Learning to Stand (43 page)

“
The doctor said you’re in
great physical shape. That’s why you’re healing so
well.”

“
Doctors.” Raz smiled at
Alex. “They don’t know about the fairy that saved me in the
mine.”

“
It’s been quite a week,”
Alex said.

“
What happened with
Charlene?” Raz asked.

“
I’m not sure,” Alex said.
She pointed to a flock of Canada Geese landing on the water. They
stopped to watch nature’s moonlit drama. “She’s freaked out. She
wouldn’t talk to me in the SUV. Said she was afraid of being
listened to. Nancy took her to her old Denver house. Joseph called
about an hour ago to say Charlene has been sedated and her daughter
is with her.”

“
So we wait?”

“
Maybe,” Alex said. “She
wants to see me tomorrow. I couldn’t push her, you know? She was a
wreck.”

“
You think she has something
for you?” Raz asked.

“
I have no idea,” Alex said.
“She said we would ‘trade’ for her diamond ring and Charlie’s
wedding ring. She was kind of joking, playing the spy, like she was
in a movie or something. I played along because I felt so bad for
her.”

Maggie yelped and pulled her nose out of a
pile of snow. Her nose was covered with snow flakes. They laughed.
Alex wiped the snow off the puppy’s nose. After a brief cuddle,
Maggie romped to the edge of the leash.

“
Do you know if I’ve ever
been involved in any bombings?”

“
You mean while we were
working together?” Raz asked.

“
Or in my file. Outside of
James and his Fey museum, you seem to have comprehensive knowledge
of my career.”

“
What does James
say?”

“
No bombs. Well, except for
last year.”

“
I can’t think of any
bombs,” Raz said. “You and the boys used to get in and out of
places with a kind of razor precision.”

“
Joseph,” Alex
said.

“
He’s good,” Raz said.
“Joiner?”

“
Tristan survived surgery.
We sent Bobby Lopez and his daughter to be with him when he wakes
up. The baby, Cory, seems to be kicking the mercury. Cody and Kyle
will go home to their mothers soon. A guy’s coming tomorrow to pick
up Krystal and take her back to Texas.”

“
A guy you know?”

“
A Texas Ranger who wears an
F,” Alex said. “He’s from a different division but it was pretty
easy to get him detailed to our little project.”

“
That’s that?” Raz
asked.

“
I guess so,” Alex said. “It
doesn’t sit very well with anyone, but there isn’t anything more we
can do. Unless we’re going to place them with Social Services,
which no one wants, the boys need to get home. And Joiner... I
could spend a life-time looking for him. The FBI is still going
through the trash from the mine. They may find the guys who
captured and killed the boys, but there’s no way to know when that
will be.”

“
What does the President
want?” Raz asked.

“
The President is humiliated
by all this Joiner stuff. Ben told him everything – Joiner’s
involvement in the Fey Special Forces Team murder, the connection
to the President’s own attempted murder through the Weasel, how
Joiner let his children die...”

“
And the Boy
Scout.”

“
Exactly. Right now, the
President is hoping the press doesn’t get wind of this scandal. I
don’t think we’ll have any more hassles from him. With any luck,
he’ll retire to Texas taking his best-friend with him.”

“
You’re saying there’s two
things going on – Joiner’s bullshit and the hit on your
life.”

“
I guess so,” Alex said.
“Listen. There’s something I need to tell you.”

Raz stopped walking to look at her. She
nodded her head toward a bench near the City Park Pavilion. Before
she could do it, Trece cleared the snow from the bench. He helped
Raz sit then nodded to Alex. Scooping up Maggie, Alex sat down next
to him. Trece and White Boy stood behind them.

“
What’s up,
Alex?”

“
Do you remember agreeing to
go to Troy’s party?”

“
To help him avoid the
lovely Dahlia?”

“
To help him keep it zipped
around his brother’s wife. She’s had two of his children
already.”

“
I remember Troy giving your
shoulder a workout when she married his brother.”

“
Me too,” Alex said.
“Anyway, the party is tomorrow.”

“
Oh crap, Alex,” Raz said.
“There’s no way I can go.”

“
I have intel that a major
action is going down at Troy’s father’s party,” Alex said. “A
whisper from a reliable source.”

“
Why?”

“
God Raz, the ‘whys’ in my
life don’t exist. Why am I charged with assaulting the Boy Scout?
Why did my baby die? Why are people trying to blow me up? And why
don’t I remember what the fuck was supposed to be in the vault? Why
can’t I remember who betrayed me? Why can’t we get the fucking
fight video off the Internet? And...”

Raz stroked her fuzzy head. She leaned into
his arm around her shoulder.

“
I like this hair cut,” Raz
said.

“
There’s something else,”
Alex said. “We resigned from Homeland Security.”

“
WHAT?”

“
Yeah,” Alex said. “You and
I. Well, Joseph resigned us. Max took care of the
details.”

“
How am I going to pay for
all this ...?”

“
There’s more,” Alex
said.

“
I’m listening.”

“
Max spoke with the Giants.
He went over the details of your contract with them. They’ve picked
up the bill for the surgery and any further treatment.”

“
WHAT?”

“
Yeah, Max is good. He said
to give you this.”

Alex gave him sealed envelope out from her
jacket. Raz opened the envelope.

“
My signing bonus,” Raz
said.

“
Plus interest,” Alex said.
“Their records state they looked for you when you were injured and
couldn’t find you. They couldn’t find a bank account for you. I
guess you were supposed to get it after six months with the
team.”

“
I don’t know about my bank
accounts. I probably didn’t have a bank account then. I lived hand
to mouth.” Raz looked at Alex. “I entered the academy as a way to
pay the bills. I never would have if I had this check.”

“
Well, now you do,” Alex
said.

“
So I don’t have a job, but
I have a very large check,” Raz said. “This is very Alex. I guess
they’ll offer me another job?”

“
Homeland? Or the Giants?
They’ve both made offers. Max is taking care of all of
that.”

“
Wow,” Raz said.

Maggie barked her agreement.

“
We should walk before you
get too cold or tired.”

Raz stood and hugged Alex. Releasing her, he
looked into her face.

“
You’re the best friend I’ve
ever had,” Raz said.

“
You say that to all your
girls,” Alex said.

He laughed. She set Maggie down and they
began walking toward home.

“
You seem to be feeling
better,” Raz said. “Not so dark.”

“
I’m realizing it’s not my
fault that I can’t figure everything out. I’ve always been really
good – almost too good – at figuring everything out. Now I have to
be all right with not knowing. It’s change... I guess I’m learning
to be a little more flexible.”

Raz nodded. He waited hoping she might say a
little more. When she didn’t, he asked, “What does Jesse
think?”

“
He thinks all of this is a
mind fuck. I keep jumping from this to that to something else, bomb
here, tunnel there, hostage here, so as not to notice something
right in front of me.”

“
And what does he think that
is?” Raz pressed the walk button on the stoplight at Steele
Street.

“
He doesn’t know. He says if
I can slow down enough, I’ll get there,” Alex said. “When I slow
down, I fall asleep.”

“
You need to rest and
recover,” Raz said.

“
So do you,” Alex
said.

“
Are we going to take the
Homeland job?”

“
Let’s see if they make a
better offer,” Alex said.

Raz hugged her again at the door to the
rooming house. John was waiting inside the door for them. Alex
climbed the stairs to their bedroom while John helped Raz get
settled. She slipped into bed to wait for John and fell fast
asleep.

FFFFFF

Six hours later
Tuesday early-morning

April 1 – 4:30 A.M. MDT

Denver, CO

In the small first floor bedroom of the
carriage house, Alex stared at Troy’s notes about the Boy Scout and
Joiner. The pain in her arm and hip were becoming unbearable. Of
course, her monkey mind didn’t make things any easier. The
restlessness in her mind fed the pain in her body. The pain in her
body fed her restlessness. Finally she had to move. Not wanting to
wake John, she wandered out to the carriage house.

To be safe, she made sure to wear her dragon
body armor and carry her handgun. Reaching into her backpack, she
pulled out her thermos of hot coffee with milk. She grabbed a
Ziploc baggie full of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Coffee and cookies. The perfect wee hour
snack.

“
You were like this when we
were at training.” Speaking Spanish, Jesse materialized next to
her.

“
I had so much to think
about at training. I felt like a band of monkeys jumped on
trampolines in my head.”

“
Coffee and peanut butter
chocolate chip cookies are always the answer.”

Mid-bite of cookie, Alex nodded.

“
Cian was kind to make them
for me,” Alex said.

“
I loved these cookies,”
Jesse said.

“
I know,” Alex
said.

“
Does he make them like you
do?”

“
I gave him all of my cookie
recipes when they started the bakery,” Alex said. “They do a good
job.”

“
And no one will ever guess
you can cook?”

“
Makes them so happy to
think I can’t cook. Why spoil the fun? Nice to drink real coffee
again.”

Jesse smiled. Alex walked back to the
parchment then shook her head.

“
Why are we here?” Jesse
asked.

“
I started thinking about
what you said, you know, about this whole thing. If I separate the
distractions from the clues, maybe I’ll get some traction. But when
I look at all of these notes – everything on this paper seems
crucial and important.”

“
Let’s start a new sheet,”
Jesse said. “Troy left the roll right there.”

Alex unrolled a sheet of white butcher
paper. She struggled with taping the paper herself until Jesse
helped. Able to manipulate electricity, Jesse used static
electricity hold the paper to the wall.

“
Hey! That’s good. Did you
find the ghost manual?” Alex taped the spots he held.

“
Practice, practice,
practice,” Jesse said. “After the Boy Scout, I’ve been practicing
balling up electricity and throwing it.”

“
Steve used to talk about
balling up chi,” Alex said.

“
Yeah, we practiced it for a
while,” Jesse said.

“
It’s too hard.”

“
It’s a little easier in
this form. I’m all energy now.”

“
I wish you
were...”

“
Me too,” Jesse said. “I’m
glad to be here at all.”

“
Oh God, Jesse, me too. I’m
so glad you’re my friend.”

Jesse beamed. Even after all these years, he
never got tired of hearing her say that.

“
Let’s try to sort this
out,” Jesse said.

Alex took a long drink of coffee. Going over
to the wall, she uncapped a black Sharpie. She stopped and turned
to Jesse.

“
I don’t know what to
do.”

“
Ok how about this? What’s
happened to you?”

“
Well, I’ve been involved in
three bombings in a week and a half.”

“
Ten days,” Jesse said.
“Bombings, attack by the Boy Scout.”

“
Police. Injuries. Team
bullshit.”

“
Write it down. Good,” Jesse
said. “Now take everything off the table. Draw a box around those
items. What do you have?”

“
Um,” Alex said. “Gosh, this
is like learning to stand. You know, when I got my new hip? I
remember we used to do this but I don’t really remember
how.”

“
What matters the most to
you Alex?”

“
Max. John. You. My friends.
My family. Maggie.”

“
Love matters the most to
you,” Jesse said. “That’s why this is so muddled. We’re dealing
with Joiner. He doesn’t love anything.”

“
Except money,” Alex
said.

“
Maybe.”

“
You’re right. We don’t
really know that either.”

“
What’s opposite of your
values?” Jesse asked.