The Fey (42 page)

“
Troy?” Matthew turned in
his chair to look at Troy.

“
Um…”

“
I have an Arvada police
report about a mugging in old town Arvada. It says that Captain
Olivas was… er… doing his civic duty.” Raz looked up from the piece
of paper in his hand. “Your civic duty?”

“
What did you expect me to
do? Just sit on my hands while Alex sits in that awful room all by
herself. Fuck,” Troy said. He crossed his arms and leaned back in
his chair. “I’m not cut out for this work.”

“
Alexandra thought you
were,” Patrick said. “And I second that. What did you
do?”

“
I went by the building. I
followed Jesse to these basement vents. They are just at sidewalk
level… maybe two inches high and eight inches long. They had razor
wire on the outside and on the inside. One is covered by a new
gutter drain. It’s probably not to code…” Troy looked up at Patrick
who nodded and smiled encouragingly.

“
And the other
vent?”

“
I cut the razor wire. I
couldn’t talk to her because she said she was being monitored. She
touched my fingers then told me to go.”

“
Did you give her
anything?” Raz asked.

“
A Snickers bar and… my
Leatherman Mini-tool. Oh, and a leather glove.”

“
Outstanding Troy,”
Patrick said. “Candy to give her hope and something for her to use.
Well done. Now, don’t go back.”

“
Yes sir. I was jumped by
those guys by the way.”

“
Also good to
know,”

“
Is she injured?” Raz
asked.

“
I could only see a flash
of her blonde hair. The room is very dark. But she grunted like she
does when she’s in pain. So yeah, I think she’s
injured.”

Matthew made a small noise, which he covered
by coughing. Raz looked away from the table.

“
We must stay focused on
the issues at hand. I’m sorry but our emotions won’t help her now.”
Patrick looked from Raz to Matthew. “It’s hard for me as
well.”

The men nodded.

“
Sean, what have you come
to tell us?” Patrick asked.

“
We have an operative deep
within this group. He’s been with Eleazar for almost two years.
They are from the same neighborhood in Jerusalem. This man was in
Abu Graib.”

“
What does he report?”
Patrick said.

“
They are following a
standard protocol. They beat her up then will leave her alone for a
few days. The room is set up for sensory deprivation with some
extra goodies.”

“
Goodies?” Raz
asked.

“
The gutter drain Troy
spoke of? They left her with only a gallon of water laced with LSD
and laxatives. If she drinks the water, she will hallucinate and
have diarrhea. She will know this but…”

“
She can hear the water in
the drain,” Raz said. “That’s …”

“
Torture, yes,” Sean said.
“There is a high-end chef’s table directly above where Alex is
being held. The room is not used very much but there is a large
dinner scheduled tonight.”

“
We’ve tried to get a seat
at that dinner but so far, we’ve been unable to,” Ben
said.

“
Our operative believes
they will come for her tomorrow. They are instructed to follow a
fairly standard torture plan.”

“
Does he have any idea
what they want?” Raz asked.

“
No. That’s the strange
thing. Eleazar is very vague about what they are after. He believes
that he can break Alex. He’s confident he’ll be able to achieve his
goals because she did what he asked her to do. We believe he needs
her to do something but we have no intel on what that might
be.”

Sean looked at Ben who shrugged.

“
How did he get Alex to do
what he asked her to do?” Matthew asked.

“
It’s an assumption to
believe that he did,” Patrick said. “Let’s get back to that in a
moment.”

“
Is Eleazar here?” Raz
asked.

“
Not yet. He is expected
tomorrow,” Sean said.

“
They may start working on
her before he arrives?” Patrick asked.

“
Yes sir. Their orders are
clear. Keep to the schedule. He will be there when he
can.”

“
It’s my opinion that he
does not want information. He wants a compliant, controllable
Alex,” Ben said.

“
I agree,” Patrick said.
“This is what I recommend. I’d like Troy, Trece and the White Boy
to collect Captain Jakkman and bring him back to Denver. I spoke
with him about an hour ago. He is on his way to Rome. Sergeant? Can
you make arrangements for Troy to collect Trece and the White Boy
then meet Captain Jakkman in Rome? I’d like them back here by
tomorrow evening at the latest.”

“
Yes sir,” Alex’s Sergeant
left the room.

“
Zack Jakkman is alive?”
Sean Hudson asked.

“
No,” Patrick said. “Raz,
tell me exactly what you saw when Alex left the hotel.”

“
I wasn’t there when she
got the call. I noticed she left her coffee and asked John about
it. He said she answered her phone. She told him that she had to go
and that ‘he always says friend.’ I ran to the front of the hotel
and saw her leaving by cab. Her eyes were saucers–dark and round.
She held her right hand up to the window. I was forced back into
the hotel by the CIA operative. There was a major threat against
the hotel.”

“
And was
there?”

“
Yes,” Ben said. “There
was a credible bomb threat. As a safety measure, cell phone,
electronic signal, Internet access and telephone lines
wereautomatically shut down. There was no way for Agent Rasmussen
to contact the police or anyone to stop the cab.”

“
They knew where she was
staying. Do they know about John? Max?”

“
No,” Sean said.
“According to our operative, Eleazar believes he has murdered Zack
Jakkman, Max Hargreaves, John Kelly and Joseph Walter.”

“
Captain Olivas?” Alex’s
Sergeant poked his head inside the conference room door. “I have
your travel arrangements. You will leave in ten minutes. Does that
work?”

“
Oh thank God.” Troy
hopped to his feet and exited the room.

“
General, do you believe
that Alex is under Eleazar’s control?” Colonel Gordon
asked.

“
Yes and no,” Patrick
said. “She clearly did what he asked. She should have only said
what he told her to say. Which was,” Patrick shifted through a few
sheets of paper, “‘Sorry, I have to go’ according to the cell phone
transcript. The video record from the restaurant shows that she
kissed John and told him that she loved him. She also would not
have put her hand on the glass to Raz if she was completely under
his control.”

“
Are you certain, sir?”
Matthew asked. “I mean no disrespect but I think we all want to
believe that Alex didn’t succumb to him. Yet she’s in his control
now.”

“
Matthew, General
Hargreaves is one of the world’s experts in psychological
programming,” Ben said.

Matthew looked at Alex’s father with
surprise. Patrick shrugged.

“
It’s a long story,”
Patrick said. “It’s my opinion that she let it happen. I cannot
imagine what it would be like to watch your entire team killed
before you. Then she lost her home, her friends were almost killed,
her twin shot, her husband… It goes on and on. She knew Eleazar
wanted her. I think she didn’t want anyone else to be hurt or
killed. She probably just wanted to get it over with.”

“
She knew he’d torture
her? Rape her? And just went along with it?” Matthew
asked.

Patrick nodded. “When I look at the video, I
see her saying good-bye to John. She had already arranged for him
to go to Scotland where she knew he’d be taken care of. Yes, she
knew what would happen. Now, Matthew, can you hear Jesse?”

“
Not well,” he said. “I’m
too skeptical.”

“
I can,” Ben
said.

Patrick raised his eyebrows at Ben and
laughed, “Really?”

“
I heard him in the
tunnels. He told us where to go.”

“
We need to remind Alex
that they will blind her with the lights. I doubt we can get close
again, like Troy did. She also needs to know that Eleazar is not
here. If she can hold them off until he gets here, we will get
somewhere. I wondered if we might send her that
message.”

“
Sir, you are talking
about speaking with a dead person,” Raz said. “Isn’t that a
little…”

“
Alex believes she sees
and talks to him. Why shouldn’t we? Now how do we get his
attention?”

“
I’ll work on that, sir,”
Matthew said. “I think I know a way.”

“
Great. I’ll work with
Ben, Raz and Sean to see if we can come up with what Eleazar
wants.”

Patrick watched Matthew leave the room then
turned to Ben.

“
What do you
have?”

FFF

“
Are you all right?” Max
asked.

He was walking down the hall carrying Alex’s
address book when he ran into Matthew. Matthew was standing in the
hallway with his head against the wall. He looked up when Max spoke
and shook his head.

“
Come on, man. Let’s get
some coffee,” Max said.

They walked down the hall to Alex’s office.
Max tilted his head sideways, then opened a cabinet and pulled out
the coffee maker. He passed the pot to Matthew who filled it at the
water cooler. With a flick of his hand, Max turned the coffee pot
on.

“
How did you know that was
there? You even found her secret stash of French
coffee.”

“
I just looked where I
would put it,” Max said. “It’s not true for all twins, but Alex and
I have always been very close.”

“
Is that why you can stay
so calm?” Matthew asked.

“
I guess. I look inside,
to the place that Alex lives inside me, and I know that she’s all
right… asleep, I think.”

Matthew nodded.

“
What’s wrong?” Max
asked.

“
What’s not?”

“
Have some coffee. Alex
can’t have coffee right now, so we should double up for
her.”

Max poured Matthew a cup of coffee then went
to Alex’s desk. Kicking a corner of the desk, the bottom drawer
opened.

“
Whiskey?” Max held up a
bottle of Red Breast Irish Whiskey.

Matthew laughed and nodded.

“
Don’t tell her I showed
you her private stash.” Max poured himself a cup of coffee and
added some whiskey.

“
Your Dad… He just sat
there talking about his daughter getting tortured… I…”

Max nodded. “It’s just a reality for him. I
think he’s prepared himself for the possibility since she begged
him to help her become a Green Beret. He was… crazy… when you guys
were in S.E.R.E.… Absolutely crazy.”

“
I’m supposed to talk to
Jesse,” Matthew said. “I don’t even know if I believe Jesse
exists.”

“
He’s right there.” Max
pointed to the door. “Did you call for him?”

“
Just before you came down
the hall. Then I just felt stupid and hopeless.”

“
Why did you need him?”
Max asked.

“
I’m supposed to tell him
to tell Alex that they will try to blind her with the lights and
that Eleazar isn’t here yet. She’s supposed to hold them off until
he gets here but … I mean, how can I ask Alex…”

“
Jesse, remind her about
the slit glasses,” Max said.

Jesse nodded then disappeared.

“
Well that’s taken care
of. Is there a shooting range here?” Max asked.

“
Two floors below us,
why?”

“
The spies will be sorting
out what their real names are and what not for a couple hours. Why
don’t we go shoot for a while? Blow off steam.”

Matthew nodded.

“
Do you really shoot a
forty-five?”

“
Yeah, why?”

“
Oh nothing.”

F

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Thirteen years earlier

Intelligence officer in training, Sergeant
Alexandra Hargreaves, walked down a dim hall in the bowels of Fort
Bragg. After shaking her awake at two in the morning, the two
Military Police officers, one on either side of her, kept a clipped
pace through the halls. She had no idea what was going on. She only
knew that they wanted her to come with them.

They reached a door at the end of the hall.
Unlocking the door, they held the door open and instructed Alex to
enter the room. Alex stepped inside the small room and turned just
in time to see the MPs close the door. She was locked in this
room.

There was a battered table in the middle of
the room with a chair on either side of it. Alex dropped into a
chair at the table while she looked around the room. A white board
filled one wall and the other walls were bare cinder block. The
room was more like an austere closet than an actual meeting or
training room.

Hearing a sound, she turned to see the door
open.

“
I was lying in my
hospital bed,” Ben said. He leaned against the closed door. “They
told me that some Sergeant aced the intelligence exam. What should
they do? I said, ’Give the Sergeant the test again’. How stupid can
they be?”