The Fey (7 page)

She was in a simulation designed to train
soldiers in warfare. Right at this moment, she was in the middle of
a terrorist cell in the mock Afghanistan area of Piñon Canyon in
Southeast Colorado. Her assignment was to take out the terrorist
cell in the shortest amount of time with the least gunfire. The
army estimated that a Green Beret should complete this task in two
hours and seventeen minutes. A healthy Green Beret, that is. Alex
checked her watch. If she finished in the next thirty-three
minutes, she would beat the simulation time.

She had eliminated seventeen targets leaving
only the main target and his bodyguard. He was hidden somewhere
behind her. She rolled to her stomach and pulled her night vision
binoculars from her backpack. Scanning the snow brushed tops of
sage and prairie grass, she saw no one. It was even too cold for
wild life.

She heard movement and turned to watch two
men moving through the brush. They were looking for her but didn’t
know where she was. Her mind ran through the map of this area of
the range.

Of course, Raz gave her a rundown of the
simulation including its weak points. What did they expect? She was
an intelligence officer after all. But intelligence only gives you
an edge. She already looked at the places Raz believed they would
stash the main target. She smiled. Every once in a while even Raz
was wrong.

Using her forearm crutch, she moved across
the landscape. Gunfire echoed through the canyon and she dove into
a small ravine. She rolled forward coming to a stop next to a small
pocket cave and the chief target’s bodyguard. One swift kick
knocked the weapon out of the bodyguard’s hands. She tossed a paint
balloon at the soldier and he mock died. The target was in the cave
behind this guard or so they wanted her to think.

That meant
that the primary target was right
here
.

Turning, she used her boot heel to dig into
the dirt across from the pocket cave. She pulled her Bowie knife
from the sheath strapped to her leg. Kicking and slicing into the
earth, she reached the airspace of the man-made cave below. She
widened the space with both feet then dropped into the cave. With
her paintball pistols in front of her, she startled the soldier
playing the target.

“
You’re supposed to come
in the entrance,” said the sandy haired soldier playing the
target.

“
Done,” Alex said with
twenty-four minutes to go.

“
Done,” the soldier target
said. “You can lower your weapons, Major.”

“
There’s another soldier
here,” she said. “I can smell him.”

She grabbed the soldier target around the
shoulders. Her paintball pistol pressed against his ribs.

“
Show yourself or he dies.
You are wearing body armor, aren’t you?” she screamed.

“
Yes Major,” the young
soldier said.

Two soldiers carrying paintball machine guns
stepped forward. As part of the simulation, they began screaming
butchered Arabic slogans. Pushing the target to the ground, she
shot the two soldiers with her paint handguns. She rolled forward
and shot another soldier hiding in the wings.

“
Come on,” Alex
said.

Grabbing the target, she worked her way out
of the cave. They reached the entrance to find what Alex expected:
a group of soldiers pretending to be a tribe. With her paintball
pistol at the head of the target, they made their way to the center
of the tribal gathering.

Alex blinked her eyes.

Jesse?

Jesse Abreu stood on the edge of the
gathering. He was pointing to something to her right. When she
looked again, he was gone. Turning her head to where he pointed,
she saw two men cresting a small hill carrying machine guns.

Live machine guns.

Ah crap.

“
M-16.” As he had for more
than a decade, Jesse called the weapon.

“
Live rounds,” Alex
screamed.

She tackled her target and, with her arms
around him, rolled sideways. Machine gun rounds pummeled the dirt
around them. Shards of dust and rock flew into the air. The soldier
tribe ran toward a ravine to get away from the live rounds. Alex
yanked the target back into the cave.

“
Zack, get me out of
here.” Alex whispered into the microphone in her sleeve. “We have
live M-16 fire. Two shooters.”

The soldier playing the target screamed in
pain. Pushing away from him to assess his injuries, she found his
leg askew, broken when she tackled him. Alex covered his mouth with
her hand and dug through her pack for a morphine auto-injector. She
shot the soldier with the pain medication.

“
You have to be quiet.
Shhh.”

His blue eyes wild with pain and fear, the
soldier nodded.

Belly crawling to the entrance of the cave,
she listened for movement. She saw and heard nothing but prepared
for the worst. Pulling her handgun from its sacrum holster, she
checked for live rounds. Ten 9 mm bullets. She opened the zippered
compartment of her backpack to find another loaded clip. Saying a
silent prayer of gratitude, she slipped the clip into the back
pocket of her pants.

Hearing a sound behind her, she rolled over
to point her handgun at the noise. The ‘dead’ soldiers came forward
to see what was going on. With her hand on her lips for silence,
she ordered them to carry the soldier with the broken leg deeper
into the cave.

The sound of the nearing helicopter echoed
through the dry terrain. Zack.

Rolling back to her belly, she scanned the
area with her night vision binoculars.

Where had they gone?

Ah. Fuck. no.

The shooters ran toward the unarmed
soldiers.

She unhooked her crutch then jumped from the
cave. Dragging her leg, she ran toward the unarmed soldiers. With a
solid leap into the air, she fired in quick succession at the
shooters. One man screamed and dropped to the ground with a wound
in his abdomen.

Upon landing, Alex rolled sideways. The
other shooter fired in her direction. Shards of dirt exploded
around her. Stopping her roll with her leg, she fired. The other
shooter fell backwards with two bullets through his forehead.

Breathing hard, she collapsed back into the
dirt.

“
What was that?” a soldier
near her asked.

“
Death,” Alex said. “Get
the shooter. He still has a weapon.”

A group of soldiers surrounded the shooter
and took his weapon from him. She heard the sound of punching and
kicking.

“
Do not kill him. That’s
an order,” Alex yelled.

Just then a Black Hawk Helicopter landed in
the clearing. Trece and the White Boy jumped from the chopper
screaming Alex’s name.

“
I’m here,” she said. She
pushed to sit up and wave. The soldiers around her stood to
wave.

“
Get the fuck down. On
your faces.“ Trece fired above their heads. The soldiers dropped on
their bellies.

“
Alex,” Matthew said. He
reached the top of the hill followed by Troy.

“
I’m all right,” she said.
“I just can’t get up.”

Laughing, Troy pulled her to standing, then
held her tightly to him. He released her and Matthew hugged
her.

“
Where’s your crutch?”
Matthew asked.

“
In the cave,” she
replied.

“
Gentleman, the Fey would
like her crutch,” Matthew said to the soldiers.

The soldiers jumped into action to look for
her crutch.

“
Would you like a lift?”
Matthew asked.

Alex shook her head. There was no way she
was going to let these soldiers see that she couldn’t get
around.

“
I need to speak to
command,” Alex said.

“
Zack’s on the radio.
They’re coming out. They requested that you stay here with
the…”

“
Bodies,” she said. She
nodded. “We need medics.”

“
On their way,” Matthew
said.

“
We have coffee in the
chopper,” Troy said. “Congratulations.”

“
For what?”

“
You beat another
sim.”

“
And almost got killed. I
need to speak with Colonel Gordon. We’re due in Denver in a couple
hours.”

“
Yes, we’re very busy
today,” Troy laughed.

A soldier handed Alex her crutch and she
made her way across the clearing. Matthew jumped into the
helicopter then pulled Alex in behind him. Once in the chopper, she
collapsed in pain.

“
Where’s your morphine?”
Matthew asked.

“
I gave it to a soldier in
the cave,” she said. “I broke his leg.”

“
Is there another on the
chopper?”

“
I don’t think so.” Alex
shook her head. “I just need a minute, then we’ll go back out like
rock stars.”

“
Hey Fey,” Trece yelled
into the chopper. “These guys want to know if you’re really the Fey
or just the pretend Fey. I told them but you know how boys can
be.”

Alex laughed.

“
Come on, honey, it’ll
take the edge off. These kids haven’t been shot at before. They’re
freaked.”

“
It’s time for the Fey to
return,” Matthew said.

Alex pulled off her long sleeved shirt to
reveal a white tank, cream colored dragon body armor and the famous
tattoos. Matthew dropped a blanket over her shoulders. Coming from
the cockpit, Zack helped Alex to sit in the doorway of the chopper
then poured cups of piping hot coffee and cream.

“
That’s them, isn’t it?” a
soldier said to Troy when he jumped from the helicopter.

“
Who?” Troy
asked.

“
The Fey and the Jakker,”
another soldier said. He nodded his head toward the
helicopter.

“
I think it is,” Troy
said. Trece and the White Boy laughed their way to the
cave.

“
How does it feel to be
the Fey again?” Zack asked in a low tone.

“
Weird. Zack, someone
tried to kill me tonight. If it hadn’t been for Jesse,
I…”

“
Jesse’s dead, Alex. You
know that,” Zack said.

Alex nodded. Everyone seemed to think that
she forgot the single worst reality in her life. Alex flipped the
blanket so that the fairy tattoo was visible.

“
Thanks for coming to get
me,” she said.

“
The Jakker flies the
Fey,” he said. “Looks like we’re in business again.”

Alex had no idea what that meant.

F

CHAPTER FIVE

Two hours later

February 9 – 12:05 A.M.

Lower Downtown Denver, Colorado

“
This has not been my
favorite day,” Alex said.

They were standing in the hallway of Erin’s
loft. She looked down the grim line of men finishing with Trece and
the White Boy. Inside the loft, they could hear Marcos screaming.
They were waiting for Colin.

Homeland Security kept Marcos under
surveillance all day. According to heat imaging, he and Erin had
been arguing most of the evening. Homeland Security suggested that
they wait until things cooled down a little bit. No one wanted to
see Senator Hargreaves’s youngest daughter on the cover of the
Denver Post. The plan was to pick up Marcos in the quiet of two in
the morning. Alex and Raz would attend but not participate.

But the couple continued to argue.

Alex was diagramming the shooting for Fort
Carson Military Police when Raz called with the news. Marcos Ruiz
was beating her sister. They flew as a team to the loft, landing on
the roof of a nearby building. Max and John were waiting in the
hallway when they arrived.

Marcos changed the locks when he moved into
Erin’s loft. Somehow, Erin managed to slip Colin a key. Colin, his
blonde hair standing straight up and face marked by fury, ran down
the hall. Two Homeland Security teams waited in the wings to take
over when Erin was safe.

“
Ready?” she
asked.

The men nodded. They were tasked with
subduing Marcos and retrieving Erin.

“
Come up,” John
said.

She jumped into his arms. He held her with
his arms around her hips. She wrapped her legs around his waist,
hooking her feet together to hold her in place. Slipping her arms
around his neck, she kissed him. Colin flipped open the door.

Alex and John crashed into the apartment.
John set Alex down against a wall and lifted her arms above her
head. He moved to pull her tank top off and she moaned. She caught
his lips with her mouth. They consumed each other with palpable
heat.

“
What the hell is this?”
Marcos yelled.

Ignoring him, they continued kissing. John
popped open her pants.

Marcos stomped toward them. He pushed John
off Alex. John’s eyes stayed focused on Alex. With deliberate
hesitation, he turned to Marcos.

“
How embarrassing,” John
said his accent thick. “We were drinking in bar downstairs when
Alex remembered that Erin moved in with you. You know how it is
sometimes…”

“
You fucking whore. I knew
you were with this guy too. Get the fuck out of my
house.”

Marcos put his hand on Alex’s shoulder to
push her out the door. She threw him over her shoulder. He landed
in a thud on his back. Alex moved into the apartment. Hearing
Marcos move to his feet, she turned to punch him. But John had
already done the honor. Marcos was on his knees rubbing his
jaw.