Saturday night
November 6 – 11:14 p.m. PDT (12:14 a.m. MDT)
Pelican Bay Prison, California
When Emanuel, Trece’s cellmate, groaned and rolled onto his side, Trece hopped to his feet.
“You sign?” Trece used American Sign Language.
Emanuel glowered at him. When Trece sneered, Emanuel reviewed Trece’s face before raising the middle finger of his right hand.
“Nice,” Trece signed.
Emanuel gave him a toothy grin.
“I’ve been thinking,” Trece signed.
“I thought that wasn’t your strong point,” Emanuel signed.
Trece raised both of his middle fingers and Emanuel chuckled.
“I’m on the Fey Team, asshole,” Trece signed.
Emanuel shifted his head back and forth as if he was thinking. He nodded to indicate that he got Trece’s point.
“You’re looking for bioweapons?” Trece signed.
Emanuel nodded.
“Look around you,” Trece said. “Listen.”
Trece pointed to his ears and they listened for a while.
“No one can get away with shit in the general population,” Trece signed.
“How do you know that?” Emanuel asked in sign.
“I spent seven of my formative years in a cell just like this one during a time when no one gave a crap what happened inside the cell,” Trece signed. “With SHU right there, this place is locked down tight. No one’s getting away with anything in here. Just listen. What do you hear?”
“Sleeping,” Emanuel shook his head.
“That’s what I mean,” Trece signed.
“Bioweapons are coming from this facility,” Emanuel signed.
Trece nodded.
“SHU,” Emanuel signed. “They’re making them in solitary.”
“Something to pass the time,” Trece signed.
“They videotape every prisoner,” Emanuel signed.
Trece nodded.
“Pay off someone. With hundreds of prisoners . . .” Emanuel stopped signing and looked away. “It would be easy to miss. I should have thought of it.”
“You don’t have enough experience in hell,” Trece signed.
Emanuel gave Trece a reassessing look.
“You’ll work with me?” Emanuel asked.
Trece nodded.
“Ready?” Emanuel asked.
“No broken bones,” Trece signed. “Infirmary before SHU?”
“They can fake the records in the infirmary,” Emanuel nodded.
“Get the fuck off me,” Trece yelled.
Emanuel attacked him. Trained fighters, they worked to create visible damage. Emanuel broke Trece’s nose with a back-handed punch. Trece returned the favor with a quick palm punch. They battered each other with quick, effective strikes. By the time the guards arrived, they were bruised and bleeding profusely.
Trece allowed himself to fall limp between the guards. They dragged him to the infirmary. He reviewed his body with his mind. His tongue found all of his teeth. He would be sore, swollen, and bruised, but, except for his nose, nothing was broken. When they got near the infirmary, Trece shook off the guards and went after Emanuel. Before he reached the man, he was tasered into submission. A medic ran to him and injected him with something.
“You stupid motherfucker! I own you!”
Trece looked up to see Emanuel coming toward him. He reached out and jammed his thumb into the side of Emanuel’s knee. Emanuel fell on top of him. Trece lost consciousness.
Five hours later, he woke up in a cell in the Secure Housing Unit. He had a cast on his wrist, and his ribs were taped. His nose had been taped. He had an ankle cast and a knee brace. He’d clearly been over patched up and tossed in here. He heard the guards dragging someone into a cell two down from him. Before he could wonder if that was Emanuel, he fell into a sound sleep.
FFFFFF
Sunday, early
morning
November 7 – 1:40 a.m. HAST (3:40 a.m. PST)
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii
“Yes,” a hostile woman with a thick Texas accent answered the phone on speaker.
“Sue Ann?” Alex had to yell over the sound of the jet engine. She and Raz were standing on the tarmac in the Honolulu humidity while they waited to board their flight to Japan. Alex sat down on her rolling suitcase.
“Alex?” Sue Ann’s voice transformed to friendly and happy.
“Is everything all right?” Alex asked. “You sounded a little . . .”
“I am pissed off at my boyfriend,” Sue Ann said. “That boy . . . I swear Alex, he’s going to be the death of me.”
Alex didn’t know what to say. Sue Ann had barely survived the death of her sons, Daniel and David.
“Are you still there?” Sue Ann asked.
“Just not sure how to respond,” Alex said.
“All righty then, Lieutenant Colonel Alex,” Sue Ann said. “I admit it! I was being a little dramatic.”
“Just checking,” Alex said. “Your last serious relationship didn’t end so well.”
Sue Ann laughed.
“Should I speak with the sergeant?” Alex asked.
“That boy . . . ,” Sue Ann said. “He told me that he wasn’t sure he wanted to share his life with Krystal and her family, my family. Can you believe it?”
“What did you say to that?” Alex asked.
“I said tough luck,” Sue Ann said. “‘Krystal and Alex are the reasons I’m even here on this planet.’ That’s what I told him. Oh, and ‘he needed to get on over it.’”
“You broke up?” Alex asked.
“He’s taking time to think,” Sue Ann laughed.
“What are you doing at five in the morning?” Alex asked. In an exaggerated Texas accent, Alex added, “Shouldn’t y’all be gettin’ your beauty sleep?”
“Very funny. I’m on my way to yoga,” Sue Ann said. “I thought it would clear my head of that dog-handling young man.”
“Good luck with that!” Alex laughed.
“I know,” Sue Ann said. “I’m pathetic. Go ahead. You can say it. I was head over heels the moment I saw that man on your big plane to Mexico.”
“He was too,” Alex said. “But, Sue Ann, you have to admit your situation is unusual.”
“So am I, Alex. So am I.”
Alex heard Sue Ann turn off the car.
“Did you call because he called you to complain?” Sue Ann asked.
“He would never call me to complain about you,” Alex said.
“I guess that’s right,” Sue Ann said. “What’s up?”
“I’m on my way to China, Sue Ann,” Alex said. “They caught Cee Cee.”
“That’s very good news,” Sue Ann said.
Alex grimaced when she heard Sue Ann’s car door slam. Sue Ann’s ever-present high heels clicked across the asphalt.
“Sue Ann, honey, can you get back in the car?” Alex asked.
“Just tell me?” Sue Ann asked. “What did my ex do now?”
“He put a woman in the hospital,” Alex said. “Life support. Her parents haven’t pulled the plug yet, but they probably will.”
“Poor woman,” Sue Ellen said.
Alex heard the soft prayer Sue Ann said when Cee Cee’s name came up.
“Davy and Danny give me strength,” she whispered.
A crunching sound came through the line as Sue Ann rubbed the locket with her boys’ pictures inside.
“There’s something else,” Sue Ann said.
Alex heard Sue Ann open her SUV door and throw her purse inside. She climbed in.
“I’m in my car,” Sue Ann slammed her door. “Go ahead with your awful news.”
“He’s going to be executed Tuesday morning at eight in Chongqing, China,” Alex said. “That would be Monday night around six, your time.”
“Oh,” Sue Ann said.
Sue Ann fell so quiet that Alex had to ask, “Are you all right?”
“Mmm, all right?” Sue Ann asked. “I’ve been sitting here staring out this window at the yoga studio, if that’s what you mean. Remember when you came to see me the first time?”
“In the nursing home?” Alex asked.
“I was staring out that window at the flowers,” Sue Ann said. “You told me to let life in. I guess they’re going to let life out of Cee Cee.”
“Yes.”
“Will he suffer much?” Sue Ann asked.
“No,” Alex said.
“That’s too bad,” Sue Ann said. “You think he’ll go to hell for killing our babies?”
Sue Ann sniffed, but Alex couldn’t tell if it was an angry sniff or if she was crying.
“I hope so,” Alex said. “But your boys were so sweet. My guess is that they would not want him to suffer.”
“My boys were little angels,” Sue Ann said. “But I’m not. I hope he goes to some place worse than hell for an eternity of suffering. Is that wrong?”
“No, it’s not,” Alex said. “I get an hour with him before he’s executed. Is there anything you’d like me to tell him?”
“Did you bring Davy and Danny’s photo like you promised you would?”
“I have it.”
“I’ve seen you mad before. You’ll do just fine,” Sue Ann said. “You know what? I think I’m going to go home.”
“That’s a good idea,” Alex said.
“Will you call me when it’s done?” Sue Ann asked.
“I will,” Alex said.
“And the rest of his ex-wives and baby mommas?”
“The State Department is paying Buffy a visit in a few hours,” Alex said.
“Would you like me to tell everyone?” Sue Ann took a quick breath around what sounded like a sob.
“Sue Ann?”
“I just miss them so much, Alex,” Sue Ann said. “Davy would be in junior high this year, and Danny . . . Davy would probably have a girlfriend. She’d come over and we’d make cookies or . . . My Danny . . . he’d have been one of those ghost hunters for Halloween. He loved that spooky stuff so much and . . . Oh God, Alex, how did my life come to this? My babies dead; Cee Cee’s going to be executed in some foreign city I’ve never heard of. I worshiped that man, loved him every minute of every single day for more than ten years, and he returned my love by killing my babies.”
Alex raised her hand and pointed to Raz. As they had arranged, Raz placed a call to Sergeant Pete Beetle. Raz gave her a nod that he had connected with him.
“Yoga,” Alex mouthed to Raz. He nodded and told Pete.
Raz gave Alex a curt nod and put his phone away. The minutes passed, and Sue Ann cried.
“Oh my goodness, that’s Pete,” Sue Ann said. Alex heard her wiping her face. “Here I am with mascara down my face and in my slouchy yoga clothes. My hair’s a mess.”
“Raz called him,” Alex said.
“You’re the most wonderful stinker,” Sue Ann chuckled through her tears.
“Pete loves you,” Alex said.
“Can I tell Krystal?” Sue Ann asked.
“Please do,” Alex said. “I’m about to fly to Japan. My cell should work this entire trip, but there’s no way to know for sure. Sometimes, they block our direct communication when we’re in China.”
“You’ll be safe?” Sue Ann asked.
There was a tap on Sue Ann’s window, and Pete said her name.
“Go,” Alex said. “Let him love you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sue Ann said.
Before Sue Ann hung up, Alex heard Pete say, “Oh honey.” Alex smiled.
“How’d it go?” Raz asked.
“Like we expected,” Alex said. “She’s pretty broken up.”
Raz nodded.
“What’s next?” Alex asked.
“The team wants to catch up with you,” Raz said. “But the pilot assures me his Wi-Fi is working. We can talk on board.”
“Why don’t you go ahead?” Alex nodded.
“No,” Raz said. “Don’t ask me to leave your side, because I won’t. I’m your guard and you’re mine. Plus, since when did you need privacy?”
“I wanted to talk to Ben,” Alex said.
“About me?”
“No,” Alex said.
“About . . . ?” Raz raised his hands in a shrug.
“I think I know why they’re splitting up the team,” Alex said. “I need him to look for something. If you’re there, you’re going to want to look for it instead of resting and getting ready for China.”
“You’re right.”
“I have this feeling that China’s going to suck,” Alex said.
“Why?”
“Don’t know,” Alex said. “Just a feeling.”
“Hmm,” Raz said.
“Promise me this,” Alex said. “If you hear what I’m going to tell him, you won’t try to do anything. You’ll rest on the plane and be ready for China.”
“Your wish is my command, my dear,” Raz smiled.
Alex grinned back at him.
“I will stand guard while you speak with Ben,” Raz said.
Shaking her head, Alex punched in the number and hit send.
“Go,” Ben said.
“He’s splitting up the team because he thinks we can only operate as a single unit,” Alex said.
“On it,” Ben said and hung up.
Raz’s eyebrows furrowed and Alex shrugged.
“Shall we?” Alex pointed to the open end of the Hercules C-130. He nodded and picked up their bags. They were in their seats before Raz spoke.
“Where did that come from?” Raz asked.
“What?”
“Splitting up the team,” Raz said. “It’s something you’ve talked about with Joseph and Matthew. ‘We should be ready to roll any time and any configuration.’”
“I’ve said that like a billion times,” Alex said.
“I never thought to ask why,” Raz said. He leaned over and took out his laptop.
“Everything changed when the Boy Scout joined our team,” Alex said as she opened her laptop. “We’d had other subs, but he really . . . and we couldn’t function as well. I felt like if I was going to make a team, everyone should be able to do everything in case some of us . . . don’t make it.”
“In case you don’t make it,” Raz said.
“There’s that,” Alex nodded. “Charlie’s team, we never did a thing unless we were together. And when one person changed, everything changed. I don’t believe our team has the luxury of functioning like that.”
“So if he’s trying to split up the team?”
“He’s planning a big kidnapping,” Alex said. She checked to see if her laptop had come up.
“Big?”
Alex nodded.
“I . . . I’m not sure what the correct question is . . . ,” Raz turned in his seat to look at her. “Um . . . kidnappings? Or a single big kidnapping?”
“Oh, I see what you mean,” Alex said. “Let’s see. A big kidnapping is usually someone who is big – a queen or king, a head of state, sometimes their children. Big kidnappings are hard to pull off because they require so much coordination and so many people. Someone usually hears something before it happens. Then it’s just a matter of interfering with the schedule by delaying a flight, stopping a taxi cab, or whatever. Big, important people are easier to move around. Just make sure they aren’t where the kidnappers expect them to be, and that’s that.
“The reason Charlie set up the team this way was so that every country had an investment in reducing kidnappings,” Alex said. “Each intelligence community in every country knows to pass the information along.”
“If they don’t?” Raz asked. He pointed to the Wi-Fi monitor on Alex’s laptop. She clicked the key and selected the plane’s Wi-Fi network.
“We’ll eventually find out. Suddenly, their prime minister or whoever is much more vulnerable. No country would risk that.”
“Has that happened?” Raz asked.
“Sure.”
“The best offense is a good defense?” Raz asked.
“More like the best offense is a change of plans,” Alex said. “All Ben has to do is put feelers out around the world. I’d do it if I weren’t on this plane. He’ll hear something fairly soon, and we can figure out if there is a big kidnapping going down or if I’m wrong.”
“Then what?” Raz asked.
“Joseph and Mattie will take care of it,” Alex said. “I bet it’s someone from the US.”
“Why?”
“They took Trece,” Alex said. “Trece knows everyone, everywhere. At some point, he and White Boy have guarded every head of state. He’d know the guards, friends, lovers, and personal assistants of almost every prominent politician and military figure in the US. Most people think of White Boy as a fool.”
“He’s not . . . bright,” Raz said.
“He’s not,” Alex said. “Most people marginalize him; but he has a kind of innate intelligence.”
The Hercules C-130’s tail began to close. They would be taking off soon.
“I get it,” Raz said. “Trece’s the ‘smart’ one; White Boy’s . . . what is it that he says all the time?”
“I’m no Ringo Starr,” Alex said. The plane’s tail closed with a thump.
Raz laughed.
“Ben will show it to White Boy, and they’ll take care of the problem,” Alex said.
“Ben will know to do that?”
“I trained him,” Alex winked.
Raz laughed. The plane began to move across the tarmac.
“Would you like to stop in Paris on our way home?” Alex asked.
“To dance?”
“Sure,” Alex said. “I want to check something in the vault.”
“Fair enough,” Raz said. “Would you mind if I called for some help?”
“Let’s see where everyone is when we get there,” Alex said.
Raz nodded.
“Will you see Clarissa?” Alex asked.
“No,” Raz said. “That’s done.”
Alex smiled.
“I will not be distracted from you, my love.”
Alex laughed.
“Before you ask, I talked to Samantha,” Raz said. “She thanked me for warning her. She promised to take any photos with a grain of salt and then told me not to pre-arrange arguments.”
Alex raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything.
“What?”
“She has a good point,” Alex said.
“Mmm,” Raz leaned back into his seat. “You think she’s going to . . .”
“Of course!”
They laughed. Alex’s laptop video connection rang. She pressed a button, and Matthew’s face appeared.
“We are ready to report,” Matthew said.
He stepped back. The remaining Fey Team were sitting around a table in the small conference room.
“Go,” Alex said.
She leaned back to listen. One of the things she’d admired the most about Charlie was his capacity to hear what people said. She did her best to emulate him. When the team was done, she went over everyone’s assignments to clarify that she’d heard them. She thanked them for their service and reminded them to be careful.
“They are picking us off one by one,” Alex said. “Do not let them. Something is coming that we will need to deal with. Stay aware.”
Like Charlie had, she signed off by reminding them that she was available to them whenever they needed her.
“Anything?” Raz asked.
“I’m wondering how much I can get done on this flight,” Alex said.
“What are we doing?” Raz asked.
“Nanodrone orders,” Alex said.
“We figure out why the Chinese want to speak with us,” Raz said.
“You mean other than our illegal entry into their country a month ago?” Alex smiled.
“Yes, that,” Raz said. “Did your father’s team find anything?”
Alex shook her head.
“So we work?” Raz asked.
“We work for a while,” Alex said. “We eat and then sleep.”
“I was saving my appetite for Japan,” Raz said.
“Great idea!” Alex nodded. “Snack then?
“Work, then snacks.”
“Dinner in Japan,” Alex nodded.
She settled into work. When she looked up, Raz was reading her S.E.R.E. file. Feeling her gaze, he looked up. She smiled and went back to work. He stared at her head for a moment before returning to the file.
F