Finding North

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  Orchid gave him a dark look.

  “We promise to stay in for the rest of the night,” Alex said.

  “I know you’re used to doing your own thing, but this isn’t nowhere-ville Colorado. This is New York City!” Orchid continued. “We don’t have shootouts or police cruisers falling into the river or . . .”

  “As inconvenient as this might be for you, they did try to kill us,” Alex said.

  “If you had stayed in your apartment, they wouldn’t have had a chance,” Orchid sniffed.

  Alex crossed her eyes and glanced at Colin. He smirked.

  “Where is Agent Rasmussen?” Orchid asked.

  “Attending to a matter of importance,” Alex said.

  “He is supposed to be with you!” Orchid’s voice rose with anxiety. “He’s not supposed to leave you. What could he possibly be doing?”

  The elevator reached their floor, and they got out. Rather than risk being heard in the hallway, Orchid waited until they were in the apartment to continue to scold them.

  “Where is Agent Rasmussen?” Orchid asked.

  “You do realize that I am a senior agent, don’t you?” Alex said.

  “Answer the question,” Orchid said.

  “Whatever he’s doing is not any of your business and happens to be beyond your jurisdiction.”

  “How do you know?” Orchid asked.

  “Because I sent him,” Alex said. “You have no authority to question my actions or orders.”

  Orchid flushed bright red. Rather than respond, she turned in place and left the apartment.

  “Thanks for the ride!” Colin said into the hallway.

  Orchid turned to look at him, and he closed the door to the apartment. Alex went to one of the cameras in the apartment.

  “I’m tired, waterlogged, and sick of being watched,” Alex said into the camera. “Bye.”

  She waved at the camera and clicked the button on her electronics disabler. They checked to make certain every camera was turned off.

  “You know they’re still listening,” Colin said.

  “Through the electrical outlets,” Alex said. “I know. We’re not doing anything secret. I’m just tired of being watched.”

  Colin smiled.

  “Are you all right after being hit?” Colin asked. “We didn’t get you checked out at the hospital.”

  “A little sore,” Alex said. “But okay. You should check Raz when he gets in.”

  “Will do,” Colin said. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Alex smiled.

  “You promised to help me with my dancing,” Colin said. “I’ve been practicing, but I can’t seem to get any better.”

  As Ben had insisted for her, Alex had insisted that Colin needed to learn a series of old-world skills to be an agent. He’d easily learned to set a table, cook a gourmet meal, and carry on a pleasant conversation with almost anyone in the world. But at six foot, five inches, Colin had the natural grace of an ox. He was struggling with learning to ballroom dance. While it seemed like a small thing, Alex’s ability to dance had brought her into close contact with people she needed to speak with privately. Colin needed to learn to dance.

  “How ’bout if we shower first?” Alex asked.

  “How ’bout if I call home while you shower?” Colin asked. “I didn’t take a dip in the river tonight.”

  “Deal,” Alex said and went into the room she was sharing with Raz.

  “I’m keeping track of the time,” Colin yelled.

  Alex slipped off her clothing and got into the shower. If she’d had her way, she would have stayed under the warm spigot for the rest of the night. Instead, she showered quickly and dressed in a pair of soft pajamas and four-inch heels. Colin was waiting for her in the living area. He turned on the music, and she stepped up to him.

  They started dancing a slow international Rumba. Colin led with swift movements.

  “Just relax,” Alex said. “Let your legs hold you.”

  Colin made an effort, but his steps were choppy.

  “Remember when we were kids and Steve had us walk on the rice paper?” Alex asked.

  “God, that was hard,” Colin said.

  The choppy motion of his dance eased as he relaxed.

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “Everything Steve had us do was hard.”

  “I can’t imagine asking Paddie to do half of it,” Colin snorted.

  “He’s not you,” Alex said. “What if this floor had rice paper on it, and you wanted to slide across the floor? How would you move?”

  Colin began to move his feet across the floor, and she followed.

  “Nice,” Alex said.

  “How did it go with Dad?” Colin asked. His voice was low, so that only she could hear. This was part of the dancing skill training.

  “Hard,” Alex said.

  “Why?” Colin asked.

  “He wants answers,” Alex said. “I don’t have answers. The usual.”

  “Can he help?” Colin asked.

  “Yes,” Alex said. “No. I don’t know.”

  Her answer was intentionally vague to encourage him to ask a better question. He fell silent, to collect his thoughts.

  “How can Dad help?” Colin asked.

  “He has a lot of resources,” Alex said. “Connections. Time. He knows the problem better than I do.”

  “The problem?”

  Alex smiled. This was one of the questioning skills she’d taught him. By picking out one of her words, she felt heard by him. Because she felt like he understood her, she would be more likely to answer his questions.

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Alex asked. “What is the problem? Is it deciphering Linear A, or, if we decipher Linear A, we’ll know something we might not have known otherwise? Or is Linear A another step in an almost-endless chain that goes on and on forever?”

  “It’s the step you know about,” Colin said.

  “Hmm,” Alex said. “He wants to help, and I want so badly to have his help or at least his companionship, but . . .”

  “He can’t do it for you,” Colin said.

  “How’d you know?” Alex asked.

  “It’s something he said when you were in SF training,” Colin said. “He probably said that about me, too.”

  “He did,” Alex smiled.

  “Maybe we have to trust that he’s given us what he can,” Colin said.

  “I’d rather he do it for me,” Alex said.

  Colin chuckled. The song ended, and Colin turned on the Internet radio station to popular music. They shifted to a modified Foxtrot, sometimes called “Foxy.” The dance is often used as a wedding dance and is easy to dance on even the most crowded floor. They moved in a tight circle.

  “I have kind of a serious question,” Colin said.

  “Okay,” Alex asked.

  “I’m not really sure how to phrase it,” Colin said.

  “Okay,” Alex said.

  “You know how we’re here, in New York?” Colin asked.

  “Uh-huh,” Alex said.

  “We’re here because of something Raz, your partner, friend, and family . . .” Colin swallowed hard. “How did you meet him?”

  “Ben,” Alex said.

  “I mean, we have this assignment, right?” Colin asked. “Most people don’t know a thing about Linear A or people who want to burn down the world or any of it. And some of it goes back to who killed the Fey Special Forces Team, right?”

  “Sure,” Alex said.

  “But today, we find ourselves, in New York, because Raz’s former NYPD partner is connected, in some way, to Linear A and the group we think might be behind all of this, including the murder of the Fey Special Forces Team — your team.”

  Alex thought through his logic before nodding.

  “Don’t you think that’s kind of a big coincidence?” Colin asked.

  “What is?”

  “That your partner’s ex-partner is involved in this,” Colin said.

  “I gue
ss,” Alex said.

  “It’s too big of a coincidence,” Colin said.

  Alex stopped dancing and pulled back from him.

  “What are you saying?” Alex asked.

  Colin pulled her back into their dancing form. They danced for a while.

  “Are you saying Raz did all of this?” Alex whispered.

  “No,” Colin said. “I don’t believe that. Do you?”

  “No,” Alex said. “But it’s something Max and I have talked about.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s such a part of our lives,” Alex said. “More than you or . . . really, anyone. If we’re looking for the big betrayal, that would be one.”

  “Do you think that?”

  “No,” Alex said. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying it’s too much of a coincidence that he’s connected, even tangentially, to all of this,” Colin said.

  “Someone set him in our path,” Alex said. “Why?”

  “To give us a step up,” Colin said. “Connect us, or, more specifically, you, to an answer.”

  “An answer . . .” Alex shrugged. “The right answer? Or a diversion to cover over something else?”

  “Who knows?”

  “An answer . . .” Alex repeated. “You mean, the team’s murder was planned by someone before Raz came to work with me?”

  “No,” Colin said. “That seems more reactionary, less planned. Don’t you think?”

  “I do,” Alex nodded.

  They danced to a song by The Fray while Alex thought through what Colin was saying.

  “Raz came to work with me three or four years before everyone was killed,” Alex said.

  “How did Charlie get your name?” Colin asked.

  “I don’t know,” Alex said. “Joseph said that Charlie heard about me.”

  The song changed to something fast, and they danced a Lindy Hop. They were too busy dancing to talk, which gave Alex time to think. The next song was a slow love song, and they danced the Foxy again.

  “I’ve wracked my brain to try to figure out who set me up,” Alex said.

  “Who ‘tragically betrayed’ you?” Colin asked.

  “You heard Bestat when we were stuck in the Mariscal Mine after trying to save Cee Cee Joiner’s children a few years ago,” Alex said.

  “Not that I’d be willing to admit,” Colin said.

  “She can be intimidating,” Alex smiled.

  “Terrifying,” Colin said. “Did you ever figure out why you felt powerless to confront this betrayal?”

  “I felt powerless over everything then,” Alex shrugged. “Still do, sometimes.”

  They danced another song before Alex said anything else.

  “You’re asking if someone set me up,” Alex said. “Not in a betrayal sense — but maybe they gave me some kind of edge.”

  “By introducing you to Raz,” Colin said.

  “And getting me on the Fey Special Forces Team,” Alex said.

  “Right,” Colin said.

  “That implies that this mystery revolves around me, personally,” Alex said. “Not because I know something or stumbled onto something or the guys hid a package or anything. It’s about me.”

  “Isn’t that what finding the article clipping means to you?” Colin asked.

  “Maybe,” Alex said. “But . . .”

  “But?” Colin asked.

  “What if it’s about me and Max?” Alex asked. “We’re not really supposed to exist, you know — mono-zygotic male-female twins. Rarest of all. Especially since Max is so healthy.”

  “What are you saying?” Colin asked.

  “Mom said she went crazy,” Alex said. “Lost her mind or something like that. Like leaving Dad and Sami was something that just happened, bam, out of the blue.”

  “Okay,” Colin said.

  “It’s bothered me since she told me,” Alex said. “She said she went out for groceries and ‘woke up’ on the way to Chicago. I’ve never known her to do anything impulsive. She said she’d never done anything like that before or after. Plus, the whole time she was there, she wanted to be with Dad and Sami. ‘Ached for them,’ she said. But she stayed put.”

  “Holy crap,” Colin said. “What if she was programmed?”

  “Right,” Alex said. “The majority of the CIA’s mind-control participants were unsuspecting adults, often the families of military. She could have been sent to Chicago to snare Ben or . . .”

  “To have twins,” Colin said.

  “Right. We are talking about the Operation Paperclip scientists,” Alex said. “I mean, she was there two weeks or more before she and Ben . . . you know. She couldn’t have been implanted with eggs or anything. And Max and my DNA is definitely her and Ben’s.”

  “She could have had fertility drugs,” Colin said.

  “When I took fertility drugs, they found a bunch of those double eggs,” Alex said. “About half of what they harvested was unusable.”

  “Mom could have been the same,” Colin said.

  “She had two other kids after us,” Alex said. “No mutants, no more twins.”

  “No miscarriages,” Colin said.

  “Exactly,” Alex said. “It’s very possible she was given something experimental that caused her to have us.”

  “Fertility drugs would make her more susceptible to . . .”

  They both gave a little shiver at the thought of this happening to their mother.

  “I’ve focused so much on ‘Who is doing this to me?’” Alex said. “I never thought of the idea that someone was helping me, setting me up to succeed. But you’re right. Raz’s ex-partner is connected to this. I have the book. I have the gold. Everything is set for me to decrypt Linear A and stop the world from burning.”

  “If that’s the final riddle,” Colin said.

  “Exactly,” Alex said. “I wonder who’s been helping us. Helping me?”

  “Find out who, and you might find out why,” Colin said.

  Raz came into the apartment. Alex stopped dancing with Colin to hug him in greeting. Colin took him through a series of tests before determining that Raz hadn’t been injured by the accident.

  “Can you show me the waltz?” Colin asked.

  “Sure,” Raz said.

  He got up and held out his arms. Alex went to him. They danced a waltz around the living room, giving Alex enough time to get him up to speed. He looked surprised. His hand around her waist held her a little bit closer. He gave her the update on the suspects who’d fired the grenade at them.

  “They say they lost control of their vehicle,” Raz said. “‘No harm, no foul’ — they keep saying that over and over again. They’re claiming police brutality over you shooting the driver. They say they were shooting at the police because you started shooting at them. The NYPD is saying they were shooting because those in the vehicle were shooting.”

  “So it’s my fault?” Alex asked.

  “You don’t exist,” Raz said. “The city expects the driver’s family to file suit against the NYPD in the morning.”

  “And the grenade launcher?” Alex asked.

  “They deny using a grenade launcher,” Raz said. “Their lawyer made it seem like we were crazy. Of course, the vehicle is at the bottom of the Hudson, and there’s no surveillance imagery.”

  “What about satellite?” Alex asked. “Colin was watching.”

  “And he saw them launch the grenade at us?”

  “Sure,” Alex said. “He was talking to me at the time.”

  “I’ll get it when we’re done,” Raz said. “Anyway, Dex wants to meet tomorrow morning at his house. He’s off duty for a few days while they investigate the crash.”

  “Tomorrow it is,” Alex said.

  They stopped dancing near where Colin was sitting.

  “Would you mind dancing with Col?” Alex asked. “He’s still having trouble with foot placement.”

  “Easy enough,” Raz said.

  “How did you get this dancing stuff?”
Colin asked.

  “My mother loved to dance,” Raz said. “We’d dance a lot, almost every day. Free fun and exercise for an active little boy. On the weekends in the winter, when it wasn’t so hot, we’d practice formal dancing. She wanted me to be a gentleman, and gentlemen know how to dance, Mr. Hargreaves.”

  Colin grumbled.

  “He who sweats more in training bleeds less in battle,” Alex repeated one of Patrick’s favorite quotes.

  “Very funny,” Colin said.

  They took a break so that Colin could forward the satellite video of the grenade launch to the NYPD. After he’d sent the video, Raz and Colin took turns dancing with Alex so that Colin could get a sense of what he was missing. When it was almost time for the wedding, Alex got out the champagne and Raz set the feed to run through the apartment’s flat screen television. They took their places on the leather couch and got ready to watch the wedding.

  F

  Chapter Twelve

  May 16 — 11:36 p.m. MDT

  (May 17 — 1:36 a.m. EDT)

  Denver, Colorado

  Erin stepped out of her bedroom and onto the landing at the stairs. Hidden from the people downstairs, this was her last moment to herself before she married Matthew. She swallowed hard.

  She’d wanted to be Matthew’s wife the moment she’d met him. After he and Alex had finished Special Forces training, he had a month of R and R. Because Alex was in LA, he and his best friend, Troy, were spending their break in Los Angeles. They’d planned a month of bed hopping, hard drinking, and general debauchery. That’s who he was when she’d met him.

  Erin looked down. She was wearing her mother’s silk wedding dress. Unsullied by any decoration, the gown screamed “elegance.” She was taller than her mother, so Erin chose to go barefoot. She had a tuft of lace and yellow roses stuck in her perfectly curled red hair. She smiled at her image in the dollar-store full-length mirror stuck on the wall in the hall. She looked great.

  She closed her eyes, and the image of Matthew when she’d met him came to her again. His hair was long, and he had a couple days growth of a beard. He had that feral smell — part body odor, part sex — which some men have when they don’t bathe. Alex joked that he hadn’t showered since training. When he looked at her . . . Erin’s breath caught.

  Yes, she’d wanted to marry him in that moment. And she’d wanted to marry him three hours later, when he’d arrived — showered, shaved, and clean cut — to take her to dinner. And, she wanted to marry him four weeks later, when he’d hopped a shuttle to see her before leaving for Afghanistan. She’d wanted to marry Matthew every moment of every year she’d known him.