Learning to Stand (5 page)

“
I’m the Fey,” she said. She
pushed up the left sleeve of her oversized jacket to show the blue
Fairy tattoo.

“
The Fey is a man,” he said.
“Special Forces doesn’t train women.”

“
Listen. I have about five
minutes to talk to you. You can either use the time to tell me what
happens in Special Forces, and then serve your full sentence. Or,
you can answer my questions and get the reduction. It’s your
choice.”

Alex felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning,
she looked up into Raz’s grey eyes. She gave him a vague smile. He
sat down next to her.

“
Agent Rasmussen is going to
tape our interaction,” Alex said.

Raz set up a digital recording device then
gave Alex a clip microphone. Noting the Weasel’s shackled hands, he
clipped another microphone on to his orange corrections
jumpsuit.

“
You’re not talking?” the
Weasel asked Raz.

“
No,” Raz said. “Go ahead,
Major.”

“
This is Major...” Alex
fumbled for a moment before she remembered the fake name that
belonged to her fake blond hair and fake blue eyes. “Major Alyssa
Drayson. I’m in Shelter 17 speaking with...”

She rubbed her face to avoid saying his
name.

“
Are you ready to begin?”
Alex asked.

“
If you can do something
about the heat. It’s hotter than hell in here.”

“
Nothing can be done about
the heat,” she said. “Explain to me how a decorated Secret Service
officer, with almost twenty years in, winds up in the middle of an
assassination attempt on the President of the United
States?”

“
I needed the money,” he
said.

She shook her head at his answer. She let
the silence lag to see if he would tell her more. He didn’t.

“
How much money did you
receive for killing my brother, my husband and my
teammate?”

“
I didn’t kill them.” The
Weasel bristled as if she touched a sore nerve. “I could have, but
I didn’t. This guy shot me.”

“
I could have killed you but
didn’t either,” Raz said.

Alex glared at Raz. He shrugged his
apology.

“
Was your contract to kill
them?” Alex asked.

“
Yes, as you know, my
contract was to kill them in exchange for money.”

“
What kept you from killing
them?” Alex asked.

Shrugging, the Weasel looked away from her.
Alex watched the man grapple with a decision. She hoped if she was
silent long enough, he would tell her what she needed to know. But
he wasn’t answering even the preliminary questions.

Alex reached to turn off the recorder when
an explosion went off overhead. This blast was met with an equal
detonation closer to where they were.

“
That’s an explosion chain!”
Vince yelled. “Everyone down!”

F

CHAPTER FOUR

Raz threw himself on top of Alex. They fell
backwards in her chair just before a particularly violent
explosion. The lights in the room flickered, sparked then went out.
The room shook. Every chair fell over. The mortar made a tinkling
sound as it fell onto the concrete floor. A portion of the ceiling
tiles crashed onto the table. The hot air filled with cement dust
and mortar.

And somehow, the room remained intact.

“
Was that for me?” the
Weasel yelled over the explosions. He belly crawled until his face
right next to Alex’s. “They want me dead.”

“
Yes,” she said.

“
I thought… I thought the
explosions were for you or these guys or the weirdo the guards
didn’t know or...”

“
OK,” Vince yelled. “That’s
probably it.”

“
I...” The Weasel shook his
head back and forth.

“
Call!” Alex
yelled.

“
Hutchins.”

“
Olivas.”

“
Mac Clenaghan.”

“
Rasmussen.”

“
Drayson,” Alex finished.
“Guards.”

“
Here.”

“
Your prisoner is over
here.”

Through the dark, a circle of light from a
head light came in their direction.

“
Jeez, I knew it,” Troy
said. “Do you guys ever take a break? Any chance you have, you’re
humping away.”

He reached down to help Raz up.

“
That’s you, Troy,” Alex
said.

Midway up, Raz’s back seized in spasm. Raz
let out an involuntary gasp. Troy set him down next to Alex.

“
You know? That
is
me,” Troy said.
“Mattie, I could use a hand here.”

Another headlamp circle of light moved
across the dark room.

“
I love the ladies,” Troy
said.

“
All ladies. One at a time,”
Alex, Raz, Matthew and Troy said together. They laughed.

Matthew took Raz’s other arm.

“
Can you stand?” Matthew
asked. “Alex, do you have your pill packet?”

“
Yep,” Alex said.

Alex rolled to sitting. Digging through her
pockets, she found the packet of pills John insisted she carry with
her. She gave the packet to Matthew.

“
Ready?” Matthew
said.

With Matthew and Troy supporting him, Raz
stood. He shifted back and forth then nodded. Troy and Matthew let
go. Raz tried to take a step but was unable to.

“
Maybe you should sit for a
minute,” Troy said, “Collect your thoughts and all.”

Alex righted a chair and the men helped Raz
into the chair. Matthew gave Raz a couple anti-inflammatory pills
and a pain pill from Alex’s packet. He offered one to her but she
shook her head.

“
I need a report,” Alex
said.

“
What about me?” the Weasel
asked.

“
Guards?” Alex asked. “Can
you stay with your prisoner?”

“
Yes, Major.” The guards
helped the Weasel back to a chair then stood with him.

“
Olivas? Where’s my
feed?”

“
MAJOR!?!?” A man’s voice
boomed over the room’s audio system.

“
Sergeant?” Alex
asked.

“
I was able to hook up
everything, but the connection wasn’t working,” Troy said. He
walked with her over to where he’d hooked her pocket computer to
the phone lines. “The last explosion must have connected the
wires.”

“
Major?” Alex’s Sergeant
asked. “I can hear you talking but I can’t tell what you’re saying.
Cheyenne Mountain reported a ping from Shelter 17. I informed them
you reviewed the shelters last week.”

“
Sergeant? Can you hear me
now?” Alex moved over to the phone.

“
Oh, thank God,” her
Sergeant said. “Colonel Gordon is here as well. He’d like a
report.”

“
Sir, we were taken to
Shelter 17 prior to explosion. The explosions began while we were
in the stairwell. Outside of minor injury, we are all accounted
for.”

“
And that little
weasel?”

“
He and his guards are
present.”

“
Well done, Major,” Colonel
Gordon said.

“
Sergeant, the last
explosion seems to have knocked out our power. Can you ask Cheyenne
Mountain about back up power?”

“
Major,” Colonel Gordon
said. “We have a report from the Jakker. The last explosion caused
extensive damage to the mountain. He’s hovering right over Shelter
17 and believes he can see the door. We are sending a team into the
area.”

“
Sir, we experienced an
explosive chain. Let’s wait to be sure. If we get
power...”

There was a mechanical hum. The lights
flickered before coming on. Climate control kicked in and the room
began to cool off.

“
Power and climate control,”
Alex said. “Thank you, Sergeant.”

“
Cheyenne Mountain has
control of the room. They needed to know how many people to control
the oxygen flow. They say there’s MREs near the front of the room.
Do you remember where to find water? Latrine? Field protective
masks? Oxygen?”

“
Yes, Sergeant. Thank
you.”

“
We’ll wait to hear from
you,” Colonel Gordon said. “In the meantime, sit tight.”

“
Sir?” Alex’s Sergeant
asked.

“
Yes, Sergeant.”

“
I will stay at base so you
don’t have to rely on back-up assistance. You can reach me when you
need me.”

“
Thank you, Sergeant,” Alex
said. “Oh, and Sergeant?”

“
Yes, Major?”

“
What happened to Sergeant
Flagg?”

“
He’s at Fort Carson bossing
everyone around.”

“
Can you relay a ‘knock it
off’ message from me?”

“
Yes Major. They have locked
him in a room. Will that do?”

“
Yes Sergeant,” Alex said.
“Thank you.”

Alex turned around to see all of the
expectant faces. In each face, she saw competence, intelligence,
and arrogance. They’d wanted to work for her. They’d each jumped at
the chance to stand right here with her.

And she had no idea what to do next. The
familiar ache and annoying longing for Charlie returned.

“
We sit tight,” she said.
“Raz, what’s our oxygen supply like?”

“
The room is set up to
generate oxygen from the atmosphere,” he said. “As long as we have
power, we have oxygen.”

“
Matthew, what did Cheyenne
Mountain say?”

“
The mountain is on fire
from the explosions. The forest service is flying to put out the
worst of the fire before it spreads. They believe we’ll have snow
soon.”

“
How much snow?” Alex
asked.

“
A lot,” Matthew replied.
“Couple of feet at the minimum. The Jakker is in the air over our
site. He’s waiting to get us but, the snow...”

“
He can’t fly in a blizzard.
We either risk the fire or wait out the snow storm. Any idea of how
long that might be?”

“
Three days.” Matthew looked
away from her. He crossed his arms then looked back, “Probably
five.”

“
Five days of snow?” Alex
asked.

“
We’re over 10,000
feet.”

“
Ok, what are you not
telling me?” Alex asked.

“
Vince and I checked the
door while you were talking to base.”

“
And?”

“
We’re buried. I don’t know
what Zack sees or thinks he sees...”

“
And that means?”

“
I estimate we’ll be in this
room for at least a week,” Matthew said. “Maybe longer.”

“
I’m not spending a week in
this room,” Troy said. “I have a date tonight.”

Alex tugged on her hair in irritation. What
would Charlie do? Exhaling, she chose to go back to basics.

“
We go step-wise. I need an
assessment of our supplies. Do we have enough food and water to
sustain us for a week or more? Cheyenne Mountain has environmental
control. Next step is food. Troy, can you look for medical
supplies? We may need those.”

Matthew and Troy set to work at their tasks.
Alex sighed. At least if they were working, they weren’t
bitching.

“
Major?” Vince asked. “I was
able to use your pocket computer to hook into the base computers.
Your Sergeant helped me re-run our models. I believe we’ve seen the
last of the major explosions. It’s possible there is one more
pocket of methane about ten miles from here.”

“
Houses?”

“
Still wilderness. Thank
God. I also have live feed from Zack. I can project it. Would you
like to see it?”

Alex nodded.

The screen at the front of the room lit up
to show the horrifying destruction. The mountain had been ripped
apart by the blasts. The pine forest was engulfed in flame. What
had been old growth forest and meadow was now barren rock, dirt,
dust and fire. Forest Service planes dropped water onto the
fire.

Matthew and Troy moved to stand next to her.
Raz stood behind Alex. Stunned by the devastation of pristine
wilderness, they couldn’t tear their eyes away.

“
These are explosion sites,”
Vince walked to the screen to point to areas of forest. “I would
guess we’ll find explosives at every site we chose. We won’t know
for sure until we check, but I’d bet a hundred bucks they were set
off by hand.”

“
Because of the delay?” Alex
asked.

“
Right,” Vince
said.

“
We have a leak but it’s not
within our group,” Matthew said. “We’re looking at someone with a
lot of money and access to our… computers?”

“
Or theirs,” Raz said. He
pointed to the guards. “You report your location?”

“
Yes sir,” The guard
said.

“
Your life insurance is paid
up?” Troy asked.

Alex turned back to the control panel table
and her pocket computer.

“
Sergeant?”

“
Yes, Major?”

“
Can you ask the Jakker to
check heat and radar for people? While you’re at it, can you send
the satellite feed… uh...?”