THE 13: STAND BOOK TWO

by ROBBIE CHEUVRONT

  “I’m sorry, what?” Megan said, obviously confused.

  “We have wolves in our midst,” Boz said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He punched the button and set the sat-phone down on the table.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Eli said, mouth full.

  “Call Bungard back,” Boz said. “I may need you to extend your holiday.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Alex opened her eyes for the second time in twenty-four hours. Fighting to wake up out of the coma was the most exhausting thing she had ever been through. She had only been able to remain awake for a little more than thirty minutes before exhaustion set in and took her back down into the deep recesses of her consciousness.

  She dreamed, but nothing like before. These dreams were a little more elusive. Harder to grasp. And sketchy, unlike the terribly real state she had been in before. Everything then seemed to just be one very real, dark, and twisted nightmare. This was more pleasant.

  She opened her eyes and found the same man sitting beside her. What was his name again? Oh, yeah, she remembered. Farid Naser or something.

  “How are you?” he said in his thick accent.

  “Better,” she said. “May I have a drink of water?”

  Naser sat forward in his chair and reached for the pitcher of water on the bedside table. He filled the little Dixie cup halfway and tilted it to her lips.

  She drank slowly at first. But after the first few sips, she opened her mouth and let the water spill down her throat. It felt good. Life giving.

  “Can you talk?” Naser asked.

  She nodded her head as she swallowed the remaining gulp in her mouth. “Yeah. I can talk.”

  Naser shifted nervously in his seat. He lifted his hands and his mouth started to move, but nothing came out. Finally, he chirped a few breaths of laughter. “I mean—y–you…,” he stammered.

  “What?” she asked, concerned.

  “I mean, you were dead!” Naser said, half laughing again. “Dead! No one, and I mean no one, ever thought you and I would be having this conversation right now.”

  “I remember dying. What happened? How did I—how did all of this…” She waved a hand around.

  “I shouldn’t say dead. Not dead. Unconscious. Very near death, but not dead.”

  “Obviously,” she said sarcastically.

  “No, I don’t just mean not dead.” He was sitting on the edge of his chair again. Talking faster, like a five-year-old telling what he got for Christmas. “Your body must have gone into some kind of safe mode. You know, like a computer’s hard drive? Your pulse had slowed down so much that your body wasn’t even pumping the blood out of the wounds. They had already started to coagulate.” He stood up now, waving his hands around. “Your heartbeat was so slow that if I hadn’t had my hand on your carotid artery when it finally pulsed, I might have pronounced you dead. And when I felt it—when I started CPR…” He ran a hand through his hair and laughed again. “It was like someone hit the power button on you. All of a sudden, your heart rate picked back up, your body started convulsing, your wounds started bleeding again….”

  Alex knew exactly what the man was talking about. She had spent nearly a year in a Tibetan monastery where she had studied meditation. During that time, she had learned to control her heart rate and her breathing to that which was just above what was necessary to remain alive. There was only one problem with the technique: unless someone else triggered you back, it could be very difficult to do yourself. Only the great masters whom she had studied under had learned to do it at will and without any assistance. And it was utterly impossible when you’ve been shot and thrown from a speeding car, she thought to herself. And at the time, she didn’t even realize that that was what her body was doing. She just thought she was dying.

  “Lucky for me, huh?”

  Naser blew out a big breath and sat back down. “Miracle, I’d say.”

  “How long have I been like this? Unconscious, I mean.”

  “Almost five months. No one believed that you would ever return to a conscious state.”

  “You did.”

  Naser lifted his head to meet her eyes. She saw the longing in them. It was an effect she had on many men. This one, however, looked a little different. She met his gaze and felt a tinge of something. She didn’t know what, but it was there.

  Naser shifted his eyes away and said in a whisper, “Yes.”

  “So what now?”

  “Now, we run tests. Now that you’re awake and have recovered from your wounds…” His words drifted off. Lingering. Waiting for her to perhaps fill in the blanks.

  That wasn’t going to happen. She needed to get out of this place as quickly as she could. But she had no idea how her body was going to respond to anything physical. For all she knew, she had been on her back for the last couple of months and her muscles had atrophied to the point that she wouldn’t even be able to walk.

  “Listen, Dr….?”

  “Naser.”

  “Dr. Naser. Yes, I remember.” She smiled at him. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me. But I’ve been lying in this bed for quite a while, yes?”

  He nodded.

  “I think I would like to get up. Is that possible?”

  Naser moved closer to the bed. He pulled the blanket down from her legs and pointed. Little electrodes were attached from her hips to the balls of her feet. Clear tubing connected them with what looked like streaking blue light passing back and forth between the little pads.

  “What are those?” She was somewhat scared of what the answer would be.

  “Those”—Naser smiled—“are the newest thing in electro-light muscular therapy. Two years ago a physical therapist from North Korea developed these. You could say it’s been like you ran two miles every day since you’ve been here.”

  Naser reached for her hand. He gently removed the few tubes and wires that remained attached to her and helped her stand up beside the bed. Immediately she felt the blood course through her veins. She tentatively let go of the bed rail and straightened up. She still didn’t know what to expect yet. But as she stood there, shifting her weight from foot to foot, she knew that Naser had been right. She felt as though she had just woken up from a good night’s sleep. She looked at the young doctor and his smiling face.

  “See!” he said. “I told you! It’s like you never got hurt.”

  She was amazed, she had to admit. “That’s incredible! I feel great.” She slowly walked around in a circle beside the bed. She could feel the blood begin to pump even more now. It felt good.

  “Dr. Naser, can you tell me something?” she said, tracing a finger along his shoulder and down his bicep.

  “Yes.” He swallowed. Perhaps a little too hard.

  “Are there any residual…effects? From my injuries?”

  Naser wiped the bead of sweat that had formed on his forehead. “None that I can think of—”

  “Good!”

  “—but there could possibly be some psychological reactions.” He reached out and grabbed her gently by the arm. “Perhaps you should sit back down now. I think that is probably enough for today.”

  “Doc, I feel like a million bucks. I think I’d like to take a walk. Like down the hall. Wanna come?”

  Naser looked nervous. She guessed he’d been assigned to keep her confined to this room. There were too many questions still to be answered. A woman with an American passport—fake, but American, nonetheless—full of gunshot wounds and injuries consistent with a major car accident doesn’t just show up in a Dubai hospital every day. The police were probably already on their way. She couldn’t be here when they arrived. She thought for a moment.

  She had known from the first moment she laid eyes on him that Naser had feelings for her. He told her he’d sat beside her bed, two, sometimes three times a day and talked to her. It’s like some bad American love story, she thought. All she would have to do would be to bat her eyes and give him that sheep
ish smile and it would be all over. He’d be eating out of the palm of her hand.

  “Farid…,” she said softly.

  The use of his first name was all it took. The man was hers. He smiled a big, toothy smile.

  “Please can we go for a walk? I promise, just down the hall and back.”

  Naser walked over to the blinds on the window of the room. He used his forefinger and thumb to spread apart the little plastic strips and looked out and down the hall.

  “Just down the hall? And then right back?” He repeated her request.

  “Then right back. I promise.”

  “Okay,” he said. “But if anyone stops us and asks a question, you let me do the talking. Got it?”

  She made a crisscross over her heart. “Promise.”

  Naser opened the door to the room and led her out. The hall was relatively empty. She had no idea what floor they were on, or where in the hospital they were. But she’d been in enough situations like this to know how to improvise.

  As they passed the nurses’ station, she took note of the small tray of surgical equipment sitting there. She caught the syringe sitting on the tray out of the corner of her eye. She had no idea what it contained, but she palmed it anyway. She continued to follow Naser down the hall as she stole a glance at the vial label. She recognized the name on the vial. A highly potent sedative. This would incapacitate Naser for at least two hours, if she emptied the plunger. Although she should probably just kill him.

  Naser turned to make sure she was still behind him. He smiled at her. It was a warm smile and it made her feel…well, she didn’t know what. No one had ever really smiled at her like that before. Sure, guys would flash her a grin all the time, but no one had ever looked at her like Naser looked at her. Almost like he put her on a pedestal.

  Again she thought she should just kill him. She didn’t need the complications.

  As they got near the end of the hall, Naser began to slow. “This is the end of the line for you, Alex.”

  She knew he meant it harmlessly. But those words brought her back to the reality of who she was. When she had had her run-in with that FBI agent, Taylor, she was in the middle of an assignment for General Chin, after assassinating the president of the United States. She hadn’t had the chance to make contact with Chin and let him know that, one, the new target, Marianne Levy, had been eliminated. And two, she had his money. And now she’d learned it had been a couple of months that she had been unconscious and hadn’t made contact with Chin. She needed to get out of here. Now. She was suddenly surprised that Chin hadn’t already sent someone after her.

  She felt the syringe behind her back. Her thumb was on the plunger and ready. She started to pull her arm out from behind but stopped. Naser was looking at her like that again. She didn’t know what was going on with her, but for some reason, she didn’t want to just knock him out and take off. Or kill him.

  “Farid, let me ask you something.”

  “Anything.” He shrugged his shoulders.

  “Do you like your job?” She watched the quizzical look on his face. “I mean, do you come in here every day and say to yourself, ‘Man, I’m so glad I’m a doctor who works here’?”

  Naser seemed to think about that for a moment. “You know…I actually don’t. I started out thinking I wanted to be a doctor. But then a year into my residency, I realized I hate everything about the medical field. Especially my boss.”

  Behind her back, she placed the plastic tip back onto the needle of the syringe. “Do you want to get out of here?”

  “Tell me why you’re in my hospital with gunshot wounds. And tell me about the car accident. What happened?”

  Everything in her screamed to just distract him and then snap his neck and get out of there. But she didn’t. Instead, she took a deep breath and let it out again. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do. “Come with me and I’ll tell you everything.”

  Naser looked at her. And then to the elevator a few feet away. Then back to her. Finally, he reached out and pushed the DOWN button. The doors opened up, revealing the empty elevator car. He flashed her that smile again and said, “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Raleigh, North Carolina

  Pemberton picked him up in front of the courthouse exactly one hour after they had ended their call. Hayes waved at the giant pickup truck rounding the corner and jumped in as Pemberton slowed down only enough to let him in. Hayes hadn’t even gotten his seat belt fastened before the old man hit the gas again.

  “How long you think it’ll take us to get there?” Hayes asked.

  “You got somewhere else to be?” Pemberton narrowed his eyes.

  Hayes had known Pemberton for over thirty years. His old friend could be many things. Subtle was not one of them. “I just finished my third cup of coffee. I’m going to have to go to the bathroom soon.”

  Pemberton mumbled a few curse words under his breath.

  Hayes shifted in the seat and looked at his watch.

  “ ’Bout two hours,” Pemberton finally said. “Think you can make it that long?” His tone wasn’t one of genuine concern.

  “I think so.”

  Pemberton made a face and pulled over at the next gas station to let Hayes empty his bladder.

  They spent the rest of the drive mostly silent. Not an awkward silence. More the kind of silence that two people who’ve spent so much time together can endure, neither one feeling like they need to manufacture conversation.

  Besides, the tension was already thick. The man they were heading to meet was not someone you just casually dropped in on. He was a man of great renown. A hero to many people, as the former secretary of the navy; a partisan, backstabbing politician to others. Either way, what the two of them had planned couldn’t be accomplished without him. If they were going to make this happen, they needed the man.

  Pemberton edged the giant truck through the wrought-iron gate of the estate’s drive. Suddenly, he stepped on the brake and came to a stop.

  “What are you doing?” Hayes asked.

  Again, Pemberton looked at him with those narrow, beady eyes. “There’s no going back from this. You good?”

  Hayes took a deep breath and let it out. “Drive.”

  Pemberton pulled the gear lever again and stepped on the gas.

  When they got to the end of the long drive, their man was outside waiting for them. Pemberton put the gearshift in Park and shut the engine off. Both he and Hayes got out and stood by the truck.

  “Well, don’t just stand there,” their host snapped. “I ain’t got all day.”

  Pemberton huffed. “Jake, as old as you are, you could be right.”

  Former secretary of the navy Jake Irving laughed a huge belly laugh. “Well, then, let’s go, before I keel over and die!” Pemberton followed him around the side of the house and into an old barn with Hayes in tow.

  Inside, a small table with three chairs sat in the middle of a dirt floor. Long leaves of tobacco hung from wooden beams all around. One of the new John Deere hybrid tractors sat off to one side. Several bales of hay sat along the other wall. Some antique shears and scythes hung on some rusty nails above the hay bales.

  “I suppose you’re going to tell me you still use those.” Pemberton pointed to the antiques.

  Irving dismissed the snide remark. “You want to talk about farming? Or did you come here for something important?” He motioned for his guests to sit.

  “Did Gavin tell you why we’re here?” Hayes asked.

  Irving looked at Pemberton. “Nope. Just said it was important.” He folded his arms across his chest. “But I got a pretty good idea, if it’s coming from you two.”

  “You ought to,” Pemberton shot back. “That idiot Walker is ruining what’s left of this country.”

  “Calm down, Gavin,” Hayes said. “I’m sure Jake has his own opinions about our fair president.”

  “That I do,” Irving admitted.

  The three men sat there in silence for more th
an a minute. Finally, Irving spoke. “So what do you want to do about it?”

  Hayes looked at Pemberton and gave him a look that said, I’ll handle this. Pemberton just nodded and leaned back in his chair.

  “Jake, Gavin and I have been…building some relationships.” Irving didn’t say anything, so he continued, “These relationships are of an interesting nature.”

  “How so?” Irving asked.

  Hayes shifted his position and opened his mouth to talk again.

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake, Milton!” Pemberton sat up in his chair. “Jake, this president is rolling over for the Chinese. He’s got the whole country convinced that this Prophet is real, and that the whole reason the Chinese came in the first place is because God tried to warn us and we didn’t listen. And he’s not about to try and take our country back. He’s just gonna let sleeping dogs lie. Now I don’t know about you, but me, Milton, and a lot of other people aren’t ready to just lie down.”

  Irving unfolded his arms. “So I ask you again. What do you want to do about it?”

  “We want to overthrow President Walker.” It was Hayes.

  Irving recrossed his arms and began tapping his chin with his index finger. “Let me get this straight. You two want to start a coup d’état in the middle of the most chaotic crisis in our nation’s history.”

  Both men nodded.

  “And you need me for…what?”

  “Jake…” Milton sat forward in his chair. “We have already set this thing in motion. Half the Senate and House—what’s left of them—are on our side. Even if they won’t admit it. The people of this country are divided. Half just want everything to be okay going forward. The other half is furious that we’re sitting by, not doing anything to take our country back.

  “Now, we could go through the process of trying to have him impeached. But you and I both know that’ll take too long—I’m talking congressional hearings and the like. As if anyone would even care to go through that right now. Our government can’t handle that. This needs to be done quickly and with force.”