Finding North

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  She had to figure out those maps.

  The thought glowed like neon in her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

  Nope, she really had to figure out those maps. Raz shifted when she sat up. When she got up from her small couch on the private jet, he grabbed her hand.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Slept too much at Bagram,” she nodded. “Restless.”

  She reached under the bench seat for her backpack.

  “Would you like me to get up?” he asked.

  “No,” she said. “Sleep. We’ll land in a couple hours to refuel. We’ll eat and work out then.”

  “Glad you got this plane,” Raz said. He pulled his blanket up and shifted to his right shoulder.

  She smiled. Sergeant Dusty had worked almost all day trying to find a plane home for them. Every flight got them home late Sunday night or Monday morning. Since Sunday was Father’s Day, it was one day too late for every man on the team. Finally, she’d called her father to get the name of the charter service he’d used the previous fall to get in and out of Kabul. With Rebecca’s credit card, they were in the air first thing the next morning. Alex would argue over the bill later, after the men on her team had a chance to celebrate Father’s Day with their children.

  She did her best to silently move to the front of the plane. Joseph opened his eyes when she walked by but went back to sleep. Closing the door to the cabin where they were sleeping, she moved into the tiny, well-stocked kitchen. She set her backpack down at the small table and started the coffee pot. She used the restroom while the coffee brewed. When she returned, she poured herself a cup of coffee, added cream, and sat down at the table.

  She opened her laptop and took a sip of coffee. She looked up at the ceiling for a moment to center herself and then opened the scanned images of all of the maps. Sergeant Dusty had scanned the maps and also had them digitally redrawn in layers. Alex had spent hours working with the images to see if they fit together in any way.

  They didn’t fit.

  She laid the map images on top of each other and checked again. They did not go together. She made the map of Ultima Thule small and tried to fit the island into any of the ocean gaps of the maps. That didn’t work. She scowled.

  For lack of anything more brilliant to do, she decided to print out the images on the painfully slow, tiny inkjet she carried around with her. She set up the printer next to the coffee pot and started printing. While she waited, Alex drank coffee and stared at the ceiling.

  Five and a half years ago, her life as it had been ended in a blaze of machine-gun fire.

  All these years later, she knew how they found them — the bookstore owner tipped off his client, his client got the Senator to figure out where exactly the vault was, and Cooper was brainwashed into letting the killer in.

  She even had some idea why they were killed — her childhood interest in ciphers led the Black Skeleton to believe that she understood Linear A; her appearance at sunflower fields and her questions made it seem like she was onto their plan to profit in the world’s down cycle; and the team seemed involved because they had hidden the ugly honeybee pendant.

  Now, she thought she knew who — Buffy Joiner, Cee Cee Joiner’s first wife — appeared to have paid for the hit on the Fey Special Forces Team. At this moment, everything pointed to Buffy as the ringleader. Finding Buffy and the evidence to suggest she was behind the conspiracy was like finding North on a map. Everything else fell into place. She would meet with Dex Zeno in a week to discuss Buffy and the group she led. For now, they would remain the Black Skeletons.

  She also had an idea now why she, Alexandra Hargreaves, and her brother, Maxwell, had been targeted to stop the world from burning.

  Alex dropped her head onto her hands and rested it on the table. Hearing a noise, she looked up. Zack was standing at the door to the kitchen.

  “Sorry,” Zack said. “Were you sleeping?”

  Alex shook her head. She gestured to the chair next to her. Nodding, he poured himself a cup of coffee and refilled hers.

  “I was hoping to catch you alone,” Zack said.

  Alex smiled.

  “I just wanted to thank you for your help,” Zack said. “I . . . I know what I am and . . . it takes a lot of guts to stand up to me and . . .”

  “I broke your nose,” Alex shrugged.

  “Seems like forever ago,” he smiled.

  “Simpler time,” Alex nodded. “I felt so . . .”

  Alex sighed.

  “Young?” Zack asked.

  “That, too,” Alex smiled. “I was going to say ‘capable.’ How are the kids?”

  “Good,” Zack said. “Really good. They made it through the hearing unscathed. I was worried, but they . . .”

  “They’re troupers,” Alex said.

  “They have good friends,” Zack said. “Whole lives. They’re happy — happier than I ever was.”

  “They’re loved,” Alex nodded.

  “‘Loved,’” Zack said. “That, too.”

  He smiled at Alex.

  “I have always loved you,” Zack said.

  “Me too,” Alex said.

  He put his hand on her shoulder. They drank coffee while the printer continued to print.

  “When I was stuck in the Mariscal Mine — you know, Big Bend National Park?” Alex looked at Zack, and he nodded. “Bestat told me that I knew that I’d been tragically betrayed. I asked her who, but she said she wouldn’t tell me what I’d purposely forgotten.”

  Zack nodded.

  “Do you know who that might be?” Alex asked.

  He gave her a long look.

  “I’ve investigated everyone I can think of,” Alex said. “Tragically betrayed. I’ve even looked into the General, Ben, Dominic . . . you . . . I can’t find it. I can’t remember. It’s driving me crazy.”

  Zack nodded.

  “Do you know?” Alex asked.

  Zack turned to face her. His blue eyes flicked across her face before he gave a slight nod.

  “Who ‘tragically betrayed’ me?” Alex asked.

  Zack pointed at Alex. She turned to look to see if someone was standing behind her.

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “You knew there was a group who used the world’s ‘natural rhythms’ — your phrase, by the way — to bring about the destruction of entire civilizations,” Zack said.

  “When?” Alex asked.

  “You talked to me about it . . . gosh, maybe a month before the assault,” Zack said.

  “I did?” Alex shook her head.

  “You don’t remember,” Zack said. “I know you don’t remember because I’ve reminded you of it a couple times.”

  “When?”

  “That year you were struggling with Eleazar,” Zack said. “You told me you didn’t know what I was talking about. You were pretty sure Eleazar wanted you dead — not the whole world in flames.”

  Zack shrugged.

  “Sorry,” Alex said.

  “Don’t be,” Zack said. He gave her a soft smile, and repeated his favorite Patrick Hargreaves quote. “We can only know and understand things when we’re capable of knowing and understanding.”

  Scowling, Alex focused on her coffee and wondered why Patrick’s quote was so similar to Dahlia’s “You can’t be responsible for what you don’t know.” She sighed and looked up at him.

  “What did you tell me?” Alex asked.

  “When?”

  “When I asked you about the ‘destruction of civilizations’ thing?” Alex asked.

  “Nothing,” Zack said. “I didn’t know anything then.”

  “Do you now?” Alex asked.

  “Only what you tell me,” Zack said. “Bestat won’t talk about it. She says it’s improper for she and I to talk about such matters.”

  Alex nodded as if she understood, but she didn’t have a clue as to why it would be improper for Zack to talk to Bestat about anything.

  “Yeah, I don’t get it either,” Zack
laughed. Alex smiled. “So you ‘tragically betrayed’ yourself by not taking yourself seriously enough. I get that the entire thing is . . . farfetched. But when you look at the evidence, it’s . . . overwhelming.”

  “I killed everyone,” Alex said.

  “No,” Zack said. “You didn’t.”

  “But if I had taken myself more seriously . . .”

  “The team still would have died,” Zack said. “They were way ahead of you then. You couldn’t have known it was coming, and you couldn’t have stopped it if you had known. Some things are just out of your control.”

  “I wish . . .”

  “I know,” Zack said.

  “Do you think we can stop them?” Alex asked.

  “If anyone can, it’s you, Max, the team . . .” Zack said. “Together. We’ll stop them together. That’s something I know is true.”

  Alex nodded. Zack got up and set his cup in the sink.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am for you,” Zack said. “You are the best friend I’ve ever had. Thanks for never giving up on me, even when I’m a jerk.”

  Alex smiled. The printer beeped, indicating it was done printing. Zack picked up the images and brought them to the table.

  “Maps?” he asked. “You’re up in the wee hours looking at maps?”

  He gave her a look that let her know he thought she was crazy. She smiled.

  “They’re old maps that belonged to my grandfather at some point,” Alex said. “Mom’s dad. Ben had the exact same maps. They’re copies — very, very old copies. I don’t really know anything about them, except they were made at the same time as . . .”

  Alex went through the nine sheets of paper and pulled out the map of Ultima Thule.

  “I have a feeling they’re related — connected even — but I can’t figure it out,” Alex said. “You wanna take a look?”

  Zack leaned over the table. She set the sheets of paper in the middle of the table. He pushed the maps back and forth for a few minutes. After a while, he stood up and shrugged.

  “I . . .” he started to walk away.

  He stopped and took two big steps to the table. He leaned over the maps again. He went through the maps to find the duplicates and set aside Ben’s maps. One at a time, he picked up a map, held the map near his eyes, and then set it down. He picked up the map of Ultima Thule and scowled.

  “I’ve seen this,” Zack said.

  “What?”

  “In a U-2.” Zack turned away from the small table. He leaned his rear against the table. “I’m just not sure where.”

  He picked up the map of Ultima Thule again and shook his head.

  “I can’t . . .” Zack’s head shook back and forth for a moment. Then his head stopped moving. “Oh.”

  He turned back to the table. He picked up one of the maps from the set, rotated it so that most of the ocean space was on the right side, and set it down. He picked up another map, rotated it so that the ocean space was on the left side, and set the map next to the first one. He nodded to himself and picked up the third map. He rotated the ocean space on this map to be on the top right corner. He set it below the other two maps. He finished the four-square with the fourth map, rotated so that the ocean space was on the top left corner. He looked at the maps for a moment and then switched the bottom left image and the top right.

  The way he’d set the maps, the islands and continents created a border on the outside, with a large inner section of water, possibly an ocean or a very large lake.

  “That’s it,” Zack said.

  “That’s what?”

  “The maps are pieces of a larger map,” Zack said. “These are islands.”

  “And in the center?” Alex asked.

  Zack picked up the map of Ultima Thule and set it in the middle of the ring of land. The map of Ultima Thule fit perfectly into the space.

  “Wow,” Alex said.

  “I’ve seen this,” Zack said. “I can’t tell you where specifically, but I have seen something on this planet that looks just like this. It’s a volcanic crater. You know, this is the volcano.”

  He gestured to the islands.

  “This is the center of it,” he said. “Or was the center of it.”

  “In Afghanistan?” Alex asked.

  “No, this is ocean.” Zack took off the map of Ultima Thule. “And this . . .”

  Zack held the map of Ultima Thule out to her.

  “The crater is underwater,” Zack said. “I saw this one from high altitude, probably in a U-2.”

  “Can a dragon fly that high?” Alex asked.

  “I haven’t,” Zack shrugged. “But maybe. I don’t know. I think things were different before there were planes. They had the skies to themselves.”

  “But you think . . .?”

  “I’ve definitely seen this place,” Zack said. “No bullshit or bravado. I’ve seen it . . . more than once.”

  “Wow,” Alex said.

  She moved the pieces of paper around the table in a variety of configurations until she returned them to the configuration Zack had worked out. She placed Ultima Thule over the space in the middle.

  “Wow,” Alex repeated. “And it’s a volcanic crater?”

  “That’s what it looked like to me,” Zack said. “What is this?”

  “Bestat says it’s an archive,” Alex said. “It’s supposed to tell us everything we need to know in order to defeat these people. She said it’s been lost for centuries.”

  Zack leaned over the table to look at it again.

  “We’re going to find it,” Zack turned to Alex and nodded. “You and me, we’re going to find it.”

  “And then what?” Alex asked.

  “You’re going to stop them,” Zack said. “Make them pay for all the people they’ve killed and all the lives they’ve destroyed.”

  “You seem so confident,” Alex said.

  “I know you,” Zack said. “You’re going to do this, and I’m going to help. It’s what we were born for.”

  “I appreciate your confidence,” Alex said. “It doesn’t feel that easy to me.”

  Zack stood up, put his fists on his hips, and repeated what he used to say when they were children.

  “We are super heroes!”

  Alex laughed.

  F

  Epilogue

  Six weeks later

  Saturday, early morning

  July 23 — 2:11 a.m. MDT

  Pikes Peak National Forest, outside of Deckers Colorado

  Alex sat in a wooden Adirondack chair under the summer night sky with a child on each leg. Maggie lay in her dog bed next to Alex’s chair. When Alex had heard the twins begin to wake, she’d decided to let John sleep. She’d been traveling so much that he’d done the lion’s share of these middle-of-the-night feedings lately. She looked down at the twins, who were midway through their two a.m. bottle, and grinned.

  It was really nice to be right here, right now.

  She and the team had spent the last week in New York. She and Max had been invited to speak at the United Nations Security Council. Working together, the team had put together all of the evidence they had gathered. Max had even created a coherent way to present everything. When he’d finished, the Council wanted to hear from Alex. They’d arrived home late last night. John and Wyatt had whisked Max and Alex away to Patrick’s mountain cabin outside of Deckers for a week of fishing and hiking.

  “Your phone rang,” John said as he came out with her telephone. “Lovely night.”

  He was wearing a thin T-shirt and cotton pajamas. Her smile indicated that she thought he was the lovely part of the night.

  “How are they?” John asked.

  “Good,” Alex said. “Almost done.”

  “May I?” John asked.

  She nodded and he picked up Máire. Cuddling the baby, he deftly dragged another Adirondack chair to where Alex was sitting.

  “That’s impressive,” Alex said.

  “Talents I’ve learned wit
h having twins,” he said and smiled. His eyes scanned her face. “It’s nice to see you rested.”

  Alex smiled. He leaned down and kissed her before sitting down.

  “Are you sleeping?” John asked.

  “Not a lot,” Alex smiled.

  “Not at night,” John said.

  She shook her head.

  “Too many things to think about?” he asked.

  “Maybe,” Alex said. “I had this horrible dream. I . . . I guess it’s when I had the seizure, but I . . . I mean it’s crazy, but I think the dream caused the seizure and . . . I . . .”

  Joey yawned and wiggled. Alex looked down at her son. She held the bottle up to his mouth, but he pushed it away. She shifted him to rest his head on her shoulder. The baby fell asleep. When she looked up, John had done the same with Máire. She smiled at him. He looked up, and their eyes held.

  “You like to look out, especially at night,” John said.

  Alex nodded.

  “I . . .” Her face flushed with emotion. Rather than speak, she nodded. He cocked his head to the side.

  “What is it, love?” he asked.

  “If I could, I would transport us back to that hotel in Santa Monica . . . You know the one we stayed in when we were first married? I . . .”

  Alex gave an angry nod. John’s eyebrows furrowed with concern. She looked up at the stars for a moment and then back at him.

  “I’d take your advice and not become a Green Beret,” Alex said. “I’d tell the CIA to stuff it. I’d . . .”

  He gave her such a compassionate smile that her eyes filled with tears. She looked away to keep from sobbing.

  “I’ve missed you,” he said. His voice was low, as if he were telling her a secret. She turned to look at him. “And . . . I . . .”

  He raised his eyebrows in a way that made his cobalt-blue eyes look enormous. He nodded as if he’d made a decision.

  “I’ve wished the very same thing,” John said.

  “You have?”

  “But in my wish, I’m not a surgeon,” John said. “I’m a nurse who can travel with you, or a doctor, but not one with a practice, or a medic on your team, or . . . And every night I wake without you, I curse myself for being so stupidly stubborn and vainglorious and . . .”