About Face

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  “I don’t have any idea how long this is going to take,” Alex said. “And I don’t know where we’re going to be. Your wife, and my sister Erin, is two days past her due date. I won’t be responsible for you not being there.”

  “But you need me,” Matthew said.

  “I do,” Alex said. “But you can work on base. I’m wearing an earbud. You can tell me or get Raz to pass along information.”

  “You step onto that ship, and we have no idea if we’ll be able to contact you,” Matthew said.

  “Have you hacked their onboard security?” Alex asked.

  “Raz did,” Matthew said.

  “Have access to their data?” Alex asked.

  Matthew didn’t look at her.

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “I want to go,” Matthew said. “This may well be our last mission as a team. I want to be there to the very end.”

  “This is going to end at some point,” Alex said. “You have to take care of your family.”

  “Happy wife, happy life,” Trece said.

  Matthew sighed and got up.

  “Thank you,” Alex said.

  Matthew stopped at the door.

  “One question,” Trece said. “Why are we doing this? We’re in the shit with Spec Ops. The President’s support doesn’t matter if you’ve lost your command! The Admiral already gave our mission to some Navy fatties.”

  Alex glanced at Matthew

  “The soldiers,” Alex and Matthew said together.

  “But they’re Navy,” Trece said in an exaggerated whine.

  Everyone laughed.

  “I’d do it for you,” Alex said.

  Matthew waved to the team and left the helicopter compartment. Joseph took Matthew’s seat and sat down next to Alex. A few minutes later, Vice-Admiral Henderson stepped into the helicopter. He nodded to Alex, and she smiled. A seasoned leader, the Vice-Admiral left Alex and her team to get their ducks in a row. He put on his smartphone headphones on and was soon humming to songs from the Eagles’ Hotel California.

  “What do you know?” Alex asked Joseph.

  As the helicopter rose, Joseph briefed Alex on everything she already knew.

  F

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Wednesday evening

  November 2 — 6:10 p.m. PDT

  U.S.S. Makin Island

  Pacific Ocean of coast of California

  There was a lot of activity on the flight deck when Zack set the helicopter down on the deck of the U.S.S. Makin Island. The door to the helicopter flew open, and Vice-Admiral Henderson was escorted off the helicopter. Alex’s team was instructed to wait on the helicopter.

  “What are they supposed to be doing?” Zack asked Alex in her headphones.

  “Routine operations,” Alex said.

  “What do we think those are?” Zack asked.

  “Something nautical,” Alex said with a shrug.

  After a few minutes, Zack told them that they’d been released to exit the helicopter. When they stepped out of the helicopter, Alex guessed why they’d been left in the helicopter — the sun was setting. Zack had been instructed to land in the darkest area of the over-bright deck. While they weren’t invisible to heat sensor, they could move across the deck now without drawing too much attention to themselves.

  With their heads down, they raced across the flight deck. They waited to head down until Zack and Cliff had joined them. Together, they entered the island, the tall structure on the starboard side of the ship. They were met at the door by the ship’s Captain. Alex hung back with Joseph and Trece to let Leena, MJ, and Margaret — the US Navy officer and two Marines — manage the introductions. The Captain insisted on saluting Alex personally. The Captain escorted them to air traffic control, where the entire team stood and saluted Alex. They went through the bridge, where they met the Lieutenant who was currently in charge of the conn. The Captain took them to the tiny room that served as their communications room.

  At the door, everyone hopped to attention. The Captain used special care to thank Alex for her assistance in this matter. When he left, he saluted Alex one last time.

  “It’s like I’m dead,” Alex said in a low tone to Joseph.

  “Technically, you are,” Joseph said with a grin.

  The small room was darkened with rows of computer terminals along each wall. Three visiting US Navy intelligence Specialists were standing at attention behind their computer stations, while three of the ship’s Intelligence Specialists were standing at attention on the other side of the room.

  “At ease,” Alex returned their salute.

  The intelligence officers sat down at their posts. A US Navy Intelligence Lieutenant was standing at the end of the room in front of a large projection screen which covered the entire wall. Leena, MJ, and Margaret moved aside so that Alex could meet the Lieutenant face to face.

  The Lieutenant saluted Alex.

  “At ease, Lieutenant,” Alex said to the young woman. “What can you tell me?”

  The young woman gave Alex the same story the Vice-Admiral had given her — US Navy SEAL platoon heading in for a classified mission, lost their leader either through kidnapping or death, lost their way, and they were coming into satellite range in a few minutes. The story was so similar that Alex glanced at the Vice-Admiral before turning back to the Lieutenant.

  “Can I see the logs?” Alex asked.

  “Sir, I . . .” the Lieutenant started.

  “On the screen,” Alex said.

  “We’re not allowed to give you that information,” the Lieutenant said.

  “Why am I here?” Alex asked. “I need information if I’m going to be able to save your men!”

  “Ma’am, I . . .” the Lieutenant started.

  Seeing Alex’s face, she immediately stopped talking. Alex turned to the room.

  “Anyone?” Alex asked.

  No one said a word. Shaking her head, Alex started to walk out of the room. Two US Navy MPs carrying machine guns stepped through the door. Assessing the situation, Alex bit the inside of her lip. Joseph starting yelling at the Vice-Admiral, who looked down with shame.

  “Joseph,” Alex said.

  He immediately stopped talking.

  “I need to know two things,” Alex said. “First, are you looking for a platoon of US Navy SEALs, or was that just a story?”

  “We’re missing a team,” the Lieutenant said quickly. “We need . . .”

  She glanced at the Vice-Admiral before clamping her mouth closed. The Specialists at the computer terminals looked oddly still.

  “Did something happen between the time the Vice-Admiral came to get me and now?” Alex asked.

  Rage surged through her. She looked from face to face. No one dared to look at her.

  “You need to ask yourself: Are you willing to let these men die?” Alex asked.

  Looking around the room, she realized that Zack and Cliff weren’t with them. Someone on the flight team must have alerted them to what was going on. Alex nodded.

  “What’s it going to be?” Alex asked.

  She shook her head.

  “Raz?” Alex asked. “Can you flicker the lights?”

  Every light on the ship flicked off. The computer terminals flickered. The Lieutenant in the front of the room gasped.

  “Now, Alex . . .” the Vice-Admiral started.

  “We have control of the ship,” Alex said. “You can determine whether this turns into a Fey Team cruise to the Bahamas or we actually do our jobs?”

  No one said anything for what felt like an age.

  “Truth is,” the Vice-Admiral’s voice broke the silence like the shattering of glass, “we cannot.”

  He gave her a slow nod to indicate his regret. Shaking her head, Alex scanned the room again.

  “Fey Team,” Alex said.

  Joseph and Trece stepped to either side of her. Margaret, MJ, and Leena followed close behind. She started for the door.

  “Move,” Alex said in even tones to the
MPs.

  The MPs stood firm. Trece stepped forward, but Alex put a hand on his arm. She turned back to the room.

  “Before we go, will anyone tell me what . . .” Alex started.

  “Alex? It’s X,” the voice of their computer expert, Xavier, said into Alex’s ear.

  “Go,” Alex said.

  “You’re picking up some interest,” X said.

  “Who?” Alex asked.

  “Looks Russian, Chinese,” X said.

  Nodding, Alex spoke to the room.

  “Russian and Chinese intelligence are wondering about your interest in the Wakhan Corridor,” Alex said.

  She looked from face to face.

  “This is your last chance,” Alex said. “Tell me what’s going on, and we’ll get rid of the hackers. Refuse to speak, and we’ll leave them.”

  “It’s just . . .” the Lieutenant started. Her eyes flicked to the Vice-Admiral, and she stopped talking.

  “Good luck!” Alex said.

  She pulled her handgun and held it to the forehead of the MP.

  “Move,” she said. “You think I won’t shoot you? Think again. At some point, I’m going to get picked up and taken to a black site. You think sending you to your mother in a box will cause me worse trouble than I’m in now?”

  The MP stepped aside, letting Alex, Joseph, Trece, Leena, MJ, and Margaret out of the room. They walked in a tight formation through a now-silent island and out onto the flight deck. Nothing moved. The blades on their Black Hawk rotated.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here before they open fire,” Joseph said.

  They ran to the Fey Black Hawk.

  “Go,” Alex yelled as she pulled the door closed. “Go. Get us out of here before they shoot us down.”

  While they scrambled for seats, Zack lifted the Black Hawk straight up from the flight deck. He shot across the Pacific Ocean.

  “We have company,” Zack said over the intercom.

  “Who?” Alex asked.

  “F-15 Eagles,” Zack said. “Two. The pilots are talking to me on a private line.”

  “You know these pilots?” Alex asked.

  “They’re kids,” Zack said, with a shake of his head. “I don’t know them, but they know me. Us. They’ve been ordered to treat us as enemy combatants.”

  “Seriously?” Alex asked. She hopped to her feet and walked to the cockpit. “What the hell?”

  Zack lifted the face mask to his helmet. He nodded to Cliff, who turned off a communications line.

  “They can’t let us land,” Zack said. “But they’ve agreed to overlook anything else we might do.”

  “Raz?” Alex asked.

  “They’ve blocked incoming transmissions,” Chris said. “We’re cut off.”

  “We have to jump,” Alex said.

  “Coast Guard is reporting in,” Zack said. “They’re ordered to pick us up.”

  “Don’t we have a raft?” Alex asked.

  “Foreign craft in sovereign water,” Zack said. “I thought of that, too.”

  “What the fuck is going on?” Alex asked.

  “No idea,” Zack said.

  “Something about you being dead, and, so, if you’re here, you must be an imposter,” Cliff said.

  “How?” Zack looked at Cliff and shook his head.

  “Private Reddit with the pilots right’s supervisor,” Cliff said. “He was my training mentor.”

  Zack shook his head. Alex looked at him for a moment more before running to the compartment.

  “Time to get out of here,” Alex said. “This is not a drill.”

  Joseph hopped to his feet.

  “Peaches, Scully — get the chutes, including Jakkman and Bauer; life jackets, too,” Joseph said. “Carmichael — see if you can do anything with the Coast Guard. Ramirez — help Peaches and Scully.”

  Leena started working her contacts on her cell phone. MJ put two parachute packs in Trece’s hands, and Trece rushed to the cockpit. Margaret held a life jacket for Alex, and she slipped into it. Margaret helped Alex into a parachute before Alex helped her into a life jacket and parachute. They’d just finished when Joseph was helping Trece with his.

  “Anything, Carmichael?” Joseph asked.

  “She’s three miles out, but she can’t stop this,” Leena said.

  “Go ahead,” Alex said to Leena with a nod. “Zack, can we get to international waters?”

  “Not in time,” Zack said as he came around the corner.

  “No parachutes,” Alex said. “We’re going to have to chance it on the water.”

  Zack looked up at the speaker. “Drop it, Bauer.”

  “Roger that,” Cliff said.

  The team started slipping off their parachutes as the helicopter began to drop in altitude.

  “Grab what you can,” Alex said. “They’re likely to blow the chopper.”

  “I set the autopilot,” Zack said. “It should hover for sixty seconds and then return to base.”

  “That works?” Alex asked.

  “They told me it would,” Zack said with a cocky grin.

  Alex crossed herself.

  “Sir,” Leena said.

  Alex looked in her direction. Leena threw Alex a small oxygen tank and a mask, mouthpiece, and snorkel set. Alex grabbed it and stuffed the tank into her side pocket. She sloughed off her parachute.

  “Are we ready?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, sir,” they called.

  “They’re calling for us to surrender,” Cliff said from the cockpit.

  “Time to go,” Alex said.

  Trece threw open the door to the Black Hawk. They were about fifteen feet from the open ocean. Alex touched Leena. She jumped into the ocean. Alex waited for Leena to appear on the surface before Alex touched MJ. He jumped. Margaret went next, and then Cliff.

  “I’ll meet you down there,” Joseph said before he jumped. “Right?”

  “Of course,” Alex said. As if to assure him of her sincerity, she nodded.

  Joseph squeezed her shoulder before jumping. When he appeared on the surface, Alex touched Trece’s chest.

  “You sure?” Trece asked. “You usually go before me.”

  “I want to make sure they don’t blow the chopper over our heads,” Alex said. She kissed his cheek. “They want me, so they’re less likely to blow me away.”

  Trece blinked at her a few times. He looked at the water just below and then back at her.

  “I’ll see you down there,” Alex said.

  She gave him an assuring smile, and Trece jumped. Zack looked Alex up and down.

  “You’re not going,” Zack said.

  “It’s the only way,” Alex said. “They’re hunting me, not you. This is my bullshit. I can ride the helicopter in!”

  Zack shook his head.

  “It’s the only way,” Alex said. “You know that.”

  “You’re wrong,” Zack said.

  “I’m not, and you know it,” Alex said. “You need to leave me.”

  “Not in this lifetime,” he said.

  He grabbed her around the shoulders and dove off the helicopter. His momentum combined with the short fall, meant they hit the surface of the ocean hard. The collision forced the air out of Alex’s lungs. They dropped deep into the frigid water.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Alex’s experience swimming kicked into gear. She bobbed to the surface. She gasped for breath and looked for Zack. He was nowhere to be found. Using a water-polo technique she’d learned from Vince, she treaded water until her entire torso was out of the water. She looked a whole 360 degrees. Zack was not on the surface of the ocean.

  She dove into the ocean. She opened her eyes but was unable to see anything. Remembering her mask, she came up to the surface. She put on her mask and shoved the air regulator in her mouth. She took a breath.

  “Zack.” She whispered his full name and dove into the water.

  The water was murky, dark, and cold. She looked straight below her but saw nothing.

  �
�Oh, Zack.” In her sorrow, she either thought or said his name.

  A light flickered just to her right.

  “Jesse?” Alex asked.

  Nothing. Jesse didn’t appear. The light flickered on her right, and she knew that Zack was over there. She kicked and pulled as fast as she possibly could toward the light. She saw Zack only a second before she was right on top of him. Grabbing him by his flight suit, she tried to push them toward the surface.

  Her loaded down jumpsuit was dragged her down. Holding on to Zack with her legs, she unzipped the jumpsuit and slithered out of it. She tried to move Zack but his suit was pulling him to the depths. She unzipped his flight suit and stripped it off him.

  Wearing only their body armor, Alex fought their way to the surface. With each strong kick, she thanked Vince Hutchins. He’d insisted that she get back in the pool and swim. If he wasn’t technically her superior, she would have blown him off. One thing was clear — if she hadn’t been swimming with Vince, she and Zack would surely be dead.

  She pushed one last stroke, and they broke the surface of the ocean. The sheer force of the air caused Zack to cough. She held his head on the side as he coughed out sea water. When she thought he was done, she shoved her air regulator into his mouth.

  Weak, he opened his eyes. He winked at her and closed his eyes.

  He was alive.

  And then it hit her. It never occurred to her that Zack wasn’t alive. She just had to find him, and he . . .

  Alex gasped air to keep from sobbing. She pulled Zack onto his back and rested his head on her shoulder. Above them, the Black Hawk sped off toward Camp Pendleton. She scanned the skies to see if help was coming and saw nothing. The sun must have gone down less than a half hour ago. She looked up. There was no moon.

  “Stay with me, Zachery,” Alex yelled at the top of her lungs. “Don’t you dare leave me. Don’t you dare . . .”

  Tears streamed from her eyes and welled at the bottom of her mask. A wave splashed over them.

  “Hang in there, Zack,” Alex said.

  Alex knew from working with Vince that she was only able tread water for only two hours and seven minutes. And that was in a fresh water swimming pool. The Pacific Ocean was cold and had waves. She was already exhausted. She slowed her kicks to buy them enough time for rescue to find them.