Finding North (30 page)

“
Joseph’s son?” she
asked.

“
Exactly,” John said. “I
guess he needed cupcakes for class tomorrow, and Cian told him they
would help him make them. I had the door open to our living room,
so he came right in. He stood at the threshold looking at me and
then at the Afghan man. He was able to figure out what was going on
right away. He said ‘Hello’ to the Afghan man and introduced
himself in Arabic. He insisted on being my interpreter. The Afghan
man was so taken back by Alex that he . . . Well,
everything turned around right there.”

They had decided to use
the term “the Afghan man” instead of his name.

“
Wow.” Alex said with a
disbelieving shake of her head.

“
Yes, wow,” John said.
“Turns out the Afghan man had fought in Lebanon with Alex’s
biological father. He knew Alex’s mother as well. He was taken
aback by Alex’s fluent Arabic and understanding of the culture.
Just that went a long way toward settling the Afghan man’s concerns
for Joey and Máire.”

“
That’s very good,” Alex
said. “Alex’s grandparents are ready for him to be known to the
world.”

“
Exactly what Alex said,”
John smiled. “When the Afghan man realized who Alex was, he welled
up. We were so surprised by his honest display of joy for meeting
his dead friend’s son that . . . It was such a human
moment that we were all moved.”

“
He’s not going to
interfere with Joey and Máire living with us?” Alex
asked.

“
He’s not,” John
said.

“
Yea!” Alex
cheered.

“
I know!” John said.
“Again, it was Alex. He promised to help teach Joey and Máire about
Afghanistan and Islam. He told the Afghan man about his weekly
conversations with his Arabic family. He said you set that
up.”

“
I did,” Alex said. “They
were some of the first people to use this Internet
technology.”

“
That’s what he said,”
John said. “And get this!”

“
What?” Alex
asked.

“
The Afghan man is willing
to accept Felicia as the head of the family in Afghanistan,” John
said.

“
That’s fabulous!” Alex
said.

John smiled and nodded.
Felicia was the wife of Joey and Máire’s mother Nazo’s brother,
Emal. Felicia and the twins’ father, Farooq, were friends in the US
Army. Farooq and Felicia had met Nazo and Emal at a traffic
checkpoint. They were married in a joint wedding in one of the most
beautiful ceremonies Alex had ever attended. Last year, when the
Taliban came through their valley, Emal and Farooq hid Nazo and
Felicia. The men defended their hiding place with their lives.
Pregnant, Nazo and Felicia made their way to a refugee camp outside
of Kabul to give Joey and Máire to Alex.

“
How did you pull that
off?” Alex asked.

“
As you know, when Felicia
went to Emal’s grave to say goodbye, she discovered a few children
— girls,” John said. “They were hidden by their parents when the
Taliban came through.”

“
She is caring for the
children,” Alex said. “Replanting and rebuilding for
Emal.”

“
Now on our Afghan man’s
authority,” John said. “I’d guess he’d planned on using Felicia and
the children as a bargaining tool.”

“
He didn’t?” Alex
asked.

“
No,” John said. “He said
Felicia was welcome to stay if it was all right with
me.”

“
And?” Alex
smiled.

“
I’m excited,” John
said.

“
Felicia will be
thrilled,” Alex said. “Did he say anything about
protection?”

“
Yes,” John said. “They
will offer to protect her and the children. They cannot afford to
help her rebuild.”

“
That’s all right,” Alex
said.

“
That’s what I told him,”
John said. “We will support the rebuilding of the valley. That
seemed to ease his mind. He was as worried as we are that the opium
trade would take over the valley.”

“
Probably more worried,”
Alex said. “Once that happens, it’s very hard to do anything else
with the land. The entire valley would be lost.”

“
Exactly,” John said.
“When the twins are older, he wants to be involved in their
lives.”

Alex nodded.

“
I told him that was all
right,” John said.

“
It’s a good idea,” Alex
said.

Alex smiled.

“
What?” John
asked.

“
You did it,” Alex said.
“All on your own, you created a safe future for your children.
That’s not bad for a day’s work.”

John beamed at her
praise.

“
My Arabic sucks,” John
said.

“
It does,” Alex said. “But
we’ll get better as we teach Joey and Máire.”

“
Alex was really great,”
John said.

Alex smiled.

“
Do you think Joey
will . . .?” John’s brow furrowed with
worry.

“
I knew that’s what you
were leading up to,” Alex said. “I think your son will be his own
kind of man, like his father John . . .”

“
And his father Farooq,”
John said.

“
Yes,” Alex
said.

“
And his kick-ass mother,
Alex,” John said.

“
I was thinking Máire
would take after Nazo,” Alex said. “And me, of course.”

John laughed.

“
I’m sorry they’re
sleeping,” John said. “It seems like they get a little more alert
and active every day.”

“
How is Quince?” Alex
asked.

“
She’s lovely,” John said.
“No engagement yet.”

“
What is wrong with that
boy?” Alex asked.

John laughed.

“
It’s probably better that
they’re asleep,” Alex said. “I think hearing my voice and seeing me
is harder. I’ll be home soon.”

“
You’re going to the
bookstore today?” John asked.

Alex nodded.

“
You’ll
be . . .” His brow furrowed with worry.

“
I will,” Alex said and
smiled.

“
This is the first time
you’ve come in direct contact with the very same people who tried
to murder you a block away in that wretched vault, Alex, and God
only knows how many other times,” John said. “Even if they didn’t
pull the trigger, they made it happen. Don’t take it lightly. They
killed Yvonne just last year, and . . .”

Alex smiled, and he
stopped talking.

“
I don’t remember being
such a worrier,” John said.

“
I remember one of the
first trips I went on,” Alex said. “You didn’t sleep for a
week.”

“
That was due to my work
load at school,” John said a little too fast. Alex laughed. He
grinned.

“
I love that you love me,”
Alex said.

“
I do,” John
said.

“
Time to go,” Matthew’s
voice came from the hallway.

“
Thank you for taking care
of the Afghan man,” Alex said. “That wasn’t easy, and you did an
amazing job. Thank you.”

John grinned. He held his
left hand up to the screen and put his right over her dog tag that
he wore around his neck. She put her hand over the image of his
hand.

“
I love you, John Kelly
Drayson, today and every other day for the rest of this life and
any other I’m blessed with,” she said.

“
I love you, Alexandra
Hargreaves Drayson, today and every other day for the rest of this
life and every other I’m blessed with,” he said.

She waved, and the screen
went dark. For a moment, she sat looking at the dark screen. Her
life was happening without her. These important conversations and
moments were going on while she was attending to this mystery. Her
heart longed for home.

“
All set?” Raz asked in
the doorway to their room.

Alex turned to look at
him.

“
Nervous?” he
asked.

“
More than I’d like to
admit,” Alex said.

“
Let’s go kick some ass,”
Raz said in an imitation of Matthew’s voice.

“
I heard that,” Matthew
yelled from the living room.

Grinning, Alex followed
Raz out of the room.

FFF
Thursday morning

May 19 — 7:30 a.m.
CEST

Paris, France

They took taxis to the US
Embassy, where they picked up two Jeeps and a transport vehicle.
Trece drove Alex and Raz, while White Boy drove Matthew and Joseph.
The rest of the team came in the transport truck, which Sergeant
Dusty drove. By Dom’s request, they left their Fey fatigues in the
apartment and dressed in standard US military-issue fatigues,
boots, and berets. They each carried a medium-sized combat weapon
or, in Dom’s words, “something big, black, and
American.”

About an hour after they’d
left the apartment, they pulled up to the bookstore a block away
from
Le Fée Verte
. Parents walking their children to school scurried by to
avoid their presence. At their kitchen sinks, grandmothers dropped
the shades to avoid looking at them. Only young boys peeked out of
their homes to see what was going on.

Alex thought the entire
escapade was ridiculous.

Of course, the French came
in dark, inconspicuous vehicles. They were not wearing fatigues or
carrying five-and-a-half pounds of submachine plus ammunition. If
they were armed, which was a big
if
, their weapons were as hidden as
their affiliation with French Intelligence. They looked like
business people attending to a matter at a local business before
heading downtown to work.

“
Lieutenant Colonel?”
asked a man Alex recognized as one of Dom’s assistants.

“
Oui
,” Alex said.

“
We are ready to open the
bookstore,” Dom’s assistant said in French.

“
Where is the assistant?”
Alex asked. “Uh, Eloise Le Grande?”

He motioned to something
behind her. Alex and Raz turned to see an elderly woman shuffle
toward them. Her shoulders were slightly slumped and her head
bowed. Her hair was up in a perfect bun, and her makeup was
understated. Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that the slumped
shoulders and shuffle were for their benefit. As she approached,
the woman gave Alex a sly smile.

“
Ma’am,” Alex
said.

Alex did not remember this
assistant. Then the woman did an odd thing.

The bookstore assistant
stepped around Jesse.

“
Can she see me?” Jesse
asked.

Alex shook her head. When
the assistant passed, Alex could have sworn she heard a kind of
rustling of leaves or pages in a notepad. Alex scowled.

“
What?” Raz leaned
sideways to ask in her ear.

Alex shook her head.
Matthew and Troy came over to them.

“
Did she step around
Jesse?” Matthew asked in a low voice.

Alex nodded.

“
You still don’t remember
her?” Raz asked.

“
I’ve never met her,” Alex
said.

“
Come along, dear,” Eloise
Le Grande said as she waved Alex toward the door.

Alex felt drawn to the
woman. With Jesse at her side, Alex went to the woman. Eloise Le
Grande fumbled with her key for a moment before opening the door.
She went into the bookstore. Alex and Jesse stepped in after
her.

FF

The door slammed closed
behind them.

Alex gasped and spun
around. She heard her team scream in unison, and then everything
became silent.

“
We have only a moment,”
Eloise Le Grande said in a language that Alex understood but
couldn’t place. The elderly woman stood straighter. Before their
eyes, she transformed from a heavy-set, aged pensioner to a lovely
young woman with sparkling blue eyes and light brown hair. “We must
be quick.”

“
I’m not feeling very
well,” Alex said in French. “Did you drug me?”

Eloise Le Grande laughed.
With her laugh, the shop became grey in color. Alex felt like she
was looking at a black-and-white photo of the shop. Multicolored
books were now bound in shades of grey. The oak shelves were a
light grey and coated in white dust. The rich brown parquet floor
had turned the color of ash. For the first time, Alex noticed the
detailing between the pieces of parquet. She knelt down. She was
looking at the compass rose with its eight black points, eight
shaded points, and distinctive eye. She swallowed hard.

“
I’d like to leave now,”
Alex said in French.

Eloise Le Grande ran
through the shop. Drawn by some unseen force, Alex and Jesse were
compelled to follow. In a small alcove near the back door of the
store, Eloise Le Grande knelt in front of a wood panel. She pulled
a small key from a chain around her neck. Leaning forward, she
stuck the key into a lock Alex couldn’t see. The panel popped
open.