Finding North (15 page)

“
Why?” Colin
asked.

“
He wants answers,” Alex
said. “I don’t have answers. The usual.”

“
Can he help?” Colin
asked.

“
Yes,” Alex said. “No. I
don’t know.”

Her answer was
intentionally vague to encourage him to ask a better question. He
fell silent, to collect his thoughts.

“
How can Dad help?” Colin
asked.

“
He has a lot of
resources,” Alex said. “Connections. Time. He knows the problem
better than I do.”

“
The problem?”

Alex smiled. This was one
of the questioning skills she’d taught him. By picking out one of
her words, she felt heard by him. Because she felt like he
understood her, she would be more likely to answer his
questions.

“
That’s the question,
isn’t it?” Alex asked. “What is the problem? Is it deciphering
Linear A, or, if we decipher Linear A, we’ll know something we
might not have known otherwise? Or is Linear A another step in an
almost-endless chain that goes on and on forever?”

“
It’s the step you know
about,” Colin said.

“
Hmm,” Alex said. “He
wants to help, and I want so badly to have his help or at least his
companionship, but . . .”

“
He can’t do it for you,”
Colin said.

“
How’d you know?” Alex
asked.

“
It’s something he said
when you were in SF training,” Colin said. “He probably said that
about me, too.”

“
He did,” Alex
smiled.

“
Maybe we have to trust
that he’s given us what he can,” Colin said.

“
I’d rather he do it for
me,” Alex said.

Colin chuckled. The song
ended, and Colin turned on the Internet radio station to popular
music. They shifted to a modified Foxtrot, sometimes called “Foxy.”
The dance is often used as a wedding dance and is easy to dance on
even the most crowded floor. They moved in a tight
circle.

“
I have kind of a serious
question,” Colin said.

“
Okay,” Alex
asked.

“
I’m not really sure how
to phrase it,” Colin said.

“
Okay,” Alex
said.

“
You know how we’re here,
in New York?” Colin asked.

“
Uh-huh,” Alex
said.

“
We’re here because of
something Raz, your partner, friend, and
family . . .” Colin swallowed hard. “How did you
meet him?”

“
Ben,” Alex
said.

“
I mean, we have this
assignment, right?” Colin asked. “Most people don’t know a thing
about Linear A or people who want to burn down the world or any of
it. And some of it goes back to who killed the Fey Special Forces
Team, right?”

“
Sure,” Alex
said.

“
But today, we find
ourselves, in New York, because Raz’s former NYPD partner is
connected, in some way, to Linear A and the group we think might be
behind all of this, including the murder of the Fey Special Forces
Team — your team.”

Alex thought through his
logic before nodding.

“
Don’t you think that’s
kind of a big coincidence?” Colin asked.

“
What is?”

“
That your partner’s
ex-partner is involved in this,” Colin said.

“
I guess,” Alex
said.

“
It’s too big of a
coincidence,” Colin said.

Alex stopped dancing and
pulled back from him.

“
What are you saying?”
Alex asked.

Colin pulled her back into
their dancing form. They danced for a while.

“
Are you saying Raz did
all of this?” Alex whispered.

“
No,” Colin said. “I don’t
believe that. Do you?”

“
No,” Alex said. “But it’s
something Max and I have talked about.”

“
Why?”

“
Because he’s such a part
of our lives,” Alex said. “More than you or . . .
really, anyone. If we’re looking for the big betrayal, that would
be one.”

“
Do you think
that?”

“
No,” Alex said. “What are
you saying?”

“
I’m saying it’s too much
of a coincidence that he’s connected, even tangentially, to all of
this,” Colin said.

“
Someone set him in our
path,” Alex said. “Why?”

“
To give us a step up,”
Colin said. “Connect us, or, more specifically, you, to an
answer.”

“
An
answer . . .” Alex shrugged. “The right answer? Or a
diversion to cover over something else?”

“
Who knows?”

“
An
answer . . .” Alex repeated. “You mean, the team’s
murder was planned by someone before Raz came to work with
me?”

“
No,” Colin said. “That
seems more reactionary, less planned. Don’t you think?”

“
I do,” Alex
nodded.

They danced to a song
by
The Fray
while
Alex thought through what Colin was saying.

“
Raz came to work with me
three or four years before everyone was killed,” Alex
said.

“
How did Charlie get your
name?” Colin asked.

“
I don’t know,” Alex said.
“Joseph said that Charlie heard about me.”

The song changed to
something fast, and they danced a Lindy Hop. They were too busy
dancing to talk, which gave Alex time to think. The next song was a
slow love song, and they danced the Foxy again.

“
I’ve wracked my brain to
try to figure out who set me up,” Alex said.

“
Who ‘tragically betrayed’
you?” Colin asked.

“
You heard Bestat when we
were stuck in the Mariscal Mine after trying to save Cee Cee
Joiner’s children a few years ago,” Alex said.

“
Not that I’d be willing
to admit,” Colin said.

“
She can be intimidating,”
Alex smiled.

“
Terrifying,” Colin said.
“Did you ever figure out why you felt powerless to confront this
betrayal?”

“
I felt powerless over
everything then,” Alex shrugged. “Still do, sometimes.”

They danced another song
before Alex said anything else.

“
You’re asking if someone
set me up,” Alex said. “Not in a betrayal sense — but maybe they
gave me some kind of edge.”

“
By introducing you to
Raz,” Colin said.

“
And getting me on the Fey
Special Forces Team,” Alex said.

“
Right,” Colin
said.

“
That implies that this
mystery revolves around me, personally,” Alex said. “Not because I
know something or stumbled onto something or the guys hid a package
or anything. It’s about
me
.”

“
Isn’t that what finding
the article clipping means to you?” Colin asked.

“
Maybe,” Alex said.
“But . . .”

“
But?” Colin
asked.

“
What if it’s about me and
Max?” Alex asked. “We’re not really supposed to exist, you know —
mono-zygotic male-female twins. Rarest of all. Especially since Max
is so healthy.”

“
What are you saying?”
Colin asked.

“
Mom said she went crazy,”
Alex said. “Lost her mind or something like that. Like leaving Dad
and Sami was something that just happened, bam, out of the
blue.”

“
Okay,” Colin
said.

“
It’s bothered me since
she told me,” Alex said. “She said she went out for groceries and
‘woke up’ on the way to Chicago. I’ve never known her to do
anything impulsive. She said she’d never done anything like that
before or after. Plus, the whole time she was there, she wanted to
be with Dad and Sami. ‘Ached for them,’ she said. But she stayed
put.”

“
Holy crap,” Colin said.
“What if she was programmed?”

“
Right,” Alex said. “The
majority of the CIA’s mind-control participants were unsuspecting
adults, often the families of military. She could have been sent to
Chicago to snare Ben or . . .”

“
To have twins,” Colin
said.

“
Right. We are talking
about the Operation Paperclip scientists,” Alex said. “I mean, she
was there two weeks or more before she and Ben . . .
you know. She couldn’t have been implanted with eggs or anything.
And Max and my DNA is definitely her and Ben’s.”

“
She could have had
fertility drugs,” Colin said.

“
When I took fertility
drugs, they found a bunch of those double eggs,” Alex said. “About
half of what they harvested was unusable.”

“
Mom could have been the
same,” Colin said.

“
She had two other kids
after us,” Alex said. “No mutants, no more twins.”

“
No miscarriages,” Colin
said.

“
Exactly,” Alex said.
“It’s very possible she was given something experimental that
caused her to have us.”

“
Fertility drugs would
make her more susceptible to . . .”

They both gave a little
shiver at the thought of this happening to their mother.

“
I’ve focused so much on
‘Who is doing this to me?’” Alex said. “I never thought of the idea
that someone was helping me, setting me up to succeed. But you’re
right. Raz’s ex-partner is connected to this. I have the book. I
have the gold. Everything is set for me to decrypt Linear A and
stop the world from burning.”

“
If that’s the final
riddle,” Colin said.

“
Exactly,” Alex said. “I
wonder who’s been helping us. Helping me?”

“
Find out who, and you
might find out why,” Colin said.

Raz came into the
apartment. Alex stopped dancing with Colin to hug him in greeting.
Colin took him through a series of tests before determining that
Raz hadn’t been injured by the accident.

“
Can you show me the
waltz?” Colin asked.

“
Sure,” Raz
said.

He got up and held out his
arms. Alex went to him. They danced a waltz around the living room,
giving Alex enough time to get him up to speed. He looked
surprised. His hand around her waist held her a little bit closer.
He gave her the update on the suspects who’d fired the grenade at
them.

“
They say they lost
control of their vehicle,” Raz said. “‘No harm, no foul’ — they
keep saying that over and over again. They’re claiming police
brutality over you shooting the driver. They say they were shooting
at the police because
you
started shooting at them. The NYPD is saying they
were shooting because those in the vehicle were
shooting.”

“
So it’s
my
fault?” Alex
asked.

“
You don’t exist,” Raz
said. “The city expects the driver’s family to file suit against
the NYPD in the morning.”

“
And the grenade
launcher?” Alex asked.

“
They deny using a grenade
launcher,” Raz said. “Their lawyer made it seem like we were crazy.
Of course, the vehicle is at the bottom of the Hudson, and there’s
no surveillance imagery.”

“
What about satellite?”
Alex asked. “Colin was watching.”

“
And he saw them launch
the grenade at us?”

“
Sure,” Alex said. “He was
talking to me at the time.”

“
I’ll get it when we’re
done,” Raz said. “Anyway, Dex wants to meet tomorrow morning at his
house. He’s off duty for a few days while they investigate the
crash.”

“
Tomorrow it is,” Alex
said.

They stopped dancing near
where Colin was sitting.

“
Would you mind dancing
with Col?” Alex asked. “He’s still having trouble with foot
placement.”

“
Easy enough,” Raz
said.

“
How did you get this
dancing stuff?” Colin asked.

“
My mother loved to
dance,” Raz said. “We’d dance a lot, almost every day. Free fun and
exercise for an active little boy. On the weekends in the winter,
when it wasn’t so hot, we’d practice formal dancing. She wanted me
to be a gentleman, and gentlemen know how to dance, Mr.
Hargreaves.”

Colin grumbled.

“
He who sweats more in
training bleeds less in battle,” Alex repeated one of Patrick’s
favorite quotes.

“
Very funny,” Colin
said.

They took a break so that
Colin could forward the satellite video of the grenade launch to
the NYPD. After he’d sent the video, Raz and Colin took turns
dancing with Alex so that Colin could get a sense of what he was
missing. When it was almost time for the wedding, Alex got out the
champagne and Raz set the feed to run through the apartment’s flat
screen television. They took their places on the leather couch and
got ready to watch the wedding.

F

Chapter
Twelve

May 16 — 11:36 p.m.
MDT
(May 17 — 1:36 a.m. EDT)