In the Grey (10 page)

“
And don’t work,” Alex
said.

“
But why would she do
this?” Troy asked.

“
Why do you think?” Alex
asked.

Troy shook his
head.

“
I’d guess that she used
her ability to make the drones to bargain with Hector,” Alex said.
“Maybe for another child. Maybe for better treatment for the boys.
Hector James said that the fact they don’t do anything other than
fly was a secret. It’s possible that your brother didn’t know that.
He could have easily thought the nanodrones were spying on him.
Could have kept him in line.”

“
He sold the drones to any
interested country,” Patrick said. “Finished product, no
plans.”

“
We thought that was good
business,” Alex said. “But now . . .”

“
He couldn’t make them,”
Troy fell back in his chair. “Wow.”

“
We’d like you to read
your brother’s books,” Joseph said. “He became very famous around
the time Hector James was born.”

“
Anything else?” Troy
nodded.

“
We need to talk to the
boys,” Alex said. “It’s probably best to have their therapist with
them so we don’t freak them out.”

“
I’ll set it up,” Troy
said. “And I’m sorry. I didn’t remember. I’d never hold back
something I thought was important. I didn’t put it
together.”

Alex nodded. Troy got up
and left the room.

“
Do you believe him?”
Patrick asked.

“
I do,” Alex said. “But
he’s holding something back.”

“
His grief?”

“
No, something about the
plans,” Alex said.

“
Do you think he gave them
to Dahlia?” Joseph asked.

“
I think he knows who
did,” Alex said.

“
Should
we . . . ?” Patrick asked.

“
No,” Alex said. “We need
to trust him. He’s never been good with secrets. He’ll tell us
eventually.”

“
You’re sure this
thing . . .” Patrick gestured to the nanodrone.
“It’s important?”

“
To the bigger picture,”
Alex said. “I wonder if Hector and Eniac knew each
other.”

“
Or if Dahlia knew Eniac?”
Joseph nodded.

“
Troy said specifically
that he would never not say
something . . .”

“
If he thought it was
important,” Patrick said.

“
He must not think it
matters,” Alex said.

“
Why would he lie about
this?” Joseph asked.

“
No way to know,” Alex
said. “We need to trust him. Let’s give him space and see what he
does.”

Patrick gave her a hard
look and walked out of the room.

“
He can be horrifying,”
Joseph said.

“
Yeah,” Alex
grimaced.

Joseph touched her
shoulder and left the room. Alex nodded to herself.

“
Your call from California
is on line two,” Sergeant Dusty said.

Smiling, Alex picked up
the phone.

FFFFFF
Saturday, midday

November 6 – 12:42 p.m.
MDT

Denver,
Colorado

“
I’m out for the rest of
the day,” Alex said to her team. “You can reach me on my cell phone
and . . .”

Alex dug in her pocket to
hold up the phone.

“
I even know where it
is!”

The team
cheered.

“
Dusty will keep tabs on
me as well. Troy and Colin are with me,” Alex said. “The General’s
team might ask for your assistance. Assist at will, but remember
that you’re responsible for completing your tasks.”

“
Yes, sir,” the team
called.

“
Sir,” White Boy raised
his hand. “Any word on Andy?”

“
Taken care of, Captain,”
Alex said. “Trece is currently being processed at Pelican Bay
Prison.”

“
Thank you, sir,” White
Boy said. “May I call his wife?”

“
You may,” Alex
said.

“
What should I tell her?”
White Boy looked so lost it was all she could do to not hug
him.

“
Tell her that she can
expect me to return him when he’s done,” Alex said. “She’ll know
what I mean.”

“
You mean, he’s working?”
Margaret asked.

“
Did you think I’d give
him a vacation when we have so much work to do?” Alex
smiled.

The team
chuckled.

“
Don’t worry. He’s in good
hands,” Alex said. “I won’t let him or any of you get lost, shoved
aside, or caught up in stupid crap. It’s not going to be easy for
him, but I’m sure he’ll have plenty of big stories to tell when he
gets back.”

“
But he will come back?”
Leena asked.

“
Oh, he’ll be back,” Alex
gave a curt nod to show her complete certainty. “He’s a Fey Team
member. We don’t leave our teammates behind.”

“
So, he’s not alone?”
White Boy asked.

“
Think about it,” Alex
said. “When has Andrew Ramirez ever been alone?”

White Boy looked confused
for a moment and then smiled.

“
Never,” He
nodded.

“
Exactly,” Alex said. “If
you need me, let me know. I’ll be back tomorrow early.”

She put her hand on Troy’s
arm. He nodded and left the room. She followed him out the door.
Five minutes later, Ben appeared in the doorway. He looked over the
team and walked to the front.

“
I need some help,” Ben
said to Joseph and Matthew.

“
It’s up to Captain
Mac Clenaghan,” Joseph said.

“
With what?” Matthew’s
voice carried his deep distrust of Alex’s former mentor.

Ben gave Matthew his
intimidating “need-to-know” spy look.

“
Yeah, that’s what I
thought,” Matthew said. “We have a full plate today,
sir.”

Ben laughed.

“
Oh, you were fucking with
me?” Matthew’s eyebrows shot up. His eyes held his disdain for the
man. “Fine, what are you working on?”

“
How ‘bout if I show you?”
Ben smiled.

Matthew glanced at Joseph.
He nodded. Matthew followed Ben out of the room. They walked down
the hallway to one of the smaller conference rooms across from the
team’s offices. Ben opened the door. Matthew glanced at Ben and
stepped inside.

The walls had been covered
with white paper. Raz and Sergeant Dick Mead, Patrick Hargreaves
last military assistant, were writing on the paper with sharpies.
Matthew walked to the wall next to the door to take a closer
look.

“
This is Alex’s life,”
Matthew said.

“
Just the major events,”
Raz said. He nodded hello to Matthew.

“
What are you doing?”
Matthew asked.

“
It’s something Alex got
from Wyatt,” Ben said. “He told her that it looked like a master
plan, but really it was a lot of individual problems solved by the
same problem solvers.”

“
She told me,” Matthew
said.

“
I got to thinking,” Ben
said. “What if everything was connected?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I wanted to see what was
going on in the world when these events happened,” Ben said. “For
example, what was going on when Alex finished Special Forces
training; or when she was assaulted by the Boy Scout the first
time; or when the Boy Scout started working on the Fey Special
Forces Team; or they were stuck in the desert by Cee Cee Joiner;
or . . .”

Ben shrugged. Matthew
touched one event and then another.

“
It might be nothing,” Ben
said.

“
It doesn’t seem that
way,” Raz walked toward Matthew. “It’s hard to accept, but for some
reason, someone wants Alex out of the way at regular intervals.
Look.”

Raz went to the
paper.

“
The brown markings are
Cee Cee Joiner,” Raz said. “They’re easy to document, because we
have good data on exactly when they happened and how long Alex was
out of the way. You see the brown?”

Matthew nodded.

“
Now step to the center of
the room,” Raz said. “Dick? He needs a look.”

Sergeant Mead nodded and
moved to the door.

Matthew stood near the
center of the room. When he looked for the brown he noticed that
the color was spaced on the timeline at regular intervals. There
was only one gap that was longer than the others.

“
What’s that?” Matthew
asked.

“
That’s when Alex came to
get you,” Ben walked to the timeline. “She was working on finding
and retrieving Joiner when she received the call about
you.”

Ben pointed to a brown “X”
on the wall.

“
She stayed with you in
Costa Rica,” Ben said. “She didn’t pick up Joiner until a month or
so after she’d originally planned to collect him.”

“
But we’ve been going on
the assumption that they took us to get to her,” Matthew said.
“Didn’t they attack the Fey Team?”

“
They did,” Raz
said.

“
What if that’s not the
reason you were taken?” Ben asked. “What if Joiner was supposed to
keep her from discovering you were gone? Maybe they fought so hard
to keep you because they didn’t get what they wanted from
you.”

“
Like what?” Matthew
started.

“
Exactly,” Ben
said.

“
Robert Powell assaulted
Alexandra at Cheyenne Mountain here,” Sergeant Mead pointed to the
red pen. “Step back.”

“
His color is red?”
Matthew asked.

“
Oui
,” Ben said.

Matthew sucked in a
breath.

“
What the hell?” Matthew
turned to look at Ben.

“
Exactly,” Ben
said.

“
And why?” Raz asked.
“That’s the question we can’t seem to answer. Why Alex? Why is she
the one that has to be out of commission?”

“
What if it’s not Alex?”
Matthew asked. “Maybe it’s John or Max or Master Super Spy here or
you, Raz, and they could only get to Alex.”

Ben and Raz stared so long
at Matthew that he shifted uncomfortably. Raz broke his stare by
glancing at Ben.

“
Never thought of it,” Ben
said. “Do you think that’s possible?”

“
How would I know?”
Matthew asked. “Except . . . did you put up the
first assault? The one with Trece, White Boy, and Jesse. You know,
when they were in Bosnia?”

Ben and Raz looked at each
other and then looked at Matthew.

“
Do you remember the
date?” Raz asked.

“
Sure,” Matthew went to
the wall and pointed. “It would be right . . .
here.”

Raz picked up a green pen
and made a mark on the wall.

“
Mon
Dieu
,” Ben said under his
breath.

“
Why did you ask?” Raz’s
hazel-grey eyes flicked to look at Matthew while his face stayed
eerily still.

“
Because Alex never told
anyone about the assault in Bosnia,” Matthew said. “No one, not
even Max. And there aren’t any intelligence files, or you guys
would have known about what happened. If that assault fits the
pattern then . . .”

“
They are only after
Alexandra,” Sergeant Mead said.

“
It’s only about Alex,”
Matthew said.

“
But why?” Raz
asked.

“
We’ll find the why when
we fill in the rest of this,” Ben said. “Who would you choose to
help us?”

“
Troy is with Alex,”
Matthew said. “They’re talking with his sons about the drones.
Colin is with them too. How about Joseph? We found a notebook in
his locker in the vault with the dates, locations, and actions of
the Fey Special Forces Team. He has it in his office.”

“
Good thinking,” Ben
said.

“
You know who would be
perfect?” Matthew nodded. “Zack.”

“
Zack?” Raz’s glance spoke
his disbelief. “The pilot?”

“
Hear me out,” Matthew
said. “Zack is really good at putting things together – locations,
times, distances, and stuff like that. He’s good with math too. He
has to do it to set up our trips.”

“
You’re right,” Raz said.
“He’s compulsive about efficient flying. He never wants to fly from
here to there unless it uses the least amount of fuel, takes the
least amount of time, and is the safest. He has a formula to
calculate everything.”

“
Comes from flying Dragon
Ladies,” Matthew said. “Plus, who knows? Maybe he’ll know something
we don’t.”

“
Can you spare anyone
else?” Ben asked.

“
Leena would be helpful,”
Raz said. “In fact, if we have time, it might be interesting to
track the team’s various incidents and assaults.”

“
Like when I was held
hostage and Leena’s assault,” Matthew said.