The Fey (6 page)

“
Thank you for
coming.”

“
I won’t let you do it
alone,” he said. “I brought lunch–Chinese–if you’d like to come
up.”

“
I have a quick call to
command, then I’ll be up.”

Lifting her from the chair, he crushed her
against him.

“
Meet me upstairs,” he
said. His lips brushed across hers. “I love you Alex.”

Her fake blue eyes searched his face. She
flushed then nodded.

“
Sir,” her Sergeant called
from the flat screen in the armoire.

“
Yes, Sergeant,” Alex
turned to sit in her office chair. John kissed her neck, then went
upstairs.

“
The Colonel is on the
line for you.”

“
Thanks,” Alex
said.

The screen flickered to the bushy hair,
bushy eyebrows and round face of Colonel Howard Gordon. He was
talking to someone just off screen, then turned.

“
Major Drayson,” Colonel
Gordon said.

Alex saluted and he returned it.

“
It’s just strange to
salute the computer screen. At ease, Alex. I wanted to check in to
see how you’re holding up. The CIA informs me that they believe
they have some good information on Eleazar.”

“
They’ve said that
before,” Alex said. “I’ll review the information when I’m done with
the call. We’re hoping to get another location on him. Our guess is
that he’s in Jordon.”

“
Major… Alex… I am going
to request again that you don’t take this telephone call. In
sixteen months, we have learned very little except that you can
tolerate psychological torture. You’ve proven your point. Let it be
over.”

“
Sir, respectfully, we
cannot stop him from coming after me. He is coming, sir. This is
our opportunity to….”

“
God damn it,
Alex.”

“
Sir.” She watched the
Colonel, known for fighting for his people, fight with himself.
There was a voice behind him and he turned.

“
I was just informed that
my job is to support you in the endeavor.”

Alex raised her eyebrows and laughed.

“
We’ll go over the
transcripts tomorrow in my office, Major.”

“
Yes, sir,” Alex
said.

The screen flashed dark when Colonel Gordon
ended the conversation. Alex turned in her chair to get up when her
Sergeant’s face appeared on the screen.

“
Sir there’s a priority
message coming in for you from someone named Anderson. It’s
nonmilitary but he has the code.”

“
Tom Anderson?”

“
Yes sir.”

“
Can you patch him
through?”

“
Yes sir.”

A moment before he realized the connection
was made, Alex saw the flashing dark eyes and rumpled hair of Max’s
friend Tom.

“
You’ll just have to
fucking shoot me then,” he said to someone off screen.

“
What’s up
Tom?”

“
Holy fuck Alex. You have
to believe me that I didn’t have anything to do with this. Oh God
Alex never, never would I… Homeland fucking Security has shut down
our servers. There’s fifty…sixty guys in the building with machine
guns. Oh Alex, I’m so sorry. Oh fuck…”

“
TOM! What are
you…?”

There was movement on the stairs to the
basement. Rolling her chair to the doorway, Alex saw Homeland
Security Agent Arthur “Raz” Rasmussen and his boss, her mentor and
the best intelligence agent in the world, Ben, take the stairs two
at a time.

Tom continued his espresso fueled panic.

“
Tell me what to do Alex.
The geeks are freaking here. Your brother is going to fucking kill
me.”

“
Who is that?” Raz
said.

“
Tom Anderson,” Alex said.
“He runs…”

“
MySpace.”

“
Tom, Homeland just got
here. I don’t have any idea…”

“
Alex,” Tom leaned into
the webcam. “I have been Max’s friend for almost fifteen years. I
would never endanger you, never. That’s what I wanted you to hear.
From me to you.”

“
Of course, Tom. Clearly
something is going on. I need to get up to speed, but we’re
golden.”

“
We’re golden. I will do
whatever I have to do to make this right.”

The muzzle of a machine gun moved into the
screen and Tom swore at the person.

“
I’m getting off the God
damn…” Tom said and his screen went blank.

Alex’s screen split as the image of her
Sergeant and Colonel Gordon both joined her video feed.

“
God damn it, Alex.
Homeland…” Colonel Gordon said into the screen.

“
They just arrived,
sir.”

“
Then you know,” he
said.

“
Know what?” Alex
asked.

“
Eleazar has a photo of
you, Max, John and Erin,” Ben said in slow even tones.

“
WHAT?” Alex twirled
around in her chair. She raised her finger to Ben. “Wait.” She
turned back to her screen.

“
Sir, Ben is here to brief
me. I…”

“
We’ve got your back
Alex,” Colonel Gordon said clicking off.

“
Major?” her Sergeant
asked.

“
Sergeant, I need five
minutes.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
What?” Alex turned to
Ben.

“
Your sister’s fiancé
Marcos Ruiz posted a photo of you to his MySpace page. It says,
‘The Fey and family: The Fey, John Drayson, Max Hargreaves and Erin
Hargreaves.’ There another picture of you as Alyssa. It looks like
it’s taken from a cell phone. It says, ‘The Fey is Alyssa Kreiger
and Alexandra Hargreaves.’”

“
One of my programs found
them less than three minutes after they were posted,” Raz said.
“There were four hits before we took the servers down.”

“
Would you excuse me for a
moment?” Alex asked.

Raz nodded.

Dragging her left leg behind her, she pulled
herself to the bathroom just making it to the toilet before she
threw up. Panic rose from the center of her being. Slow flashes of
machine gun fire, splashing blood and the sound of ragged breathing
dragged her mind beyond memory. She covered her ears with her hands
as Eleazar’s laughter echoed off the bathroom walls. She threw up
again.

Panic turned to terror and she rocked
herself. Her eyes focused on the toilet but her vision filled with
death. Death everywhere. John… Max… Erin… Everyone she loved died.
Everyone dead. Jiminy Cricket took them all to heaven while she
lived alone in a blood red hell.

He appeared from nowhere. John dropped to
his knees beside her. His strong arms slipped around her. She knew
he was talking, saying something while he rocked her back and
forth, but she only heard the ragged breathing brought on by panic.
She buried her head into John’s muscular chest.

Like a speaker being turned on, soft at
first, then gradually louder, she heard John’s voice.

“
Shh, shh… We’re in
Denver. We’re in our own safe home. Nothing’s happening. You’re
safe. Shh.”

“
I’m in Denver, Colorado
sitting in the basement bathroom on the floor,” she said She forced
her attention to the present. “You are my husband. You are John
Drayson.”

“
You sure?” he
chuckled.

They learned this technique when Alex was
studying for her Ph.D. in psychology. What once was a joke, now
served as the only thing that broke through the wall of sight and
sound when her brain seized in flashback. John still laughed every
time.

“
What are you
wearing?”

“
I’m Alexandra Hargreaves
Drayson. I’m sitting on the floor of the basement bathroom of my
home in Denver, Colorado. I’m wearing blue jeans, body armor and a
T-shirt.”

“
Ah love, did you forget
panties again?” he laughed. He reached to flush the
toilet.

“
Yep, no bra
either.”

“
That’s odd because I can
feel it right here.” He flicked her bra strap through the arm holes
in her body armor. He slipped his hands into the back of her pants.
“Maybe you’re flashing on not wearing the bra and panties last
night. That’s probably why you were moaning.”

Alex smiled.

“
Come on. The spies want
to speak to you and you have a phone call in a few
minutes.”

She nodded.

“
I can’t get up,” she
said.

“
Let me,” he
said.

John stood then lifted her to his arms. With
his free hand, he opened the cabinet to retrieve a washcloth. At
the sink, he wet the washcloth and she wiped her face and hands. He
carried her back to the secure office where Raz was working on the
computer and Ben was talking on his cell phone. They looked up when
she returned.

“
How much did they pay
him?” Alex asked.

“
Two hundred thousand
dollars,” Raz said. “How did you know?”

“
Matthew said that he
reminded him of his father. Mattie’s father would sell his soul for
a dollar.”

“
Matthew’s father sold his
soul for a lot less than a dollar,” Ben said closing his cell
phone. “We have fourteen minutes.”

“
Why is the photo a big
deal, Ben?” John asked. He smiled at Alex, “Want down?”

She nodded. He nuzzled her neck then set her
down.

“
A picture is not such a
big deal. He probably has a least one of Alex already. It’s the
combination of the picture and your names. It’s only a matter of
time before…”

“
He’s coming for me.
That’s what it means. And now he knows where and who. It’s only a
matter of when.”

“
But not today,” John
said.

Alex shot a look to him, then laughed.

“
No,” Ben said. “Not
today. Today we need to get through the phone call. Alexandra, we
need a strategy.”

“
What does that mean?”
John asked.

“
Alex is good at coming up
with strategies. She’s better than we are,” Raz said.

Alex nodded.

“
Shall we go upstairs?”
Ben asked. “I believe your friend Ben left some espresso
here.”

“
Then drank it all,” Alex
said. “Did you…?”

“
I spoke with your
Sergeant,” Raz said. He kissed her cheek. “You OK?”

She nodded. “Go on. I’ll close up.”

While Alex closed the office, the men went
upstairs. She heard Max in the entry way when she closed the door
to the office. Checking her watch, she had eleven minutes. She took
the stairs one at a time, pausing at the landing, then working her
way up to the hallway and the main floor of the house. She saw the
men talking in the kitchen, then made her way to the living
room.

Clearing her head, Alex watched the snow
fall in drifts through the living room window. She pressed all
emotion out of her body. John floated in front of her eyes to light
a fire in the fireplace. A cup of espresso appeared in her hand.
Max’s head rested on her shoulder some time after he sat almost on
top of her on the couch. Her mind was silent. Her body clear.
Somewhere in a corner of her mind a plan began to form. Keeping her
attention on the blank space in her head, the plan grew.

“
Alex, you have one
minute,” Raz said.

F

CHAPTER FOUR

She blinked but kept her focus.

“
It’s time,” Raz said. Her
cell phone rang. He answered the phone to her Sergeant. “Don’t put
him through yet.”

Turning to Alex, he said again, “Alex, it’s
time.”

She startled, then blinked.

“
Tell my Sergeant that I’m
not available.”

Raz looked surprised, opened his mouth to
say something, then nodded.

“
Sergeant, please tell the
caller that the Fey is no longer available. Yes, then lock it down.
Yes, that’s correct. The Fey is no longer available. Thank
you.”

Alex let out a breath.

“
What’s for lunch?” she
asked.

The men, who had been tiptoeing around her
silence, began laughing and talking at once. She laughed. John bent
to kiss her.

“
Who’s working today?” she
asked looking from face to face. “No one? Let’s celebrate. No more
phone calls.”

“
Champagne or whiskey?”
John asked.

“
Whiskey,” Alex replied as
if it was obvious.

She passed a bottle of Red Breast Irish
Whiskey to Max and followed Raz into the kitchen. While Raz opened
the containers of Chinese food, Alex explained her plan. Alex
pulled plates from the cabinet and Raz drilled her with questions.
She answered, then smiled. He nodded in agreement. They had a
strategy. Raz carried the food out to the dining room.

Alex made three phone calls, clearing her
schedule for the day, then joined the laughing, talking men in the
dining room. As the snow fell, they ate, gossiped and celebrated
the end of conversation with Eleazar.

FFF

Nine hours later

February 8 – 9:30 P.M.
Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, Southeastern Colorado

Sliding backwards in the dirt and snow with
her legs in front of her, Alex fired her paintball pistols, one in
each hand, at the targets. With her crutch hooked onto her forearm,
she rolled under a bush for protection. She raised an eyebrow. Only
two targets left.