Learning to Stand (34 page)

“
I’d think a woman would
want to smell good for her husband but that’s how it is. Once
you’re stuck with them, they let themselves go. I mean…”

Pulling her to him, he whispered ‘stuck’ in
her ear. She giggled then whispered, ‘Twenty-eight days.’ He
whispered, ‘Twenty-seven.’ She whispered that she loved him. He
flushed, as he always did, with delight and passion. They
kissed.

“
I’ve got to cover my eyes
around you guys,” he said.

“
How is Raz?” Alex’s face
pinched with worry.

“
Really well, actually,”
John said. “It’s amazing to everyone, but he’s going to be walking
as soon as he’s out of anesthesia.”

“
That’s very good news.”
Alex sighed with relief.

“
You’ve a new cast.” John
reviewed the gauze and aluminum contraption encasing her left arm
tucked into a blue sling. “Why the surgical cast?”

“
I had surgery.”

“
You did?!”

“
I re-broke my arm in one of
the blasts. They said my ulna was ‘scored’ from last fall’s
adventures,” she said. “I’d probably have had to get surgery
anyway.”

“
But no infection?” John
asked.

“
No sign of infection. Thank
God.”

Alex and John shared a look of relief. Alex
had antibiotic resistant sepsis last fall. After four months of
infection, she kicked the infection using a Chinese treatment her
acupuncturist found.

“
Shouldn’t you be out?” John
asked. He stepped over to read her chart.

“
They did locals and a
spinal. Anything for a YouTube star.”

“
But no shower?” Laughing,
John looked up from her chart.

“
No time. I’m still on the
Joiner case,” Alex said. “I’m hoping for a real cast in a few
days.”

“
Not until the wound
heals.”

“
Lifestyle
issues.”

John shook his head at the logic needed to
keep her health intact.

“
The docs told the MPs I
needed time to come out of anesthesia. We have an hour or
so.”

“
Really?” He dropped the
chart to hold her again.

“
White Boy went out for a
snack,” Alex said.

White Boy held up two bags from McDonald’s.
John sputtered.

“
I’m almost a vascular
surgeon! I can’t eat fat laden food here! At the hospital! Where
I’m hoping to get a placement! Holy Crap, Alex, what are you
thinking?”

Alex smiled her crooked smile. Her smile
made him laughed at himself.

“
Can you stand her stench?”
White Boy asked. “The docs said she can’t get the cast
wet.”

John nodded.

“
We secured a little patio
upstairs. It’s pretty nice. White Boy and I will guard the doors so
you guys can have some alone time.”

John’s mouth fell open in surprise. He
hadn’t thought he would get time alone with Alex.

“
Alone? Really?”

“
She’s famous, Mooch,” Trece
said.

Shaking her head, Alex furrowed her brow at
Trece.

“
Sorry, man, bad habit,”
Trece said. “I can change. I will change. I’ll be better than I was
before. Better...”

“
Stronger, Faster,” Alex,
John and White Boy joined Trece in his usual saying.

Walking down the hall toward the elevator,
they laughed.

“
How ‘bout them Texas
Rangers?” Trece asked.

“
They are impressive,” John
said as they stepped onto the elevator

“
Those good ole boys get the
job done. I told Alex. I said, ‘Alex...”

The elevator doors closed.

F

CHAPTER Twenty-eight

Three hours later

Sunday afternoon

March
30
–
3:35 P.M. MDT

Buckley Air Force Base Jail

Alex rubbed her sunburned nose. Caught up in
John’s presence, she hadn’t realized she was getting so much sun.
In the small capsule of time, she soaked up every morsel of her
lunch and husband.

Of course, the MPs caught up with her and
she was whisked back to a quiet corner of the Buckley jail. Trece
and White Boy stood with their backs against the bars of her cell.
With a Trece and White Boy wall to the world, she sat on the bed in
her cell.

At least Trece wasn’t talking.

She debated whether to celebrate the quiet
with a nap or work on the pocket computer her Sergeant had smuggled
her. Her arm throbbed. No pain meds in jail. Thanks to Bestat, her
abdomen felt whole and strong.

Closing her eyes, she tried to force herself
into sleep.

The moment her eyes closed, her mind filled
with sadness. Simon. The boys in the tunnel. Raz. Forcing the
sadness away, her mind jumped to the puzzle of Cee Cee Joiner. She
shook her head. No Joiner. With a will of their own, her eyes
drooped. And her mind wondered about the betrayer.

Crap. Even exhausted, she couldn’t
sleep.

Turning on her handheld computer, she read
Larry’s report on her resignation from Homeland Security. She saw
an email from Troy at Raz’s bedside. The Joiner witnesses, Buddy
Lopez, his daughter, and Krystal Joiner, were on route to talk to
her. Everything was on track.

That is, if she ever got out of this
cell.

“
Very interesting,” she
heard an English accented man’s voice. “But Her Majesty is not
interested in local police or politics. This order? You will notice
the signature. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t really track
Denver Police issues. Personally, I doubt she cares.“

“
Yes sir.”

“
Her Majesty’s Secret
Intelligence Service is taking custody of this witness and Robert
Powell. I will take custody of him when he’s ambulatory. I will
take custody of my witness today.”

“
We need to
confirm...”

“
Do what you must,” the
voice said. “I will wait with my witness.”

Trece and White Boy stiffened on guard as
the British intruder approached.

“
Da nuit Alex. Look at these guys! You
do
like the beef,” the man said in Irish Gaelic. Switching to
English, he said, “Don’t worry gents. I’m an old
friend.”

“
And that means what to me?”
Trece snarled.

“
I’m not going to kill The
Fey.”

Alex went to the bars.

“
Lieutenant Colonel, do you
know this man?” White Boy asked.

“
I can’t see him,” she
said.

White Boy shifted to his left leg so she
could peek between the men. In the dim light, she saw a medium
sized blue eyed man.

“
I knew you weren’t dead,”
she laughed. “I just knew it.”

“
You see!” the man said.
Laughing, he added, “I’m hard to kill.”

Trece did something she’d never seen him do.
He took out a pocket computer then asked the man for his thumb
print. The man puzzled for a moment at Trece then gave him his
thumb. Trece watched the screen then nodded. He stepped aside.

“
Fancy guards you have
Alex,” the man said.

“
Captain Ramirez? Captain
Blanco? I’d like to introduce you to the illustrious James Kelly,”
Alex said. “You know him as James Bond.”

“
THIS is James Bond?” Trece
almost giggled with glee.

“
He is.”

FFFFFF

June 2002

Prague, Czech Republic

“
I have him!” Alex squealed
into her cell phone. She was imitating her basic training bunkmate
Cathy Sue’s heavy Texas accent. “He’s so handsome and very big. You
don’t think he’ll be too big for me.”

“
Good work, Alex,” Charlie
O’Brien said.

She had purchased a week of sex with James
Bond from two Czech mobsters. A thousand dollars bought a week for
one British Secret Intelligence Service Agent named James Kelly.
Now she had to make his freedom a reality.

“
Well, you say that,” she
continued. “You know how much I love James Bond.”

Alex had just finished scrubbing away the
filth which covered his body. The last seven months of captivity
had taken a strong, vibrant man to skin and bones. At least he
hadn’t been tortured. She left him soaking in a fresh bath while
she checked in.

“
You have five days,”
Charlie said.

“
That’s the great thing,”
Alex said. “He looks exactly like him. Yeah, totally
hot.”

“
You’re grossing me out,”
Charlie said laughing. “The room has audio
surveillance.”

“
I thought so
too!”

“
Remember, they are hoping
to gain a hostage, not lose one.”

“
He does!” Alex said. “I’m
going to have myself a good time.”

“
Get out if it gets
bad.”

“
I wouldn’t miss it for the
world,” she said. Hearing the agent groan, she added, “Got to go!
My man is ready for me.”

Helping him to sit on the commode, she
pushed up her left sleeve and pointed to her blue fairy tattoo. The
agent ran his fingers over the blue lines while she dried him with
a towel. As if he was working something out, his eyes looked away
then searched her face.

Smiling, Alex winked at the agent. His
eyebrows furrowed in a silent ‘what?’ She began her audio porno
performance.

“
Oh... oh… oh. Yeah that’s
it. You’re so big. Oh don’t hurt me.”

Surprised, the man’s mouth dropped open.

Alex gave him a toothbrush then helped him
stand to spit in the sink. When he was clean and feeling more human
under her gentle care, Alex screamed a fake climax, flushed a
condom down the toilet and left the wrapper in the trash. The agent
clapped his hands in quiet appreciation for her performance. She
curtsied then helped him to the bed.

The simple activity of moving from the
bathroom to the bed used what little strength the agent gained from
the warm bath. He collapsed in the bed and fell fast asleep. Alex
set up an antibiotic IV, a catheter, and kept him comfortable with
pain medications. The agent would not move from the bed for three
days.

Changing into a T-shirt and jeans, Alex
retrieved her psychology texts from her suitcase. She hoped to
spend the next few days studying for her Ph.D. exams while the
agent recovered. Propping her legs on a coffee table, she settled
in with her books. Near midnight, she checked the agent and gave
him more pain medications. After another round of fake sex, she
fell asleep on the couch.

The days passed. Alex woke at dawn, showered
and studied while the agent slept. Every couple of hours, she
continued her audio sexual performance. Alex assured anyone
listening of the agent’s sexual prowess.

By the evening of the forth day, Alex needed
to get the agent moving. They would escape the hotel and meet up
with the team tomorrow evening. She stopped the agent’s pain meds
around noon but he hadn’t woken. She was going to have to wake
him.

Reaching to touch his shoulder, the agent
grabbed her arm and flipped her under him. He pressed his forearm
across her throat.

“
Good morning,” she
whispered.

His eyes gleamed with fear and fever. He
closed and opened his eyes then shook his head as if to wake up.
Seeing her for the first time, he raised an eyebrow then shifted to
the bed.

“
Sorry.”

She shrugged. “How are you feeling?”

“
Worse… and better at the
same time. Is that possible?”

“
I’ve heard it
before.”

“
Will you help me to the
toilet?”

She nodded. She unhooked his IV and removed
the catheter. The agent sighed with relief. The agent stood,
weaved, and then dropped to the bed.

Alex smiled and held her hands out to him.
She pulled him to standing. With her arm under his shoulder, she
helped him to the toilet then left him in a warm bath while she got
his liquid food and medications ready.

He came from the bathroom with a towel
around his waist.

Alex pointed to the ceiling then her ears
signaling the audio surveillance. Nodding, the agent drank the
Ensure and water she had set out for him.

“
Clothing?” he
asked.

She pointed to a pair of soft cotton sweats
and an old soft T-shirt. She turned her back so he could dress. He
touched her shoulder then pointed to the couch. She picked up
another nutrition drink, as well as his meds, and sat next to him
on the couch. He slipped his arm around her shoulders.

“
When do we leave?” he asked
in her ear.

“
Tomorrow night,” she said.
“You need to eat as much as you can keep down. Will you
eat?”

She gave him the nutrition drink and a
packet of raw almonds. She handed him some pain and antibiotic
pills. They sat in silence while he ate. He washed the pills down
with another bottle of water. He rubbed his stomach as if he was
going to burst.

“
We estimated you would need
five days to be ready to travel. You need to rest and
eat.”

“
I’ve been here a long
time.”

“
Seven months,” she said.
“We’ve been looking for you for two months.”

“
How?” he asked.

“
I paid a thousand dollars
for your sexual services for a week.”