In the Grey

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  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 int
erfering 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

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Sunday, early morning

  November 7 – 4:52 a.m. MST (1:52 a.m. HAST)

  Denver, CO

  Margaret’s cell phone buzzed. Trying not to wake her boyfriend, she snatched it off the bedside table and crept into the bathroom. She closed the door before looking at the phone. It was a New Mexico area code she didn’t recognize.

  “Yá'at'ééh,” Margaret said hello in Navajo.

  “Granddaughter, baby Ooljee is in the albini hospital,” an elderly woman’s voice said in Navajo. “Shiprock.”

  “What?” Margaret asked in Navajo.

  The line was dead. Margaret tapped the phone against her hand.

  “What is it?”

  Her boyfriend’s voice came through the door. She groaned. She’d hoped not to wake him. She opened the door and smiled at the naked form of Cian Kelly. He held out his arms and hugged her.

  “What’s happened?” Cian asked.

  “I received this weird call,” Margaret said. “An elderly woman called to say that Ooljee was in the hospital in Shiprock.”

  “Your grandmother doesn’t speak on the phone,” Cian said. “We’ve only just gotten her to use the computer.”

  “She could have paid someone to call,” Margaret said. “But . . .”

  “What?” he asked.

  “The woman on the phone just gave me the information,” Margaret said. “Your baby Ooljee is in the hospital in Shiprock. Fair enough. But my grandmother would say something like, ‘It pains me, my granddaughter, but your baby was as hot as the desert under the summer sun. We became afraid for her, so we took the long road to visit the white medical men at the MC in Shiprock.’”

  “Sounds like her.”

  “That’s how her generation talks,” Margaret said. “They take the time to paint a picture with their words. Plus, my gran would never say Ooljee’s name over any phone, for any reason.”

  “Should we leave for Shiprock?” Cian asked.

  “No,” Margaret said. “The LC said this weird thing. She said that they were trying to split us up and not to let them. We thought she was being paranoid, but I wonder . . . What do I have in common with Trece, Mr. Pershing, the LC, Rasmussen, and . . .”

  “You’re fluent in the same languages?” Cian asked. “Do you know languages the others who are left don’t know?”

  “I do,” Margaret nodded.

  “Can you call the hospital to check?” Cian asked.

  “I doubt it,” Margaret said. “My gran is listed as Ooljee’s guardian. I doubt I have right to find out.”

  “We should wake Johnny.”

  Margaret groaned and shook her head.

  “We’ve been c
reeping around for more than a year,” Cian said.

  “I heard the LC asking the Jakker if he knew who your new girlfriend was,” Margaret said. “I was very keen to hear who you were dating.”

  He kissed her nose and went to put on his clothing.

  “What are you doing?” Margaret asked.

  “I’m going to get my little brother,” Cian said. “I bet he knows someone who works there. He can find out for us.”

  “But . . .”

  “Yes, then my little brother will know that I’m in love with you,” Cian said. “Are you embarrassed by me?”

  “No,” Margaret said. “I thought my gran would have a fit, but you explained that the Northern Irish are very similar to the Navajo. Plus, you spent a week on the rez learning how to cook. I thought she was going to marry you after that.”

  “We have a lot in common,” Cian said.

  Margaret plopped on the bed.

  “What’s the LC going to say?” Margaret asked.

  “Alexandra will say, ‘Are you happy? Does he treat you right?’ You’ll tell her what an asshole I am. Then she’ll kill me and bury me in the backyard.”

  Margaret laughed.

  “Listen to your heart,” Cian said. “Is your baby ill?”

  “I don’t know,” Margaret shook her head.

  “Then you call your team and I’ll wake my brother,” Cian said. “Do you trust me?”

  Margaret nodded.

  “Let’s stop hiding,” Cian said. “I’d really like to spend my life with you.”

  “Are you asking me to marry you?” Margaret smiled.

  “Did that,” Cian said. “You accepted my offer because I bribed you with warm cookies. Remember?”

  “I remember the cookies,” she nodded.

  “Time to stop hiding.”

  Margaret gave him a vague smile. He kissed her cheek and left the room. She stared at the door for a while before calling Matthew.

  “Go,” Matthew said.

  “You’re awake?” Margaret asked.

  “I just received a call from Leena,” Matthew said. “She was informed that she was in contempt of court for not bringing her daughter to see her father.”

  “To a Supermax in Maryland?” Margaret asked.

  “He’s in Leavenworth,” Matthew said. “His military and his civilian sentences are running concurrently.”

  “I’d kinda hoped he was in the general population in Maryland,” Margaret said.