About Face

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  “Don’t make me knock you out,” Alex said.

  He got to his feet and came at her. She flipped in a tight circle. Leading with her right leg, she opened up her left. Between Colin’s forward momentum and the force of her kick, he dropped where he stood.

  Alex landed on her back. She looked. Colin was still down. She lay there for a moment to catch her breath before jumping up.

  “That’s match,” Matthew said.

  Alex went to Colin. Kneeling down, she touched his face.

  “Colin?” Alex asked.

  “I’m okay,” Colin said. “Just resting.”

  “Come on, big guy,” Alex said.

  She held out her hand to help Colin up. As he did when they were kids, he took her hand and flipped her forward. She landed on her back. Laughing, she got back up. Colin was standing with MJ and laughing at her.

  She hugged Colin.

  “The Fey has won,” Matthew said. “Again!

  The crowd went wild.

  F

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Monday afternoon

  November 7 — 1:28 p.m. PST

  Camp Pendleton, California

  “He really didn’t have much to say,” Colin replied to Alex’s question about his dinner with Nathan’s son, Zaine. “Nathan was active military. Like our kids, his kid didn’t know much about what he did. Outside of knowing Nathan’s mother, he knows nothing about Nathan’s family.”

  They’d received a load of desks from a warehouse full of abandoned and misused furniture that was just perfect for the Fey Team’s outpost on Camp Pendleton. Vince had been so overwhelmed with the influx of people that he hadn’t taken the time to set up the team space. Alex had insisted they set up before they did anything else. The hall was cleaned by some of their visitors, and the desks arrived. The team was unloading the desks and chairs. Colin and Alex were working together so he could update her.

  “His mom?” Alex asked.

  She leaned over a desk and saw a post-it that said “Marines.” She picked up one side of the medium-sized battered wooden desk, and Colin got the other side. They carried it into the office.

  “He didn’t say much about her,” Colin said. “So I looked her up.”

  “Hey!” Sergeant Dusty yelled from the doorway. “The screen and projector are here.”

  “I’ll get it,” Troy said. He ran out of the building. Outside, they heard him yell, “Hey you, want to play A/V with me?”

  “What did you find?” Alex asked.

  She consulted Sergeant Dusty’s map and pointed out the location to Colin. He nodded. They moved the desk to the position in the semi-circle Sergeant Dusty had selected for MJ and Margaret.

  “About the mother of Nathan’s child?” Colin asked. “Nothing. Honestly. The child seems to have just appeared. Or I should say that Nathan appeared home with a child.”

  “You think he’s like Joseph’s Alex?” Alex asked.

  “Definitely not,” Colin said. “A woman walked into the hospital and had a child. She lied about her name, that’s all. She said Nathan was the father. It was Fort Campbell so it wasn’t a big trick to assume a military man was the father. They tested the baby and contacted the military. Nathan paid the bill and picked up the child. If he knew who the boy’s mother was, he never told Zaine.”

  “Who raised him?” Alex asked.

  “You don’t know that?” Colin chided.

  Alex shook her head.

  “Why do you think that is?” Colin asked.

  “You’d have to know Nathan,” Alex said. “His son was his morning, noon, and night. He talked about Zaine as a person, how he was doing in school, his friends, activities, stuff like that, but not who cared for him. I know he was named after Zane Grey, one of Nathan’s favorite authors, but who cared for him while we were on assignment?”

  Alex shrugged.

  “You’d think we had enough time, but . . .” Alex said. She pointed at Cliff. “How many kids does Cliff have?”

  Colin turned to look at the young man. Cliff was unpacking forms and stacking them on a shared bookshelf. He glanced at Alex and shook his head that he didn’t know.

  “Just how it is on teams,” Alex said. “You’re close to everyone but some more than others.”

  “Correct answer is zero so far,” Cliff yelled to Colin. “But trust me, I practice every chance I get.”

  “Thanks for the details, man,” Colin said.

  “I love you, man,” Cliff said in a fake drunken voice.

  Colin grinned. They set the desk down and went to get another one. The desks were set up in a semi-circle facing the front wall. Alex and Colin passed Troy as he came in leading two visiting soldiers. Troy was carrying a can of white paint and a projector. Colin grabbed the tall desk with his name on it, and Alex took the opposite end.

  “Zaine was raised by a woman he thought was his maternal grandmother,” Colin said. “You can imagine his surprise when Nathan died and learned that his caregiver was not related to him. He talked to the woman who raised him. She told him that Nathan had hired her to raise Zaine. They decided it was easier just to tell the child that she was his mother’s mother.”

  “Does he want to find his mother?” Alex asked as she consulted Dusty’s map.

  “No,” Colin said. “He has a child now and . . . Well, he doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say about women who abandon their children. He loves the woman who cared for him. Calls her ‘Momma.’ And truth be told, she is his grandmother now. That said, Zaine adored Nathan. He had nothing negative to say about his father and the Fey Special Forces Team. He wished that they hadn’t been killed, but he believes the sacrifice was in service to our nation.”

  “He didn’t want to go into the military?” Alex asked.

  “Nathan wouldn’t let him,” Colin said.

  “Sounds about right,” Alex said.

  “He thought about joining when Nathan was killed but decided to go to law school instead,” Colin said. “He’s almost done.”

  Alex nodded. They set the desk down in its spot and looked around. The desks were set up so that there was one desk for each partner team.

  “Chairs,” Alex said.

  She pointed to the door. They went to get chairs. Each chair was labeled, as every team member had specific issues.

  “So basically, he didn’t know anything about Admiral Ingram,” Alex said.

  “Oh, that’s not true,” Colin said.

  Alex grabbed Leena’s medium-sized ball chair, and Colin grabbed Vince’s high-back ergonomic chair.

  “Ingram came to Denver when the Fey SF team was killed,” Colin said. “Zaine had never seen him before. But Ingram showed up to the wake in his dress blues. They held it at Nathan’s house so that there was space for all the people who loved Nathan. As you can imagine, there were quite a few. Zaine assumed that Ingram was another military brass there to celebrate the team. Ingram never approached Zaine or told him who he was. Ingram stayed at the wake for an hour or so and left. When he left, Zaine couldn’t find his dad’s Felix-the-Cat watch.”

  “Ingram took it from Zaine?” Alex asked.

  “Sure seems that way,” Colin said. “I wish I’d known you’d seen it when you were in Washington. I know that Zaine would be relieved that the watch had survived. Nathan loved that watch.”

  Alex stopped walking for a moment. She looked at Colin.

  “You think there’s something to that?” Alex asked.

  “Mysterious message in the watch?” Colin asked. “Answer to every ‘why’ we have?”

  Alex nodded.

  “No,” Colin said. “Zaine said it was just a watch. Nathan had it appraised once. It wasn’t worth that much money, even. That’s why it was so weird that Ingram took it. Nathan’s medals were there. That ring signet he used to wear on his right hand.”

  Colin shrugged.

  “Zaine wears the ring now,” Colin said. “Turns out it’s from the Ingram plantation. Something that was given to their a
ncestor after his woman gave birth to an Ingram child. It passed to Nathan, and now Zaine has it.”

  “The Ingrams share the same blood with Nathan and Zaine?” Alex asked.

  “A few times over,” Colin said.

  “Ingram saw the watch and took it,” Alex said. “But not the more valuable ring.”

  Colin nodded. Alex looked worried but nodded that she understood. They set their chairs in place. Alex turned to go get more chairs when she realized everything was set up. The Fey Team was milling around, waiting for her.

  “Coffee?” Alex asked with an edge of desperation.

  “Almost there!” Raz said. He had just finished setting up their espresso maker. Everyone laughed.

  “Okay, let’s get going,” Alex said. She walked to stand in front of the newly painted wall. “Can everyone take their seats?”

  “Yes, teacher,” Troy said.

  He jogged up to the front to give her a pointer for the projector. They were running a computer through a projector pointed at the freshly painted wall. Everyone could see what was going on. Margaret stood next to the projector.

  “We need to find us some SEALs,” Alex said.

  Trece and White Boy tapped on their desks like a drum roll. Alex smiled at them and gestured for them to stop.

  “Margaret, can you bring up the logs?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Margaret said.

  “Did we . . .?” Alex started. Margaret put the contact log next to the maps marked with each location check. “Thank you.”

  Alex looked at the log for a moment before nodding.

  “Would someone like to read it?” Alex asked. “God, I feel like an elementary school teacher up here.”

  The team laughed.

  “I’ll read,” Leena said. She was sitting at the desk that she shared with Vince. He was sitting in his high-backed chair next to the desk.

  “Just the entries,” Alex said. “Troy? Royce? Can you work through the dates and times? How long it took between check-ins, miles between check-ins, stuff like that?”

  “Together?” Royce asked.

  “If you don’t mind, can you do it separately?” Alex said. “I know it’s double work, but this is important.”

  “Got it,” Royce said at the same time Troy said, “Easy enough.”

  “One more question,” Alex said. She pointed to red dots on a map. “How were these location marks determined?”

  “GPS,” Margaret said. “You’ll see that the log goes longer than the map? That’s because they weren’t able to confirm locations via GPS.”

  “Would you mind putting up the locations that weren’t confirmed?” Alex asked.

  “I’ll do it,” Sergeant Dusty got up from where he was sitting next to Royce. “I have a list. I wasn’t sure if we’d need it.”

  “I never had trouble with GPS confirmation, and that was before we were at war in Afghanistan,” Alex said. “I thought it might be interesting to see.”

  “Roger that,” Sergeant Dusty added four blue dots to the map.

  “Okay, here we go,” Alex said.

  “Entry one,” Leena said.

  “Okay, wait,” Alex said. “Can I see the map?”

  “We don’t have a hard copy,” Sergeant Dusty said. He held up a computer tablet. “Just electronic.”

  Alex gestured for him to bring it to her. He jogged up to her.

  “Okay, Leena, go ahead,” Alex said.

  “First stop in the Wakhan was Qala-e-Mafushad arch,” Leena said.

  “First stop from where?” Alex asked.

  “Pakistan,” Sergeant Dusty said. “Remember they went out from Peshawar to . . .”

  “What?” Alex asked. She squinted with confusion at him. “You can’t just arrive at Qala-e-Mafushad either going over a mountain or through the valleys. Did they parachute in?”

  “No,” Sergeant Dusty said.

  “What pass did they go through?” Alex asked.

  “Kilik. At least that’s what it says on this map,” Matthew said. He walked up to the screen to point to a location. “Kilik Pass, Pakistan.”

  “What?” Alex’s voice rose with panic. “How are they getting around?”

  “Every indication is that they are walking, sir,” Sergeant Dusty said.

  “Walking from Kilik Pass to Qala-e-Masfushad?” Alex asked. Her stomach lurched. She gave a quick shake of her head. “Leena, can you read to me the specified locations in order?”

  “Sure,” Leena said.

  “Can someone write down what she says, in order?” Alex asked.

  “I’ve got it,” Sergeant Dusty said. “I’m already taking notes.”

  “Raz? Can you open that Internet Map site you like?” Alex asked.

  Raz grunted. Sitting at the desk they shared, he opened his laptop.

  “Can someone get on the commercial satellite tools?” Alex asked.

  “Got it,” Colin said and opened his laptop. He was sitting in the chair while Troy was sitting at the desk.

  “Are you going to keep us in suspense?” Trece asked from the desk that he shared with White Boy. “What are you looking for?”

  “Something is just . . . off,” Alex said. Her hand instinctively went to her stomach. “Wrong, very wrong. Let’s go through this and . . . Uh . . . Royce, don’t you know someone who is an analyst in Navy Intelligence?”

  “My little sister . . .”

  “Raven?” Alex asked.

  “That’s right,” Royce said with a smile and nod. “She just started there. But I think she’s here in California for the military exercises. I mean, I’m not supposed to know, but she said something that made me thing she was here.”

  “Would you mind calling her?” Alex asked.

  “Not a problem,” Royce said. “What should I ask her?”

  “I want to talk to the person who worked on this,” Alex said. “NCIS, too. Someone’s got to have followed this or been looking for these kids. We should pool our resources.”

  Royce nodded. He took out his cell phone and walked out of the building.

  “Ok, Leena’s going to list off the locations,” Alex said. “Raz? Colin? Can you mark the locations on your map in order — you know first check-in, second — 1, 2, 3 . . .”

  Raz and Colin nodded. The mood in the room was tight with tension. No one was sure what was going on, but something was definitely off.

  “Don’t talk to each other or to us,” Alex said.

  “Ever or just now?” Colin joked to lighten the mood.

  His joke fell flat. She gave him the annoyed-older-sister look used around the world.

  “Just now,” Alex said.

  Raz and Colin nodded.

  “Leena?” Alex asked.

  “Okay, just the names of places,” Leena said. Vince leaned over to help her keep track of where she was. “The first name mentioned is Kilik Pass, then the Qala-e-Mafushad arch. Then Salang Tunnel.”

  “Where’s that?” Troy asked.

  Alex shook her head for him not to interrupt. She nodded to Leena.

  “The next place mentioned is something called ‘Smuggler’s Bizarre’ or Khyber Pass. Then Kashch Goz. Um . . .”

  Alex nodded.

  “It matches the map on the screen,” Troy said.

  “What map is that?” Alex asked.

  “It looks like your map,” Troy said. “Look there’s a fairy stamp in the corner.”

  “That most certainly is not my map of the region,” Alex said. “Look — the lines are different.”

  “It’s the one the men are carrying,” Sergeant Dusty said. “I had their supply person send me copies of everything they took out into the field. That map is in their packs.”

  “No wonder they’re lost,” Raz said.

  “The last place mentioned is Baza’i Gonbad,” Leena said.

  Alex didn’t respond. Anxiety pulsed through her veins. Her eyes flicked to Raz when he opened his mouth. She gave him a slow shake of her head. She turned around to look at the
map.

  “There’s a notation here that they hit a snowstorm,” Leena said. “The DUSTWUN call came in the next day.”

  Leena’s voice faded out at the end.

  “Sir, are you all right?” Leena asked.

  “No,” she said in a soft voice. “I’m not all right.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “What’s going on?” MJ asked.

  “The map’s wrong,” Colin said. “The points are bullshit. There’s no way a team could have gotten from one point to the next in the time they had. Especially if they’re on foot.”

  “So they have a chopper,” Trece said. “So what?”

  “One thing that’s sure is that they don’t have a chopper,” Sergeant Dusty said.

  “According to this log, they first check in on a pass that’s between China and Pakistan. The next spot is in the Wakhan Corridor, but on a mountain with no open passes around,” Alex said.

  “Anybody who’s been in Afghanistan knows that Smuggler’s Bizarre or Khyber Pass is in the south,” MJ said. “Salang Tunnel is near Charikar, just north of Kabal.”

  “Khyber Pass is in the South,” Alex said. “What’s the next point after that?”

  “Kashch Goz,” Leena said.

  “That’s a grouping of yurts, a kind of summer grazing site, for the Kyrgyz,” Alex said. “There’s a couple of families in the valley in November. But they are too exposed at Kashch Goz. The last one you said was Baza’i Gombad. ”

  “Domes of our Elders,” Margaret translated.

  “Right back in the Wakhan Corridor,” Alex said. “It’s graves and some ruins of an old fort.”

  Alex shrugged.

  “Are you saying that they’re there at Baza’i Gombad?” Raz asked.

  “No,” Alex said. “I’m saying they are lost in the middle of the winter with three non-winter ready platoons in a place that makes Siberia look hospitable.”

  Alex looked at her team. She saw their confusion on their faces.

  “Why am I upset?” Alex asked. “Because someone should have known that something was off and let them go anyway. That’s what’s so confusing. Even the most classified mission is monitored by intelligence. Someone had to have known that these locations were nonsensical. We can’t be the only ones who noticed.”