.
“Thanksgiving to New Year, sir?” Alex asked for the time her team wanted leave. “The team would love to have that time for their families. There’s talk of having Christmas at our house again.”
“If you can swing it, I’ll sign off on it,” the Admiral said. “But go on a vacation; work on the house; take the time off to be with your family; don’t put your affairs in order. Trust me. I’ve seen plenty of death. The affairs that matter aren’t the ones that get sorted out by lawyers. That’s an order.”
“My husband quit one of his jobs just a few days ago,” Alex said. “He had a few weeks to finish up there, but we’ll have some time while he transitions to another position.”
“He quit the job with the horny wife swapper?”
“You heard about that?” Alex smiled.
“Everyone who knows your father has heard that story at least once,” the Admiral smiled. “It’s a good story. I like the part where you escape by ladder while Dr. Suave is trying to get you to screw him and the missus is trying to get a queue forming.”
“Yes, sir,” Alex said.
The Admiral checked his coffee cup and set it down. He gave Alex a long look before getting up. He knocked on the door and the ensign escorted him out of the room. Alex waited a few minutes for Raz and Colin to appear. Together, the team flew back to Paris.
F
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Wednesday, early morning
November 17 – 11:13 a.m. CET
Paris, France
Alex glanced back at Matthew before stepping into the vault that stored the gold. There was no mysterious book or paper or magazine, or whatever it was that Cooper was supposed to retrieve, in the Fey Special Forces vault or the vault across the hall. If something was stored in the vaults, it had to be in with the gold.
Matthew closed the door to the gold vault behind her. Alex stood in place for the body scan. When the scan recognized her, she took three steps to the metal fence placed in front of the gold bars. Alex used her key to open the padlock which opened the security pad. She entered her code and went in the locker.
Like she did every time she was in this locker, she stood for a moment and looked at the stack of gold bars. She never got used to the sight of all that shining gold. Her eyes moved to the top of the stack.
Jesse was sitting cross legged on top of the gold. His eyes were closed as if he was meditating. She smiled, but he didn’t say anything.
“Okay, I get it,” Alex said in Spanish. “You’re mad because I keep sending you away.”
He didn’t react.
“You’re mad because I’ve been ignoring you,” she said.
He didn’t move.
“You’re mad because I’m an asshole,” she said.
His head moved up and down in a nod. She grinned, but he didn’t open his eyes.
“You’re mad because I’m an asshole and . . . uh . . . and what?” Alex asked. “How is that news?”
Jesse chuckled.
“I don’t know, Jesse,” Alex sighed. “I’m doing my best. I truly am. I’m just . . . stuck.”
“Why don’t you just be honest?” Jesse was suddenly right in her face. “No matter how much you do, no matter how much the people around you invest and support you, you still wish you were dead.”
Alex was so surprised by his words and anger that she reeled back.
“These men and women rely on you,” Jesse said. “They risk their lives with you, for you, and you . . . you don’t really care about them. You only care about solving this stupid puzzle so that you can finally die.”
“I . . .”
“Just admit it,” Jesse said. “Everyone around you knows this is true. Why can’t you just admit to yourself, your family, and your team? You don’t like living very much. You still haven’t overcome your guilt for surviving when everyone else died. You can’t invest in today, because you’re too stubborn and too stupid to change.”
Alex staggered like she’d been hit. She leaned against a stack of gold to steady herself.
“If we hadn’t been shot,” Jesse said. “What would you be doing right now?”
Not sure how to respond, Alex shook her head.
“Answer me,” Jesse said. “What would you be doing right now?”
“I was offered a teaching position at the Fort,” Alex said. “The Admiral wanted me to set up a training program for SF and Navy rats. Do you think you would have started that construction company?”
“No,” Jesse said. “I would have wanted to or said I did, but I would have missed the action. You too, probably. We’d be right back in the middle of it all, doing our thing, in a year tops.”
“I think Jax would have been a doctor,” Alex nodded.
“And Charlie would have retired,” Jesse said. “But us? We’d have wanted to be in the middle of a big puzzle. We always wanted to be . . .”
“Where the action was!” Alex said with Jesse. She smiled.
“And the moment when life leaves your body, don’t you think you’ll still want to be where the action is?” Jesse asked.
“Did you?”
Jesse nodded.
“Probably,” Alex said.
“Why trade it away like it doesn’t matter?” Jesse asked. “Why not engage in life? Suck the marrow out?”
“What would that look like?” Alex lifted a shoulder in a shrug.
“Have a child,” Jesse said. “Two even. Start training people to go fight the ninja fight. Get chickens or special bees, or whatever it is that makes you smile.”
“And forget all of this?” Alex shook her head. “I don’t think I can.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s about me, around me,” Alex said. “They are coming to kill me. That’s why I’ve been such an ass.”
“When did you ever give anyone what they wanted?” Jesse asked.
“Um,” pretending to think about it, Alex tapped her finger on the side of her head. “Always?”
“Bullshit,” Jesse said. “No commander at SF training wanted you to succeed. You kicked their asses and brought everyone along for the ride. Those jerks in Bosnia wanted you to curl up in a ball and give up. You didn’t. You were supposed to die across the hall; you didn’t do that either. In fact, you’re the most obstinado person I’ve ever met.”
Alex smiled.
“It’s what I like about you, because I’m ornery too,” Jesse said. “Child of a teenaged Mexican prostitute. Who would have ever bet on me?”
“I would have,” Alex said.
Jesse smiled.
“Why aren’t you ornery about this?” Jesse asked.
“Seems like sooner or later they’re going to succeed,” Alex shrugged.
“Why?” Jesse asked.
Alex looked at the apparition of her best friend and then closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye, she saw team member after team member ripped apart by the AK-47. She saw the shocked expression on Larry’s face when she crawled over him. She saw Heath’s head in that stupid box and h
is mother’s silent tears at his funeral.
She’d loved them.
They’d died.
“Why should I be any different?”
Alex wasn’t sure if she’d said the words out loud. When she opened her eyes, Jesse nodded.
“I know,” Jesse said.
She nodded.
“And you don’t want to lean on people because . . . ?” Jesse asked.
“They die,” Alex said.
“And what would they do otherwise?” Jesse asked.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked.
“Everyone’s life ends in death, Alex,” Jesse said.
“But not an early death!”
“You’re splitting hairs,” Jesse said. “It’s beneath you.”
Alex shook her head.
“Admit it,” Jesse said. “You don’t like it that your big life plans are messed up.”
“You died!” Alex shook her head. “I don’t like it that you died and Charlie died and Mike died and Dwight died and . . .
“And you couldn’t stop it.”
Stunned by his words, Alex gawked at him.
“How do you know it wasn’t all my fault?” Alex asked.
“If it was all about you, then why didn’t you stop it?” Jesse asked.
“I . . . um . . . ,” Alex’s mind went blank. She shook her head.
“Why didn’t you keep Larry from dying?” Jesse asked.
She had no answer for him.
“And Heath,” Jesse said. “I know you used to say you wanted him dead. Did you just let him die?”
Alex shook her head and looked away from him.
“You must have wanted everyone dead,” Jesse said.
“No,” Alex’s eyes welled with tears. “I miss you guys so much. I . . . never wanted . . .”
Jesse let the words linger in the stagnant air.
“Then maybe, just maybe, it’s not about you,” Jesse said.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked.
“Maybe they want to kill you, because they didn’t the last time,” Jesse said. “Maybe they wanted to kill all of us.”
“But why?”
“To get whatever it is that Cooper thought was in the vault,” Jesse said. “Because we knew something. Because Mike screwed someone’s wife. Have you even asked that question?”
“What question?”
“Why did someone want to kill the entire Fey Special Forces Team?” Jesse asked.
“Except Joseph,” Alex said.
“They did try to shoot him,” Jesse said. “A couple of times. But it’s a good question.”
“What is?” Alex asked.
“How is Joseph different from the rest of us?” Jesse asked.
Thinking about the question, they naturally looked away from each other. Alex’s eyes caught the bright glint of the gold.
“He’s pretty controlling,” Alex said.
“Not more than Scott,” Jesse laughed.
“You’ve got that right,” Alex said. “Joseph set up the team. So he knew everything about us.”
“More than Alex the confessor?” Jesse asked. “I doubt it.”
“He’s not great with languages,” Alex said.
“I bet that’s it,” Jesse nodded. “Someone wrote something on that book or piece of paper that we could figure out. Remember how Tommy was always getting us to learn obscure dialects and alphabets.”
Alex nodded.
“Most of the time, Joseph didn’t even bother with them,” Jesse said. “That’s got to be it.”
Alex gave him a vague nod and looked around the room.
“You think this book is here?” Alex asked.
“No,” Jesse said. “Cooper said it was something Paul had.”
“Paul was never in here,” Alex said. “I didn’t connect . . .”
“You would have had to check anyway,” Jesse said.
“Yes, let’s check,” Alex said.
Alex dropped to her hands and knees to look for a compartment in the floor. Jesse worked the walls. When they finished, they switched places.
“You think it’s underneath?” Jesse pointed to the gold.
“We have the videotape showing that the gold has been here since 1978,” Alex said. “If there’s something underneath, it was there when the bars were set here.”
“There vault below this one is empty, so it’s possible,” Jesse said.
“It’s possible that there’s something other than limestone and pallets under this gold,” Alex said. “But not the thing they are looking for.”
“Eleazar’s property,” Jesse said.
“Right.”
Jesse nodded. They scanned the ceiling and walls. Alex turned to look at him.
“Are you mad?” she asked.
“At you?” Jesse shrugged.
“Same shit, different day,” they said in unison, and laughed.
Alex smiled at him.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said. “I’m . . . fumbling. Again.”
“What are you going to do?” Jesse asked.
“I’m going to think about what you said,” Alex said. “I have a file of every scrap of evidence related to the murders of the Fey Special Forces Team. In light of what you have said, I need to go through it again.”
“My best friend in the whole world used to tell me that you only see what your filter allows you to see,” Jesse said.
“Maybe my filter has been wrong,” Alex nodded.
Jesse smiled.
“I’ve missed you,” Alex said.
“What’s not to miss?”
Jesse put his hands out, and she held hers up. For a moment, she felt the tingly sensation of his hands pressed against hers.
“Alex?” Matthew’s voice came from the door.
“I should . . . ,” Alex pointed to the hallway.
“I’ll be around,” Jesse said, and disappeared.
Alex went out the metal gate and waited for it to reset itself. When the vault was secure, she switched off the light and went out into the hallway where the team was waiting for her.
“Anything?” Joseph asked.
“Nothing,” Alex said.
“Shit,” Matthew said. “What’s next?”
“I was thinking . . . ,” Alex looked from team member to team member. “We need to track the investigation into Y’s death and follow up on Cooper . . .”
“Meetings,” Raz said.
The team groaned.
“And Trece,” Joseph said.
“But other than that, I think we should take in the sights,” Alex said. “We’ve been working so hard, we haven’t had a chance just to hang out together. We can take today and tomorrow and still be home by Saturday. What do you think, Major Walters? We are in Paris. We have a condo to ourselves.”
“Sounds perfect,” Joseph said.
“On your dime?” Vince asked.
“Use your team cards,” Alex said. “We’ll sort out the details later.”
The team cheered.
“Be on your guard,” Joseph said. “While you are on your own time, you are still and always . . .”
“The Fey Team,” the team called back.
“Just be careful,” Joseph said.
“Yes, sir!”
“Captain Mac Clenaghan?” Alex asked.
“Let’s do this thing,” Matthew said.
FFFFF
Two days later
Friday afternoon
November 19 – 3:25 p.m. CST (10:25 p.m. CET)
San Antonio, Texas
“Well, that was fun,” Alex said, as she slipped into the passenger seat of the dark-blue sedan.
Rather than respond, Raz started the rental car.
“I had the nicest time,” Royce said in a mock Texas accent. “Those crazy crackers are so nice.”
Matthew laughed. Lost in their own musings, they drove for a while.
“Holy Crap!” Matthew was so loud that Raz pulled the car over. He and Alex turned around in the sedan to look
at Matthew. “What the hell was that?”
“Cee Cee Joiner’s funeral,” Alex said in her most official tone.
“Cee Cee Joiner? The Cee Cee Joiner who killed his own children and raped women all over the world . . . ,” Matthew said.
“Raped and killed women all over the world,” Alex nodded.
“They were talking about a hero who loves his family and worships the Lord,” Matthew said.
“Hush, now,” Royce said. “Cee Cee’s in the trunk.”
“Right, the hero might hear you,” Raz laughed.
Matthew and Alex laughed. Raz grinned.
“All I can say is thank God that Trece’s in prison,” Royce said. “Can you imagine?”
“We would have had to sedate him,” Raz said.
“Did I hallucinate, or did the pastor talk about Cee Cee being welcomed into heaven?” Matthew asked.
“Nope,” Alex said. “That actually happened.”
Matthew shook himself like a wet dog. They laughed.
“Did you touch your weapon when Buffy came up for a hug?” Royce asked.
“Unconscious gesture,” Alex smiled.
“Kill them!” Matthew said. “Kill them all, and let the Lord sort them out.”
Royce fell over laughing. Alex shook her head at them. Raz glanced back at Matthew and started driving again.
“Can we just run away screaming?” Matthew asked.
“We have been charged with the duty of presenting Mr. Cee Cee Joiner’s ashes to his grieving widow,” Alex said.
“Isn’t it widows?” Matthew asked.
“Cee Cee said he’s only ever had one wife,” Alex said.
“Let’s light that fuse and watch it go off,” Royce said.
“You’re quite the firecracker, Petty Officer Tubman,” Alex laughed.
“I’ll remind you that I was shot because of that motherfucker,” Royce said. “I’m lucky to be alive. I’m lucky to be able to walk. Welcomed into heaven, my ass.”
Matthew turned to look at Royce.
“I thought it was Alex’s fault you got shot,” Matthew said in a conspiratorial tone.
They laughed. Alex’s phone rang. She looked at the number and answered.
“Sue Ann!” Alex said.
“Now, I know that you’re probably some place I never heard of or something, but I wanted to let you know that Cee Cee’s funeral was today,” Sue Ann said.
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