CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

Thirty minutes later

January 8 —7:00 P.M. CEST

Thursday evening

Paris, France

 

Noticing the time, Alex grimaced. She was supposed to be meeting with Matthew; not running down the wood stairs under the Fey Vert. Someone would be looking for her.

“Hurry up!” Jesse yelled.

Alex picked up the pace. She was panting when she unlocked the iron grate door. She relocked the door than ran through the dark to the vault door. She opened the Fey Special Forces Team vault in the dark.

“Go!” Jesse said.

Alex moved inside the vault.

“Close the door!”

Alex pulled the door closed and turned on her headlamp. Finding the wall switch, she flicked on the lights and turned off her headlamp. The material from Joseph’s compartments was spread around the room in tidy piles. Everything was set up for her inspection. She smiled at how hard her team had worked. They’d left the compartments open. They would either take what they needed or return it to the compartments.

They had already agreed to keep the vault as the team storage. Even with its dark history, it was perfect for their ongoing use. Alex hopped into the third compartment. Moving toward the back of the vault, she saw Charlie’s safe.

“What if Charlie was involved?” Alex whispered. Her hand hovered over the panel.

“That’s too horrible to consider,” Jesse said. “What’s your heart say?”

“My heart’s pounding too hard to say anything,” Alex said.

“Do it,” Jesse said.

Alex’s hand moved over the keypad and the safe clicked open. She let out the breath she’d been holding.

“Here goes nothing,” she said. She opened the door to the safe.

The safe was a four feet by four feet box carved into the limestone walls. The brush metal safe was old, much older than the thirteen years the Fey Special Forces Team used this vault. While there was plenty of space, only a metal security box sat inside the safe. Alex picked up the twelve by seven inch box and set it on the table.

“It’s locked,” she said.

“Where’s your key?” Jesse asked.

Alex pulled out her new identification tags. While John still wore her original dog tags, she wore a new set along with Jesse’s St. Christopher and a key. She’d found this key tucked into the binding of her blood stained personal small journal last fall. She’d carried it around with her in hopes of remembering, or finding the lock the key fit into.

She took off her dog tags chain and removed the key. She slipped the key into the lock on the metal security box.

And turned the key.

The lid sprang open. Alex glanced at Jesse then looked into the box.

Sitting in the box was a single black small journal. Alex groaned.

“Another journal,” she groaned. “How many more journals will we find?”

“Whose is it?” Jesse asked.

“Mike’s,” Alex said. “There’s a post-it. My handwriting. Says, ‘START HERE.’ In block letters.”

“Take it,” Jesse said. “You may as well put the gold in the box.”

Alex nodded. She set the gold bar and the video tape inside the box. She closed the box lid then turned the key.

“Better keep the key,” Jesse said. “If it fits here, there’s no way to know what else it goes to.”

Alex nodded.

“Makes sense you wouldn’t remember the key,” Jesse said. “Looks like it was Charlie’s.”

She moved to put the box back into the safe

“Wait. Stop.”

“What?”

“What’s in the safe?” Jesse asked. “Turn on your headlamp!”

Alex flashed the light around the back and top of the safe.

“What did you see?” Alex asked. “I don’t see anything.”

“I don’t know,” Jesse said. “It looked like a sunflower.”

She picked up the box and held it in the safe.

“There it is,” Jesse said.

“I can’t see it,” Alex said.

“The light reflected off the safe,” Jesse said. “It’s on the bottom of the box.”

Alex turned the box over. Nothing. Shining her head lamp, she found the now familiar twelve petal sunflower scratched into the metal. Below the sunflower she’d written, ‘Follow the sun – flower.’ The mark wasn’t visible in the dim light. She didn’t remember the sunflower. She ran her hand over the scratching. She didn’t remember creating this mark. And ‘Follow the sun’?

What the hell was she thinking?

Did she know everyone would be killed?

“What if you did?” Jesse asked. “What if we all did?”

“Did you know we were going to be killed?” Alex asked the question she’d been too afraid to ask before.

“I remember knowing there were threats against us,” Jesse said. “I remember not trusting the Boy Scout. I don’t think I was surprised when it happened. That doesn’t mean I knew it would happen. Does your gut say you knew?”

Alex gave a confused shake of her head.

“I heard what Joseph said when he was fading out. And he’s right. It’s hard to continue on.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“I’d rather die here lying in your lap with the guys around me than die anywhere else,” Jesse said. “We died together. It’s what the guys wanted. And their wives know it. That’s why they are so grumpy with you. Their husbands wanted to die with you, not them.”

“I’ve wished I’d died a thousand, million times,” Alex said.

“I know,” Jesse said.

Alex put the box back in the safe and closed the safe. She reset the lock.

“Ben said he’d heard rumors for years,” Alex said. She climbed out of the compartment.

“Right,” Jesse said.

“Trece said they’d heard rumors for years,” Alex said.

“Right,” Jesse said.

“The thing I don’t get,” she said.

She pressed the interior latch to open the vault door. The door swung open.

“Yes,” Jesse said.

“Why would there be so many threats against us? We were non-combat, a B team. We made friends everywhere we went. Why us?”

“I never knew,” Jesse said.

After Alex relocked the door, they walked down the now lit hallway.

“Maybe that’s what I was trying to figure out,” Alex said. She stopped to unlock the metal grate door. “This isn’t a scavenger hunt for Max to figure out. I was trying to figure out why people were trying to kill us. This is my path, my reminders.”

“That sounds about right,” Jesse said.

“You think I figured it out?” Alex asked.

“I do. Then we were killed.”

With Jesse at her side, Alex climbed the stairs. They heard a noise upstairs and Jesse disappeared. He reappeared a moment later.

“Your team just opened the Fey Vert,” Jesse said.

“How mad?”

“Raz is amused,” Jesse said. “Mattie’s pissed. Trece is talking.”

“Same…”

“Shit different day,” they said together and laughed.

FFFFF

Seven hours later

January 9 —1:50 A.M. CEST

Friday early morning

Paris, France

 

Alex woke with a gasp. She moved out from under John’s arm and grabbed her short silk bathrobe. She just made it to the shared toilet before throwing up. Leaning against the wall, she caught her gray reflection in the bathroom mirror. She threw up again.

“What is it, love?” John stood naked in the doorway.

Alex shook her head. He gave her a soft smile. Turning, he took a washcloth from the rack and wet it with warm water. She smiled when he gave her the washcloth. He reached around her to flush the toilet.

“You’re naked,” she said.

“I am.” He took her hand and led her back to their bedroom. “What happened?”

“Images, feelings,” she said. “I was having this great dream about floating down a wide open river then…”

“What did you see this time?”

“Work stuff, jungles, the Fey Team guys,” she said.

“No blood, guts, or gore?”

“No, but the same feeling of helplessness and horror,” Alex said. “Like a car that’s running into a wall. Or maybe like I’m a puppet with a cruel puppet master. There’s no way to stop it. You were in this one.”

“Me? Why?”

“I saw you and Max standing on the tarmac, like you used to when you’d drop me off for trips,” Alex said. “You looked so stoic, and so sad.”

“Was it at night?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Could have been when Zack brought you back from… here.”

“I was in a medically induced coma,” she said.

He shrugged.

“We haven’t talked about what happens when you start traveling again,” he shrugged.

John tugged at her bathrobe and she took it off. He lay down then held the covers for her. She slipped under the covers and rested her head on his shoulder.

“How do you feel about me traveling again?” she asked.

“I’m not thrilled,” he said. “I know it’s crazy, but I’m around such a different crowd now. Many of the surgeons have girlfriends on the side. Some of them have entire secret second families. Women come on to me all day. Max is busy with his life and…”

“You haven’t settled in to your new life?”

“It’s not something you should worry about. It’s just different.”

“Courtney’s PIRA,” Alex said.

“You know about her?” John laughed.

“I do,” Alex said. “I’m not quite sure what she wants, but she’s up to something.”

“I hate it, Alex,” he said. “When I was a poor student, no one looked at me twice. Now that I have a salary, suddenly women are climbing all over me.”

“You don’t remember the fracas when we got married?” Alex asked.

“With Max? He won’t let me forget that.”

“With the women from that sorority?” she laughed. “You remember, they each called the message machine to leave lurid fictitious details about your escapades. What was the name of the woman who told me you planned to…?”

“Please stop talking.”

He pulled the covers over his head. She tugged them down.

“I’m just saying this isn’t new,” she said. “You’re a very handsome, wonderful, kind, loving man. Women want to be with you.”

“I want to be with you,” John said.

“What does this have to do with me traveling?” Alex asked. “When we talked about it last fall, you said you would enjoy having time to do your own research, work on the house, hang out with the ever growing Northern Irish population in Denver, and stuff like that. What’s different?”

“You left for Iraq,” he said. “And I missed you like a hole in my very being.”

“I’ve always missed you like that,” she said. “Every trip, every moment away, I always wished I was home with you and Max.”

He kissed the top of her head.

“You were beautiful tonight,” he said. “I love to see you with Ben and his family. You seem so happy, safe.”

“That’s because you were there,” she said. “I’m always happiest when I’m with you.”

He didn’t say anything. When she looked up, his cobalt blue eyes were staring at the ceiling.

“What is it?” she asked.

He continued staring. She leaned up look at him.

“John, what is it? You’re scaring me. Are you saying you want to be with these other women? Or start another family with someone who can have kids? Or…”

He shook his head at her insecurity.

“I’m wondering how much time we have before…”

The phone next to the bed rang. He reached over to get the phone. Without saying a word, he passed the phone to Alex.

“Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves,” Alex said.

“Alex, it’s the FARC,” Matthew said. “They say if we get there by Sunday, they’ll release everyone. All the hostages. But, only to the Fey. And before you say it, they mean you. It has to be Sunday otherwise they’re moving again. Sergeant Dusty is collecting everyone. The Jakker is on his way to the airport. We’re leaving in an hour.”

“We won’t make it in an hour,” Alex said. “Not from here. Make it an hour and a half. Let’s say we take off at 0400 hours.”

“Sergeant Dusty said you would say that,” Matthew said. “See you in at 0400.”

Alex gave the phone receiver to John.

“How did you know?” Alex asked.

“Happened twice last year,” John said.

“Hmm…”

“You can easily make the airport in an hour,” John said.

“I have something important to do first.”

She moved on top of him. Her lips caught his in fast rapid kisses. She began the easy movement down the side of his neck. She’d just reached his nipple when he flipped her under him. He engaged with a quick thrust. She arched her back in response. His mouth worked her lips as she rose quickly.

“Please…” she said.

“Yes, love.”

“Slow… for me…” she panted.

“I thought you’re in a hurry,” he said.

“I don’t know when I’ll see you again,” she said. “I want to relish every moment, every kiss. It sustains me in the heat and muck.”

He chuckled.

“Your wish is my command,” he said.

His large hands moved up her arms. He grabbed her hands and pulled them over her head. As his hands worked her skin and his hips moved, she let go. She lost herself in the sensation of him.

FFFFF

Six hours later
January 9 —9:20 A.M. CEST (3:20 A.M. EDT)

Friday morning

Over the Atlantic Ocean

 

Alex looked up from her laptop. The lights in C-130 Hercules passenger cargo were dim and everyone was asleep. With his Air Force hat tipped over his eyes, Captain Zack ‘Jakker’ Jakkman was asleep in the seat next to her. She’d met him in Catholic elementary school and again in the Moroccan desert. He was the Air Force’s best pilot and her friend. Raz slept with his arm around her. Troy and Matthew were asleep in the seats across from her. The only light on in the cabin was the new intern, Royce. Feeling her eyes, he looked up from his novel to nod at her.

She looked back at her laptop. She wouldn’t sleep again until the hostages were safe. From the moment she checked in, her sole focus was the safe return of all seventeen hostages. She closed her eyes. In her heart of hearts, she hoped she would also learn the resting place of the hostages who’d died in custody. She glanced over at Troy. She was relying on his experience with the FARC and the relationships he’d built to bring peace to the families.

She’d planned to spend the entire plane ride familiarizing herself with the hostages. By the time she stood in front of the hostages, she needed to know enough about them and their families to save them. The team had put together detailed reports on each hostage. She read through their research and reviewed the photos and video interviews. She had even watched the videos of their children.

She also needed to make certain there weren’t FARC captors mixed in with the hostages. More times than not, captors slipped away by mixing in with hostages. While she was sensitive to the idea that many captors are forced into service, she despised this deception. When captors were released as hostages, they received the support and sympathy of the world. The actual hostages were too horrified or too damaged to speak up.

No captor had slipped away on Alex’s watch.

And no one was going to this time.

When they landed in Miami, she would have culled the detailed reports into packets for each team member. They would also memorize the names and photographs of the hostages. When her team came in contact with the hostages, they would know each hostage on sight and by name.

She sighed.

It had been hell to leave Joseph behind. He’d met them at the airport, but she sent him back to the hospital. In front of the team, she was all business. When the team was loaded on the plane, she and Joseph cried. He promised to find her a decent medic at Hurlburt Field in Florida. Nancy and John promised to take care of Joseph. Except for the six months when he was on maternity leave, this would be the first mission in her entire career as a Green Beret that Joseph wasn’t involved in.

And she missed him. She missed the security of knowing Joseph was there. Joseph was the most experienced member of the team. He was her old Fey Special Forces Teammate. And more than anything, he was her friend.

She rubbed her eyes and took a drink from her water bottle. Her eyes tracked an Army Calvary Sergeant leaving the cockpit. Assuming he was going to the bathroom, her eyes returned the hostage’s profile in front of her. She put in her earbuds to listen to his daughter talk about growing up without her father.

“Why? That’s what I don’t understand. Why do you need to keep my father for eighteen years?” Tears formed in the woman’s large brown eyes. “Why? Why did I have to grow up without him? Tell me why?”

Sensing movement to her left, Alex pulled her handgun.

“Whoa!” the Sergeant said. “Stop!”

Zack jerked awake. He looked at the Sergeant and laughed. He nudged Alex. She pulled the earphones from her head and turned to look at the Sergeant for the first time. Blushing, she put her handgun back in its holster.

“Sorry, it’s a reflex,” Alex said.

Zack began laughing so hard that he rolled in his seat.

“Never startle the Fey,” Raz said from beside her. “You never know what you’ll get. A weapon in the face is probably the mildest response.”

She gave him an indignant look and he laughed.

“What can I do for you Sergeant?”

“Are you Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves, ma’am?” he asked.

“Sir,” she corrected. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Hargreaves.”

“Are you the Fey?” he asked.

“There’s a debate about that,” she said.

“You can’t just claim something like that. Who do you think you are? The Fey is a man, a Special Forces officer, not some wanna be woman. He’s legendary in SF. Rescued over four thousand…”

Zack grabbed Alex’s hand to keep her from reaching for her handgun again.

“Sergeant!” She interrupted his Fey worship. “Is there something you want?”

“Oh, right,” the Sergeant said. “You are wanted on deck.”

“What’s going on?” Alex asked.

“You have a few calls,” he said. “Do you have a satellite connection on your laptop?”

“Yes,” Alex said.

“You need to turn it on.” The Sergeant’s tone expressed that she was too simple, too female to understand technical things. “Your Sergeant has been trying to reach you.”

Raz took the laptop from Alex. She watched him click a few buttons then shake his head.

“It’s not working. I’ll see if I can fix it but…” Raz’s fingers moved along the buttons. “Nope, it’s broken. Hardware failure. Did it work in Paris?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “We use secure WIFI at the hotel. All the benefits of a CIA hotel.”

“If you can’t get on, you’ll have to come up,” the Sergeant said.

Alex nodded.

“Hey are you really the Jakker?” The Sergeant’s bright eyes turned to Zack.

“They call me the Jakker. Why?”

“Did you really steal a fighter plane off an aircraft carrier?”

“I did,” he said. “But it wasn’t really stealing. It was more like proving a point.”

“Man, I heard that story in flight school and I couldn’t…”

Alex leaned back in her seat. She watched Raz try to get her satellite modem working. She looked over at the enraptured Sergeant before she reached down to her backpack. She opened the front pocket and took out her pocket computer. Turning it on, she looked at Raz. He was taking the laptop apart to try to get the satellite to work. She looked at the Calvary Sergeant. His face was flushed with excitement.

She sighed. The girl is so mundane. She watched the pocket computer come up. The little computer had just finished booting when three IM screens popped up. Joseph, Sergeant Dusty, and her father. She scowled at the pocket computer then glanced at Raz and the Calvary Sergeant again.

“What’s going on?” she texted to her Sergeant.

“Pulled funding,” Sergeant Dusty typed. “Senate hearing.”

“2 mins.”

She clicked open the IM from Joseph.

“Pulled funding?” she texted to Joseph.

“The Fey Team funding has been pulled,” Joseph typed. “The Calvary has orders to fly you to Washington where the Senate will decide if you deserve funding.”

“What about the seventeen hostages?” Alex typed.

“Fuck the hostages,” Joseph typed. “The bureaucrats say it’s a non-combat action. Usual crap but stranger. They never pulled our funding before.”

“They’re willing to let the hostages stay in captivity?” Alex’s thumb pounded across the keys.

“Yes,” Joseph wrote. “Breathe. Try not to kill anyone. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Thx.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. Taking a breath for courage, she clicked open the chat from her father.

“Dad! I was just thinking about you and Noémi,” she typed.

“You already know?” he typed.

“Someone pulled funding while we’re in the air to mission?” Alex typed. “Yes, I know that. What is this?”

“I’ve never heard of this before,” he typed. “Can’t go into dets. Will meet you at Bolling AB. But Pumpkin?”

“Yes?”

“This is serious.”

“No shit,” she said out loud.

Raz and the Calvary Sergeant looked at her.

“Sir, you need to get to the flight deck,” the Sergeant said.

“I was waiting for you,” she said. “If you’re ready?”

The Sergeant jerked at her reprimand. Holding her pocket computer, she stepped passed Zack. Zack grabbed her hand.

“It’s bad?” Zack asked.

She nodded.

“I’ll wake the men,” he said.

“You don’t need to,” she said. “They may as well sleep.”

He kissed the back of her hand. She smiled.

“Did I tell you Bestat is pregnant?” he asked.

“About four hundred times,” she said. “I’m very happy for you both.”

He beamed at her.

“You know, it’s because of you,” he said. “No matter what some stupid Sergeant thinks, you are an amazing woman, a great friend, and miracle worker. A real fairy. You forced me to be a better person.”

“How did I make you a better person?”

“By never forgiving me for hurting you so deeply in high school,” he said.

Alex’s face registered the shock she felt to her core. She had no idea he remembered or cared about hurting her in high school.

“Oh, you didn’t think I knew or remembered?” he smiled. “You could have just forgiven me, let it go. Because you didn’t, I had to become a better person. That better person met Bestat. It’s you who made me what I am. Don’t let this crap get you down. We’ll have fun in DC.”

He kissed her hand again.

“How did…?”

“I graduated high school by looking over your shoulder and you ask me how I read your IMs?”

Alex slapped at him.

“Sir?”

“Yes, yes, Sergeant,” Alex said. “I’m coming.”

On the way to the cockpit, Alex texted Sergeant Dusty.

“How did this start?” she texted.

“Jr Sen from NE,” he wrote back. “Called a full Senate investigation into the Fey SF Team. GenH: cost of hearing=more $ than cost of mission. True. He was out voted. GenH forced hearing his subcom wh Jr Sen is on. Closed hearing.”

“Housing?” she texted.

“GenH said you can stay with them.”

“Call Emily L-H. Vince’s wife? Father has a big house in DC,” she texted back.

“Will do. Will contact families,” Sergeant Dusty wrote.

“brb”

Alex looked up at the four men in the cockpit.

“Sir, may we speak freely?” the pilot asked.

“Please,” she said.

“Ma’am, we’ve been instructed to fly you to Washington DC,” the engineer said.

“I just found out,” Alex said.

“We have orders to take you anywhere you want to go,” the pilot said. “From the top, the Army will back you if you want to get those hostages.”

“But you should know,” the co-pilot said. “Our LC told us they will relieve Colonel Gordon of his command if you go. He’s said he doesn’t care.”

“We just thought you should know,” the navigator said.

“They’ll take your wings,” Alex said. “That’s what you’re not saying.”

“Yes,” said the Calvary Sergeant.

“When do I have to decide?”

“We have an hour before we need to change course,” the navigator said.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Alex said.

“Yes sir,” they called.

Giving them a soft smile, she nodded. She turned and walked to the back of the plane. She sat down in an empty seat in the tail of the plane.

Colonel Gordon would say he wanted to retire. He’d tell her that getting another Fey Team up and running was the shining accomplishment of his career.

The Admiral would say the same thing.

“He’ll be relieved of his position too,” Jesse said in Spanish.

Alex nodded. She held up ten fingers and then seven.

“Yes, the lives of seventeen strangers or the careers of people who love you, who have supported you through thick and thin, who you owe your career to.”

She signed the word ‘selfish’ to him.

“Yes, it seems selfish,” Jesse said. “Are you sure the FARC was going to give up these hostages? I mean, what’s in it for them?”

Alex turned her head to look at him.

“Really, Alexandra,” he said. “The FARC?”

She stood and walked to the front of the plane.

“I need a phone line,” she said.

“We do not have access to unmonitored phone lines,” the pilot said.

“Patch me through to my Sergeant,” she said.

“Yes sir,” the pilot said.

The pilot nodded to the engineer who worked through channels until she was speaking with Sergeant Dusty.

“Fey,” Alex said.

The flight team looked at each other and then at Alex.

“Go ahead, sir,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“What are you doing at base?” she asked.

“Sir, my superior officer is having a crisis,” he said.

“And your mother-in-law is visiting?”

“Sister-in-law,” he laughed.

“I need you to get someone for me,” Alex said. “Make sure the recipient is aware this is not a secure line.”

“Yes, sir, name for the log?”

“No name. I’ll initial it when I get in.”

“Number?”

“I’ll text you.”

Alex took out her pocket computer and sent him the number. She waited only a few minutes before the line clicked through to one of the most powerful men in Central America. In rapid Spanish, she asked her question:

“Is the FARC releasing seventeen hostages to the Fey on Sunday?”

Unwilling speak, the man on the other end hung up. Alex thanked the pilot and his team then returned to the back of the plane. Ten minutes later, her pocket computer vibrated with one word:

“No.”

“What does that mean?” Jesse asked.

Alex shrugged.

“The whole fucking thing is a set up?” Jesse asked.

Alex nodded her head toward Royce.

“I need to find out more about his little secret group,” Jesse said. “Good job, Alexandra. This way everyone saves face.”

Alex’s lips turned up in a smile, but her mind was miles away.

“Looks like we’re going to D.C.,” Jesse said.

Alex’s head jerked to look at him.

“Better go tell them, lazy butt,” he said.

Smirking at Jesse, she stood to tell the flight team. On her way to her seat, she woke Troy to ask him to review where their information came from. Why did they think the FARC was going to give up hostages? Who initiated contact with the team? Troy set to work.

Standing, she nudged Matthew awake.

“Alex,” he sighed.

“How’s the new papa?” Alex asked.

“Tired. I never handle the time change well,” he said. “Are we near Miami?”

Matthew sat up. Noting the dark cabin, his eyebrows tightened with concern. She pointed to the back of the plane. She sat at the end and he sat down across from her. He took her hands and smiled at her. They had met on the sparring mat at Special Forces training. He’d cheated and she’d still won. He’d expected her rage, but got her friendship instead.

“How’s my favorite girl?” he asked.

“A little confused,” she said.

“Me too. Why did you wake me?” he asked. “And Troy’s not sleeping? Troy’s undergoing a lot of changes, with therapy and quitting women, but not sleeping? That’s just not going to happen.”

“I asked him to do some work for me,” she said.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Oh,” Alex shrugged.

Standing from his seat, he nodded to Royce. Royce moved to a seat near the front of the plane. Matthew sat down next to her. Matthew put his arm around her and rubbed her military shorn short hair. His long fingers wiggled the blonde streaks on top.

“Hey don’t mess with my spikes!” Alex laughed.

He laughed.

“I miss you,” he said. “I feel like I don’t see you as much anymore.”

“You and Erin have been busy. With work and looking for a house and fixing up the house and now a baby…”

“It’s everything I wanted,” he said.

“Yes.” She beamed at him.

“But I miss you,” he said. “We need to plan to hang out.”

“Let’s make some time when we’re in DC.”

“DC? What? Where are we going? Why would we go to DC?”

“FARC aren’t giving up hostages,” Alex said. “I never checked. I just assumed… I’m not sure why I assumed the information was correct. But they never contacted us. Ever.”

“Was it a hit?” Matthew asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” she said. “Here’s the other news. The mission was called in the air due to funding issues.”

“Funding issues?”

“Colonel Gordon and the Admiral put their careers on the line to complete the mission,” Alex said. “The US Army Calvary, and the guys flying the plane, put their wings on the line to complete the mission.”

“But there never was any mission?” Matthew asked. “Wow.”

“Wow is right,” Alex said. “I haven’t treated this threat to the team, to the Fey, very seriously. I’ve acted like it was a joke. This is no joke. This is… big. My Dad, Patrick, says he’s never heard of a mission called in the air due to funding.”

“It’s a new era,” Matthew said.

“It’s not that new,” Alex said.

“You think the whole thing was a set up from the beginning,” Matthew said.

Alex nodded.

“Why?”

“To make me look foolish? Make the team seem stupid? To prove non-combat teams are a waste of money? I don’t know,” Alex said. “If we arrive in Columbia and there are no hostages, we’d look like fools. At least we’d look like hardworking fools. This way, they can say they knew the mission false so they pulled funding. Or something.”

“What will we do?” he asked.

“You mean is this the end of our careers?” Alex asked.

“Maybe,” he said. “Now that I have a house and a baby on the way, I’m a little more career conscious.”

“As opposed to when you wanted to be the best Beret on the planet?” she laughed.

“Known universe,” he laughed.

Alex shook her head at him and he jostled her.

“I made a call,” Alex said. “The FARC had no plans to give us hostages. So I pulled the mission. The Calvary is flying us to DC so we can hop a shuttle to Denver.”

“That will work,” Matthew said.

He settled back against the seat. She rested her head against his shoulder. He shook his head slightly. They had been friends so long that his simple movement caused her to look up at him.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Do you ever get sick of it? All the threats against your life, the drama, the injury, and the illness?”

“Do I get sick of being a Beret? Or just sick of being me?”

He laughed.

“I miss the guys,” Alex said. “I miss my old safe life. But I can’t go back. Plus, if things were still the same, you’d be in Afghanistan working with another warlord. Troy would be in the Amazon. And…”

“You miss them a lot,” Matthew said.

“I do,” Alex said. “I always will. And it’s great to have you here, to have the team we’re building.”

He ruffled her hair again.

“What’s next?” Matthew asked.

“We need a place to stay,” Alex said. “It’s a Senate investigation. Could last a year.”

“We won’t stay in DC for a year,” Matthew said.

“It’s just another game,” Alex said. “Remember Special Forces training?”

“Yes, in fact, I do,” Matthew said. She laughed. “And?”

“They kept upping the ante… trying to knock us down… make us quit,” Alex said. “What did we do?”

“We just had to stand up again,” they said together.

“This is no different,” she said. “We’ll find a way to win the no-win situation.”

He nodded.

“Wanna play poker?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

Matthew took a deck of cards. The crack of the deck woke the team. From across the aisle, Vince asked for a hand. Raz and Zack came from the front of the plane. Trece and White Boy woke up and came over. Troy joined them. By the time Alex had won her first hand, even Royce was playing. They laughed and played the rest of the way to Bolling Air Force Base.

F