In the Grey (63 page)

“
They think so,” Alex
shrugged. “I’m on this cleansing diet to detox from the heavy
metals. If I survive the diet, I should be fine.”

Patrick smiled and looked
away from her. When he looked back, he was all business.

“
You asked me some
questions recently,” Patrick said. “We’ve answered most of
them.”

“
Oh?” Alex turned her full
attention to him. “What did you find out?”

“
Let’s start with ‘Why the
fall?’” Patrick said. “I think you know the answer to
that.”

“
The fall is not opium
season in Afghanistan,” Alex said.

“
That’s the best reason
we’ve come up with,” Patrick said.

“
We know why they took
Steve,” Alex said.

“
Because he could get
close enough to kill you,” Patrick nodded.

“
Did he expect the mind
control subjects to complete their missions?”

“
It seems now that he
intended to piggyback on people’s past experiences with mind
control to manifest new missions,” Patrick said.

“
Like Wyatt and Sami,”
Alex said.

“
Correct,” Patrick said.
“The rest of the survivors seem stable. My team is working with
them to make them less vulnerable to reprogramming. I think that’s
the key.”

Alex nodded.

“
Eoin and the Mister are
coming up with a program,” Patrick said. “I’m sure Neev will help
when she’s feeling better.”

“
MK-Ultra cover-up?” Alex
asked.

“
No word,” Patrick said.
“And honestly, I doubt we’ll ever know. A lot of those involved are
dead and took their secrets with them. As you know, most of the
Operation Paperclips have died.”

“
Hmm,” Alex
said.

“
What?” Patrick
asked.

“
You know, the CIA
operative at Nasaji Bagrami managed to tuck a note in my sling when
he ran into me.”

“
Oh yeah?” Patrick
asked.

“
He said that Buffy Joiner
is the granddaughter of Josef Yakovlev,” Alex said.

“
Which confirms the photo
Raz found,” Patrick said.

“
Guess who her brother
is?” Alex asked.

Patrick shook his
head.

“
Robert Powell,” Alex
said. “Of course, Robert Powell isn’t his real name. He was born
Robert Yakovlev. He changed his name to Powell around the time
Buffy and Cee Cee got married. Officially, Josef Yakovlev’s had no
genetic heirs.”

“
You’re sure?” Patrick
asked.

“
MI-6 is doing the DNA
analysis as we speak,” Alex said. “The operative said that together
they run Yakovlev’s organization – Buffy from San Antonio, and
Robert from his English prison cell. So you see, the Paperclips
maybe dead, but their legacy lives on.”

“
You think they’re
involved in all of this?” Patrick asked.

“
I think this Josef
Yakovlev is the center of this,” Alex said. “Buffy, the Boy Scout,
and whoever they’ve recruited are involved somehow. We don’t know
how they’re involved, but they were involved in killing the Fey
Special Forces Team, and they are involved in this.”

“
Why?” Patrick
asked.

“
Why did they kill
everyone?” Alex asked. “No idea.”

“
What’s their objective?”
Patrick asked.

“
Power and control;
forcing people do to their bidding,” Alex said.

“
Watch the world burn,”
Patrick shook his head.

“
Right,” Alex said.
“That’s the endgame, I think. Any ideas about Ludlum?”

“
None,” Patrick said.
“Theories range from his wife lit him on fire or, at the very
least, didn’t put the fire out, to he was a smoker and an alcoholic
who lit himself on fire and was too loaded to get up. No one knows
anything else.”

“
It could be anything,”
Alex said.

“
The simplest solution is
most likely the truth,” Patrick said.

“
There’s nothing simple
about any of this,” Alex said.

Patrick nodded.

“
I did find out that the
photos of the girls and boys from LA were shredded and burned with
Hoover’s files,” Patrick said.

“
Hoover?” Alex asked. “How
did he get in the middle of this?”

“
Think about it,” Patrick
said. “The photographs were used to manipulate influential men. It
reeks of Hoover.”

“
Who burned them?” Alex
asked.

“
Most likely his long time
secretary, Helen Gandy,” Patrick said.

“
That was 1972,” Alex
said. “Some of the girls remember being ‘visited’ again as late as
1975.”

“
We think that was a
cleanup job done by Clarence Kelley after he found Hoover’s files
in 1975,” Patrick said. “Of course, the FBI destroyed most of those
in 1977 under their ‘Sexual Deviance’ program.”

“
It doesn’t really make
any sense,” Alex said.

“
Everyone involved at the
time is dead,” Patrick shrugged.

“
Except the children who
were prostituted by our government to manipulate world leaders,”
Alex said.

“
There is that,” Patrick
said. “I think the key thing to keep in mind is that the photos
have been destroyed, the people involved are getting the help they
need, and we’ve shut down an overlooked liability to US security.
That’s good work. You should be proud of yourself. I
am.”

“
Your team did a lot of
the heavy lifting,” Alex said. “Is it nice?”

“
To be doing this work
again?” Patrick asked. “Let me put it to you this way, it’s more
comfortable than trying to negotiate with corrupt
politicians.”

Alex smiled.

“
You know what the nicest
thing is?” Patrick asked.

“
No,” Alex
said.

“
To see you with the
babies,” Patrick said. “I thought you were going to completely lose
it when Dr. Roy performed your boy’s khitan. Of course, Rasmussen
looked like he was going to throw up. The more clinical John got,
the greener Raz became.”

“
You should talk,” Alex
laughed.

Patrick smiled.

“
Those kids are cute,”
Patrick said. “What were their names?”

“
Mohamed Ali Sher – we
call him Sher – and his wife, Khudija,” Alex said. “They were so
helpful at setting everything up.”

“
Nice people,” Patrick
said.

He nodded to the front of
the plane. Alex turned to see the movie had ended, and her mother
was coming in their direction.

“
The babies are pretty
great, aren’t they?” Alex smiled. “Thanks for coming for the khitan
and their baptism.”

“
Thanks for letting me do
the head shaving,” Patrick said.

“
You are the patriarch of
the clan,” Alex said.

“
Who did you donate the
money to?” Patrick said.

“
The weight of the
children’s hair in silver?” Alex asked. “Save the Children for
their Afghanistan campaign.”

Patrick nodded.

“
We’re having a lamb roast
tomorrow,” Alex said. “Turns out Islam and the Irish have lamb in
common.”

Rebecca leaned over and
kissed Patrick.

“
How was the movie?”
Patrick asked.

Rebecca gave a happy sigh.
Alex rolled her eyes behind her back. Patrick smiled. Rebecca moved
to check on the babies.

“
Islam and Catholicism,”
Patrick said.

“
Like Joseph’s raising his
Alex,” she said. “We’ll give them both and teach them to respect
all religions. It will be up to them what they choose.”

“
Any idea on names?”
Patrick asked.

“
We’ve only just decided
to give them their parents’ names as middle names,” Alex smiled.
“We . . . No, it’s very fast
and . . . wonderful.”

Patrick smiled.

“
Just so you know, we
haven’t figured out why you and why your team,” Patrick said. “I’m
sorry.”

“
That’s okay,” Alex
shrugged. “With any luck, we’ll know someday.”

Patrick nodded.

“
Alex!” Rebecca said.
“They’re awake. You know you should
never . . .”

Alex squinted in
irritation before getting up to take care of her
children.

F

Two days later

Friday night, Christmas
Eve

December 24 – 11:35 p.m.
MST

Denver, CO

Alex opened the door to
their bedroom and smiled at what she saw. John had gone up early to
read in bed, but clearly the trip had ulterior motives. He was fast
asleep with the babies in the center of the bed. He wore a pair of
pajamas that matched the babies’ onesies. The babies wore caps
about the color of his dark curly hair. As if they were her
puppies, Maggie was wrapped around the twins. They were so
adorable; Alex stood in the doorway to watch them for a
while.

Alex reached over Maggie
to scoop up the girl with her left hand. The baby screeched, and
John woke with a start.

“
Now you see my
difficulty,” John said.

Alex set her daughter down
and climbed onto the bed. Maggie yawned and moved over.

“
I brought them here for a
little snuggle time while I read,” John said. “And then, we were
trapped.”

“
By the bed?” Alex grinned
at him.

“
By my inability to let
them go,” John said.

“
Or carry them together,”
Alex said.

“
I had to wrestle with
Samantha to get them up here,” John said.

She smiled.

“
What?” he
asked.

“
I’m just glad she and Raz
are . . . talking,” Alex said.

“
Talking is good,” John
smiled.

“
Come on, you know we’ve
been warned about this,” Alex said. “We need to move the
babies.”

“
Suffocation and all,”
John nodded.

John picked up his baby
girl and set her in Alex’s left arm. He picked up the boy. They
whimpered, but didn’t wake. She checked her girl’s diaper and
kissed her forehead before setting her on her biliblanket next to
her brother in the crib.

“
Tell me the truth,” John
said. “You love our girl more.”

“
No,” Alex said. “She’s
smaller, and I worry about her more.”

John held his arms out and
she walked into them. They leaned against each other in exhausted
bliss.

“
Are
you . . . ?” he started at the same time she
said, “What . . . ?”

They laughed.

“
Tired,” she said. “Sorry.
I was looking forward to our usual romp.”

“
I was, as well,” he said.
“This parenting thing is putting a crimp in our
lovemaking.”

She smiled.

“
You’re right,” he said.
“I don’t care a bit.”

She laughed.

“
Are you really okay
with . . . ?” Alex asked.

“
Please don’t ask me
again,” John said. “I learned a long time ago that as long as I
have you, the details of everything else are much, much less
important. Our children are truly a dream come true for me. Thank
you for them.”

“
What about controlling
everything?” Alex asked.

“
What haven’t I
controlled?” John smiled.

“
Getting the babies,” she
said.

“
After that,” he
said.

“
Ahh.”

She leaned against him. He
kissed her forehead.

“
Did you dream up a name
for them?” Alex asked.

“
No,” he said.
“You?”

“
No,” Alex
said.

They laughed.

“
We need to rest,” he
said. “Tomorrow is our babies’ first Christmas.”

He stripped off his
pajamas and got into bed. She went in the bathroom. When she came
out, he was sound asleep with Maggie tucked up close to him. She
went to the babies’ crib to look at them one last time before going
to bed.

Standing in the dark, she
remembered that her mother had given her some parenting book before
they left the Christmas Eve party that night. If she remembered,
she’d look at it tomorrow. She took off her ever-present sling,
slipped off her clothes, and got in bed.

She closed her eyes and
lay in the dark under the warm covers.

Something inside nagged at
her.

Her head hammered with
pain. A forgotten memory was trying to make her look at her
mother’s stupid book.

Jesse hovered
nearby.

She got out of bed and
grabbed a fleece sweater. She wiggled into the fleece without her
sling before taking the book from her bag. Sitting in the stuffed
green chair next to the babies’ crib, she clicked on the soft
reading light. John didn’t awaken.