Lean on Me (14 page)

Eoin smiled.

“
As you wish,” the butler
gave a little bow and retreated to the kitchen.

“
Did you see that?” Eoin
asked in Ulster Gaelic. “He bowed.”

Cian nodded to Eoin. They shared a look that
celebrated their brilliance for taking Alex up on her request for
their help.

“
Gentlemen?” Raz asked.
“Plotting?”

“
We just ordered tea and
scones,” Eoin said.

“
And he went to get it,”
Cian said.

“
Do you think he’ll really
get…?” Eoin started.

The butler appeared with a tray of scones,
fresh fruit, a small thermos of coffee and a pot of tea.

“
Shall I deliver this to
your work area?” the butler asked Raz.

“
Please,” Raz
said.

Eoin and Cian watched in awe as the butler
retreated down the hallway. With a hand on each of their shoulders,
Raz pushed the men down the hallway.

“
Thanks for coming,” Raz
said. “I didn’t expect…”

“
Miss Alex asked us to
help,” Eoin said. “We’d do anything to help a friend.”

“
Plus Eoin’s missus is a
little ‘fragile’ right now,” Cian said.

“
Fragile?” Raz
asked.

“
Not to defame her or
anything,” Eoin said. “She’s really a lovely person
but…”

“
She’s a wee bit angry,”
Cian said.

“
Eight months up the pole
and mean.” Eoin gave a dramatic shiver. “Had to get out of town
before she castrated me in my sleep.”

“
Who’s taking care of the
bakery?” Raz asked.

“
Colin hired some nice
Yanks to help out,” Cian said. “They’re watching the shop for the
day.”

“
And Maggie?” Raz asked.
“Alex will kill you in your sleep if you put her in a
kennel.”

“
Kennel?” Cian asked.
“We’re not barbarians!”

They both looked shocked and misunderstood.
They made a show of not looking at Raz while they completed the
journey to the room he was working in. Used to their antics, Raz
chuckled under his breath.

“
Hey, Troy’s going to bring
his boys home,” Raz said. “Will that be a problem?”

“
We love boys!” Eoin said.
“I’m hoping the missus has a boy!”

“
So you’re all right with
Troy bringing his boys home?” Raz asked.

“
Sure,” Cian shrugged.
“They can play with Fionn.”

“
Fionn?” Raz
asked.

“
Fionn’s not so much of a
boy, Cian,” Eoin said. “He’s seventeen. Passed his O-levels and
everything. You forget.”

“
Seems like a kid to me,”
Cian said.

“
Fionn who?” Raz
asked.

Seeming to hear Raz for the first time, the
men looked up at him and shook their heads in unison.

“
No one,” Eoin
said.

“
Didn’t you have something
for us to look at?” Cian smiled and patted Raz’s
shoulder.

“
Miss Alex said you needed
our help,” Eoin puffed his chest out as if with pride.

“
John’s sister Rita has a
son named Fionn,” Raz said.

“
She does?” Cian asked. “I
can’t keep track of all the nieces and nephews.”

“
Kellys breed like
Australian bunnies,” Eoin said.

“
Or McKinneys,” Cian
said.

The men looked at each other and laughed.
Raz glanced from Cian to Eoin. Seasoned IRA volunteers, Cian and
Eoin retreated to this inane juvenile act when they didn’t want to
be questioned too closely.

“
Is there a video or
something important you want us to do?” Cian asked.

“
Over here,” Raz said.
“Troy’s father is saying that Troy set the explosives.”

“
Like Troy knows how to set
explosives?” Cian laughed. “The boy can barely tie his shoes. He’d
have blown his head off.”

“
Like your da,” Eoin said
in Ulster Gaelic.

Cian and Eoin laughed. Shaking his head to
clear it of their nonsense, Raz looked into Cian and Eoin’s bright
faces.

“
We’re hoping we can find
footage of someone setting the bombs,” Raz said. “The footage
is…”

“
Can we see the explosion
first?” Cian asked. “Then we’ll know what we’re looking
for.”

“
Do you have a diagram of
the house?” Eoin asked. “I can draw one up lickety split if you
don’t.”

Raz held up a diagram.

“
Did our protégé Hutchins
take a look?” Cian asked.

“
He went out with the FBI,”
Raz said.

“
Do you have his report?”
Cian asked. “He’s very good.”

“
Trained by the best,” Eoin
said.

“
That would be us, in case
you wondered,” Cian said.

Not trusting himself to respond, Raz held up
the report.

“
Good,” Eoin said. “Show me
how to work the controls and give us a few minutes. We have to sort
what the explosion looked like first. Do you have one of those
boards Alex uses?”

“
A white board?” Raz
asked.

“
Right,” Cian
said.

“
I’ll ask,” Raz said. “Just
so I’ve got this straight. You’re saying Rita’s son Fionn came to
live with us.”

“
I said no such thing,”
Cian said.

“
I don’t know where you
come up with this stuff.” Eoin mimicked Raz’s tone.

“
Americans,” Cian shook his
head in mock disgust. “You all have such fantastic
imaginations.”

“
But Fionn
is
taking care of Alex’s
puppy Maggie,” Raz said.

“
Maggie would be very
offended to hear you call her a puppy,” Cian said. “When do we get
the white board?”

“
We can’t start without
it,” Eoin said.

“
Are you supposed to be
running…” Cian said.

“
Pacing, he’s supposed to
pace,” Eoin said. “Just one stage because of his bad
back.”

“
Yes, pacing my baby
brother?” Cian asked. “We rushed all the way here so that you
wouldn’t miss it.”

“
Our Johnny will be
crankier than the missus if you’re not there to help,” Eoin
said.

“
Just have the white board
sent down on your way out,” Cian said.

Raz opened his mouth to say something, shook
his head, and chuckled.

“
Have fun,” Eoin raised his
hand and waved to Raz on his way out of the room.

FFFFFF

Sunday morning

October 25 – 10:20 a.m. EDT

Over the Pentagon, Washington DC

“
Alex, I thought you got
permission to land at the Pentagon,” Zack said over the
intercom.

Flying fast toward the Marine Marathon
route, they had already picked up Troy and his lawyers on their way
to the marathon. They’d planned a grand entrance. Once again, their
plans fell through.

“
I did,” Alex
said.

“
They’re being fussy
today,” Zack said. “They said something about a new intern and
something else about paperwork.”

“
Fuck’s sake,” Alex
repeated John’s favorite expression.

“
What does Royce say?” Troy
asked. “He was on permissions and paperwork duty.”

“
Royce is running today,”
Zack said.

“
I patched him on the
line,” Sergeant Dusty cut in on the line. “He’s just behind John,
Max, Matthew and Raz at mile twenty-two.”

“
Everything was cleared,
and every piece of paper was filed, Olivas,” Chief Petty Officer
Royce Tubman said. “And I’ve been running for a couple of
hours.”

“
What’s your point?” Zack
laughed.

“
All I’m saying is that
everything was golden when I started this race,” Royce said. “And
I’m not the one gallivanting around the country.”

“
That’s a little
insubordinate,” Trece growled.

“
You’d know,” Royce
said.

“
You wound me,” Trece
sniffed. “I’d have thought you’d be grateful to your fitness
trainer that you can walk, let alone run.”

“
I worship you like a God,
Andy!” Royce said. Trece laughed at him.

“
Can we get back on track?”
Alex asked. “Zack needs somewhere to land.”

“
Who’d you piss off?” Royce
asked.

“
Piss off?” Alex laughed.
“Me? I had breakfast with an old friend.”

Zack, Cliff and Trece laughed.

“
Wasn’t me,” Troy said.
“This time. I was with the police.”

“
The rest of the team is
either working on post or waiting for us at the finish,” Royce
said. “Olivas was with the police. That leaves you,
sir.”

They laughed.

“
Alex?” Zack asked. “We’re
not going to have time to land.”

“
What about the
cemetery?”

“
The Army’s being cranky,”
Zack said.

“
The Army?” Alex
asked.

“
They don’t want to deal
with our show boating at Arlington National cemetery,” Sergeant
Dusty said. “Plus…”

“
They’re squawking about an
intern,” Zack said.

“
What intern?” Alex
asked.

“
We have a new intern,”
Sergeant Dusty said. “Two really. The Pentagon is playing hardball
because they say you’re refusing another intern.”

“
Am I?” Alex
asked.

“
I am,” Sergeant Dusty
said. “These interns, sir. They…”

“
Are they frat boys like
Flagg?” Zack asked.

“
No sir,” Sergeant Dusty
said.

“
Navy?” Alex
asked.

“
Hey!” Royce
laughed.

“
No sir, they’re from the
10
^th
Special Forces. I’m to remind you that the Fey Special Forces
Team was a part of the 10
^th
,” Sergeant Dusty said. “My
home team.”

“
Oooh that does sound
pissy,” Alex said. “Even for them.”

“
They want us to take the
interns,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
How bad can they be?”
Trece asked.

“
What does Joseph say?”
Alex asked. “It’s really up to him and Mattie.”

“
Major Walters said it’s up
to you,” Sergeant Dusty said. “But sir…”

“
Why don’t we test him
out?” Alex said. “Tell him to meet us at mile
twenty-four.”

“
Them sir,” Sergeant Dusty
said.

“
Whatever,” Alex said. “We
were ordered to make a grand display. Can’t do it if we can’t get
there.”

“
Uh oh,” Royce said. “I’m
out before I hear whatever is coming next.”

“
He’s so sensitive,” Troy
laughed.

“
What are their names,
Sergeant Dusty?” Alex asked.

“
Sergeant Pete Beetle and
Master Sergeant Bill Bailey,” Sergeant Dusty said. “But
sir…”

“
Beetle and Bailey?” Trece
laughed. “Really?”

“
Sir,” Sergeant Dusty said.
“I don’t think you’re going to want to…”

“
I trust you completely,”
Alex said. “But sounds like we don’t have a choice.”

“
Again,” Trece
said.

“
The Army goes rolling
along,” Alex began to sing the Army song.

“
Oh no,” Trece shook his
head. “No, no, no, no, no.”

Troy’s Army JAG lawyer, Captain Tyler,
joined Alex’s song: “Proud of all we have done.”

“
Fighting till the battle’s
won,” Troy joined in.

“
And the army goes rolling
along,” they sang together.

Over the intercom, Zack blasted the Army
Song in a loop while Trece moaned.

“
When you’re done, sir,”
Sergeant Dusty said.

The song abruptly ended.

“
I remind you that you have
air clearance,” Sergeant Dusty said. “Slight wind out of the East,
otherwise, you shouldn’t have much trouble.”

“
What are you doing?”
Hawkins Mac Alister asked Alex.

“
We’re going down by wire,”
Alex said. “We have clearance to fly but no clearance to
land.”

“
We plan for everything,”
Trece said.

“
You want to run with us?”
Alex asked.

“
Sure,” Hawkins Mac Alister
said.

“
You’ve got to wear the
gear,” Alex said.

“
You have shoes in there?”
Army JAG Captain Tyler said.

“
Of course,” Troy
said.

Trece threw shorts and the light blue Fey
shirts at the lawyers.

“
You running?” Trece asked
Troy.

“
Sure,” Troy
said.

“
What about your feet?”
Alex asked.

“
What about them?” Troy
asked.

“
There’s shit storm coming
in our direction,” Alex said. “I’d rather have you
healthy.”

Troy gave a nod and continued dressing.