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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The wheels of Alex’s mind clicked through the information from the Weasel. Feeling a hand on her arm, she looked up to see Joseph. He held a pad of paper and yellow pencil which she took. Wandering in front of the stunned men, she found a table and began to write. She looked up when Sergeant Flagg touched her.

“Lieutenant Colonel?” Sergeant Flagg asked.

“Leave her,” Joseph said.

“But I’m an intelligence officer. She needs my help.”

“She doesn’t need anyone’s help. Why don’t you make a fresh pot of coffee? She’ll be done in a minute,” Joseph said. Turning to Matthew, he said, “This is what I told you about. And it is your job, Mac Clenaghan, to make sure she gets it.”

“What?” Matthew said.

“A pad of paper, a pencil and about fifteen minutes of silence.”

Matthew nodded his head.

Alex had no idea what happened. It was like walls of a maze lined up in her mind. Working with her pencil and paper, she tracked the flow until she reached the conclusion. It was something she had always been able to do. Sure, her father had trained her how to track her mind, what questions to ask and what to follow. She was also Ben’s daughter.

But when things began to click together, the world faded. She had been told she hummed and tapped her pencil against the pad. She only remembered the maze of facts. Max had the same capability but he didn’t like the way it felt. He preferred a more logical approach over her ‘woo woo’ methods.

Nodding her head, Alex looked up to the men. Sergeant Flagg put a mug of coffee within reach. She looked at the coffee and realized it was black. She was about to get up when Troy set a carton of milk next to the mug. He shrugged a shoulder to her thanks. Taking a drink of her coffee, she was ready to start.

“I thought we could talk about Joiner,” Joseph said.

He motioned for Matthew and Raz to take the ancient brown leather couch. Troy reversed a metal folding chair and sat down. Vince slid into a leather arm chair. Trece and White Boy stood at attention toward the edges of the meeting. Larry looked confused then stood between them.

“You’re going to leave them there?” Alex asked Joseph.

Joseph glanced at Trece, White Boy and Larry.

“They have not made their peace with their superior officer. Until they do, they will remain at the fringes of this group.”

“He hasn’t either.”

Alex pointed to Troy. Troy threw himself from the couch until he lay face down at Alex’s feet. Alex kneeled down. He looked up at her.

“I’m a fucking asshole… for so many things,” he whispered to her. “I try. I really try to not be like him. But there I go again. Trample all over the people who care about me for no reason at all. Oh God Alex, I am my father.”

“At least you know you’re doing it,” she said.

“Only when it’s too late.”

“I can’t imagine not being your friend.” He sniffed at forming tears. “I’m sorry I made that happen. Can you forgive me?”

Alex nodded. Troy popped to a crouch to hug her. He helped Alex to her feet.

“What did he do?” Troy pointed to Vince.

“I mow the grass at the Fey Special Forces Team memorial,” Vince said. “Another guy does the edging.”

“I do the edging,” Matthew said.

“It’s the least I can do. Those men saved my life. ”

“Exactly,” Matthew said.

“Anyway, I went there after getting reassigned. I would need to find someone else to care for the grass. Alex and I talked when she got there. She and some of the wives clean the stones. Anyway, I remain ashamed of my behavior.”

Alex gave Vince a weak smile.

“Permission to speak, sir,” Trece said.

“You don’t have anything to say,” Alex said.

The change in her was immediate. She whipped around to face Trece. Her voice wasn’t loud but the rage and injury laced words made every man in the room cringe.

“We were never friends. Even though I thought our relationship was personal, and treated you as a friend, a member of my family, I was stupidly deceived. I was only your package, your object to guard. There’s no apology necessary. Right? After all, you secured your package, so you went about your business.”

“Isn’t that correct, Captain Ramirez?” Alex said.

Alex shook with rage and indignation. Trece’s eyes blinked but never wavered from staring straight ahead.

“I was never your FRIEND. I was never important enough to be an ACQUAINTANCE! I was only your JOB, your PACKAGE.”

Out of breath from yelling, her voice dropped to an eerie low, “Tell me that’s not correct.”

“Let me tell you! You’re not very good at it. Because this package,” Alex punched her chest, “barely survived machine gun assault, torture, three days in a sensory dep chamber, and yesterday’s trampling from a psychopath. I don’t think I need a BODY GUARD. You can crawl back into whatever hole you came from.”

Turning to see the slack jawed, stunned men, she grabbed her pad of paper and pencil.

“I just remembered. I’m a civilian,” she said. Stalking out of the room of shocked men, she turned at the edge of the room to say, “Good luck finding Cee Cee Joiner. I hope he dies an awful death like the one he planned for me.”

She threw the pad of paper at Joseph and went into her room. Slamming then locking the door, she moved through the room to the bathroom. She turned on the bathroom exhaust fan and the shower. Fully clothed, she climbed into the back of the shower. She slid down the wall until she sat with her knees against her chest.

Under the cold rain of water, she cried her heart out.

FFFFFF

Forty minutes later
Thursday morning
March 27 – 8:20 A.M. MDT
Denver, CO

“Move,” Max said.

White Boy shook his head.

“Don’t you think it’s a little late to be loyal?” Max asked.

Even though he had been in a meeting since six in the morning, Max knew exactly what had gone on here. He felt Alex’s indignation and rage as if it was his own.

“She doesn’t want to see anyone,” White Boy said. “I’ve never seen her so upset.”

Max raised his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to say something then shut it.

“What?” White Boy asked.

“The difference between you and me is this: Alex is my life. She is every breath, every thought, every moment of every single day. To you, she is a job. Now get out of my way or I will make you move.”

“I love Alex,” White Boy said. “So does Trece. I mean, we screwed up. We totally screwed up. But what you said… what she said… It’s not true. It’s just not true.”

“Fine,” Max said. “Do I need to make you move?”

“No sir,” White Boy said. “But the door is locked.”

“I have the key,” Max said.

“Oh.”

White Boy stepped aside and Max opened the door. Walking through the bedroom, he found Alex in the shower. She was shivering, blanche white, and bleeding. Turning off the ice cold water, he reached for her. Alex crawled forward to his arms. The twins held each other.

“Oh my God.” Raz threw Max towels from the rack. “I’m sorry. I saw the door was open and I wanted to get my laptop. Max, she needs to get to emergency.”

Unwilling to let go of her, Max looked up at him. Raz pulled the blankets from the bed and wrapped them around Alex. Max carried her to the door. Trece grabbed Alex from Max and ran up the basement stairs to his Black Expedition. Max, Raz and White Boy ran after Trece. White Boy opened the doors and Trece set Alex in the back. The men scooted into the car.

Alerted by Max’s call, the Emergency Room nurses waited for them in the Emergency driveway at St. Joseph’s hospital. Trece laid Alex onto the gurney. White Boy and Max followed the gurney into the hospital.

“I need to make some calls,” Raz said to Trece. “Can you move the car?”

Trece nodded.

“Is she dying? She was dying behind the door and I was sitting with my thumb up my ass. Again,” Trece said. “Oh God…”

His guilt, remorse and pain caught up with him and the giant Trece broke down. Raz caught him before he fell to the ground weeping. Raz helped him to the passenger seat of the car. While Trece cried, Raz drove around the corner to the parking lot. Raz sat with Trece until he was able to gain some control over his emotions.

“Our intel said the Boy Scout was going to kill the team,” Trece said. “We were with him when the… when she…”

Trece slammed his fist into the dashboard causing the entire vehicle to rock back and forth.

“No one had good intel, Trece,” Raz said. “We heard the whisper of the possibility. But we’d heard the same whisper for years and years. We didn’t take it seriously. It was after we received the phone call, after it was done, we knew we screwed up. Then we couldn’t find them. Did you know where the locker was?”

Trece shook his head.

“But she’s right. If I was any good at my job, I would have been with her.”

Raz gave Trece his handkerchief. Trece wiped his face and nose then gripped the white cotton tight in his fist. The white square all but disappeared in his big hand.

“The Boy Scout was supposed to get Alex after she was subdued by the machine gun,” Raz said. “She was his prize. His booty, if you will. If you and White Boy hadn’t disabled him with alcohol, she wouldn’t have been in the vault doorway for me to find.”

Trece looked at Raz.

“That’s nice of you to say,” Trece said.

“And true, Trece,” Raz said. “If Alex is right, and she always is, Joiner set this whole thing up. He got the Boy Scout out of Afghanistan.”

“We have work to do,” Trece said.

“Oh yes, we have work to do,” Raz said. “But first, you should know…”

Trece looked over at Raz.

“Alex lost her baby yesterday. It was her one shot at having a baby and he wasn’t a very good shot. Deformed. Chromosome damage. She should have miscarried a month ago. But he was the only chance she had at having her own child.”

“Oh God. Poor Alex.” Trece sniffed and wiped his eyes again. “She used to talk about having at least five kids. Jesse would tell her she should have nine kids so they could play baseball against his kids. Now Jesse’s gone and Alex…”

While the men sat thinking, white fluffy snow began to drop onto the windshield of the car. Raz turned the car on to keep them warm.

“I can see why she’s so bitter,” Trece said. “She lost the last thing she always wanted.”

“Maybe,” Raz said. “No one knows what this darkness is about. No one. Not Patrick, Ben, John or me. I don’t think she knows.”

“What about Max?” Trece asked.

“Max doesn’t really count. Does he? Even if he knows, he’ll lie if we ask him.”

As the snow fell, the men processed the information in the warm comfort of the car.

“Should we go in?”

Raz nodded.

“I need to call her family, her fathers and mother. I’m sure John’s already on his way.”

“Max texted him in the car,” Trece said. “Let’s find out what’s going on. She’s probably just down a pint or two of blood.”

“I hope so,” Raz said.

F

Learning to Stand is the second novel in the Alex the Fey thriller series
written by Claudia Hall Christian.

The novel is available in paperback at Amazon, our store, your local library and bookstore.
Entire chapters are be published at On-a-limb.com,
StoriesbyClaudia.com and AlextheFey.com.

Join the Alex the Fey Facebook Group

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER TWELVE

An hour later
Wednesday evening
March 26 – 6:20 P.M. MDT
Lobby of Denver Health, Denver, CO

Against doctors’ orders, and any kind of reason, Alex agreed to walk the two hundred yards between the ICU and the exit. Of course she was laying down when she made that agreement. Raz rolled her out in a wheelchair to the edge of the hospital atrium. They argued back and forth about her walking until, frustrated, she stood up ready to walk.

And passed out from the pain.

When she woke up, Max was there. He had dressed her in her digital fatigues. With Max’s help, she was able to stand, get ready and walk a little bit. Only her twin knew that, for Alex, the pain of letting anyone down was much worse than any amount of physical pain.

Everyone expected her to be fine. She would be fine.

Coming in, Troy popped her beret on her head and they were off across the atrium. Dressed in identical digital fatigues and a beret, Max led the way, Raz walked behind her and White Boy held the rear position. They walked casually, trying to look like a group of soldiers leaving a shift.

They were near the front of the hospital when they were joined by the Jakker and four US Air Force soldiers. Without saying a word, the soldiers joined the group. Zack came to walk beside Alex.

Across the atrium, Alex saw the backs of the Fort Carson battalion and a sea of photographers and videographers. Her stomach gripped with anxiety. She stumbled then stopped walking.

Glancing to the side, she saw Vince Hutchins with five fellow Navy SEALs waiting for them. She smiled at Vince and he winked at her. The SEALs mixed in with the Air Force and Army soldiers.

“Ready?” Max asked.

He turned to look at the group behind him.

“I’ll go first. If anyone notices my face, they will follow me to Noodles and Company on Sixth Avenue. Colin’s waiting for me there. You’ll move to the Expeditions. Check your drivers. They should be someone we know. If not, do not get in the vehicle.”

Max looked through the group to his twin. Even after all these years, she was still the mirror opposite to him. Even more so now that Troy shaved her head in a military buzz cut. Her Green Beret hid the remaining blonde. She gave Max a weak smile.

“You have to fight it,” Max said at the same moment Raz said, “She’s going down.”

Reaching to lift her into his arms, Raz’s back cramped. They fell to the ground together. Raz scooped her onto his lap while the men moved to block her view from the press.

Alex stirred.

“Shh…” Raz said. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re still bleeding.”

“I need to… get out of… here. Not… safe.” Alex moved to get up. With legs too unstable to stand, she nestled back into Raz’s lap. “Are you ass-isting me?”

“I’m ass-isting you,” Raz said. “Gentlemen, this is not going to work. No matter what she says, the Fey is too ill to walk out of here.”

Alex leaned into Raz and his strong hands stroked her back. In the warmth and safety of Raz’s arms, her eyes sagged.

She could be sick.

She could be small.

She drifted off. She opened her eyes when he shifted.

“Trece’s going to help you into a wheelchair. The Marines arrived with the Denver Police. They’ve closed down two blocks around the hospital. The press is gone. We’re getting you and Matthew out of here right now.”

Alex mouth moved to the word, “Marines?”

“Maybe your bad Marine luck is changing,” Raz said. “Careful Trece, her IVs are tucked into her waistband.”

Alex felt herself float through the air to rest in Trece’s arms. She heard Larry help Raz to his feet.

“I thought I’d carry you. You know the whitey survives on the shoulders of the Hispanic worker. Now that the press is gone, the statement is less powerful,” Trece said.

“You’re a regular César Chávez,” Alex mumbled.

“Hey! Don’t be mocking César,” Trece said. “He was a heroic figure of the twentieth century. Any person would be proud to know about someone like that, let alone…”

Troy put his hand on Trece’s arm.

“She passed out again. Probably lulled to sleep at the sound of your voice,” Troy said. He kneeled down to fold out the feet stops on the wheelchair.

“You better watch it, Olivas,” Trece growled.

Troy startled at Trece’s voice. Looking up at his face, he saw Trece’s bright smile.

“Gotcha,” Trece said.

Troy laughed. Trece gently set Alex in the wheelchair. He pushed the chair through the Fort Carson Army battalion holding the hospital. Marines, in full dress uniform, lined either side of the door creating a tunnel to an armored Expedition. As she passed, they saluted the Fey. When they reached the Expedition, Trece and White Boy lifted her into the SUV. Raz stepped into the other side of the SUV and they took off. They were followed by an ambulance carrying Erin and Matthew.

John met them at the basement entrance to the house. As promised, the basement was warm and accommodating. Once Alex and Matthew were settled into their rooms, the men returned to base.

After all, the President was looking for his friend.

FFFFF

Four hours later
Wednesday night
March 26 – 10:40 P.M. MDT
Denver, CO

Puzzled, Alex opened and closed her eyes.

Where was she? The bed was soft, the lights dim, and it was quiet. Definitely not the hospital.

She sniffed. A smile grew across her lips. John is here. Shifting a little to see if she could see him, she grunted with pain.

“You’ve had major surgery, love,” John whispered.

He stood from the arm chair he was sitting in. Moving across the bed to her, he lay on his stomach propping his head on his forearms. She moaned at the bed’s motion.

“I’m swelling from the fight,” Alex said. “Fuck, I’m sore.”

“You have a lovely bruise on your face – two really. I was going to post a photo to your MySpace page then I realized you don’t have a profile.”

Alex laughed and attempted to move on her side. She felt the pull of IVs. Looking up she saw a saline and blood IV.

“More blood?”

“You’re so tough. You survived hemorrhaging and major surgery. You’re bleeding, on IVs, and you just amble through the hospital. You never fool Raz though.”

“Did I hurt his back?”

“He says he’ll live, but he canceled on his date. I checked on him, gave him some ice and an injection of Toradol. He’s sleeping. He needs surgery.”

“He’s not getting surgery.”

“Would you like something for your pain?” John asked.

“A romp in the sack with my husband,” Alex said.

“Four weeks,” John said.

“How are we going to do that?” Alex asked.

“I was thinking about doing a four week training in Antarctica. I hear they need some Vascular Surgeons there.”

For the last thirteen years, they made love, at least once, every time they shared a bed. Since Alex had been home, they fell into a pattern of a fast morning romp only to return at night for a lingering sensual ride. The magnetic draw to each other overcame any obstacle, exhaustion, anger or even Alex’s crazy work schedule. Social people, their daily sexual connection was a private intimacy which kept them deeply connected to each other.

“Why were you sitting in the armchair?”

“What?” John’s eyes went wide in mock insult. He gestured to the empty shelf. “You don’t think I’m fascinated with the television? You know March Madness is on.”

“Manchester United playing in March Madness?”

“No, love, I told you this. The season’s over for my United.”

“Then no, I do not believe you’re fascinated with the television. Plus there’s no TV in here.”

“There isn’t?” John looked around the room as if someone stole the television without him knowing it.

She smiled her crooked smile. She hadn’t intended to, the smile just happened. She was happy to see him.

“Do not do that,” John scolded. “You know the crooked smile ignites me.”

“Sorry.” She said looking away.

Feeling movement near her, her eyes shifted in his direction. He moved to kiss her. His lips grazed her mouth. He pulled back for a moment as if he was trying to decide what to do next.

“We can do this,” she said. “Remember how much fun we had when we were able to after I was wounded.”

His face flushed. He had pulled her into the bathroom of her hospital room. They were so fast and hard he had to change her bandages. Sighing at the memory, John raised an eyebrow.

“Do you want to talk about…?” He started.

The shadow of sadness fell across her face. She turned her head away from him.

“Hey… hey…”

Lying on his back, he pulled her onto his chest. She rested her head on his shoulder. His hand moved across her hair and shoulders.

“How’s Mattie?” Alex asked.

“Asleep. Erin said he woke up once in the hospital. He’s fairly doped up, and doesn’t fight the medications like some people.”

“He hasn’t had 1.2 billion surgeries,” Alex grumbled.

John laughed. “He’s going to be fine.”

“Do you have my diamond?” Alex asked.

“Raz has it. They took the diamond out of your belly button when you reached the hospital. They gave it to Raz. Don’t worry, Alex. You’ll get your bling back.”

“Do you have my wedding ring?” Alex asked.

“I do.”

“How come you aren’t wearing it like you usually do?”

Alex touched his right pinky where he wore her ring when she wasn’t wearing it. John’s silence dragged.

“What happened?”

“They cut the ring from your finger. Your hand had swollen completely black and blue from fighting and the break near your wrist. You would have lost your finger if they…”

And the storm came.

Alex clutched at him, and began to sob. John made soothing noises and stroked her hair and back as her sadness and loss came forward. She wept against him. When the storm passed, and she was breathing deeply, he raised his head to see if she wanted to talk.

She had cried herself to sleep.

FFFFFF

Eight hours later
Thursday morning
March 27 – 7:00 A.M. MDT
Denver, CO

Alex woke when John got up. He stayed with her until the final moment then raced to his class. She fell asleep wondering what she was going to do with herself. She woke when she heard Troy laughing somewhere in the basement. She grunted with pain as she rolled onto her back.

“I bet that hurts,” Raz said. “Do you want any of these pain pills?”

“No thanks. Can you help me up?”

Raz sat on her side of the bed. She reached out her hands. He took her hands and pulled her to sitting. She hugged him. He kissed her cheek then stood from the bed. She moved into the adjacent bathroom.

“Joseph gave me this and told me to make certain you drank it,” Raz said. “He says you have an eating disorder.”

“Oh?” Alex took the Ensure from him. “And you believed him.”

“Alex, you have an anxiety induced eating disorder. You should have seen us. Little light bulbs lit up over our heads when Joseph told us.”

Alex curled her lip and took a swig of the Ensure. She was about to set it down when she caught Raz’s face. With a nod, she drank the rest.

“You used to have those all the time when you were with the team,” Raz said.

“Jax found them.” Alex sighed. “This vanilla one is the only thing I can keep down when I’m anxious. We could go weeks or months in intense, dangerous, anxiety provoking situations. I would go a long time without eating. He didn’t want me to get sick. I’d drink them to make him happy… And get him off my back.”

Alex fell silent. She looked at the Ensure then set it down.

“Jax was… really special.”

“He was,” he said.

He gave her antibiotics, which she took before getting back into bed.

“How’s your back?” Alex asked.

“Bad thanks.”

“Raz…”

She stopped talking when he held his hand up. They had gone around and around about this surgery. He wouldn’t budge about this surgery. Period.

“You, me and Matthew are on the injured list.”

“How come you’re not in bed then?” Alex asked.

“I didn’t want to disturb you. Joseph gave us this heating pad,” Raz held up a heating pad. “I asked Troy to get you one of these.”

He held up a red hot water bottle. Alex furrowed her eyebrows.

“Momma used one of these when her periods became bad. Of course, we didn’t know about the cancer.” He shrugged. “I used to fill it for her.”

Alex beamed at Raz’s thoughtfulness. Embarrassed, he left for the bathroom to fill up the hot water bottle. She held up the covers for him and he slipped under. Reaching over, he plugged in the heating pad then placed it on his sore back.

“What do I do with this?” Alex asked.

“Lie on your side and press it against your abdomen,” Raz said. “I’ll get you more hot water when it cools.”

Alex fumbled with the water bottle.

“You’ve never had a period,” Raz said.

“I had a few when I lived at home with Max,” she said. “But I was on birth control as soon as Mom thought I was messing around with Zack. Then I’ve been on the depo shots since I went into the military.”

Raz sat up against the back board. Readjusting the heating pad, he opened his arms to her and she rested her head on his lap.

“Tuck your legs up,” Raz said.

He moved the hot water bottle between her legs and her abdomen.

“Oh… That’s perfect,” Alex said.

Raz smiled. “Max is working. He said he would be back this afternoon.”

“Ok,” Alex said. “He’s got the next gimp shift.”

Raz looked down at her cropped hair.

“He’ll have to fight me for it,” he said. Looking around the room, he added, “No TV?”

“Be glad we have heat,” she said.

“There’s one in my room. Should I get it?”

“You sure it works? You don’t usually watch TV when you’re in your room.”

Raz fell silent. His hand stroked her fuzzy head. He laughed.

“You’re right,” he said. “I’ve never tried the television.”

“It doesn’t work. We need cable down here and… I don’t know… something about something else,” she said.

“Something about something else?” he asked

“I can’t keep track of everything on the ‘To Be Fixed’ list.”

“The list is long,” he said. He settled in against the bed’s headboard. “It’s a hundred-year-old boarding house that was all but given to us. How many square feet?”

“About three thousand a floor, two thousand at the top,” she said.

“Well, it’s to be expected. Buy a bargain, pay the price.”

“Hmmm,” Alex said. “How long do we have before we start working?”

“How did you know?” Raz asked.

“Know the problem. Know this President,” Alex said. “So how long?”

“We’re supposed to meet with them in fifteen minutes on the outside. Matthew is awake. He’s eaten and is walking some. He and Joseph have been meeting for the last hour.”

“Here? We’re meeting in this room?” She looked up into his face. His eyes flicked to her face. “That’s a lot of men in my boudoir. My reputation will be ruined.”

Almost on cue, his laugh brought a knock to the door. Alex rolled onto her back.

“Sir.”

Sergeant Larry Flagg stood in the door with his hand at a salute. Alex tried to remember if Larry had ever saluted her. He stood in the doorway like a toy soldier.

“Sir,” Larry said again.

“What?” Alex asked.

“Permission to enter the room,” he said.

“Permission granted,” she said.

“Sir, we would like to hold a meeting regarding our current assignment,” Larry said. “We are wondering if the Lieutenant Colonel can join us in the main room.”

“The main room?”

“Out here,” Larry said.

“They’ve moved desks into the den area by the laundry,” Raz said.

“Great,” Alex said.

Standing at the end of the bed, Larry stood at attention.

“Go away now,” Alex said.

Larry turned in place and marched out of the room. The door blew closed behind him.

“What was that?” Alex asked.

“He, Trece and White Boy are getting a little mandatory training,” Raz said. “Trece’s superior officer enrolled them. They work with us during the day and get this other training at night.”

“No sleep?”

“Couple hours a night. Trece says he’s grateful for it because he feels horrible about what happened.”

“He should,” she said.

He touched her back when she moved to get out of bed. She turned to look at him.

“This darkness…” His eyebrows pinched together in a question.

Scooting to the edge of the bed, Alex grunted as she stood.

“Hip’s bad too?”

“John’s giving me injections again.” Walking toward the door, she turned back to him. “Ready?”

“About this darkness…”

“I’d tell you if I could,” Alex said.

“Why can’t you?”

“Because I don’t know,” Alex said. “I don’t know. I don’t know. God damn it.”

Bowing her head, she pressed her fingers into her nose to keep from crying. She wanted to scream at him. But it wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.

He wrapped her in his arms. They stood together until there was another knock at the door. She stepped back. Giving him a slight smile, she went out to meet with the men.

After all, Cee Cee Joiner was more important than the loss of her child. After all Cee Cee Joiner was…

She stopped walking.

F

Learning to Stand is the second novel in the Alex the Fey thriller series
written by Claudia Hall Christian.

The novel is available in paperback at Amazon, our store, your local library and bookstore.
Entire chapters are be published at On-a-limb.com,
StoriesbyClaudia.com and AlextheFey.com.

Join the Alex the Fey Facebook Group

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Three hours later
Wednesday afternoon
March 26 – 3:20 P.M. MDT
Denver Health, Denver, CO

“Hi,” Raz whispered.

“Boy Scout,” Alex said.

She opened and closed her eyes. Raz moved to sit on the edge of her bed.

“He’s gone,” he replied. “Before you ask, Matthew is out of surgery. The doctors believe he will make a full recovery.”

He smiled at her. She frowned.

“You hurt me,” she said.

“Yes, I did,” he said. “I won’t insult you with excuses. I will regret it for the rest of my life.”

“I wish I knew why,” she said. “It’s so very confusing.”

“I know,” he said. “I think it’s confusing too.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Washington?”

“Joseph is leading the group until you are up and around. He has assessed each of us and offered us a tentative contract.”

Alex closed her eyes. She was hallucinating.

“I thought I heard you say Joseph?”

“Yep,” Raz nodded. “The President wants us to find Cee Cee Joiner. Colonel Gordon put Joseph on the table as the way to make it happen. The Fort acquiesced to the Commander and Chief.”

“Joseph who? Which Joseph?”

“Joseph Walter. Major Joseph Walter. In fact, you’re now a Lieutenant Colonel.”

“Now I know I’m hallucinating,” she said.

“Did you really quit?”

“Yep,” Alex said. “I’m a civilian. I haven’t ever been one. No more vaults, no more guns, no more assholes, just lunch with the girls and… whatever else civilians do…”

Alex faded out. Her eyes closed then popped open again.

“Shop! Yep, shopping. Time to spend the inheritance. I only have one pair of non-military shoes. Sami has at least three hundred. I have to catch up. So you see, I’m not a Lieutenant Colonel. I’m a housewife. A rich doctor’s wife.”

“Uh huh,” Raz said.

Her brown eyes drifted across his face. She saw his sorrow and remorse. Her soul ached to tell him everything like she had for the last six years. But she didn’t trust him. When she sighed, he cupped her face with his hand.

“I‘m sorry. I took you for granted. In my own desire to prove myself, I acted as if you were inferior… wrong… Knowing better, I trampled on your feelings, your kindness and our…” His eyes caressed her face before he added, “Friendship.”

Under the warmth of his gray eyes, she felt the ice thaw from her heart.

“I don’t know how to do it.” The words burst from her. “I don’t know how to be the Fey and a leader and me and a friend and a soldier and … I sit in my stupid office longing for Charlie or for some sign from Charlie. I’m supposed to have all this near-psychic ability… or that Fey guy is supposed to be eerie psychic… and… Charlie’s not talking.”

“Everyone expects a lot from you,” Raz said. “When we were in Paris? Dominic told me you were more fragile than you looked. I know he’s right but in the day to day knowing and working with you, I forget.”

Alex nodded.

“Forgive me?”

“Why are you here?” She didn’t want to give in too easily.

“To make up with you,” he said.

“Oh…”

She yawned.

“Really? ‘Cuz I don’t feel very good and…”

Pressing the call button for a nurse, Raz held out a bowl. Alex threw up. Taking away the bowl, he gave her a clean hand towel. A nurse fluttered in the room, saw Raz, blushed, batted her eyes at him, and then finally took the vomit from the room.

“Every time,” she said.

“Every time,” he said. “It’s my pleasure to ass-ist  you.”

Alex laughed.

FFFFFF

Half hour later
Wednesday evening
March 26 – 4:00 P.M. MDT
Denver Health, Denver, CO

John and Troy ran ten miles along the Platte River. After showering at home, they stopped for sandwiches at the Spicy Pickle. They were paying when John received the call they had been waiting for – Alex was out of surgery. She had been moved to recovery. Raz was guarding her through the transition to ICU. Matthew had already settled in the ICU. While their status remained critical, they expect to downgrade their status by nightfall.

Driving down Eighth Avenue, they saw a hoard of press surrounding the building. The viral video of Alex fighting the Boy Scout brought out the most aggressive paparazzi. In response, Fort Carson dispatched a battalion to guard Alex and Matthew. The soldiers and paparazzi held an uneasy standoff around the hospital.

John and Troy avoided the photographers and soldiers by parking in the doctors parking. Using John’s badge, they made their way through the employee entrances to ICU where they were directed to a private waiting room. Standing in the doorway, John groaned when Rebecca Hargreaves flew at him. Her hazel eyes shot bullets of anger.

“I’m told you are the reason I am not allowed to see my daughter.”

“That’s correct,” John said.

“Who do you think you are? She is MY daughter.”

“I wanted to have a word with you first.”

“About what?”

“If you mention even one word about Alex not being able to have children, so help me God, I will make certain you never see her again.”

John and Rebecca stared at each other in angry silence.

“What are you talking about?” Rebecca spit out.

“When you told my wife of twelve hours that moving in with her twin guaranteed she would die alone, I stayed out of it.” John’s voice became dangerous, low and rage-filled. “When you insisted that my gorgeous wife would never find love as a Green Beret, I stayed out of it. When you harangued her over being too old to have children, I stayed out if it. When you created this hideous blonde headed blue eyed fakery, I stayed out of it.

“Not this time.”

Rebecca’s hazel eyes blinked at his angry, staccato words.

“Why… why are you saying this?”

“Because my wonderful, beautiful, amazing wife is convinced I will divorce her now that we cannot have our own children.”

Stunned, Rebecca took a step backward. She stared at John. Slowly, her head moved up and down.

“If you decide to ignore this warning, you do not know who you are dealing with. I will not allow my wife to be scolded about provincial bullshit. No more. Not ever again. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, I do.” Rebecca was silent for a moment while they locked eyes. “I deserve it. And… I am sorry. You are right. I have been provincial. I…”

“What?” Unable to understand her words, John shook his head.

“I’m sorry. That’s all. I’ve never really known how to apologize to you… for everything. I have a lot of reasons… excuses, really.” Rebecca made a slight smile. “Alex hates excuses. The truth is, I have grown… a lot in the last year. I hope you will allow me the chance to prove myself to you… to Alex.”

Shocked, John’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. Controlling, dismissive, judgmental Rebecca apologized to him. Recovering quickly, John wondered if Rebecca was trying to manipulate him.

“You’re probably wondering if this is some kind of ploy,” Rebecca said. She smiled. “It’s not. Patrick and I have spent a lot of time talking about everything that’s happened in the last year. He’s helped me understand some things… about myself mostly.”

Rebecca looked up at John.

“I never imagined my daughter, or son for that matter, would find a friend like you. You have been a good friend to Max and a wonderful husband to Alexandra.” Rebecca nodded her head.

“Patrick’s words?” John asked.

“How did you know?” Rebecca wrinkled her nose.

“Sounds like him.” Using his breath, John worked to let go of his rage. Calmer, he said, “Thank you for your apology. It means quite a bit to me. Shall we visit her together?”

Rebecca nodded. Turning to catch Patrick’s eye, Rebecca followed John to the ICU. Trece stood guard at Alex’s bed. When they drew close, Trece rolled his eyes and pulled the curtain back.

Alex and Max where lying together in the bed whispering to each other. When Alex saw John and her mother, her eyes widened and she started laughing. Max looked up to see what she was laughing at. He whispered something to her. They laughed their identical laughs.

John could only smile at the identical laughs from identical smiling faces. Rebecca was smiling as well. Who wouldn’t?

“When do…”

Alex started but Max whispered something to her. She whispered something back to him. They laughed again.

Shaking his head, John walked forward to the bed. He bent over and kissed Alex’s lips. She smiled then stroked his face. John dropped to his knees so his face was right next to hers.

“For the record,” he said. “I’m never divorcing you.”

Alex’s hand flew to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears.

Max punched her shoulder.

“I told you so.”

Alex glanced at Max then her mother. Rebecca nodded to Alex.

“What about babies?” Alex whispered.

“I loved you the moment I saw you.” John leaned closer to her then whispered, “If I get you? I don’t give a crap about babies.”

Alex nodded.

“And, we are taking you home as soon as we can set up transportation. Your team is sorting the details.”

“My what?” Alex asked.

“Amazing things have happened while you were getting your beauty rest,” John said. “Nice cast.”

Alex held up the bright blue fiberglass cast which now adorned her left forearm. She wiggled her fingers showing the cast thread around her thumb

“Blue like my eyes.” She bat her brown eyes.

Max and Alex laughed in delight of her joke.

“Blue like the fairy tattooed on your arm,” John said. “I need to…”

“Control everything,” Alex, Max and John said in unison. The twins laughed.

“Yes, well, it’s a challenging job but I’m up for it,” John said. “Actually, I need to check with your doctors. I will leave you with your family. Shall I get Patrick?”

Alex nodded.

She caught his hand when he turned to leave. For a moment their eyes held in silent communication. With a nod of his head, John left her.

FFFFFF

A half hour later
Wednesday evening
March 26 – 5:10 P.M. MDT
Denver Health, Denver, CO

“Hi.”

Erin Hargreaves leaned over the bed to kiss Matthew when he opened his eyes.

His brown eyes took in her sparkling green eyes. He touched a red curl hanging in her face. Even though he woke to her face every morning for most of the last year, he still felt a little disbelief that she was his girlfriend, his love, his life. His thumb ran along her lips. Erin smiled.

“You had us very worried, Mr. Mac Clenaghan,” Erin said. “We’re thinking you might be safer in rural Afghanistan. But you insist on playing with your friend Alex. You’ll have to learn to be more careful.”

Matthew attempted a laugh and groaned instead. He tried to say something.

“What?” Erin leaned her ear close to his mouth to catch his words.

“Captain,” Matthew said. “Captain Mac Clenaghan, US Army.”

Erin laughed and mock hit him. He smiled at his joke.

“Before you ask, Alex is all right. She’s out of surgery. They are getting ready to move her home. They want to move you to their house. I… I said it was all right. I stayed there when…”

“It’s fine,” Matthew said. “Better than the hospital and too much for you alone at the loft. Will you… You’ll be there with me. Right?”

“Of course.”

Erin gave a relieved smile. This was the first time she’d been asked to make decisions for him. She didn’t want to do the wrong thing.

Matthew tried to speak but his dry mouth only manage a croak.

“Ice chip?” Erin reached the side table for a cup of ice chips then sat on the edge of his bed. “Just a few.”

She placed two ice chips in his mouth.

“You’re getting revenge for your surgeries,” Matthew said.

Erin beamed at him.

“Not too much ice.” She imitated his voice. “You don’t want to choke.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to him for a kiss.

“Be careful, Matt. You don’t want to tear your stitches.”

Even though she gave her warning, petite Erin made no effort to move off his chest. She was tiny against his broad shoulders.

Matthew thought she was perfect.

“I have something to say to you,” Matthew said. “…before anything else happens.”

Erin squinted her eyes. Since the beginning of the year, he had been on and on about getting married. She loved him. She wanted to spend her life with him. She just didn’t want to get married. Stiffening, she sat up in preparation for another onslaught.

“Wait,” Matthew said. “Come back.”

He held his arms out to her. With a sigh, she tucked her head against his shoulder.

“I had a conversation with…”

He was going to say Jesse, but he realized Erin might think he was weird.

“I had a conversation with a friend and I realized by trying to make you marry me, I was acting like Marcos.”

Erin gasped and her eyes filled with tears. Sitting up on her elbows, she looked into his face.

“I don’t really care if we get married. I want to spend every single day of my life with you. If you don’t want to get married… that’s all right with me.”

“What about…” Erin started then stopped when Matthew put his fingers over her mouth.

“I want it all – children, a real home, careers, a life we build together. I want that with you, Erin… always… only with you.”

Matthew strength waned.

“Me too,” Erin said. “I’ve wanted that since I was sixteen years old.”

Matthew smiled.

“I have to get this out before I run out of steam.” Matthew looked up to see Jesse encouraging him to get on with it.

“I’m very sorry for being disrespectful… impatient… not listening to what you needed.”

He sucked in air.

“I promise I won’t try to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. That’s my…” he gasped. “My vow of commitment to… to you. To love you all my life… to support you… trust you…”

Through her tears, Erin watched him slip into unconsciousness again. She kissed his forehead then wiped her face. Sitting with her feet dangling on the edge of the bed, she reviewed everything in her mind. She nodded her head.

“Thanks Jesse,” Erin whispered.

F

Learning to Stand is the second novel in the Alex the Fey thriller series
written by Claudia Hall Christian.

The novel is available in paperback at Amazon, our store, your local library and bookstore.
Entire chapters are be published at On-a-limb.com,
StoriesbyClaudia.com and AlextheFey.com.

Join the Alex the Fey Facebook Group

CHAPTER TEN

Wednesday afternoon
March 26 – 1:17 P.M. MDT
University of Colorado Denver
Anschutz Medical Center, Aurora, CO.

John sat in his Diabetes class thinking about Alex. For some reason, she popped into his mind. Truth be told, he thought of her a lot. Sometimes he remembered what she looked like when he woke up or the flush he felt in her presence.

Today, his mind drifted to Alex lying on the beach. They spent a lot of time at the beach when he was at UCLA. She wore these tiny bikinis to torture him. He pretended to study. Mostly he watched her sleep in the sun until he couldn’t stand his own arousal. She would giggle as he carried her off. Hotel rooms, bathroom stalls, the backseat of the car… They would hit it hot and fast. She was always ready to go. Back at the apartment, they would continue slow and easy, usually for the rest of the afternoon. John grinned at the scenes of passion floated through his mind.

His vibrating cell phone brought him back to the small, warm classroom and his boring class. Glancing at his phone, he saw a text from Max. John shifted his face to convince the other doctors of the importance of his message. He flipped his phone to read a text from his best-friend.

“@ in Denver Health. Get there.”

They always used an ‘at’ sign for Alex. Somehow it seemed appropriate. John continued his mock serious face and texted back.

“@ having lunch w MM. In bs class. Where r u?”

John looked up at the lecturing doctor. No one seemed to notice his text activity. Being raised PIRA gave John one advantage. He knew how to fake any attitude. His phone vibrated again. John’s eyes glanced down.

“Denver Health Emergency. @ dying.”

John’s breath left him in a gust of wind. Stuffing his phone into his pocket, he jumped from his seat and ran from the room. He took the stairs three at a time and raced across the campus to his rental car. Cursing the traffic on Colfax, he weaved between the cars. He dug through his briefcase at each stoplight. He found his Denver Health physician ID and parking pass right before pulling into an on-call doctor spot. He ran into the hospital.

He slowed to an abrupt stop. Blowing out a breath, he patted down his curly hair. He checked for his badge, moved his stethoscope so it hung out of his pocket then walked into Emergency as if he owned the place.

“Doctor?” A nurse touched his arm. “May I help you?”

“Major Drayson? She’s a patient of mine.”

“They just arrived.”

“They?”

“Captain Mac Clenaghan has chest wound. Follow me,” the nurse said. “They are being prepped for surgery.”

Like a man in a trance, John followed the nurse through the maze of the Emergency room. Nearing the back, he stopped walking.

“Her father is with her,” the nurse said. The nurse pointed toward the bed then left him.

Alex lay on a hospital bed while a doctor worked to stabilize her blood pressure. She was intubated. She had a whole blood and a plasma IV hanging next to the bed. An anesthesiologist was injecting hypodermic needle full of medications into her saline IV. Blood, which seemed to rush out of her, was collected with a series of pads near her abdomen.

Ben sat by her side holding her hand. Feeling John’s eyes, Ben looked up at him.

The anesthesiologist nodded and an attendant wheeled Alex from the Emergency room. As they neared the door, Trece joined the procession. Holding a machine gun, Trece followed Alex’s gurney to the surgery suite. White Boy came across Emergency to where they were working on Matthew. John’s eyes followed Matthew, White Boy and the doctors exit from Emergency.

Coming back to himself, he realized Ben was standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry. Did you say something?” John asked.

“No,” Ben said. “Is there a place where we can talk? I’d like to smoke.”

“Yes, I believe so,” John said.

Leading the way, John made his way through the Emergency room and up a flight of stairs to a designated smoking patio. With the day turning to snow, there were only a few people around the patio. Ben moved to a quiet corner and lit a cigarette. Puffing a smoky breath, Ben looked up at John.

“What do you know?” Ben asked.

“Nothing,” John said. “I received a text from Max.”

“He’s in the waiting room,” Ben said. “They needed blood… from both of us.”

“And her parents?”

“In town, but detained. They should be here within the hour.”

John nodded then looked away. He wasn’t sure what question to ask.

“They were attacked by the Boy Scout,” Ben said.

“The Boy Scout…”

John’s mouth formed the words but he wasn’t really there. John was lost in rage and futility about a man he hated with all his mind and soul. He should have killed the Boy Scout. He would have if Alex hadn’t begged him not to.

“He shot Matthew – hollow point round through his body armor. Somehow, the bullet missed his heart and most of his vital organs. It’s a miracle. They have a mess to clean up, but he should make a full recovery. Erin is in the waiting room with Max. Colin’s on spring break. They were having lunch with Max when this happened.”

“And Alex?” John pushed the Boy Scout out of his mind.

“There are a couple videos of the fight. Civilians with iPhones. Alex used her clothing to care for Matthew. She fought the Boy Scout in her tank top. The bright blue fairy tattoo is visible in every video and photo. Anyone who knows the story knows the Fey fought some man in Denver.”

John scowled at the implications.

“The video is currently playing on every television station, CNN and all over the Internet. Alex told the people to stay back. They were Homeland Security. You can imagine Homeland Security agents are big news.”

“And?”

“What do you want to know, John? I can tell you she beat the snot out of the guy. Again. I can tell you he tried to rape her. Again. I can tell you her injuries. What do you need?”

“Injuries,” John said.

“Her left forearm is broken. She has extensive bruising to her liver, spleen, and intestines. They believe she’ll recover with no disability.”

Ben stopped talking. His eyes searched John’s face.

“And Simon? Our baby?”

Ben blew out a smoky breath.

“She lost the baby. And…” Ben stopped talking, not sure how to say what was next. “She is having an emergency hysterectomy.”

“She hemorrhaged?”

“She fell apart inside. If the paramedics hadn’t been there when it happened? She wouldn’t have survived.”

John’s heart stopped for a moment at the ‘if.’ He nodded his comprehension.

“I spoke with Max. When she found out she was pregnant, the doctor said her uterus didn’t have adequate blood flow. Parts of the organ had atrophied. Her OB believed the blood flow was never quite right after she was wounded. The doc checked with the doctors in Germany and was told that every effort was made to keep Alex’s reproductive organs.”

“Why?” John asked.

“I’m not sure. As you know, Raz and I were not allowed to see her after she had her first surgery. Patrick wasn’t allowed to come to Germany. We don’t know who made those decisions.”

“Her OB wanted her to have a hysterectomy,” John said. He felt the cold truth flush through him. “That’s why she’s been so upset.”

“Only Max knows this. She didn’t tell Raz and it wasn’t in the file he hacked. And I only knew she was pregnant because Claire was certain the last time we had dinner.”

“Her doctor wanted her to have a hysterectomy and she didn’t tell me?” John’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Why?”

“Max said she’s convinced you will divorce her.”

“Divorce Alex? Me? Never,” John’s eyes became slits of rage. “This is more of Rebecca’s bullshit.”

“Probably,” Ben said.

The men stood silently contemplating Alex’s mother.

“She will be in surgery for a few hours, John. As soon as they complete the hysterectomy, and stop her bleeding, they plan to run CatScans, PetScans and MRIs to check her organs, her hip, and, well, everything. By the end of the day, we’ll have a better idea of where she is physically.”

“Alex won’t stay in the hospital,” John said. “She’ll want out as soon as she’s awake. Plus there’s no way to keep her safe here. We could barely keep her safe at Walter Reed.”

“The basement’s done at your house?”

“Heat, water and everything,” John said.

“Sounds luxurious. Raz and I will look at moving her there.”

“I thought Raz was on a plane to Washington DC,” John said.

“So did he,” Ben said. “Joseph Walter has stepped in to run the men.”

“Joseph? I thought that was impossible.”

“So did he.” Ben smiled at his repetition of words. “You’d be surprised at the leverage bought about by denying a president and a street fight video plastered all over the Internet.”

John smiled.

“What about your class?” Ben asked.

“Bollocks the class,” John said. “I will speak with my senior attending and test out of the class. I should have tested out in the first place. It’s fairly pedestrian.”

“Would you like me to care of your class?”

Raising an eyebrow, John looked over at Ben. Nothing like having a super spy in your corner.

“No, but thank you,” John said. “And the Boy Scout?”

“He is also in the Emergency Room. He’s… injured. The Denver Police are reviewing the video tapes to see if charges will be filed.”

“IF?”

“And against whom. He’s in bad shape – broken jaw, lacerated genitals, fractured ribs, couple spinous processes, burst spleen and…  The list is extensive. We can add mental illness as he says she attacked him out of the blue.”

“And the video? Satellite?”

“It’s been less than an hour, John.”

Ben nodded his head toward the edge of the patio. John turned to see Troy come across the smoking area.

“I thought I might find you here,” Troy said. “How ya doing?”

John’s eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. He tried to remember a time Troy had spoken to him. Ever.

“Why?”

“I think it would be very hard,” Troy said.

“You were assigned the husband detail?”

Troy laughed and looked at Ben. Ben nodded to encourage Troy.

“Listen Mooch.”

John’s face soured. Alex’s friends started calling him the Mooch when he was in college. It didn’t matter that he made some money now. Once the Mooch, always the Mooch.

“Sorry. Slipped out,” Troy said. “Bad habits die hard.”

John shrugged.

“I’m not any good at emotional stuff,” Troy said. “I figured you might need a break. The men are working on getting the data. I thought we could go for a run while Alex is in surgery.”

“Don’t want me to see the video?” John asked.

“No flies on you,” Troy said.

“Did you get that expression from Alex?” John asked.

“She got that expression from me,” Troy laughed. “Ben, have you called her parents?”

“I have,” he said. “They will be here in an hour.”

“Great. More press,” Troy said.

“The video is going to bring an international response,” Ben said. “You’d be amazed at how many people know Alex. Do you know where Raz is?”

“He’s with Joseph,” Troy said.

Ben nodded.

“Come on, John. Let’s go for a run. Have you run along the Platte?”

“Of course,” John said.

“I haven’t run there yet,” Troy said. “Do you have your stuff here?”

“In the car.”

“Great. We can run, get something to eat and be back to the hospital before Alex is out of surgery.”

“I’ll miss the video?”

“And the press,” Troy said. “Hate to have the husband all over CNN.”

“John Kelly all over CNN would definitely bring a different kind of international response,” Ben said lighting another cigarette.

John smiled at Ben’s attempt at humor.

“Come on,” Troy said.

F

CHAPTER NINE

Jumping to Matthew, she felt mammoth hands clamp onto her shoulders.

The large man threw her against the mural on the restaurant wall. Managing to stay on her feet, Alex jammed her elbow into the man’s solar plexus. He fell back. Rotating her leg, she threw a roundhouse kick in her assailant’s direction. To avoid her kick, he stepped back and tripped over a parking curb. He fell backward landing on his behind.

She rushed to Matthew’s side. Pressing her knit cap into the bullet hole, she turned him onto his back. He had a gaping wound in his chest. She threw her down jacket over him for warmth. She pulled off her sweater to put under Matthew’s head. Using all her weight, she pressed her wool scarf and turtleneck into the wound. His eyes popped open when her shadow crossed his face. Matthew grabbed her hand.

“Boy Scout,” Matthew whispered. “Get the motherfucker.”

Sensing movement, Alex raised her left arm to catch a blow. Her arm made a sickening pop.

And Alex shifted from friend to fighter. Breathing out, all pain disappeared. Lifelong training kicked in. Jumping to her feet, she attempted another kick. Her left hip ground metal against metal.

The Boy Scout laughed at her effort. His closed fist punch collided with her cheekbone. She fell two steps back before catching her footing on the edge of the building. Looking for his advantage, the Boy Scout circled her.

A woman in the patio screamed. Three men ran toward to help Alex.

“Stay back. He will kill you.” Alex screamed. “Call 911. Tell them Homeland Security agents need immediate assistance. Do it. NOW!”

Rotating from the growing crowd, her eyes locked with the Boy Scout’s eyes. His entire being seethed with rage at her. Her breath caught in her throat.

He stepped toward her. Pulling his right arm back, he swung the sap toward her face. Alex dunked under his arm. As she moved past him, he grabbed the arm holes of her body armor and threw her against the wall of the building. She landed against the building with a thud.

Pressing Alex to the wall, he smashed his body against hers. Her back slammed against the wall. When her body bounced forward, he mashed his mouth onto her mouth. He forced his tongue past her teeth. He ripped open her jeans.

Jerking up, she slammed her knee into his crotch. Her martial arts trained hands created a few inches of space between them. When he shifted back, she hit him with a strong front kick.

He fell back.

She moved from the wall to the open parking space.

Raising her left forearm, she blocked his fist. She punched the heel of her right hand into his larynx. Clutching his throat, he stumbled backwards into the parking lot.

She fastened her jeans. Shifting to her left leg, she threw another round house kick. With the grinding in her hip, the blow glanced off his chest.

He charged her. Stepping aside, she redirected his motion. He flew over her hip landing a foot from the building.

Driven by fury and lust, he jumped to his feet. He raised his right hand as if to hit her again. Then, avoiding her block, he slammed his left fist into her face.

Shifting, she caught him in the chest with a powerful back kick. He smashed into the building behind him. Using the wall for leverage, he rushed her.

She rotated sideways, caught his right hand in a lock. Using his momentum, his arm rotated and his shoulder popped from the joint. He dropped to his knees.

Reaching behind his head, he flipped her over him. She landed on her back in front of him.

Under the darkening sky, with the asphalt at her back, Alex gave up. Even if she survived this attack, there would always be another person looking to kill her.

The Boy Scout lifted his knee. With all his might, he stomped Alex’s abdomen His huge foot ground shrapnel against the delicate flesh of her left hip. Laughing at her gasp, he raised his foot one more time. He stomped her abdomen.

The tiny light of Simon went out.

And something deep within Alex ignited. A power coursed through her veins. She was a fighter again.

The Boy Scout fell on her to rape her in the middle of the parking lot. His pants unzipped and genitals exposed, she jerked her right leg up. Rotating her leg slightly, she ground the ragged teeth of his zipper into his genitals. He roared in pain. She threw him off her and jumped to standing.

He moved to his hands and knees.

She stood over him in a fighter’s stance.

He exploded off the ground. Alex caught him under his chin with violent kick. He flew arching head first into the air. He landed on the back of his shoulders. She followed him in her fighter’s stance.

He flipped to standing and rushed her. She jumped in a perfect butterfly kick. One foot smashed his face followed by her second foot. The second finished the job.

The Boy Scout dropped unconscious to the ground.

She heard cars screech into the parking lot and men screaming for her to stand still. Raising her hands over her head, she weaved slightly then dropped to her knees. On her knees, she crawled to Matthew. A bystander held her clothing over the wound on Matthew’s chest. Shivering from the cold, she lifted Matthew’s head to her lap.

“Jesse saved my life, Alex,” Matthew whispered. “I see Jesse. I can hear him too. He was the commentator for the fight. Like Vegas. You did really good, Alex. Alex?”

Matthew’s head dropped to the side. He was silent. She felt hands on her but was too dazed to comprehend what was going on.

“Ma’am?” A paramedic’s face appeared in front of her. “Ma’am? You’re bleeding. Can you show us where you’re injured?”

Alex looked up into the young man’s face. Raising her eyebrows, she said, “Bleeding?”

Alex passed out.

FFFFFF

Wednesday mid-day
March 26 – 1:06 P.M. MDT
Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora Colorado

“My name is Major Joseph Walter.”

Joseph looked over the men. Each face displayed a mask of arrogance and mistrust. They were here but not anything like a team. Troy Olivas sat near the front while Trece and White Boy filled the back of the room. Raz leaned against the side wall. Vince Hutchins stretched out in a chair at the other side. And Larry Flagg’s miserable countenance sat in the middle of the room.

“I have been invited here to determine whether or not you are capable of coming together as a team,” Joseph said. “I will tell you. This is your only opportunity. After we speak, I will ask you to sign a document to commit to becoming a team.”

“I’ll sign now.” Raz moved forward with a pen in his hand.

“You’ll sign it when I make it available to you,” Joseph said. “I’m looking into the bullshit contract mandating Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves’s volunteer service to Homeland Security. Yes, that’s correct. Major Hargreaves is now Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves. And one thing is certain. You and Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves are not partners anymore.”

Joseph watched Raz viscerally react to the idea that he and Alex weren’t partners anymore. Recovering, Raz went back to leaning against the wall.

“I need to assess whether you can work on this team. When I make my assessment, I may make my offer. Nothing is certain. Is that clear?”

The men shifted in their seats.

“Listen, I’ve fielded numerous requests for…” Troy started.

“I have each of your resumes. I know your backgrounds and your accomplishments. I have a good idea of the disrespect you have shown your commanding officer. I’m also confident you do not have a clue what you’ve really done or who you have done it to. Captain Blanco? Will you get the lights?”

White Boy shut off the lights. The screen in front of them was dark. Walking over to the desk, Joseph tapped his computer.

“I put this together for a Senate Hearing a couple years ago. This is Lieutenant Colonel Alexandra Hargreaves life’s work.”

The screen began to flash smiling mug shots of soldiers, diplomats, politicians, missionaries, and journalists. Less than a second a time, the photos showed men and women rescued by the Fey Special Forces Team.

“This presentation continues for a little more than an hour. Almost four thousand human lives. You might think you know what those words mean. But you cannot comprehend the sheer number of people until you see their faces. Now I could show you the holes, alleys, caves and warehouses we found each of these people in. But I’ll spare you the horror.”

A hand went up in the middle.

“Yes, Sergeant Flagg.”

“These people were rescued by the Fey Special Forces Team, not just Major Hargreaves,” he said.

“Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves.”

“Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves,” Larry repeated.

“You’re wrong. Sure, the Fey Special Forces Team did the work. We dug the holes, climbed the mountains and protected her. She saved each of these lives.

“And when she was done?”

Joseph hit a key. Photos of the limestone vault flashed on the screen. The men jerked their bodies away from horror.

“This spot? This spot right here?”

Joseph pointed to the door of the vault.

“After killing the shooter, she went from person to person. Sitting with her best-friend’s head on her lap, she prepared to die. There’s evidence she had a conversation with someone. We don’t know who. We only know that she tricked him into leaving her alone long enough to save the team journal. All of this, she did with a hole the size of a basketball where her left hip used to be.”

“We found her,” Raz said. Drawn by instinct, he touched the screen. “I carried her from… I… I never went inside.”

“Take a good look. I repeat. After killing the shooter, she checked each friend for life only to have her best-friend die with his head on her lap. Then, bleeding to death, she tricked a murderer and saved the team journal.

“Now, ask yourself. With all your impressive accomplishments, could you have done that?”

Joseph clicked through the images again.

“Somehow, she managed to survive. We don’t know how. We don’t know why. But she did. Then after crawling her way out of Walter Reed and more surgeries than I can count, the fuckers came for her again.”

The screen flashed pictures of the room where she was held captive for three days last fall.

“Now you might think, ‘Three days. I could do three days.’ She was beaten with a rubber pipe, caught sepsis from a cut on her arm, and still managed to kill three of her captors. Each of you played a part in her rescue. Who planned it? Who made it possible for you to fulfill your job? And whose life was almost lost?

“Of course, when it comes to orders, you disobey them. Isn’t that correct? I think that’s what gets me the most. This amazing person, your superior officer, asked so little from you, and you chose to not fulfill those orders.

“I want to know right now, in front of this entire group. Captain Ramirez – you had sex with the nurse rather than obey your commanding officer?”

“Yes sir,” Trece said.

“Do we need to look into mandatory sex addiction treatment as clearly sex is a higher priority than fulfilling your responsibilities as an officer in the United States Army?”

“No sir. I’m certain Major Hargreaves…”

“Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves is, right at this moment, fighting for her life AGAIN. Why? Because the men whose job it is to protect her were not with her. And tell us Captain Ramirez why you were not guarding your PRIMARY objective?”

“She left base after I disobeyed her direct order,” Trece said. “Sir.”

“It wasn’t just you,” Joseph said. “Tell us Captain Olivas, Captain Hutchins and Agent Rasmussen. What kept you from fulfilling your direct orders?”

Troy crossed his arms and looked off to the side. Raz turned his back to the screen. Vince slunk deeper in his seat.

“No response. Because there is no excuse,” Joseph said. “None. But at least you didn’t get a DUI.”

“Sir…” Larry started.

“Don’t sir me, you little shit,” Joseph said. “If you were under my command, you’d be in the custody of the Military Police.

“Let me make myself clear. Lieutenant Colonel Alexandra Hargreaves beat all odds to become the ONLY woman ever accepted to Special Forces training. With her instructors working to make sure she would never complete the training, she still graduated at the very top of her class. And at the top of every class before and after her. She has two black belts – one in kickboxing and another in jujitsu. She has won every martial arts competition and beaten every single simulation she has competed in. Further, she has a Ph.D. in Psychology AND rescued almost four thousand individuals including two men sitting in this room.

“This is the person you chose to disobey.”

Joseph stopped to catch his breath and slow his angry flood of words.

“Gentlemen, Alexandra ‘The Fey’ Hargreaves is better than you. Whether you like it or not, she is smarter, tougher, and simply a better human being than you will EVER be. Your disrespect is no different than this.”

The screen flashed images of the Limestone vault after the Fey Special Forces Team assault.

“If you think I’m exaggerating, Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves stated to her commanding officer that she could no longer tolerate the constant assault from people she thought were her friends. She has resigned her commission. Her resignation has been accepted effective immediately.”

Joseph let his statement reverberate through the men. When they each looked up at him again, he finished his speech.

“Congratulations. You have managed to do what murderers, conservative command, a rapist, teams of terrorists, hell, even her own mother could not do. You got the Fey out of the military.

“Now, I want to know what you are going to do about it.”

F

CHAPTER EIGHT

Three hours later
Wednesday morning
March 26 – 10:45 A.M. MDT
Fort Logan National Cemetery, Colorado

Alex stepped back to admire her work. She spent the last hour cleaning the eleven granite stones which marking the final resting place of the Fey Special Forces Team. As she often did when she was here, she talked to her friends and teammates. She told them about her life. She shared her loneliness and grief. While Jesse hovered nearby, she detailed everything that happened.

In her effort to keep her few living friends close, she had lost them all. She’d known Troy since basic training, Trece and White Boy almost as long. Matthew had been her sparing partner, her buddy and her closest friend through some very dark nights. She spent six months in Walter Reed with Vince. Within a few days, they would be scattered to the wind.

And she would be alone.

Moving from stone to stone, she lit incense with Jesse’s Zippo lighter. Peace be with Alexander, the stone they laid for her, Nathan, Paul, Jax, Dean, Scott, Tommy, Dwight, Jesse, Mike and finally Charlie. Standing in the fragrant smoke, she wondered what was next for her.

Her failure was complete.

She couldn’t move on from her days on the Fey Special Forces Team.

Not willing to face her life, she clicked Jessie’s Zippo lighter opened and closed. Charlie bought these lighters to commemorate their first mission. Since her lighter was still broken, she used Jesse’s.

Hearing a car pull up behind her, she placed her hand on the Glock 9 mm which rested at her sacrum. She turned around to see a familiar black limousine.

“I thought I’d find you here,” her father, and General-turned-Senator, Patrick Hargreaves said.

“How did you get here so fast?” she asked.

“I was in town for a series of meetings.” He looked at his watch. “I’m meeting with the governor right this minute.”

He put his arm around his favorite child in an open hug. They watched the smoke from the incense blow over the eleven granite stones.

“You’re not wearing your Alyssa get up,” he said.

“Couldn’t get the lenses in. Crying,” Alex said. “So I gave up.”

“Is it safe?”

Alex shrugged.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I know you wanted me to be career military, but I couldn’t do it. I’ve failed you. And I’m very sorry.”

Patrick made a noise, somewhere between a snort and a grunt. Noticing her look, he worked his face toward something more sincere. His blue eyes danced with laughter.

“There’s no way you can fail me, Alex,” he said.

“Why did you laugh?”

“Because I gave my superior officer the same speech a couple months into leading my own team,” he said. “What happened?”

“They don’t respect me. I asked them to do specific things and they refused. We were on assignment a few days ago and… It was a nightmare. How did you find out?”

“Initially? Your sister, Erin called. The Admiral has assigned Matthew to another extended stay in Afghanistan. He’s to leave in the morning.”

“He is a soldier. We are at a war,” Alex said. “What did Erin want you to do?”

“Intervene,” he said. “I’ll tell you. The Admiral must be particularly angry with Mac Clenaghan. The assignment is a dog especially for a Captain.”

“She made the choice to date someone with a twenty year military contract.”

“You’re angry.”

“Heartbroken,” Alex said. “Lost.”

“You should know the men were reassigned the moment you left base. Olivas is assigned to a nasty project dealing with the FARC in Columbia. Rasmussen no longer works for Ben. He was recalled to Washington DC where he will be given a thousand civilian profiles. Hutchins’s project is so bad that he’s contacting doctors for a medical discharge, which will be denied.”

“Trece and White Boy?”

“You don’t want to know. They were dealt with first. Their commander will not tolerate even a whiff of disrespect let alone abject disobedience.”

“Zack?”

“Captain Jakkman has been grounded. At Schriever, no less. Indefinitely. And he’s angry. He says he didn’t do anything. But he’s a part of your team. I think they are going to send him through flight school or something annoying. His co-pilot was reassigned to Iraq.”

“What about Flagg?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“I guess so,” Alex said.

“Full military court martial,” Patrick said.

“I guess he won’t have to go to Iraq,” Alex said. “He can go about his college boy life and never look back.”

Patrick raised his eyebrows at her dark comment.

“The Admiral has no intention of breaking up your team,” Patrick said. “At least that’s what he told me. He’s planning on letting them stew for a while though. They’ve had an easy year – great pay, sleep in your own bed, set your own schedule. He wants them to understand that they are soldiers first.”

“I hope the Admiral has someone in mind to lead them. I’m not doing it,” Alex said. “I can’t.”

Patrick’s blue eyes reviewed Alex’s face. Her chin was set in stubborn defiance. Her lips were pressed to her teeth. The tight skin against her cheekbones told him of her anxiety induced starvation. More than anything, there was an uncharacteristic darkness about his bright child. As if to protect her from the dark, he pulled her closer.

“You’re not eating,” he said.

Alex looked up at her father then shook her head.

“Listen Dad, I appreciate how busy you are. I bet the governor isn’t happy about waiting for you. Why don’t we schedule lunch sometime next week? We can talk then.”

Patrick laughed.

“You only fail if you quit,” he said.

“Well, there you have it,” Alex said. “I quit.”

“What’s got your goat, Alex? I’ve never known you to quit anything. Why this? And why now? You didn’t even warn them. You just disbanded the men.”

“I have another contract out on my life.”

“And? That’s been true for the last two and a half years.”

Alex shook her head. Patrick let the silence lag.

“I miss them,” Alex said. “That’s all. I wish…”

“The Admiral assured me. If you need to leave the Army, we’ll make it work. No one should have to endure what you’ve been through. And to be treated like this? By people who say they are your friends?”

“It’s like being assaulted again.”

“It is an assault,” Patrick said. “Plain and simple, they took advantage of you.”

“What about the President and his friend?”

“The President’s been informed that the Fey is not available. He doesn’t like it much, but he’ll survive. Why don’t you take some leave?”

“And what? Watch the construction workers put up dry wall?”

“You could stay at our house,” Patrick said. “Your mother would love to see you.”

“Yeah, I bet. She can gloat. She always said women shouldn’t be soldiers.”

“Oh honey,” Patrick said.

“Sorry, Dad. I’m pretty grim.”

“I was pretty grim when I was in your position.”

“What helped?” Alex asked.

“I got out of my own way,” Patrick said. “I gave commands and not requests. I spoke my mind and let the chips fall where they may, even with my friends. I became a leader by acting like one.”

Alex reacted viscerally to his last statement. Opening her mouth, she turned to say something. Shaking her head at her father, she placed and lit another incense stick at each grave stone. She paused at Charlie O’Brien’s stone then walked back to her father.

“You’re saying I can quit if I want to or I can choose to be a leader.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” Patrick said.

“I don’t know what to do next,” she said.

“Take your time. Maybe you should schedule a day at the spa.” He laughed at the revulsion on her face. “Call Matthew. He was your second in command. And, according to your sister, he is right now packing for rural Afghanistan. I’ll tell you this, Alexandra. He had no idea you were upset. When Colonel Gordon read off the incidents, Matthew asked to be relieved of his rank. He gave no explanation and made no excuse. He only said he lost track of himself.”

Alex nodded.

“Honey, you have to step into your own power,” he said. “You’ve hidden behind your twin, under Ben’s wing, or even as my daughter for too long. You’re better than all of us combined. Let yourself shine for a while.”

Alex sighed.

“Your mother asked me if you might consider coming for dinner,” he said. “We’ve invited Colin and Julie. Your mother is focused on Julie’s pregnancy, she won’t bother you much.”

“Fixated on her first grandchild.”

“Julie is about to pop.”

“So get to work?”

“How about breakfast?” Patrick asked. “There’s a wonderful greasy spoon not far from here. I haven’t been there in an age. Let’s give the Secret Service something to worry about.”

“Thanks Dad,” Alex said. “But I need to deal with this.”

“Good Girl.”

FFFFF

An hour and a half later
Wednesday mid-morning
March 26 – 11:45 AM
Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, Denver, Colorado

“I’ve requested to be relieved of my rank,” Matthew said.

Alex picked up a chip looked at it then set it back in the basket of tortilla chips on the table. They were the only people sitting on the narrow end of the patio right off the parking lot. The late winter sun peeked out from behind the clouds, but it was still cool. Inside, the restaurant was filling with an early lunch crowd.

“And?”

“Come on, Alex. You never said a word to me. Not one word.”

“You are an adult, an officer in the US Army, for God’s sake. I need to tell you you’re insubordinate? Disobeying a direct order as you did again this morning?”

Matthew’s mouth fell open. His face flushed red.

“When I heard the list of incidents?” Matthew shook his head. “I couldn’t believe it. And I knew the list was HALF of what has happened. I…”

“You’re just a complete asshole? For most of a year?”

“I have racked my mind as to why I behaved so badly,” Matthew said. “You’ve seen my file. There is not one report of insubordination, disrespect or anything else.”

“Until you started working for me.”

“Exactly.”

“So it’s my fault.”

“No, it’s my fault,” Matthew said.

They fell silent as the waiter dropped off their lunch. Not sure of what to do next, Alex focused trying to eat her rice, beans and charbroiled fish. Matthew cut open his burrito then threw his utensils on the table.

“Fuck,” he said.

Crossing his arms, he looked away from her. When he turned back, his eyes were filled with tears.

“When you were injured, I thought I would do anything I could do for you to survive, even one more day. When you told me you were building a team, I jumped at the chance to work with you. I took the chance and fucked it up. In the process, I’ve betrayed you, took you for granted and destroyed our friendship.”

“I don’t understand why,” Alex said. “We’ve been friends for more than a decade. I rescued your ass. TWICE!”

“I lost track of myself. I used you until there wasn’t anything left to use. I live in your condo. I sleep with your sister. I spent the raise you got for me with abandon. I’ve been focused on my life, my status and… I don’t know… where we were going to dinner.”

“There’s no way this is ever going to work,” Alex said. “I need a team, Matthew, not a group of parasites ready to Hoover up whatever’s available to them. I can’t create a team by myself. Every single person has to pitch in.”

Matthew nodded.

“Why did you give Flagg his papers without consulting me?”

“I don’t know,” Matthew said. “He’s such an asshole. So smug and superior. I guess I thought it would knock him down to earth.”

“And you didn’t tell me because…?”

“I have no excuse,” Matthew said. “I didn’t tell you because I’m an arrogant, insubordinate prick.”

“That’s honest,” Alex said. Unable to look at the food, Alex pushed the plate away from her. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to build a team. I want to succeed at the mission of building a multi-unit team to extract hostages from around the world. There are hundreds, if not thousands of hostages who need rescuing. In betraying you, I have betrayed them as well.”

“I cannot do this myself, Matthew,” Alex said. “If you agree to help me, you have to get and keep everyone in line. They are not your playmates. They are your teammates.”

“Yes,” he said. “Troy feels as bad as I do. Raz didn’t say a word. He just left for Washington. And Hutchins? I mean, I got to know him when he was your roommate at Walter Reed but I don’t think I really respected him until today. He simply listened to what Colonel Gordon said and signed the document.”

“I heard he was trying for a medical.”

“Emily,” Matthew said. “He nodded his head and left. Let me ask you this. What do you want?”

“I’m not sure,” Alex said. “I’ve given up on a team. Right now, I’d like to take a bath.”

“Still no hot water?”

“We have hot water. It hasn’t made it to the bathtub yet.”

Unsure of how to move forward, they each fell silent.

“What will you do?” Matthew asked.

“I’m not sure. I have a lot of options including being a housewife for my soon to be wealthy surgeon husband.”

“Is there any possibility of a second chance?” Matthew asked.

Alex looked over Matthew’s shoulder to the Denver skyline. The clouds were rolling in again. They would see snow again before nightfall. Looking around her, she noted the office professionals were venturing onto the patio.

“Sure. But not a third.”

“Yes sir,” Matthew said. “I will speak with the men. I will get their agreement to work toward a team or they will not be on the team. Period.”

Alex nodded. They walked through the patio toward their vehicles.

“And our friendship?”

Alex shrugged.

“Well, at least there’s a chance.”

She gave him a slight smile. He stood and held his arms out. They hugged. He kissed her cheek.

“Thanks.”

She nodded.

“I’m going home. You’ll let me know?”

“Yes sir.”

Walking along the wall of the restaurant, they were standing in an empty parking space next to Alex’s Jeep CJ when Matthew said, “Do you want to…”

Alex heard a sound her mind refused to interpret. A starburst of blood and tissue popped into the air from Matthew chest. Matthew fell forward to the asphalt.

F

CHAPTER SEVEN

Four hours later
Wednesday morning
March 26 – 5:45 A.M. MDT
Military Intelligence, Buckley Air Force Base

After rounding up Raz, Vince, Troy and Matthew, Alex’s Sergeant reminded her that she forgot Sergeant Larry Flagg.

Again.

And where was Sergeant Flagg?

He didn’t answer his home phone or his cell phone. Matthew dropped by his home on his way to base. Sergeant Flagg wasn’t at home. Figuring he’d show up, they once more forgot Sergeant Flagg. Certainly, there was plenty of work to do.

About an hour later, the Denver Police called. Sergeant Lawrence Flagg had been picked up for driving under the influence with a blood alcohol of 0.45. Because his blood alcohol was so high, the police took him to Denver Health for detox. Alex’s cell number was the only number he could remember this morning. Of course, the Denver Police would be happy to release him to her custody but Major Drayson needed get him.

Dressed in her winter gear, Alex left the men with detailed instructions on what they needed to resolve while she was gone. One last, ‘Get to work’ and she wandered down an early-morning quiet hallway. Turning into a long still hallway, she felt alone in a quiet world.

“Where ya going?”

Alex yelped with surprise. On guard, she turned in place to see a large, muscle bound man. He laughed at Alex’s response. Even in his heavy winter gear, his barrel chest and twenty inch arms were apparent. Smiling, his tear drop tattoo scrunched into the brown skin near his left eye.

“Gotcha,” Trece said.

“Andy! I thought you and Chris were out of the country.” Alex was swallowed in a muscular hug.

“We’re a part of your team, Major,” he said.

“So where’s Chris?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Getting coffee for you,” Trece said.

Alex turned to see an equally muscular man trot down the hallway with a travel mug in his hand. Beaming at Alex, his near albino skin and pale blue eyes glistened under the florescent lights.

“Here you go, Alex,” White Boy said.

“What do I owe this privilege?” Alex asked.

“We are hoping you’ll request us for this project,” White Boy said.

“I sent the request a couple hours ago,” Alex said. “How did you…?”

“We have our ways,” Trece said. He winked at Alex. “Where ya going?”

“Pick up Sergeant Flagg at Denver Health. He got a DUI last night.”

“That’s mighty unbecoming,” Trece said. “Isn’t he an officer?”

Alex curled her lip at Trece.

“Are you going to…” White Boy started.

“Kill him,” Alex said.

“Now Alex, that’s mighty violent,” Trece said. “I’d offer to kill him for you but…”

Alex laughed.

“Can we come with you?” White Boy asked. “We hear there’s a contract…”

“You look like you could use our company,” Trece talked over White Boy. “We are your favorite White Boy and Trece.”

“I think you’re the only White Boy and Trece,” Alex said.

“See the coffee worked,” White Boy said.

With the two men beside her, Alex walked to her Jeep CJ.

“I can’t believe they didn’t blow this car up,” White Boy said. “How long you had this?”

“Since high school,” Alex said. Pulling up to the guard gate, she added, “Don’t tell anyone but this is the only car I can drive.”

The men laughed. Friends for over a decade, Alex and Jesse met them in the mess hall in Bosnia. Trece and White Boy laughed, workout and generally cheered Alex and Jesse through the rest of the tour. They celebrated Jesse and Alex’s acceptance to Special Forces school. They arrived ready to party not moments after Jesse and Alex graduated. Throughout her career, Trece and White Boy would pop up at the oddest times: stuck in Bagdad during ‘shock and awe;’ in the middle of a sandstorm in Afghanistan; two days after she married John and just now, when she had been told they were out of the country and couldn’t get back for a week.

As always, she was happy for their inane company.

She’d hoped to get them a hundred percent of the time. For now, forty percent of their time would have to suffice. Of course, since Trece talked one hundred percent of the time it felt like she had him one hundred percent time.

Turning into the parking lot at Denver Health, she snorted at her joke.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are. I however am much funnier than…” Trece held the entrance door for a woman. “Well, hello.”

While Alex and White Boy continued through the door, Trece stop at the door to flirt with the nurse. Alex spoke with the Denver Police then the doctor. She signed papers, and even arranged Larry’s bail, before Trece caught up with them.

“That was a sweet honey,” White Boy said.

Trece beamed his acknowledgement of the sweetness of the woman. Alex opened her mouth to ask what took him so long then decided she didn’t want to know. She closed her mouth

“She has a sweet friend,” Trece said. He held up two phone numbers. “Perfect for some lonely visitors.”

“When have you been lonely?” Alex asked.

“Could happen. Could happen,” Trece said. “Well hello…”

He and White Boy stopped to watch a nurse walk by. Blushing, the nurse waved her fingers at the men.

“Where have you been? Siberia?” Alex asked. She showed her ID to a policewoman near the nurse’s station. The policewoman pointed toward Larry’s door. “You’re randy even for you!”

“Desert,” Trece said. “Did you know there is a war going on?”

“Two.” Alex wrinkled her nose at him.

“Three really,” White Boy said.

Alex stood in front of Larry’s door.

“Well hello…” Trece said to a passing nurse.

“Why don’t you stay here and I’ll deal with Flagg?”

“Great idea.”

“Do not leave this door,” Alex said. “No bathrooms, no…”

“We’ll keep it zipped at least until we leave the hospital.” Trece smiled his alter boy smile.

Alex scowled a ‘You better’ at him then went into the room. Larry was watching television. Sitting up on an elbow, his face broke into his characteristic bright smile.

“Hi Major!” Larry exclaimed. His hands grabbed at his throbbing head.

“Slowly,” Alex said.

“Where am I?” Larry asked.

“Denver Health. You got very drunk last night. The Denver Police picked you up outside the Squire on Colfax. You were passed out in your car. You had alcohol poisoning. And you now have a DUI plus a whole bunch of other trouble.”

“Oh.” Larry’s bright smile faded. “I was just thinking that I’ve never been in the hospital before.” Larry flipped his legs to the edge of the bed and lurched forward to grab his head again. “I guess I was in the hospital when you broke my leg. But I was on base. It wasn’t much different than being in the barracks. How long will I stay here?”

“The doctor wants to see you this morning to decide. You have been very, very sick.”

“I feel very, very sick. Why do you look so serious? Aren’t you the one who always says ‘Don’t take everything so seriously’?”

“You have a lot of legal problems. I’m able to take custody of you, but Colonel Gordon is looking to discharge you for conduct unbecoming of an officer.”

She paused to let the information sink in.

“But guys get DUIs all the time. They don’t get discharged.”

“You’re an intelligence officer, Sergeant Flagg. A Special Forces Intelligence Officer. Tell me. Who do you know who is a Special Forces Intelligence Officer who has received a DUI?”

Larry fell silent.

“No one, I guess.”

“We can demote you. Hell, the Admiral might want your beret.”

“My beret? Yeah, you may as well take my beret. You hate me anyway.”

“Hate you?” Alex groaned.

Jesse appeared by her side. “He got his orders to go to the sand. He’s leaving in three months. He’s freaked about going to war so he got shit faced.”

Alex crossed her arms.

“Don’t let him ruffle you.” Jesse moved in front of her. “And don’t yell. It’s a hospital.”

Alex gave him a curt nod.

“What does the great Jesse have to say?” Larry asked. “He’s the only fucking person you care about, and he’s not even alive.”

“You can see Jesse?”

“I see the dust light up… like sparklers… So what did he say?”

“He said you got your orders.”

Larry face blanched then went red. His mouth flapped open and closed. Looking away from Alex, he mimicked her crossed arms. When he turned back, he was one hundred percent angry, drunk and hung over.

“You forget me. Every single time. Troy thinks I’m a joke. Matthew treats me like I’m three fucking years old. Raz won’t even talk to me. Vince pinches his eyebrows when I talk. No response. Just this weird look. Trece told me he was going to kill me. Kill… ME! And the Jakker openly laughs when I talk.”

Alex could barely contain her disgust for the Sergeant. She fought, worked, struggled and suffered to get a chance to wear a beret. This stupid, selfish drunken fool would throw it away.

“Here are your options.” Alex pressed forward to keep from throwing up. “First, you must apologize to your commanding officer for your conduct, attitude and diatribe. Once your commanding officer accepts your heartfelt apology, you must apologize to the men.”

“Then what?”

“Colonel Gordon can move you to a team at MI, either Fort Carson or Cheyenne Mountain. They do straight up Military Intelligence. Your other option is to work this out right here, right now.”

“I… I… Can I think about it?” Larry asked.

“No,” Alex replied. “We’ve been assigned to a complicated and challenging situation involving the President’s best-friend. We need to be able to count on every member. Today. Right this minute.”

“Oh,” Larry said. He lay down on the hospital bed and stared at the ceiling. After a few moments, he whispered, “I don’t know how to work it out, Major.”

Tears squeezed from his blue eyes.

“I might be able to help you.”

“But don’t want to help me,” he said.

“Fuck Larry! Are you twelve? You are a God damned Special Forces SOLDIER in the United States Army.”

Alex bit her lip to keep from any further yelling. Jesse was right. Yelling in a hospital was stupid. Shaking her head, she moved toward the door.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Larry said. “I’m drunk, hung over, and sick. I’m behaving very poorly. Especially to you. Is there a way to make it up to you?”

“You can tell me what this is about,” Alex said.

“Did you send me to Iraq to get rid of me?”

“No, Larry,” Alex said. “You joined Forces straight from college. You have to do at least one tour. The rest of us were regular Army before we trained for our Berets. My Sergeant, for example, did three tours in Afghanistan before going through training. Vince went to Annapolis, graduated top of his class before becoming a SEAL. He’d still be underwater if he wasn’t injured.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly,” Alex said. “I think it will be good for you to get out in the field and actually do what you were trained to do. Isn’t that why you joined? To serve your country?”

“No, Major. I joined to work for you. My uncle… was…” Larry looked away from her. “He’s not really my uncle. He’s my uncle’s best-friend from elementary school. His parents lived next door to us. My uncle is only five years older than me. I spent a lot of time with him and his friend when I was growing up. His friend joined the Army when I was in high school. He was… held… in… Siberia. You probably don’t remember him but he lost a foot to frost bite?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Fred Hossa,” Alex said.

“He said he will never forget seeing your team, the Fey Special Forces Team, cross country skiing across the horizon. He said he never had been more proud to be an American. He knew he was safe when you, a beautiful woman, pushed your hood off and laughed at something a team member said. That was probably Jesse, right?”

“Jesse made a couple jokes about Mexicans in the snow,” Alex nodded. “Jesse was born in Mexico. He hated the cold.”

“I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I want to save people who are held hostage. They opened direct entry to Special Forces for college graduates when I was almost done with Harvard. I finished up and applied. My parents were furious but there wasn’t much they could do.”

“If you went through all of this to work for me, why did you fuck it up?”

Larry shrugged.

“What happens now?” Larry asked.

“The doctors will come to check you out. If you’re all right, you’ll come with us. Drunk, hung over and sick, you’ll work today. You need to apologize to the men and Colonel Gordon. You must deal with the legal ramifications of your actions, whatever they are. No excuses.”

“Yes sir,” he said.

“When we get to base, we’ll speak about your other allegations with the men. Teams work things out among themselves.”

“I won’t let you down, Major.”

Larry’s eyes and tone were so sincere that Alex almost laughed.

“You better not.”

Larry nodded.

“Oh, one more thing,” Alex said.

“Yes, Major?”

“If I ever see you take even one sip of alcohol in my presence, I will kick your ass. The doctor will tell you this, but the only way you could get that drunk is if you have a genetic propensity for alcohol. Drink and you’ll become an alcoholic. I will not tolerate an alcoholic in my life.”

“I swear I will never drink again,” Larry said. “I know I can become an alcoholic. There are lots of them in my family.”

Alex scowled her sincerity at Larry then tapped on the door. White Boy opened the door.

“The doctor is here,” White Boy said

Alex nodded

Looking past Alex, White Boy said, “You all right, kid? She wasn’t too mean?”

Larry shook his head.

“Where’s Trece?” Alex asked.

White Boy shrugged. After seeing the doctor, checking in with the Denver Police, they were on their way to the car before Trece reappeared. He didn’t offer an explanation for where he had been. Noting the anger on Alex’s face, he continued his jovial commentary the entire drive back to base.

Arriving at her office, she was met by her Sergeant at the door. But even with her Sergeant’s intervention, it was clear. The men hadn’t worked while she was gone. Trailing her Sergeant, Trece and White Boy, she marched to her group work area. Standing in the doorway, she watched them play Nerf football. Her Sergeant cleared his throat and the men turned to look at them.

Without saying a word, Alex turned in place. She walked back to her office, closed then locked the door. She could hear the men try to get around her Sergeant. They called her telephone. She received IM and email. None of which she answered.

Instead, she placed a telephone call to the Admiral in charge of Special Forces. She waited only a few moments before he took her call. A half hour later, Colonel Gordon knocked on her door. While he tried to persuade her, he eventually acquiesced to her request. She followed him out of the office.

Walking to her group work area, she found them diligently working on the things she asked them to do hours before.

“I have disbanded this team,” she said. “The Admiral is looking for new assignments for each of you. You will be contacted either by Colonel Gordon or the Admiral regarding your next assignment. Captain Hutchins, you have been returned to the Navy. Agent Rasmussen, you have been returned to Homeland Security.

“My decision is final. While within my power, I have not added a note to your files regarding the dissolution of this team. As far as the world knows, we were asked to complete a project that was beyond our scope.

“I remind you that you are officers in the United States Military. In the future, I hope you are able to work for someone you’re able to respect.

“Do not contact me, write me, email me or IM. That is a direct order from your superior officer. Thank you for your attention.”

Without saying another word, she walked out of the building to her car and drove home. Once there, she worked her way through the voice, fingerprint and code security in her basement office. Locking the door, she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

And wept.

F

CHAPTER SIX

Three hours later
Wednesday early-morning
March 26 – 1:00 A.M. MDT
Denver, Colorado

Alex woke with a gasp. Her abdomen cramped and her mind flooded with images and emotions. In her sleep-induced stupor, she stumbled to the bathroom. She splashed water on her face to clear the nonsensical images. She startled when John spoke.

“What is it?” John asked. He was standing in the door. “It’s freezing, love. Come back to bed.”

He wrapped her in a blanket then guided her back to bed.

“Nightmare?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Your PTSD has…”

Next to the bed, a telephone rang. Rolling on his back, John reached for the phone.

“When was that installed?” Alex asked.

“Yesterday,” John said. “Shall I answer it? We don’t have an answerphone yet.”

“They’ll call back. What were you saying?”

“Your PTSD has been in remission for a while. Do you think you were triggered by your adventures?”

“Maybe,” Alex said. “I don’t remember having this kind of… experience.”

The phone stopped ringing then began ringing again.

“Sorry, love. I know you hate the phone. I wanted to make sure you could get me if… anything happened, you know? Shall I answer it?”

She nodded. He kissed her nose then picked up the phone.

“It’s Ben.”

John gave Alex the phone.

“Alex,” Ben said. “There’s been a kidnapping. The president asked for your help. He specifically requested ‘the Fey.’ Do you know the president?”

“Of course not.” In an attempt to get warm, she pulled the covers over her head. “The boys and I received the Presidential commendation last year. I mean Major Drayson did, not the Fey.”

“Well he’s asking for the Fey.”

“The Fey is on temporary duty. He won’t be back until sometime tomorrow.”

“Very funny,” Ben said. “We don’t have a choice here. The President of the United States requested our help in finding and rescuing his friend.”

“Who’s the friend?” she asked.

“Cee Cee Joiner,” they said in unison.

Fuck.

“No thanks.” She hung up the phone.

“What was that?” John asked.

“A nasty situation I don’t want to be involved in,” Alex said.

Rolling to her side, she stroked his naked chest. She slipped on top of him when the phone rang again. She kissed John’s lips. Moving, she kissed his neck. She continued working her way down his body with her lips until the phone was silent.

“It’s going to be okay,” John said when the phone started ringing again. “I’ll stay right here.”

John spooned around her and she answered the phone.

“Alexandra Hargreaves,” Ben said.

“I’m kind of busy here.”

“Get up. I’m sending the intel to your computer then I’m in the air. I’ll be there in a couple hours.”

“No,” Alex said. “No, not this time. No. Cee Cee Joiner. My plate is full. I’m supposed to put together this team and… Please Benji, no.”

Ben fell silent at her use of the name ‘Benji,’ her acknowledgement he was her father.

“You cannot refuse a presidential order,” Ben said. Switching to French, his voice was gentle. “You just can’t.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Raz has left for a briefing. It’s my expectation that you, and your men, will be ready to go. You have six hours.”

“Until what happens?”

“In six hours, you will need to function as a team.”

Alex’s hand flew to her mouth. Jogging to the bathroom, she managed to make the toilet before her anxious stomach voided its contents. She looked up when John gave her a wet washcloth.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Your hip is off,” he said. “I didn’t notice because…”

“You carried me in,” she said. She smiled. “That was fun.”

“You’re shivering. When do you have to…?”

“I have a couple hours,” she said.

“Come back to bed.”

He led her to the bed and layered down comforters over her.

“I have a cortisone shot in my bag.”

Knowing better than to argue, she rolled on her right side. Before her new hip, this was a twice daily ritual for Alex. He pulled down her pajamas and stuck a needle full of steroids and pain medication deep into her hip. She groaned.

“In pain?”

“Where’d you get the shot?” she asked.

“Habit,” he said. “All done.”

He slipped over her to the bed. She rested her head on his shoulder. Her hand looped through the chain for the dog tag bearing her name which he wore around his neck.

“Did you throw up because you were anxious?”

“Anxious,” she said. “I haven’t been eating so there’s not much to throw up. It’s …”

“Automatic, yes,” he finished her statement.

Warm and relaxed, she snuggled against him. She was almost asleep when he said:

“Is there something you wish to tell me?”

She jerked up to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

“I thought we weren’t going to do this anymore,” John said. “We agreed in Scotland to stop hiding from each other.”

“We did.”

“Alexandra,” John rolled to his side to look at her. “You haven’t had any alcohol in three weeks. Max and Raz are accommodating but not enjoying your need for decaffeinated coffee. And, I may not know a lot of things, but I know this body, your body.”

Slipping his hand under her pajamas, he cupped her breast. His thumb ran over her nipple.

“Your breasts are full and more sensitive. You’re softening around your face, your hips… in all womanly places.”

Alex rolled to her back to avoid looking at him.

“I’ve been waiting for you to tell me,” John said. “I thought you’d want to tell me.”

“You’re a solution oriented person. You’ll want to make decisions and I… I needed some time.”

“Why does Raz know?”

“He hacked into the doctor’s computer. I was… upset after my doctor’s appointment and wouldn’t tell him.”

“Let’s start with how,” John said.

“After we spent the day cleaning blood, flesh and decay off the floor of the vault in Paris, Raz went to see his Parisian lady friend.

“Clarissa.”

“Right. He left me in the bath.”

“I rang while you were in the bath,” John said. “You spoke with me and Max.”

“I remember.”

“You seemed all right, just tired. But something happened?”

“I started crying.” Alex closed her eyes at the memory. “I’ve read about this kind of thing happening in my Psych texts. A person dissociates feelings during a crisis. After calming down, the feelings come back.”

“Like what happened when you were held hostage?” John asked.

“Different. This was emotion. No memories. No sensations. Just a flood of sadness. I collapsed in the middle of our sitting area.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I couldn’t. It’s hard to imagine but I was that upset. Before he left, Raz ordered dinner for me. When room service arrived, they called the agent that was handling us. You remember him, don’t you?”

John nodded.

“The agent called a doctor.”

“CIA doctor?”

“Yes. The agent waited for the doctor then went to get Raz. By the time Raz arrived, the doctor had given me a shot and I was calm, kind of blank. The doctor told Raz to give me a shot every morning and every night. Raz stayed with me to make sure I was all right.”

“So it’s his baby?”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Alex, he knows you’re pregnant. He was there in Paris. You slept together in Paris.”

“We shared a bed. He didn’t want me to be alone because I’m not any good in the dark alone. You’re the one who told him, ‘Don’t leave her alone in the dark.’ That’s what you told Raz. I was a month behind on the map phone. I’d planned on working at night so he could see Clarissa.”

John’s face flushed. He looked away from her.

Staring at the ceiling, she felt a wave of futility overcome her.

Failing. She was failing again.

Pulling the covers around her chin, she steeled herself for the rest of this conversation.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I haven’t known what to think. I should have asked rather than jumped to my own conclusions. I’ve been a jerk.”

“I understand. I’m sorry I haven’t told you.”

“You were telling me how you got pregnant.”

“The CIA doctor gave me a chemical which messes with the depo shot. It’s supposed to decrease my cortisol level. Raz gave me a shot in the morning and one at night. Remember? We called them ‘zombie shots’ because I was so numb.”

“I remember,” John said. “He said it was…”

“Vitamins. That’s what the doctor told us. Bodybuilders take it so he called it ‘vitamins.’ It wasn’t. My brand new gyno, Janelle? She talked to the doctor. My handler told the doctor I was the only one who could do what I was doing. The doctor thought the drug would allow me to get through the week. It probably did. He didn’t know I was on the depo shot. So that’s how.”

“We’re pregnant. You and I.”

Alex gave him an exasperated look. Biting back the nasty comment that lingered on her tongue, she nodded. When she looked up, John was watching her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because…” Alex let out a breath. “The baby is not…”

She had practiced the words in her head a thousand times. When it came time to say them out loud, she couldn’t say them. She looked at his sincere blue eyes and concerned face. Turning from him, she stared at the ceiling.

“You can tell me.”

She turned to him.

“He has chromosomal damage. Janelle expected me to miscarry before now. Plus I’m…”

“He?” The word burst from John’s lips.

“Simon,” Alex whispered. “I named him Simon.”

“Alex, we…”

Turning her face back to ceiling, she raised her hand. He stopped talking.

“I know what you’re going to say. We can’t keep him. Children conceived on the depo shot live less than a year. How can we bring a being so damaged into this world? I know. I know. I know.”

She knew what should be done. She simply couldn’t bear doing it.

“I’ve killed a lot of people… adults… who were trying to kill me. But I can’t kill him. I can’t kill him. I just can’t so don’t tell me to.”

“Why is Raz upset?”

“He feels responsible.” She rolled onto her side to look at him. He stroked her face. “He knows how much I want a child. And…”

“That’s why you didn’t tell me.”

“You’ll want to do what’s right.” Alex shrugged. “But what feels right is to let him live, as long as he can, and let God decide.”

“God. Yes, well. You’ve spoken with Father Seamus?”

“No way. He’d find some way to tell Mom.” Alex curled her lip at the idea of her mother getting involved in this situation. Shrugging off her mother induced irritation, she added, “I spent an afternoon with Brother Keith at the friary.”

“You worked in the garden at the Capuchin Franciscan friary one day last week,” John said. “What did Brother Keith say?”

“He said the Pope is very clear on this subject but God is less clear.”

“Sounds like Brother Keith.”

Speaking no louder than a whisper, she continued, “He asked me what I would do if a loved one was mortally wounded and suffering. Would I end his pain? Or let God decide? By keeping Simon, was I being compassionate or selfish? God would want me to be compassionate.”

John’s eyes caressed her face. With his hand at the side of her face, he leaned forward to kiss her.

“It’s a terrible burden to carry alone. May I share this burden with you?”

Alex looked up at him. Her eyes scoured his face looking for anger or judgment. She saw only love on his beautiful face. Burying her head in his shoulder, she sighed.

“What’s it like to be pregnant?”

“Weird, fun, exciting. It’s like a little butterfly lives in my diaphragm.”

“You’re not tired or sick?” he asked

“No. I feel… excited.”

“We talked about having kids when we were first married.”

“That was a long time ago and… well… we don’t have kids.”

“We’ve been kind of busy.” John chuckled. “My school, your work, my work, your injury, your work, my work…”

“How do you feel about all of this?”

“I feel… a lot of different things. Relieved. I’m an idiot, but I convinced myself you were pregnant with Raz’s baby.”

“Why would you believe that?”

“He loves you. You love him. It’s not such a stretch.”

“He has a vasectomy, John. You arranged for Emily to do the procedure.”

“I did.” John’s eyes flicked back and forth from her face. “So you’re saying you and Raz…”

“What is wrong with you? Of course not.”

She rolled away from him to stare at the ceiling. He pulled her back to his shoulder.

“You’re not the same,” he said. “That’s the easiest way to say it. You haven’t been the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“In some ways? You are stronger, more fun, wild like you used to be before you were injured. You aren’t depressed anymore. That is for sure. But in other ways? You’re distant, cooler. I’m terrified you’re closer to someone else or maybe you don’t want to be with me.”

She smoothed his curly hair.

“I’m exhausted,” she said. “We’ve done one stupid project after another.”

She fell silent.

“You know that,” she said.

“I do.”

“I’m not right, you know, in my head. God, Eleazar is dead and yet his presence is in every corner of my life. I don’t have a home. My bees are still at the old property. Everyone expects me to be strong and capable but I’m not strong… or capable… I’m supposed to be a leader… I completely suck at it. All I have is a pile of uninteresting work.”

She fell silent. He stroked her shoulder.

“I feel like there’s no safe place to rest my head,” she whispered.

Pulling her lips into a tight line, she wished she had not let the thought out of her head.

“You have me.”

“Yes, my husband who thinks I’m fucking my partner.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean for my insecurity to injure you.”

Alex shrugged.

“I’m still… recovering…,” John said. “Yes, recovering is probably the best word. I’m recovering from losing you last fall. I thought I would never see you again. I…”

Alex nodded watching his eyes fill with unshed tears.

“I love you,” he said.

She smiled.

“How is it for you to be pregnant?” she asked.

“Oh, as usual, I want to…”

“…control everything,” they said together. They laughed.

“I’m excited and very sad. I knew we couldn’t keep him…”

“Because of the depo?”

“Because of the depo. But, oh I don’t know. It’s so… normal to be pregnant. Last year, we’ve had a real church wedding in front of our families and friends. Now we’re pregnant… It’s like we’re normal people.”

John smiled. Alex looked up at his face and they laughed.

“And finally you’re barefoot and pregnant,” John said. In a flood of speech, he began: “And our lives will be entwined forever. He’ll be beautiful with his mother’s brown eyes and my brain. And he’ll grow big and strong. He will laugh all the time like his mother. We’ll take him to the park to play on the swings. We’ll buy car seats and baby clothing. Your breasts will get huge. I’ll work to support us. And…”

He stopped talking when she sniffed at a tear. He rolled onto his side. Holding her face, he wiped her tears with his thumbs.

“And I wouldn’t be me. And you wouldn’t be you. We’d live someone else’s life.”

“That’s what you want.”

“Never. I want you. I want to be me. You?”

“There’s a little Catholic girl inside me who wants all of that and more,” she said. “But I’d never be happy. Never. And Simon won’t live. I…  I don’t think I can have babies. So it’s all a dream.”

“A nightmare, sounds like.”

“I guess so,” she said. “I do love you, John Kelly.”

“I’m so very glad. How much time do we have?”

“About a half hour,” she said.

He slipped on top of her. He caught her lips then work his way from her face. She gasped at his teeth pulling on her nipple.

He stopped. Pushing himself up onto his elbow, he looked up into her face.

“Simon? You named my son, Simon?”

Alex laughed.

F

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER FIVE

“Why is the resolution of every B horror movie so anti-climatic?” Raz asked.

He stood between Matthew and Troy watching Alex work. Standing on a chair, Alex played eeny, meeny, miny, moe with the square at the top of the north wall.

“Because it’s a resolution?” Troy replied. “Alex, have you found a…”

Alex hit the last square and there was a soft click. A door sized one-inch depression appeared in the wall. Alex cursed.

“Our exit is covered…” She started.

Troy punctured the depression with the knife from his mini-tool. The small blade stuck in the dry wall. Pulling a nine inch bowie knife from its sleeve on his leg, Matthew held the larger knife up to Troy.

“Now, this is a knife.” Matthew gave his best Crocodile Dundee.

“Don’t start dissing my mini-tool or…”

“OLIVAS. MAC CLENAGHAN.” Alex jumped down from her chair. “Knock it off.”

Mumbling, ‘He started it,’ the men cut the dry wall around the door. Raz grabbed pieces and threw them off to the side. They revealed a metal sliding door.

“Hutchins? Tell the Jakker we’ll be five minutes,” Alex said.

Vince relayed the message to Alex’s Sergeant then disconnected her pocket computer.

“Gas masks. Check to make sure your oxygen is working. Check the person next to you.”

The men put on their gas masks then checked each other.

“Special Forces first,” Alex commanded. “Prisoner in the middle. Agent Rasmussen and Captain Hutchins and I will take the back.”

Sliding open the metal door, Troy revealed another concrete door. He groaned. Alex swatted him out of the way. There was a combination lock on the door. She opened the padlock then stepped aside. Matthew and Troy pulled open the door.

“Everyone. Guns out. We do not know what we’ll encounter. Let’s make certain we are on guard.” Seeing Jessie ahead, she said, “Ok. Go.”

Alex put on her mask when Matthew and Troy ran down the tunnel. Raz checked her oxygen. Reaching a turn, Troy ran ahead. Matthew signaled for the Weasel and his guards to enter the tunnel. Alex watched their backs as they moved down the tunnel. Raz nudged Alex into the tunnel.

They heard the sharp report of machine gunfire.

“Go,” Alex yelled.

Raz and Vince ran down the tunnel. Using all her strength, Alex yanked the cement door closed then reset the lock. Running down the tunnel, she found Raz waiting for her. They ran together down the rest of the tunnel.

“They were shooting so Zack would notice them.” Raz shouted through the mask. “They are going up on wires.”

“Can you make a wire?” Alex asked.

“No other option,” Raz said.

Alex shook her head at his usual response to his back pain. She opened her mouth to ask again about his option to have surgery then realized it was pointless. He was going to do what he was going to do.

They slowed at the entrance. Troy and Matthew had hacked enough space to step around the enormous Cottonwood tree trunk that grew over the tunnel’s entrance. On fire, the tree dropped flame and ember in the opening. Raz stepped a leg through the opening. Pressing his chest against the smoldering tree trunk, he shifted to pull his other leg through.

His back seized. With Alex pushing on one side, and Vince pulling on the other, they managed to get him through opening.

When Alex stepped, her left hip cramped. Vince pulled her through the opening. They stood in a small clearing surrounded by burning timber. She pointed to the wire. Vince clipped himself to the wire and went up with Raz.

Her forgotten ear bud squealed then began working.

“Heya Alex,” Zack said. “I’ve got everyone. You gonna hike out?”

Alex waved up to him. She saw movement in the passenger compartment and Troy slid down with a wire. Hooking her to the wire, he wrapped himself around her.

“To what do I owe this pleasure,” Alex yelled through her mask.

“Lost a bet,” he laughed. “Your hip’s off. I didn’t think you could make the wire.”

She smiled her thanks. At the passenger compartment, the men pulled Alex and Troy into the compartment. They piled their gear and masks into a cargo container then took their seats.

“Where to?” Zack asked through the intercom.

“Super Max,” Alex replied. “We’re taking this one home.”

“WAIT!” The Weasel screamed.

Troy pulled the helicopter door closed and the men clicked into their seats. Following Alex’s lead, they ignored the Weasel protests. The helicopter flew across Southern Colorado then slowed as they approached the United States Penitentiary Administration Maximum Facility.

“Last chance,” Alex said. “Talk now or forget it.”

The Weasel motioned her to sit next to him on the helicopter. She responded by forcing him to sit next to her. Untaped and undocumented, for the remainder of the trip, the Weasel told Alex everything he knew about the murder of the Fey Special Forces Team. When the helicopter landed, the Weasel’s mouth closed. Without saying another word, he and his guards left the helicopter.

“What was that?” Raz asked.

Alex shook her head. Buckling into her seat, she stared out the window at the dark clouds of the snowstorm.

What was that indeed?

FFFFF

Two hours later
Tuesday Night
March 25 – 7:30 P.M. MDT
Military Intelligence, Buckley Air Force Base

Alex waited until the last of the men checked through medical before returning to her office. She sent her Sergeant home, shut off the phones then began filing out the stack of paperwork on her desk. Every assignment came with at least one stack of papers. This year, she and the men had completed one stupid assignment after another until the paperwork towered on Alex’s desk. Flipping on her coffee maker, she settled in for a long night.

The coffee maker had finished its last burble when a coffee mug entered her line of site. She looked up to see her boss, Colonel Howard Gordon. He was wearing a dark cap and his overcoat as if he stopped by on his way home.

“I was surprised you didn’t look up when I came in,” he said. “Fascinating paper work?”

“Oh…” She sighed. “I fill in the boxes while I think about something else. I was miles away.”

He sat down across from her.

“How did it go today?” he asked.

“Which part?”

He laughed.

“You might have missed the reports, but there was an incident while attempting to interview the Weasel.” Alex shrugged. “I know you’re busy.”

“Yes, Major. I missed entirely the destruction of a national wilderness area.”

“I guess that’s not funny,” she said. Holding up a stack of pages, she added, “But it does provide for some excellent paperwork opportunities!”

“You have a Sergeant to do your paperwork,” he said. “You have a second in command. Hell, you have an intelligence officer in training who has nothing to do.”

“Oh shit, I completely forgot about him,” Alex said. “Is he still locked away at Fort Carson?”

“He was released by Captain Mac Clenaghan. While you were with Agent Rasmussen at the hospital, Captain Mac Clenaghan drove to Fort Carson for Sergeant Flagg. They are on their way to Denver right now.”

“Oh, thank God,” Alex said. She took a long drink of her coffee. “See, my second in command can’t do the paperwork. He’s busy with Flagg.”

“Major Drayson.”

“Yes sir,” Alex said.

“How did it go with your team?”

“What team?” Alex asked. “They fought with each other. They thought I was crazy. I had to yell at them to knock it off more than once. They were like competent tornados each working toward their own end. I… “

She shook her head.

“I suck,” she said. “I can’t do this ‘command a team’ thing.”

“Every leader feels that way sometimes,” Colonel Gordon said. “You need to get your feet under you.”

“I was wondering, sir, if I might join a team?”

Colonel Gordon’s scowled. This was not the first time he had heard this request.

“I’d happily take a lower rank and…”

He opened his mouth to say something then changed his mind. Shaking his head, he looked away from her.

“There are two wars going on, sir,” she said. “I’m an okay intelligence officer. And as you know, there’s more than a hundred people held hostage in the world at any given time. I could join the team that replaced us and…”

“Alexandra Hargreaves!”

“Sir?”

She scanned his face. His bushy eyebrows betrayed his worry over his obvious anger. She smiled as if he caught her with her hand in the cookie jar. He sighed.

“Maybe I could go back to drawing maps?” She gave him a big smile.

“Alex.” Pulling his cap off, he ran a hand through is bushy gray hair. “Every leader goes through exactly what you’re feeling. Hell, I’ve had many sleepless nights over this very same issue. The key is to find what works for you.”

“Charlie was so…”

“Charles O’Brien is dead, Alex,” Colonel Gordon said. “He was an exceptional man, a natural leader, and my friend. But he is gone. You have to learn to carry on without him.”

Nodding, Alex pursed her lips to keep from displaying her desperate grief at the words: ‘Charles O’Brien is dead.’

“Listen,” Colonel Gordon said. “I’m sorry. I see so much potential in you and wish you could see it yourself. You collected these men from assignments around the world. They came to here to work with you. Each man is the best soldier in his class. Period. And they aren’t easy. You didn’t pick them because they were easy. You picked them because they were your friends. And they left great assignments to work here with you.”

“But sir…”

“They’re pains in the ass. Every single one of them. Did you hear the feed from the Jakker while he waited for you? He disobeyed a direct order to return to base. A big fat ‘fuck you’ from the Jakker.”

“Are their repercussions to his defiance?”

“Christ, Alex. That’s my point. Everything the Jakker does is defiant.”

Alex shrugged.

“It might help if you filled the other slots in your team with neutral players,” Colonel Gordon said. “You still need…”

“No Marines,” she said. “I’ve never had good luck with Marines, sir.”

“You need at least one more Navy and two Marines. That’s not to mention your glaring lack of medics.”

“See, I suck as a leader.”

Alex tried her ‘please-sir-can-I-stop-doing-the-job-I-suck-at’ smile. Colonel Gordon glared in response. Her smile faded.

“The Fey Special Forces Team’s first year was not easy, you know.”

“But we had…”

“Charlie,” they said together.

“Yes,” he said. He softened. “Listen, I’ve never known anyone who has continued working after what you have been through. Most people retire.”

“I could retire,” she said. “Ben said he’s retiring this year. I could…”

“You know you cannot retire,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“I could draw maps.”

Her eyes lit up with glee at the idea of retreating into the solitary joy of cartography.

“The Admiral would like you to return to extracting hostages. You’re supposed to be…”

“Creating a team that will extract hostages around the world,” Alex finished his sentence. “Problem is? I suck.”

“Alexandra.”

“Ok, you know what I’m really good at?” She pointed to the paperwork on her desk. “Paperwork is my specialty.”

Colonel Gordon raised his hands in submission to her sarcasm.

“What do you need to make this work?” he asked. “I’m authorized to give you any resource, training…”

“I need Joseph Walter,” she said. “He would know how to pull this team together. You’re right. We need to a few neutral members. He’d know how to choose the right people.”

While Colonel Gordon nodded his head, he eyes spoke his remorse.

“But?” she asked.

“It’s complicated. Fort Carson had dibs on him for their training staff. He can’t come here and be there. You know that.”

Alex nodded. She did know that. She just hoped for the help she needed. Sometimes she felt as if she was set up to fail. She sighed at her no-win situation.

“Don’t give up, Alex,” he said. “That’s really what I came in here to say. Everyone struggles, especially their first year. Just don’t give up.”

Picking up his cap, he stood to leave. He stopped in front of a photograph of the Fey Special Forces Team goofing for the camera. The photo was taken after they had rescued their first hostages – five journalists from the jungles of Central America. Colonel Gordon leaned closer to look at their faces. They seemed so young and happy. He stepped back from the photo.

“What did the Weasel have to say?”

“Nothing. Everything. Who knows?” Alex replied. “There are so many little itsy bitsy pieces to this puzzle. Somehow they fit together, but how? I have no idea how to connect the dots.”

“Perses was there? I always thought he was a myth or legend.”

“Perses accepted a contract to assess the viability of a hit on the Fey and the Weasel. He led us to Shelter 17. I probably could have found it but not in time. Plus he had the key.”

“Odd behavior for an assassin.”

“He owes me a favor or six. And, yes sir, he’s odd.”

“Well good night,” Colonel Gordon said. “We’ll talk again tomorrow.”

“Yes sir.”

“And Alex, go home. You’ve done enough today,” he said. “Let Sergeant Flagg become an expert in paperwork.”

“Yes sir,” she said.

He raised a hand in ‘good-bye’ then walked out of her office. Looking from stack to stack, she finished her mug of coffee then poured another. She wandered to the place where Colonel Gordon stood. Her finger touched each face.

“Go home, Alex,” Jesse said appearing beside her. “There are no answers here.”

Nodding to Jesse, Alex dressed in her winter gear. Limping on her injured hip, she pulled her office door closed.

“Walk you to your car?” Jesse asked.

She nodded.

“Did I ever tell…?”

FFFFFF

Tuesday night
March 25 — 9:40 P.M. MDT.
Fillmore Auditorium
Denver, CO

John and Max were watching the roadies finish setting up for DeVotchka.

“Remind me. Why are we here?” John yelled to Max over the background music.

Max raised his eyebrows. He nodded his head toward the Slavic Sisters. The women trapeze artists were testing their aerial silk cloth.

“Yes, very interesting,” John nodded. “But…”

John felt a hand on his shoulder. He grimaced to Max then turned to see who touched him.

“Hi John,” the woman said. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

John tried to remember the woman’s name. She worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital or at least he thought she worked at the hospital. She spent so much time pushing her inflated chest and lips in John’s direction that conversation was nearly impossible. Too polite to actually dismiss her, he avoided her as much as possible.

“I heard your wife is out of town.” Her tiny hand caressed his arm. “When I saw you here, I figured you were looking for some company.”

John stepped away from the woman. She bat her long eyelashes at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Max laughing at him.

“Listen,” John started but his words were lost over the trumpet playing announcing the start of the concert. His attention jerked to the stage. Maybe if he ignored this woman…

While the band played their first song, the Slavic Sisters vibrated the aerial silk to the music. The silk tapestry billowed down from the stage hitting John’s face. He stepped back to stay out of the way. The trapeze artist winked at John then flipped the fabric from his face.

Smiling her crooked smile, Alex stood in its place.

In a breath, she was in his arms. She giggled when he lifted her from the ground. She wrapped her legs around his middle, their lips fused in passionate consumption.

When John pulled back to look at her, DeVotchka’s lead singer, Nick, yelled, “Drayson, get a room!” The crowd cheered in agreement.

With a nod to Max, John carried his laughing Alex through the crowded venue to Colfax Boulevard. He set her down for a moment then instantly regretted the decision.

“The cab’s waiting for us,” Alex started.

He lifted her back into his arms and carried her to the cab. Nestled in the back of the cab, they took the short ride to their new home. John scooped her off the sidewalk and carried her into the house. They kissed and stroked their way up the stairs until, unable to wait any longer, they made fast love on the third floor landing.

“Wanna try out the bath?” Alex asked.

“Very much so. But the water’s not hooked up to it yet.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story. Shower?”

“Bed?”

“You’re so traditional,” he said.

Opening the door to their bedroom, they were hit with a blast of cold air.

“NO HEAT?!?”

Alex ran to jump under the covers.

“You weren’t due back until tomorrow.”

“Lemme guess, long story?”

“I know how to warm you.”

Slipping under the covers, he did just that.

F

Learning to Stand is the second novel in the Alex the Fey thriller series
written by Claudia Hall Christian.

The novel is available in paperback at Amazon, our store, your local library and bookstore.
Entire chapters are be published at On-a-limb.com,
StoriesbyClaudia.com and AlextheFey.com.

Join the Alex the Fey Facebook Group

How to look like you’re a member of the Fey Team

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER FOUR

Raz threw himself on top of Alex. They fell backwards in her chair just before a particularly violent explosion. The lights in the room flickered, sparked then went out. The room shook. Every chair fell over. The mortar made a tinkling sound as it fell onto the concrete floor. A portion of the ceiling tiles crashed onto the table. The hot air filled with cement dust and mortar.

And somehow, the room remained intact.

“Was that for me?” the Weasel yelled over the explosions. He belly crawled until his face right next to Alex’s. “They want me dead.”

“Yes,” she said.

“I thought… I thought the explosions were for you or these guys or the weirdo the guards didn’t know or…”

“OK,” Vince yelled. “That’s probably it.”

“I…” The Weasel shook his head back and forth.

“Call!” Alex yelled.

“Hutchins.”

“Olivas.”

“Mac Clenaghan.”

“Rasmussen.”

“Drayson,” Alex finished. “Guards.”

“Here.”

“Your prisoner is over here.”

Through the dark, a circle of light from a head light came in their direction.

“Jeez, I knew it,” Troy said. “Do you guys ever take a break? Any chance you have, you’re humping away.”

He reached down to help Raz up.

“That’s you, Troy,” Alex said.

Midway up, Raz’s back seized in spasm. Raz let out an involuntary gasp. Troy set him down next to Alex.

“You know? That is me,” Troy said. “Mattie, I could use a hand here.”

Another headlamp circle of light moved across the dark room.

“I love the ladies,” Troy said.

“All ladies. One at a time,” Alex, Raz, Matthew and Troy said together. They laughed.

Matthew took Raz’s other arm.

“Can you stand?” Matthew asked. “Alex, do you have your pill packet?”

“Yep,” Alex said.

Alex rolled to sitting. Digging through her pockets, she found the packet of pills John insisted she carry with her. She gave the packet to Matthew.

“Ready?” Matthew said.

With Matthew and Troy supporting him, Raz stood. He shifted back and forth then nodded. Troy and Matthew let go. Raz tried to take a step but was unable to.

“Maybe you should sit for a minute,” Troy said, “Collect your thoughts and all.”

Alex righted a chair and the men helped Raz into the chair. Matthew gave Raz a couple anti-inflammatory pills and a pain pill from Alex’s packet. He offered one to her but she shook her head.

“I need a report,” Alex said.

“What about me?” the Weasel asked.

“Guards?” Alex asked. “Can you stay with your prisoner?”

“Yes, Major.” The guards helped the Weasel back to a chair then stood with him.

“Olivas? Where’s my feed?”

“MAJOR!?!?” A man’s voice boomed over the room’s audio system.

“Sergeant?” Alex asked.

“I was able to hook up everything, but the connection wasn’t working,” Troy said. He walked with her over to where he’d hooked her pocket computer to the phone lines. “The last explosion must have connected the wires.”

“Major?” Alex’s Sergeant asked. “I can hear you talking but I can’t tell what you’re saying. Cheyenne Mountain reported a ping from Shelter 17. I informed them you reviewed the shelters last week.”

“Sergeant? Can you hear me now?” Alex moved over to the phone.

“Oh, thank God,” her Sergeant said. “Colonel Gordon is here as well. He’d like a report.”

“Sir, we were taken to Shelter 17 prior to explosion. The explosions began while we were in the stairwell. Outside of minor injury, we are all accounted for.”

“And that little weasel?”

“He and his guards are present.”

“Well done, Major,” Colonel Gordon said.

“Sergeant, the last explosion seems to have knocked out our power. Can you ask Cheyenne Mountain about back up power?”

“Major,” Colonel Gordon said. “We have a report from the Jakker. The last explosion caused extensive damage to the mountain. He’s hovering right over Shelter 17 and believes he can see the door. We are sending a team into the area.”

“Sir, we experienced an explosive chain. Let’s wait to be sure. If we get power…”

There was a mechanical hum. The lights flickered before coming on. Climate control kicked in and the room began to cool off.

“Power and climate control,” Alex said. “Thank you, Sergeant.”

“Cheyenne Mountain has control of the room. They needed to know how many people to control the oxygen flow. They say there’s MREs near the front of the room. Do you remember where to find water? Latrine? Field protective masks? Oxygen?”

“Yes, Sergeant. Thank you.”

“We’ll wait to hear from you,” Colonel Gordon said. “In the meantime, sit tight.”

“Sir?” Alex’s Sergeant asked.

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“I will stay at base so you don’t have to rely on back-up assistance. You can reach me when you need me.”

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Alex said. “Oh, and Sergeant?”

“Yes, Major?”

“What happened to Sergeant Flagg?”

“He’s at Fort Carson bossing everyone around.”

“Can you relay a ‘knock it off’ message from me?”

“Yes Major. They have locked him in a room. Will that do?”

“Yes Sergeant,” Alex said. “Thank you.”

Alex turned around to see all of the expectant faces. In each face, she saw competence, intelligence, and arrogance. They’d wanted to work for her. They’d each jumped at the chance to stand right here with her.

And she had no idea what to do next. The familiar ache and annoying longing for Charlie returned.

“We sit tight,” she said. “Raz, what’s our oxygen supply like?”

“The room is set up to generate oxygen from the atmosphere,” he said. “As long as we have power, we have oxygen.”

“Matthew, what did Cheyenne Mountain say?”

“The mountain is on fire from the explosions. The forest service is flying to put out the worst of the fire before it spreads. They believe we’ll have snow soon.”

“How much snow?” Alex asked.

“A lot,” Matthew replied. “Couple of feet at the minimum. The Jakker is in the air over our site. He’s waiting to get us but, the snow…”

“He can’t fly in a blizzard. We either risk the fire or wait out the snow storm. Any idea of how long that might be?”

“Three days.” Matthew looked away from her. He crossed his arms then looked back, “Probably five.”

“Five days of snow?” Alex asked.

“We’re over 10,000 feet.”

“Ok, what are you not telling me?” Alex asked.

“Vince and I checked the door while you were talking to base.”

“And?”

“We’re buried. I don’t know what Zack sees or thinks he sees…”

“And that means?”

“I estimate we’ll be in this room for at least a week,” Matthew said. “Maybe longer.”

“I’m not spending a week in this room,” Troy said. “I have a date tonight.”

Alex tugged on her hair in irritation. What would Charlie do? Exhaling, she chose to go back to basics.

“We go step-wise. I need an assessment of our supplies. Do we have enough food and water to sustain us for a week or more? Cheyenne Mountain has environmental control. Next step is food. Troy, can you look for medical supplies? We may need those.”

Matthew and Troy set to work at their tasks. Alex sighed. At least if they were working, they weren’t bitching.

“Major?” Vince asked. “I was able to use your pocket computer to hook into the base computers. Your Sergeant helped me re-run our models. I believe we’ve seen the last of the major explosions. It’s possible there is one more pocket of methane about ten miles from here.”

“Houses?”

“Still wilderness. Thank God. I also have live feed from Zack. I can project it. Would you like to see it?”

Alex nodded.

The screen at the front of the room lit up to show the horrifying destruction. The mountain had been ripped apart by the blasts. The pine forest was engulfed in flame. What had been old growth forest and meadow was now barren rock, dirt, dust and fire. Forest Service planes dropped water onto the fire.

Matthew and Troy moved to stand next to her. Raz stood behind Alex. Stunned by the devastation of pristine wilderness, they couldn’t tear their eyes away.

“These are explosion sites,” Vince walked to the screen to point to areas of forest. “I would guess we’ll find explosives at every site we chose. We won’t know for sure until we check, but I’d bet a hundred bucks they were set off by hand.”

“Because of the delay?” Alex asked.

“Right,” Vince said.

“We have a leak but it’s not within our group,” Matthew said. “We’re looking at someone with a lot of money and access to our… computers?”

“Or theirs,” Raz said. He pointed to the guards. “You report your location?”

“Yes sir,” The guard said.

“Your life insurance is paid up?” Troy asked.

Alex turned back to the control panel table and her pocket computer.

“Sergeant?”

“Yes, Major?”

“Can you ask the Jakker to check heat and radar for people? While you’re at it, can you send the satellite feed… uh…?”

“Heat, motion and visual,” Raz said.

“Did you get that?”

“Yes Major,” her Sergeant said. “What are we looking for?”

“People. I’d hate to meet shooters on our way out of this room.”

“Yes Major.”

“Also, can you start the paper chain for a quiet check of our other sites?”

“Yes, Major.”

“Thanks.”

“Major?”

“Yes, Sergeant,” Alex said.

“Your father called. He asked me to tell you, ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe’.”

“Yes, thank you, Sergeant, “Alex said.

Alex closed her eyes. Unable to deal with the expectation on the men’s faces, she turned away from them.

What the hell did her father mean?

“Major?” Vince asked.

Turning toward him, she saw the satellite imaging on the screen.

“Can you and Raz work with that?” Alex asked. Walking toward the east wall, Alex pointed, “The latrines are here. Water is located…”

“It’s here with the MREs,” Troy said.

“Thanks. I need a moment,” Alex said. Matthew moved toward her but she shook her head. Smiling to reassure him, she said, “Need to think.”

Taking a bottle of water from Troy, she walked to a chair near the back of the room. From her location, she watched the men work with the satellite imaging. She was so lost in thought, she didn’t notice Jessie until he spoke.

“Boo.” He laughed when she startled. “I always wanted to say that.”

She smiled at him.

“Bet you wondered where I’ve been,” he said.

She nodded while taking a drink of water.

“I was bored with being stuck in rooms.”

She laughed. Jesse had been her constant companion last fall.

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe?” she mumbled into her water bottle.

“Walls. Count the walls. You’ve forgotten.”

She shrugged her ‘What else is new?’

“Two ways in and two ways out?”

She looked at him.

“You’re right,” he responded to her look. “The second exits were determined to be security risks in the 1980s. They were cemented in. But remember who made these rooms?”

Alex smiled.

“I found a tunnel, but I can’t figure out how it connects to the room.” Noting the smile on Alex’s face, he said, “I figured you’d know how to find the door.”

She stretched her neck side to side to indicate her lack of certainty.

“Well, Zack is confident you will get out. He’s been ordered to return to base, but he hasn’t gone. The winds are picking up so he’ll have to leave soon.”

Alex nodded. She glanced at Jessie.

“You’re welcome,” he said. “Better get going lazy butt.”

Taking a drink of water, Alex walked from wall to wall. Each wall was supposed to be marked – eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

Dropping her head back, she noticed a diamond with four boxes drawn into the cement near the ceiling. Walking from wall to wall, the diamonds were repeated. Every diamond shape had the same four letters within the square – E, M, m, M. The letters rotated around the diamond. The south wall had an ‘E’ in the square at the upper point of the diamond. A capital ‘M’ held that position on the east wall. North wall’s diamond had a small ‘m’ at its point where as the west wall had another capital ‘M.’

Eeny, Meeny, miny, Moe.

The exit was in the north wall.

“Ok,” Alex said. “Let’s pack up and get out of here. The Jakker isn’t going to be in the air much longer. We need to get going.”

Every face gawked at her. She smiled.

“To answer your question, Captain Mc Clenaghan,” Alex said. “These rooms were built in the early 1930s. As you can imagine, there was a tremendous political unrest during the Depression. The rooms were designed to hold portions of the government for an extended period of time. There’s one in almost every state. The rooms are connected via telephone and wire. The government could run in hiding.

“Although the Army Corps of engineers designed the rooms, they were built by individual contractors. In most cases, they were built by people who had experience covering their tracks.”

Alex looked from face to face. She saw only skepticism. Raz’s face pinched as if she had lost her mind.

“The rooms were built by bootleggers!” Alex smiled. “They knew the rooms would never be used. The bootleggers built then used the rooms to store alcohol. Remember, Prohibition was the law during the Depression. They found forgotten cases of bourbon when they remodeled in the 1980s.”

“Troy, I need you to distribute the field protective masks; the ones with the mini-oxygen tanks. Vince? Can you make sure everyone is hydrated? Matthew? Will you tell Cheyenne we are getting out? Guards? Secure your prisoner for transport. Remember, the forest is on fire!”

Raz was about to intervene when she said, “Get moving! That’s an order.”

F

Learning to Stand is the second novel in the Alex the Fey thriller series
written by Claudia Hall Christian.

The novel is available in paperback at Amazon, our store, your local library and bookstore.
Entire chapters are be published at On-a-limb.com,
StoriesbyClaudia.com and AlextheFey.com.

Join the Alex the Fey Facebook Group

How to look like you’re a member of the Fey Team