Finding North

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  “Just up here,” Alex laughed. Raz followed close behind her like a horny teenager.

  Dex turned to watch them go. His eyebrows furrowed for a moment as if he were trying to work something out. A dawning realization moved across his face. He spun in place to follow Raz and Alex, but they were gone. He put his hand into his suit pocket and pulled out a pack of unfiltered Camel cigarettes. The detective gawked at the pack.

  “Got him,” Colin said.

  Dex looked back to where Alex and Raz had gone and then looked at the pack of cigarettes. He stuffed the pack deep into his pants pocket. He trotted toward his home. Once there, he used a key to get in the door in the alley beside his home.

  “He’s in,” Colin said.

  “Meet you at the Warehouse,” Alex said.

  “Roger that,” Colin said.

  She stopped running, and Raz caught up with her. Raz put his arm around her. Certain they were being monitored, they walked in a fast clip toward the river. They crossed West Street at Laight and went into the Hudson River Greenway. At the river, they slowed to a lovers’ pace. They’d planned to walk for a while to pick up their tail and then head back to the apartment. If Dex checked up on them via satellite, traffic, or closed-circuit television, they would look like lovers out for a leisurely stroll.

  Alex coughed. The running and laughing had brought up the lingering effects of nearly drowning. They slowed to look at the river.

  “How was your visit with your father?” Raz asked.

  “Oh,” Alex sighed. “I don’t know.”

  “Sad,” Raz said.

  Raz put his hand on her chin and looked into her eyes. She looked up at him. Their eyes held, and she gave him a little nod. He pulled her close in a tight embrace before they started walking again.

  “Seems like this is the puzzle that will break me,” Alex said.

  “Break?” Raz chuckled. “You?”

  Alex smiled. Keeping their pretense of being lovers, she moved in closer, and he put his arm around her.

  “I realized for the first time that my parents are getting older,” Alex said.

  “Aren’t we all?” Raz asked.

  “Yeah, it sounds dumb,” Alex said. “My dad always seemed . . . like Zeus, bigger than life. And Mom . . . She’s starting to look like a grandmother.”

  “A super-hot, heiress grandmother,” Raz laughed.

  Alex smiled.

  “Did you see . . .” Raz stopped to look at her.

  Alex stepped into his arms. He kissed her neck, and she kissed his face. They held each other for a moment.

  “Her sweater cost more than my first car,” Raz said.

  “And her shoes?” Alex smiled.

  He gave her a peck on the lips, and she laughed. He held her tight.

  “Sami’s taught me never to speak of shoes in anything but reverential tones,” Raz said.

  Alex gave an exaggerated laugh. They separated and continued walking.

  “You saw them?” Alex said as she turned to look at him.

  “Ten feet back,” Raz said.

  “You were right,” Alex said.

  “That Dex would get the uni’s to follow us?” Raz asked.

  “I guess I was hoping he’d want to speak privately,” Alex said.

  “Define ‘privately.’” Raz stopped walking and turned to her.

  She threw her arms around his shoulders. He spun her around.

  “We’d better not miss the wedding,” Alex said.

  Raz laughed. He set her down, and they kept walking.

  “I’m worried . . .” Alex said in low tones.

  “About?” he asked.

  “I’ll never solve this,” Alex said. “Everyone I love will die all because . . . I . . . can’t.”

  Raz turned her to him. She stopped walking to look at him.

  “They’re coming,” she said of the two uniformed police officers moving in their direction.

  “We’ll do this like we do everything,” Raz said. “Together.”

  “Together,” Alex said.

  The New York City Police were on them. With their weapons drawn, they ordered Raz and Alex onto the ground. They dropped to their knees and put their hands over their heads. Two police cruisers came from opposite directions down the river walkway toward them. A uniformed officer reached into Raz’s blazer and took his handgun from his side holster. Another officer knelt down behind them.

  “Sorry, Fey,” the young man said in low tones, as he handcuffed her hands behind her. “Orders.”

  He moved over to handcuff Raz.

  “They think you’re impersonating an officer we lost,” the young man said. “I told them . . .”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Alex looked at the young man, who was handcuffing Raz. Two years ago, the Fey Team had found him hanging out in the belly of a Somalian pirate ship.

  “How is Che’lisa?” Raz asked.

  “Well, sir,” the ex-Navy-SEAL-turned-police-officer said. “She’s mean as a bear.”

  “Pregnant?” Alex asked.

  The young man laughed.

  “Imagine that,” Raz said. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember your name.”

  “They call me ‘Frogman,’” the young man grinned.

  “Petty Officer Shepard,” Alex said.

  “Shep, sir,” the young man said. He put a hand on each of their shoulders. Into the radio on his shoulder, he said, “They are secure.”

  A patrol car drove up onto the sidewalk. They were pulled to their feet. Raz was pushed into the back of a patrol car first and Alex after him. Shep shut her door.

  “Dex,” Raz nodded to his old partner, who was sitting in the back seat.

  “Who are you?” Dex asked.

  “Who do you think I am?” Raz asked.

  “We ran you through facial recognition, but it says you’re classified,” Dex said.

  “And?” Raz asked.

  “I don’t give a shit if you’re FBI, NSA, or whatever the fuck else,” Dex yelled.

  Alex removed the handcuffs from her hands. She moved her left foot over to Raz’s foot. He shifted to look at Dex to give her access to his hands.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Dex asked. “Josh was my friend, my best friend, and you . . .”

  Alex loosened Raz’s hands so he could easily free them when he was ready.

  “Alex,” Colin’s voice came in her ear.

  “Go ahead,” Alex said.

  Shep went around the car and got into the driver’s seat.

  “Who is she talking to?” the detective asked.

  “To your right,” Colin said.

  Alex looked out the window of the squad car to see the front end of a SUV fly over the barrier to West Street and continue in their direction.

  “I see it,” Alex replied. She leaned forward and said, “Petty Officer, I need my window down.”

  Shep turned to look at her.

  “NOW!” Alex yelled.

  Chapter Ten

  “Shit!” Raz said.

  “You’re on Dex,” Alex ordered Raz.

  “Done,” Raz said.

  “Petty Officer! Window!”

  Her window started a slow journey down. Alex pulled her Glock 9mm from her sacrum holster. She fired through the window’s small open space. Unaware of the SUV, the uniformed police officers reacted by pulling their weapons on the cruiser. Her first shot made a dent in the SUV’s windshield.

  “Bulletproof,” Alex said. “Shit.”

  She fired in a tight cluster to break the bulletproof glass over the driver’s face.

  “I can’t stop it,” Alex yelled. “Colin?”

  “Nothing will get there in time,” Colin said.

  The police officers around them began to fire on the SUV. One of Alex’s bullets got through the bulletproof glass. Shards of glass hit the driver in the face. The SUV began to skid.

  “Petty Officer!” Alex yelled. “Go! Go! Go!”

  Uniformed police officers stood around th
e cruiser. The young police officer hesitated. He would have to drive over his fellow officers to move the vehicle forward. That second of hesitation was long enough for the SUV to clip the back of the police cruiser.

  Raz grabbed Alex and Dex and pulled them to the floor of the cruiser’s back seat with him. The vehicle spun in tight circles until it hit the steel tension fence between the walkway and the river. For a split second, the police cruiser hung on the fence.

  “We’re going in!” Shep yelled.

  With the SUV as cover, a man crouched next to the vehicle and fired a large weapon.

  “That’s a grenade launcher,” Jesse said as his apparition appeared before her.

  The grenade landed in the open trunk of the car with enough force to destroy the cruiser’s delicate balance. The vehicle slipped toward the river.

  “The gas tank is going to blow,” Jesse said.

  Alex flipped around so that her back was on the seat. Behind Dex and Raz’s backs, she kicked out Dex’s window. She reached through the window and grabbed the handle. The back door flipped open. The river was coming toward them.

  “Jump!” Raz yelled to Dex.

  Hidden by the falling cruiser, they jumped from the back seat of the vehicle and hit the water hard. They were dazed by the frigid water. Shep jumped into the river a moment later. Above them, the people in the SUV were keeping the NYPD occupied in a firefight.

  “What was that?” Raz yelled.

  “Grenade!” Alex yelled.

  “Get under!” Shep yelled.

  Alex dove into the deep water. She fought the current to get as deep as possible. Raz grabbed Dex and followed her. The police cruiser exploded a foot above their heads. As pieces of the police cruiser pulsed through the water, they were pushed out into the Hudson’s current.

  Underwater without air again, Alex looked for her cricket. She saw Jesse instead. He gave her a smug look.

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “You’ll see,” Jesse said.

  She started to move toward the surface.

  “Wait,” Jesse commanded.

  He moved to where Raz and Dex were treading water. He lit an energy ball so Alex could see them and the ex-Navy SEAL. Alex motioned for them to stay underwater.

  “Okay,” Jesse said. “Now. Kick, kick, kick!”

  Alex’s legs sliced through the water. She’d just reached the surface when she felt a hand grab her hand. Jesse gave her a nod, and she allowed herself to be pulled into a black inflatable raft.

  “Jesus Christ,” Alex heard a familiar voice scream. “Talk about pollution! Look at the fish in this river!”

  “Trece,” Alex said. Her voice couldn’t be heard over the gunfire on the bank of the river.

  “Our new boss figured that while you’re busy, we should attend this God-awful training, on the water no less,” Trece said. She smiled to herself. She had no trouble hearing Trece. “Then, wham! There’s some action. I saw the crash . . .”

  “And the explosion,” White Boy said.

  “I thought, ‘We should go take a look. Maybe there’s someone who needs our help’ — and what do we find?” Trece nodded.

  “I didn’t want to,” White Boy said.

  “You’re going to have to talk to our new boss, Alex,” Trece said. “He’ll be pissed that we’re not doing the training.”

  “But we had to get you!” White Boy said. “I mean — it’s Alex! And Raz! And that guy we rescued from the pirates a couple years ago — how you doin’, man?”

  “Wet,” the young police officer said.

  “And some other guy,” Trece said. “Who are you?”

  “Detective Zeno,” Dex said. “NYPD.”

  “You’re Rasmussen’s old partner,” Trece said.

  “I’m what?” Dex said.

  “I saw that SUV hit the cruiser and I thought, ‘Look — someone has pissed off somebody like Alex always does,’” Trece said. “Then, wham! It is Alex!”

  White Boy dropped an emergency blanket over Dex’s shoulders before giving a blanket to Raz. Trece was wrapping Alex up in blankets.

  “I’m Chris, but everyone calls me ‘White Boy,’” he said. “That’s Trece.”

  “You could have drowned!” Trece knocked Alex’s shoulder. “If we didn’t see Jesse . . .”

  “You saw Jesse?” White Boy asked.

  “Didn’t you?” Trece looked at White Boy.

  “Well, sure, but . . .” White Boy started.

  “Who are you people?” Dex asked.

  “They’re the Fey Team,” the ex-Navy SEAL said.

  “The what?” Dex asked.

  “We have some catching up to do,” Raz said.

  FFFFFF

  Monday night

  May 16 — 8:10 p.m. MDT (10:10 p.m. EDT)

  Denver, Colorado

  Warm and wobbly from her time with Samantha, Erin let herself into the kitchen of her home. She had cried her eyes out and drank an entire half of a glass of red wine by herself. Now, all she wanted was a bath and her warm bed. She’d waited until after Matthew usually went to bed before coming home. She positively could not deal with any more drama tonight.

  Hearing movement in the house, Erin said, “Hello?”

  “There you are!” Rebecca came into the kitchen from the dining room. “Just in time.”

  “Mom,” Erin said. “I’ve had a horrible day. I’d really like to . . .”

  “Sure,” Rebecca said. “Do you have a minute to look at something?”

  Erin nodded. Rebecca put her arm around Erin’s shoulder and led her into the dining room. The dining room and living room had been transformed. Their worn, second-hand furniture was gone. Enormous bouquets of yellow roses, Erin’s favorite, sat in silver urns on either side of the doorway between the rooms. White rose petals lay on the floor, and a garland of white roses surrounded the archway. A few short rows of chairs were set up on the end of the room near the front door.

  “Wh . . . what’s this?” Erin asked.

  “I was told that you said, ‘The sooner, the better’?” Nancy Walter, Joseph’s wife and the unofficial leader of the “Fey wives,” came in from the entryway carrying an armload of roses. “This is what you asked for, right?”

  “Can’t expect a man to delay.” The voice of Fey Special Forces Team member Dwight Harris’s grandmother, Mrs. Harris, came from a corner of the room. She turned toward Erin, and her dark face appeared among the roses. The elderly woman was wearing all white and was so tiny that Erin hadn’t seen her among the roses. “What do you think?”

  “What is it?” Erin blurted out. The women laughed.

  “You’re getting married tonight,” Rebecca said.

  “I’m . . . what?” Erin asked.

  “You had a conversation with Captain Matthew tonight,” Mrs. Harris said. “He told Max, and John called us.”

  “We’re all here,” Jennifer, wife of Fey Special Forces Team Member Dean Kearney, said.

  Colin’s wife, Julie, leaned her head in from the entryway and waved.

  “But, who has the kids?” Erin asked. Her voice rose with concern, “Where’s my daughter? Where’s Grace?”

  “You remember Paige’s daughter, Beth? She and MJ’s sister, Bonnie, are with them at the rooming house,” Jennifer said. “We’re staying there tonight.”

  “But . . .” Erin looked from the perfect white and yellow rose candle piece on the mantle to the big white bows on the chairs. “But . . .”

  The women fell silent. Erin’s mouth opened and closed a few times.

  “What am I going to wear?” Erin blushed bright red. She looked like the very young woman that she was. “I don’t have . . . I mean . . .”

  “You’d better get up here, then,” Quanshay, Chief Petty Officer Royce Tubman’s wife, said as she came down the stairs.

  “I’d better . . .” Erin squinted. “What?”

  “We have a few dresses for you,” Rebecca said. “I took the liberty of bringing mine. Sami called her friend Val,
who dropped off a couple of her designer dresses.”

  “But I’m not as tiny as Val or you,” Erin said. “I can’t sew. You don’t sew, either.”

  “We still have time for me to make you something if we have to,” Quanshay said. “But you have to get up here.”

  “What about . . .?” Erin pulled on her long red hair.

  “Shower at 10:30. Hair and make-up at 11:15. I made a schedule.” Nancy held up her phone.

  The other women got out their smartphones to show that they had the same schedule. MJ and his younger brother, Kenny, came through the front door carrying a tulle-and-flower covered arch.

  “Wedding’s at midnight,” Mrs. Harris said. “We have time to finish up here, get dressed ourselves, and, then, it’s show time.”

  “But . . .” Erin started.

  “The guys have everything else,” Rebecca said. “They even got the license.”

  “Matthew?” Erin said his name as if it had just occurred to her. “He’s not here?”

  “He’s not here,” Jennifer said. “He and the guys are busy with cake and rings and . . .”

  “Honeymoon!” Mrs. Harris said.

  The women gave Erin a bright smile. Samantha came in the back door.

  “Oh Sami, I’m glad you’re here,” Rebecca said. They moved into the dining room. “You can help me with . . .”

  Erin’s mouth dropped open. Clearly, Samantha knew all about this and had never said a word.

  “Come on,” Quanshay said. “Let’s see what you’re going to wear.”

  Erin stared at the woman. Smiling, Quanshay took Erin’s arm and led her upstairs.

  F

  Chapter Eleven

  May 16 — 10:51 p.m. EDT (8:51 p.m. MDT)

  The Warehouse Apartments

  New York City, New York

  “Can you do me a favor?” Orchid asked on the elevator ride up to their apartment. She’d been acting like a cross between a babysitter and older sister since picking them up at the New York Police Department.

  “Sure,” Alex said.

  “Can you just do what you’re told?” Orchid asked. “You have no idea how much trouble you’ve caused!”

  “You know, the SUV ran into them,” Colin said.