He fell silent and they returned to dancing.
“Why are you here?”
He stopped dancing and pulled away from her.
“The darkness is coming for her,” the Blue Fairy said.
“We’ve fought it before.”
“Not like this,” the Blue Fairy said. “This is not something that grows from inside her. It’s something put over her like a cloak or a cape. Every move orchestrated by the best strategist in a master’s game of chess with the world as the prize.”
“She’ll see the dark and fight it,” he said.
“With your help,” the Blue Fairy said. “You must help her find the light, her light, the one that will never go out no matter how deep the dark becomes.”
“My love,” he said.
“Yes,” she said. “You have started this fire together. Keep it going and she’ll be fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Shall we dance a while?” the Blue Fairy asked.
“She’s not dead?” John asked.
“Hardly,” the Blue Fairy laughed, causing the air around them to erupt in sound. “She has pulled off the best trick of all. She replaced certain death with life. Outfoxed them completely.”
“This causes the dark… uh… cloak to come,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Did she do the wrong thing?”
“No,” the Blue Fairy said. “She did the next thing. This struggle has always been their destination.”
“Their?”
“She and Max,” the Blue Fairy smiled. “But you knew that. This struggle, and others like it, is exactly what they were born to resolve. That’s why she survived Paris.”
“I thought that was you,” John said. “I thought you made her survive.”
“This struggle has always been my destination, what I was born to do, as well,” the Blue Fairy said. “Come, let’s dance.”
Unable to think of anything else to say, he took her in his arms and danced.
FFFFFF
Saturday night
December 26 – 10:05 p.m. PST
Chiapas, Mexico
Alex stood up as the last hostage was removed by the Mexican Army Medics. Looking over, she saw Leena and Vince guarding two of the men who assaulted her. Feeling her eye, Leena looked up and nodded. Alex had encouraged her to go from being the captive to the captor. Leena smiled. It must be working.
Max stood just off to her right. She took his hand and walked away from the medics, the Mexican Special Force First Brigade, and her team. They had learned to be ninjas as children and fought their way through people as adults. As identical twins, they knew how to move when the other stopped and stop when the other moved. Tonight, they had acted with a precision that allowed them to wound before kill, capture rather than wound. In the end, they were forced to fight hard to free these hostages. Killing human beings was always remarkably easier than trying to save them from their own folly.
Raz had arranged for Alex and Max to change and unload in a small private clearing near a stream. He waited for them and then left them alone. They helped each other remove their gear. Because this mission had such high profile attention, everything they wore and carried would be shipped off to the US Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory. The bodies of the men and women they’d killed would go to them as well. The USAIL would analyze everything and prepare a report that would be shared with the Mexican government. Eventually, they would get their gear back.
“You okay?” Alex asked.
Max shrugged.
“Me too,” Alex said. “Wanna talk?”
“I wonder sometimes when the world won’t need people like us,” Max said.
“People like us have been around probably as long as humans have roamed the earth,” Alex said.
“That’s what I mean,” Max said. “
“Would you like to be in the field more?” Alex asked.
“I do this every day, Alex. I might not kill people literally but I’m a fierce fighter in the court room, diplomatic circles, and every other way.” He put his hands on his hips like he had when he was a kid. “I’m a full-time ninja.”
“I love that about you,” Alex said.
“Some death is necessary for the rest of us to live in peace. That’s just a horrible fact of life.”
“I hate that,” Alex said.
“I know,” Max said.
“Ever wonder if someone will say that about us?” Alex asked.
“What?”
“That we were killed so there could be peace,” Alex said.
Shaking his head, Max held out his arms. The twins hugged each other.
“We’re having one of those twin moments Wyatt wants us to record,” Alex said.
“I thought that was before,” Max said.
“When I shot the guy behind you with my bow when he was about to slash your neck with a stiletto?” Alex asked.
“When I tossed a knife at the guy who was going to jump you from the trees,” Max said. “I felt that tingling sense of imminent danger and…”
“Yes but how did you feel the tingling sense? How? How? How?”
Max turned to Alex. Their brown eyes held.
“I didn’t keep track either,” Alex laughed. He smiled and went back to undressing. “I hope we’re not more researched now that he lives with us.”
Max laughed. As they undressed, their differences returned. Alex’s hair spiked straight up as she dried off her sweat with a towel. Stripped to her underwear, Alex bent over to unzip a duffle full of clean clothing.
“You have a bruise,” Max pointed to two small round bruises between her shoulder blades. “Did you get shot?”
“You have one here.” Alex pointed to a small round bruise on his chest bone. She pressed on the bruise. Squealing, he grabbed her hand and turned it over in a wrist lock. She laughed. “Don’t forget the Saint Christopher. Oh, can you get Troy’s mini-tool too?”
Max dug through their bag of dirty gear to take the Saint Christopher medallion out of the pouch in his utility belt. He gave her the mini-tool and held the Saint Christopher medallion up to show her.
“Wyatt’s mom gave this to him before she died,” Max said. “She didn’t know he was gay. She just knew he was different. She gave it to him to protect him.”
“He’s very sweet,” Alex said.
Max smiled. Alex reached into their clean clothing bag to pull out the handgun her father had purchased for her when she was a child. She slipped it into her sacrum holster. She bent over and took out Max’s identical handgun from the bag. Smiling at her, he took the weapon and tucked it into his side holster.
“Colin’s an amazing medic,” Max said.
“Isn’t he?” Alex said. “Our little brother’s back there saving lives. Very cool.”
“We rescued twenty-three men tonight,” Max said. “Not counting Heath’s body.”
“Twenty,” Alex said.
“The families will be really glad to have the others home,” Max said. “Even if they didn’t make it.”
Alex nodded and he hugged her again. They pressed their foreheads against each other.
“Time to move,” Raz said. “Press is on their way.”
“Are we taking any home?” Alex asked.
“No,” Raz said. “The Mexican Army and the tribe are taking credit for saving the Americans in a joint cooperative operation with the US Army as military strategic advisors.”
“They are good.”
“And we are so advisory,” Max said.
“Sue Ann? Bobby?”
“Sue Ann and Bobby are staying to sort out what’s happening with their land. The State Department sent a kid to watch them. They’ll probably be home by Monday.”
“And Pete?” Max asked.
“They swapped numbers,” Raz said.
“No spit?” Max asked.
“Most people move a little more slowly than you two do,” Raz said.
“She’s such a lovely person,” Alex sa
id.
“We want her to be happy,” Max said.
“Leena?”
“Mexican Military has taken custody of her attackers,” Raz said. “They take a very dim view of men who attack female soldiers.”
“So do I,” Alex said.
“Let’s go home,” Raz said.
Margaret and Pete ran forward to pick up their gear bag. The bag was locked, taped closed, and signed before they carried it to the waiting Pave Hawk. Raz took their empty clothing bag from Alex. They walked to the helicopter together.
F
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Three weeks later
Friday midday
January 15 – 12:05 p.m. CST
Over Texas
“Half-hour to landing,” Zack said.
Raz shifted his arm from around her shoulder and Alex leaned back into her seat. Zack, Cliff and a US Air Force team were flying the Fey Team in a Chinook to San Antonio to pick up Larry and Heath.
Of course, no one was around to release their bodies in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. As soon as attention turned to the six bodies lying in San Antonio, the argument began over the official story on how and why these five men and one woman died. As always, Alex insisted that the families deserved the truth. She was lucky that the President took her side.
The truth didn’t make facing Larry’s parents any easier. They had been angry when he joined the service. They were furious that he had died. They had no trouble telling Alex exactly what they thought of her. They refused to let Helene into their home. His mother called her the French whore who “stole her son.” Too young to take sides, his brothers stood with hollow eyes around the edges of the emotional minefield. Not one for words, his father simply asked about his death benefits.
“You killed him,” Larry’s mother’s voice was screeching and harsh. “You bury him.”
On the plane home, Alex told Helene that this was common. She told her goddaughter that it would take time and that they would get over it. She was sure that in a few years they’d want to see all of the pictures of their trips, adventures, and love. They would want to know the man she knew. They’d beg her for every detail of her life with him. But in her heart, she knew that Larry’s parents would never let go of their rage. Helene had dropped her head into Alex’s lap and sobbed the entire way back to Denver.
Heath came from a long line of military men and women. While losing him wasn’t any easier, his family understood the sacrifice. Alex’s mother was at Heath’s parents’ home when she arrived. Rebecca held Heath’s mother’s hand when Alex gave her his medals. Heath’s wife and his small children lived only blocks from his parents home. Carrying her three-week-old baby, his wife met her on the front walk. They’d cried and laughed. Alex gave her Heath’s wedding ring and watch.
Heath’s family was meeting them at Fort Logan for his burial. Larry would be laid to rest tomorrow afternoon by the team, his friends, Helene, and her family. She would send his parents a video of the ceremony.
Exhausted, she hadn’t slept more than two or three hours in weeks. When Heath and Larry were released three hours ago, the team scrambled into their dress uniforms and flew to San Antonio. She closed her eyes as the Hercules dropped onto the tarmac at San Antonio International Airport. The back of the Hercules lowered onto the tarmac.
A team of men from Fort Sam Houston waited for them with two flag-covered transfer cases containing the remains of Sergeant Larry Flag and Major Heath Walker.
“Fall in,” Joseph called.
The team stood and marched in formation down the ramp. They created two lines. Alex, Matthew, Zack, and Joseph went to the waiting team. Alex signed the paperwork for the body transport. She looked up to see three military SUVs moving toward them. Barely off life support, Larry and Heath’s teams came to see them off.
They waited for the men to slowly disembark from the SUVs. Once sober, Larry became so impatient in life. He rushed through every meal, ran fast, and rushed through every boring job detail. He wanted to live every moment. As he’d waited for them under the North Dakota plains, he would have to wait for them now. The Fort Sam Houston team helped wheel Larry and Health's teammates to the plane.
“Attention!” Joseph called.
The Fey team snapped to attention. Even in wheelchairs, Larry’s Special Forces Team and Heath’s Marine team sat at attention.
“Present, Arms,” Joseph called.
The teams brought their hands to their foreheads while the men from Fort Sam Huston carried Larry and Heath onto the Hercules.
“Order, Arms,” Joseph called.
The teams snapped in audible salute as the transfer cases carrying the remains of Larry and Heath passed in front of them. The Fey team filed in after the transfer cases. They stood at attention until the back of the Hercules raised.
“At ease,” Joseph said.
They stood until the transfer cases were secure and the Fort Sam Houston team left the plane. Alex sat next to Raz with Larry’s transfer case in front of her. Leaning back in her seat, she felt something in her mind slip.
“Don’t you dare let the dark take you again.” Raz’s lips brushed her ear and she looked at him with vague eyes. She had this sense of being there and not being there. He put his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t. Please.”
“Lieutenant Colonel?” Sergeant Dusty asked. “Sorry to interrupt but brass wants to know what you’re going to tell the reporters at…”
Alex gave Raz a soft smile and took the next call. She watched Heath’s entire funeral in a daze. She hugged her weeping mother, said kind words to Heath’s wife, and stayed until the last shovel of dirt was thrown on his grave. She felt the pull of the Fey Special Forces Memorial just a few hundred feet away. Instead of visiting her old friends, she released the team and drove home alone.
For all of Christmas’s noise and joyous chaos, the house was silent today. Even Raz and Colin were at a mandatory Homeland Security threat assessment briefing. Max was in Washington DC. Wyatt was presenting his male-female single zygote study at some swanky conference on the West Coast. Cian had a new girlfriend and Fionn was working at the bakery. John left a note saying he’d been called in to Denver Health for emergency surgery on a child caught in a multi-car accident. The house was empty of people. They would all return tomorrow and the house would be bustling once again. For now, the house echoed with the sound of her aimless wandering.
She went upstairs for a bath. Unable to settle into her bath, she went to bed. As she had almost every day since finding Larry, she stared at the ceiling for a while before sleep captured her.
She was standing on a battlefield filled with crumpled, dead bodies crushed by some oppressive force. Seeing someone moving in the far distance, she ran as fast as she could to his side.
“Lean on me,” she said. “Lean on me.”
The battered and broken body of the stranger leaned on her shoulder. Together, they made their way across the battlefield. A faceless nurse took the man from her. She returned to the battlefield for survivors. Over and over again, she dragged and carried the barely living to the medics until she was filthy and covered in blood.
She turned one last time and she was standing on the edge of an enormous sunflower field. Compelled to move forward, she ran as fast as she could up the six-foot-wide saddle-brown dirt center path. The path rose. She climbed higher and higher through the sunflowers.
Off in the distance, she saw the faint outline of a blue farmhouse. With the farmhouse as a goal, she picked up her pace. Nearing, she saw a group of men sitting outside the back porch. The Fey Special Forces Team waited for her outside this farm house.
“Where have you been?” Mike Scully asked.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” Jax said.
“I had to help some guys back there,” Alex said.
Jesse winked at her.
“Hargreaves,” Captain Charlie O’Brien stood up. “Walk with me.”
“Yes sir,” Alex mad
e an “uh oh” face to Jesse and he laughed.
As Charlie used to, he said nothing while they walked. He’d liked to talk when they had arrived wherever they were going. They walked until they were standing in a cedar gazebo overlooking the team, and the house. The sunflower field terraced down to a valley far below. Alex heard Tommy say something and the men laugh.
“What surprises me the most is that you don’t see it,” Charlie said.
“See what, sir,” Alex asked.
Her heart skipped a beat when she looked at him. Somewhere in her memory, she knew he was dead and that this was a dream. Right now, in this very moment, he felt more real than anything that had happened that day. She wanted to hug him, tell him she loved him, and missed him. But the texture of this moment kept him as her CO and she, his Sergeant.
“Look again,” Charlie said.
The sunflowers had transformed into people. While some stood tall, most of them listed to one side or the other to lean on the person next to them. A warm, gentle wind blew through the field and she heard: “Lean on me.”
“We lean on each other,” Charlie said. “Look again.”
The field segmented into pieces of this action. She saw Efren and his family in one section. She saw her team and their friends who’d helped find the missing teams. She saw her old friends who’d called immediately when they’d found the teams. Every person leaned on another. Many of them waved. In the section nearest to her, she saw Larry and his team waving. His sandy blonde hair blew in the wind. His CO leaned against Larry.
“This is how we live,” Charlie said. “We lean on each other. We want to support you. We want you to lean on us.”
“It only gets people killed,” Alex said. “You’re dead. The guys are dead. Jesse’s dead. Larry’s dead. And Heath.”
“And?”
“I leaned on others and they died.” Alex felt tears fall from her face. As if she was accusing him of something horrible, she spit out, “You died.”
“You’re not God, Alex,” Charlie said. “You don’t have control over who lives or dies.”
Charlie closed his eyes to feel the wind on his face. She thought he had drifted off when his eyes opened to look at her.
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