The Fey (24 page)

“
I wonder what it is,” Ben
said.

“
Who knows? Listen, this
bombing is the first time he actually tried to kill me,” Alex said.
“I spoke with the IRA. It has all the hallmarks of an IRA bombing
but they swear they weren’t involved.”

“
I’ve never known them to
not take credit for something.”

“
They are credit hounds,”
Alex said.

“
Go through it for me.
Start at the beginning of the day.”

“
We got up about five
o’clock. Max and I took my jeep to the gym where we met Erin. John
went to the hospital for rounds and was due home before noon. Max
was at the house answering email in John’s office when he got a
phone call from Fran.”

“
When was
that?”

“
Eight? Maybe
eight-thirty.”

“
Okay, go on.”

“
Fran, as you know, is a
complete freak. She was very upset.”

“
They’ve been on the verge
of break up for…”

“
A year at least. Anyway,
Max thought he should be there, in Paris, with her, in case this
was the end. I was at home hanging out with Cian and Eoin so I told
him to go.”

“
He bought the plane
ticket at the airport,” Ben said confirming what he
knew.

“
Yes. He took a cab… no
that’s not true. He was going to take a cab but found out our next
door neighbor, Delores was on her way to the airport. He went with
her.”

“
Delores Mendes, the
bartender?”

“
Yes. She subleases the
house from a girlfriend who is living with her boyfriend. I don’t
think there’s even a paper lease. The girls are just friends. Raz
checked her out when she moved in. She seems clean.”

“
There’s no way anyone
could have known that Max was gone.”

“
Or who he went with.
Right. We planned to make cookies and hang out. John’s been
teaching Cian how to play this video game. I was going to check the
bees.”

“
Did John drive his car to
the hospital?”

“
Yes. And I took mine to
the gym. Cian says that it takes at least a fifteen minutes to set
up a bomb like that.”

“
Per car?”

“
Yes, per car and that’s
assuming you are good at it.”

“
So we have to assume that
the cars were rigged the previous night.”

“
Right. The demo team says
that they were on a timer but also…”

“
Your cars should have
gone off when you were driving them.”

“
Yeah,” Alex said. “The
VBIEDs had mercury tilt switches. Standard IRA issue. The Jeep was
set up the same way. The Denver Police demo team sent the entire
thing to Homeland. Maybe they’ll find something. Denver PD said the
VBIEDs might have been timer sensitive but no one has seen or heard
of a timer sensitive mercury tilt switch. I have a call into my
Navy SEAL friend Vince Hutchins. He’s a munitions
expert.”

“
The guy who shared your
room at Walter Reed?”

“
Yeah,” she
said.

“
So far, we’ve worked on
the assumption that Eleazar is trying to mentally wear you
down.”

“
Cian suggested that the
IRA style bombing was to add to the IRA news of the last couple
weeks.”

“
Maybe… also takes away
your home. It’s one of the few things left on the ‘what’s important
to Alex’ list.”

“
Friends, husband,
home…”

“
He doesn’t know that you
know about your parentage.”

“
Family.”

“
We must assume he’s going
to go after Max.”

“
Right. But he tried to
kill all of us–John, me, Max, Cian and Eoin.”

“
It’s pretty dumb for
someone to go after the three native IRA… huh…”

“
What?” she
asked.

“
The IRA would respond
immediately, and in-kind, to anyone who killed three of their own.
Cease fire or no, the Irish Republican Army takes care of its
own.”

“
Maybe he thinks he’s
doing them a favor, misinterpreting their interest in John Kelly as
a desire to kill him. Cian and Eoin had a ‘talk or a hit’
contract.”

“
I hadn’t thought of that.
Maybe. Why did you leave the house?” Ben asked.

“
Joseph hadn’t been to the
memorial since the ceremony. We decided to go on the spur of the
moment.”

“
Why did he come
down?”

“
He received a call from
the President. He decided to come down after talking to Nancy all
night. There’s no way anyone could have known that. Number one,
Joseph has been in hiding. I might be wrong, but I haven’t heard
even a murmur that Joseph has been located. He’s underground.
Number two, no one knows what this President will or won’t do. Plus
Joseph said that he decided to come down about an hour before he
left the house.”

“
He didn’t call before
hand?”

“
No, he just came down,”
Alex said.

“
When did he get
there?”

“
About ten, ten
fifteen.”

“
And it’s a four hour
drive?”

“
Little more that that,”
Alex said. “Do you think the bombs were planted while he was on the
road?”

“
Who knows? How did he
know you would be at home?”

“
He didn’t. He said that
if I wasn’t here, he would spend the day in Denver shopping. Joseph
never trusted the telephones, radios, computers, or any
transmission really. He felt that they were too easily monitored.
He used to say that secure lines are always monitored by the people
who secure them. It’s why we traveled so much.”

“
Odd that the President
would call on the seventh of the month,” Ben said.

“
It’s a month before his
big event. He wanted to land Joseph in his corner.”

“
Raz is there, right?” Ben
asked.

“
He’s in Denver. Denver PD
says that we can go into the secure office this evening. We’ve
rented a truck and lined up a platoon of soldiers. We’re going to
get everything tonight.”

“
Before we ring off,” Ben
said, “I want you to know that I’ve never regretted that night with
your mother. She probably told you that we weren’t great. We were
awkward at best. But that night was truly one of the best nights of
my life. Every single thing was perfect, well except…”

“
She said that you knew it
wasn’t right because the night was so magical.”

“
We had male-female
identical twins, Alexandra. It’s very rare and completely
wonderful. I’m so glad, so blessed, to know you and
Max.”

“
We feel the same about
you, Ben.”

She heard him let out a breath.

“
Thanks. That means a lot
to me. You’ll be careful?”

“
Of course.”

“
Philippe used to call me
‘Benji’. Just a thought.”

“
I’ll talk to
Max.”

Ben hung up the phone.

She dropped into a chair near a window
looking out over the Rocky Mountains. The suite was large and
comfortable but it wasn’t home. With a sigh, she checked to see if
housekeeping had replaced the bottles of alcohol. She was squatting
in front of the tiny refrigerator when John came in the door.
Holding a bouquet of two dozen white roses and another bottle of
Cristal champagne, his eyes flashed with desire.

Chuckling, she stood to greet him.

FFF

Two hours later

September 9 – 7:46 P.M.

Denver, Colorado

“
And who the fuck are
you?” Troy Olivas asked the young sandy haired soldier.

“
Sergeant Lawrence Flagg,
sir,” the boy said.

“
And why do I want to talk
to you?” Troy asked.

Troy and the Sergeant were standing in what
was left of the basement of Alex and John’s house. Up to his knees
in black water, Troy blocked the young man’s entrance to the secure
office.

“
I’m a Green Beret,
sir.”

“
Good for you,” Troy
said.

Sticking his head in the door where Alex and
Raz were packing the electronic gear into boxes, Troy said: “Some
kid wants to talk to the Fey.”

Alex gave Troy a pained look.

“
He has a familiar name.
What’s your name again?”

“
Lawrence Flagg,
sir.”

“
You mean the commander of
the GI Joe team is standing out there with you?” Raz asked. “Well
by all means send him in.”

“
Hey that’s right. He was
killed by…

“
Major Bludd,” Raz said.
He and Troy laughed.

“
You really want him in
here?”

“
No,” Raz said.

“
Troy, can you do me a
huge favor?” Alex asked.

“
Besides standing in
disgusting dendrites?”

“
Ooh big words make me
hot,” Alex said.

Troy blushed and looked down. “What?”

Alex reached into the gun locker and pulled
out a rifle wrapped in a blanket.

“
Will you give this to my
brother Colin? Only Colin.”

“
A Winchester Repeater
Rifle? Holy crap Alex. Where did you get this?” Troy ratcheted the
metal lever.

“
It’s a Henry and
it’s…”

“
This is an original Henry
.44 caliber repeating rifle?!?”

Troy spoke in reverential tones. Looking up
from the box he was packing, Raz laughed at Troy.

“
Do you know what this
is?” Troy asked Raz.

“
Manufactured by the New
Haven Arms company, the Henry was designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry
in the late 1850s,” said the young man standing behind Troy. “Does
it work?”

“
Who cares?” Troy
asked.

Alex covered the rifle with the blanket.

“
The Henry works and
belongs to the General,” Alex said.

“
Can I use it?” Troy
asked

“
Ask the
General.”

Carrying the rifle in front of him, Troy ran
up the stairs. The young man stood in the doorway of the secure
office.

“
Sir, Sergeant Lawrence
Flagg, sir,” the young man saluted.

Alex looked up from the box she was packing.
Looking at the young man’s sandy hair and his blue eyes, she
furrowed her brow.

“
At ease, Sergeant. Do I
know you?”

“
He looks just like Howdy
Doody,” Raz said.

“
You broke my leg,
sir.”

Raz looked up at Alex and laughed. “How did
you break his leg?”

“
In the sim, remember?”
Alex bumped Raz’s arm.

“
Ah, yes, the simulation
in which I was wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Alex laughed.

“
Sergeant, this is
Homeland Security Agent Arthur Rasmussen.”

“
Really? You’re Art
Rasmussen?”

“
I am,” Raz said.
“Why?”

“
You’re the best profiler
in the business. I’m an intelligence officer. Even the Fey, I mean,
ma’am…”

Alex looked at Larry then Raz and
laughed.

“
You have a fan,” Alex
said.

“
Where’s the
Jakker?”

“
With his children,” Alex
said. “He’s on Daddy duty all September. He was supposed to bring
pizza about ten minutes ago.”

“
I’ll get to meet the
Jakker?”

“
If you’re lucky,” Alex
said.

“
I…” The Sergeant
swallowed. “Wow.”

“
Sergeant. We are standing
in what used to be my home. We need to finish this task and get out
of here before the rest of the building comes down. I don’t mean to
be rude, but what do you want?”

“
Well, I want to
help.”

“
Great,” Alex said. “Can
you take this chair and give it to my husband? Do you know who that
is?’

Larry nodded his head.

“
I realize it doesn’t seem
important, but I’ve owned this chair for a long time. My husband
will probably cry when he sees it. Please take very good care of
it.”

Alex handed Larry the overstuffed green
chair which somehow managed to miss the water, fire, and blast. Her
thumb ran over the green fabric as Larry took hold of the
chair.

“
Special care.”

“
Yes, Major.”

With serious intent marked on his face,
Sergeant Flagg carried the chair up the seven remaining stairs and
into the night. They heard Max call for John then John scream when
he saw the chair. Alex smiled and looked toward the sound just as
her Sergeant came running down the stairs.

“
Sir, the Denver Police
are saying that we need to finish up. The engineer says that the
building is beginning to shift. The ground continues to be
unstable. He thinks it’s only a matter of minutes before the rest
of the building collapses.”

Alex nodded.

“
What can I
do?”

“
Will you pack the gun
locker? There isn’t space in here but you can get a couple soldiers
to carry them upstairs. Please inventory the weapons and then lock
them tight. The locker holds most of my family’s weapons. We don’t
want to lose anything.”