Finding North (34 page)

“
Mine haven’t,” Sergeant
Dusty pointed to the helicopters hovering in the parking lot.
Sergeant Dusty said into his cell phone, “Yes, sir, it looks like
it was a miscommunication between intelligence officers. That’s
correct, sir.”

Sergeant Dusty gave Dom a
dirty look.

“
French Intelligence
screwed up,” Sergeant Dusty said into his phone. “Yes, sir, I will,
sir.”

Sergeant Dusty looked at
Alex.

“
They want you to call,”
Sergeant Dusty said.

Alex gave Dom a curt nod
and followed the team out the back door. Vince, Matthew, and Joseph
waited for her at one of the US Air Force Pave Hawk helicopters,
while the rest of the team got into the second.

“
We need to talk,” Matthew
said.

Alex nodded to the
helicopter and got inside. Matthew and Sergeant Dusty followed her
inside. Raz and Joseph got in, and Trece stepped inside last. Trece
was just closing the door when Dom tried to get onto the
helicopter. Trece sneered at him and looked at Alex. She thought
for a moment before giving a slight nod. Trece let Dom onto the
helicopter. Matthew moved over, so Dom could sit next to Alex. He
sat down, Trece closed the door, and the helicopter took
off.

“
What the hell, Dom?” Alex
asked in French.

“‘
What the hell’ is
right,” Dom said. “What are we going to tell the world?”

“
Training exercise,” Alex
said.

“
No one was injured?” Dom
asked.

“
Colin was
wounded.”

“
Oh, Christ,” Dom said in
French. “That’s going to start World War Rebecca.”

“
You know it,” Alex said.
“Any of your men?”

“
No,” Dom said. “Thank you
for that. They noted the special care taken not to wound or injure
them. I should have thought . . . I
didn’t.”

“
I got that,” Alex
said.

She smiled, and he
chuckled.

“
What happened?” Alex
asked.

“
I don’t know what
happened,” Dom said. “We have been looking for you. You can ask
your command because
they
have been looking for you.”

Alex nodded to Raz. He
took out his cell phone and played the message they’d received from
Dom last night. Dom shook his head.

“
It’s not me,” Dom
said.

“
We were instructed to go
down to the US Embassy, pick up vehicles, and meet you at the
bookstore,” Alex said. “We did just that.”

“
We went to the apartment
to pick you up,” Dom said.

“
At the bookstore, we
found your assistant,” Alex said. She looked at Raz and asked, “Do
you remember his name?”

“
Frenchy?” Raz
said.

“
Frenchy?” Dom
asked.

“
Something like that,” Raz
said.

“
Frenchy . . . French . . .” Dom
repeated. “You mean Françoise.”

“
That’s it,” Raz said. “He
told us to call him Françy. I never got the hang of the
pronunciation.”

“
Yes, I see that,” Dom
said. “He doesn’t work for me anymore. He left our
agency . . . three years ago, maybe
more.”

“
He was at the store,”
Alex said. “He was with a woman who said she was the bookstore
owner’s assistant. I’ve never seen her before. Who did you have
with you?”

“
The girl who worked for
the bookstore owner,” Dom said. “She said she talked to Raz this
week.”

Raz nodded.

“
We got a call,” Dom said.
“A neighbor, I think, but I’d have to check. They said they saw an
armed military team breaking into the bookstore. The store is in a
residential neighborhood. The caller said there were terrorists
setting to explode the store. We arrived and saw military
and . . .”

Dom shrugged.

“
You failed the exercise,”
Alex said.

“
Obviously,” Dom said.
“Did you get what you were looking for?”

“
We found some maps,” Alex
shrugged. “We found some books that belonged to me and my Weapons
Sergeant, Jesse Abreu. We purchased them in the store years before
the assault. To my knowledge, they were in the vault.”

“
That’s disturbing,” Dom
said.

“
Yes,” Alex said. “It’s
been a disturbing morning.”

Dom nodded.

“
If you don’t mind,” Alex
said, “I think we’ll have them drop us at the
apartment.”

She nodded to Sergeant
Dusty, and he got up to relay the information to the
pilots.

“
I’ll talk to NATO and US
European Command,” Dom said.

“
Let me know what I need
to do,” Alex said.

“
Is Colin going to be all
right?” Dom asked.

“
Just a scratch,” Alex
said.

Dom nodded.

“
She’s still going to kill
you,” Alex said.

“
I know,” Dom said. “I
might not survive it this time.”

“
Damn straight,” Alex
laughed, and Dom smiled.

“
Listen, we’re looking
into Philippe’s suicide,” Alex said. “We have some questions which
need answering.”

“
For the record, I never
thought he killed himself,” Dom said. “I was still living at home,
going to Notre Dame.”

“
Who found
him?”

“
Our mother,” Dom said. “I
called the police.”

Alex nodded.

“
Why would someone murder
Philippe?” Dom asked.

“
We think it’s possible
they were trying to remove Ben from service,” Alex said. “Stop him
from doing whatever he was doing.”

“
What was he doing?” Dom
asked.

“
He doesn’t remember,”
Alex said. “Philippe’s death blocked out everything
else.”

“
I’ll see what we have,”
Dom said. “Do you need my permission to exhume
Philippe?”

“
Do I?” Alex asked. The
helicopter banked and landed on the helipad of the apartment
building.

“
Yes,” Dom said. “I am the
executor of his estate.”

“
Raz is taking the case,”
Alex said. “You’ll hear from him.”

“
Good,” Dom
nodded.

They got up and walked off
the helicopter. The helicopter with the team landed on the roof
nearby. They weren’t there more than a minute before a small black
helicopter came to pick up Dom. Without saying another word, he
stepped onto the helicopter and was gone.

“
What now?” Matthew
asked.

“
Lunch?” Alex shook her
head to indicate that she had no idea what was next.

Matthew nodded and
dismissed the team. Still carrying their heavy weapons, they
clomped down the stairs to Alex, Max, and Raz’s apartment
below.

F

Chapter
Twenty-four

Thursday
morning

May 19 — 7:23 a.m. MDT
(4:23 p.m. CEST)

Denver,
Colorado

Helen took Stefan’s hand
and got out of his car. She looked at the duplex and then at
Stefan.

“
Are we sure this is the
right place?” Helen asked. “Troy says it’s safe, like guarded,
and . . .”

“
The address is correct,”
Stefan said. “We’ll go together.”

He held out his hand, and
Helen took it. They walked hand and hand to the porch.

“
Which door?” Helen
asked.

“
I’d guess it doesn’t
matter much,” Stefan said.

They stood looking at the
building for a moment when a woman came out of the house next door
carrying a small boy. She came across the front lawn and went to
the left side of the rooming house.

“
Hi,” the woman said. “Are
you here for . . .?”

“
We are meeting Niamh Mac
Kinney here,” Stefan said.

“
Neev?” the woman asked.
“She’s right inside.”

The toddler squirmed in
her arms and got away.

“
Paddie!” the woman
yelled.

He ran off the porch.
Helen stepped in front of the boy, and the child ran right into
her. He looked up at Helen with enormous blue eyes.

“
I’m Paddie,” the child
said.

“
I’m Helen,” she
said.

“
Are you in trouble, too?”
Paddie asked.

“
I don’t think so,” Helen
said. “Are you?”

Paddie nodded.

“
I have to stay
here
rather than go
to
school
,”
Paddie said.

“
Sorry,” the woman said.
“I’m Julie Hargreaves. This is my
son . . .”

“
Paddie, the sick one,”
the little boy hung his head.

“
Hey, that’s pretty good,”
Stefan laughed.

Paddie gave him a grin out
of the corner of his mouth and then hung his head.

“
Paddie can’t go to school
today because he has a little bit of a fever,” Julie said. “Neev’s
husband Jack said he’d keep an eye on him.”

“
I could go to Katy’s
house,” Paddie’s voice brightened at the idea.

“
His best friend,” Julie
said. “Paddie, you know you can’t go to Katy’s house. She’s sick,
too, and . . .”

Julie looked at Stefan and
Helen.

“
It’s always hard when the
team’s gone,” Julie said.

Julie picked up Paddie and
carried him up the stairs. Stefan looked at Helen, and she
shrugged.

“
Come on in.” Julie
unlocked the front deadbolt with a key from her pocket.

“
You didn’t even ask who
we were,” Helen said.

“
You’re Troy’s sister, Dr.
Helen Olivas, and he’s Dr. Ebo Stefan Atta,” Julie smiled. “I got
the email with your photos.”

“
Email?” Stefan
asked.

“
Alex sends them out when
new people are coming around,” Julie said. “We can keep an eye
out.”

“
Who’s at the door?” Jack
said in a loud voice. He stomped to the front door. “And who might
you be?”

“
I’m Paddie,” the boy said
from his mother’s arms. The boy looked at the giant of a man and
turned back to his mother.

“
I’m Jackie,” the man
said. “Come on, lad — let’s see what we can find to do.”

Before Julie could say a
word, Jack plucked Paddie from her arms and went back into the
house. Julie gave Helen and Stefan a little wave and left the
porch. She was across the front yard when she turned
around.

“
Go on in,” Julie said.
“They should be expecting you.”

Helen shook her
head.

“
Why don’t we sit down for
a moment?” Stefan asked. “Catch our breath.”

Helen bit her lip but
stayed rooted in one place. Stefan helped her to a porch chair and
sat down next to her.

“
This is very nice,”
Stefan said.

“
Aunt Helen!” Hermes came
out from the other door. “What are you doing?”

Helen and Stefan turned
around to look at them. The boys were standing on the small porch
on the other side of the building. An English Springer Spaniel came
out of the house to dance around them.

“
We’re over here!” Hector
James said.

“
We have everything
ready!” Hermes said.

“
We made breakfast
and . . .” Hector James said.

A dark-haired man came
onto the porch and shooed the children inside. The dog zipped
inside before he closed the door. When they turned back, there was
a grey-haired, blue-eyed, middle-aged woman standing in front of
them.

“
Was that a trick?” Helen
asked.

“
No,” the woman said. “I’m
Niamh Kelly Mac Kinney. You can call me Neev.”

“
Helen,” she said. She
stood from her chair and shook Neev’s extended hand.

“
Stefan,” he
said.

Neev gave him a big smile
and shook his hand. She threaded her hand through Helen’s elbow and
led her into the house.

“
He’s very handsome,” Neev
said in a low voice to Helen. They went through Max and Wyatt’s
private living room.

“
I know,” Helen said. “He
wants to marry me.”

“
Aren’t you the lucky
one?” Neev patted Helen’s hand.

Neev put her hand on the
door to the shared living space.

“
There you are!” Hermes
threw himself at Helen to hug her. She held him against her legs.
“Who’s that guy?”

Helen smiled at Hermes and
looked at Stefan.

“
I’m Stefan,” he said.
“Who are you?”

“
I’m Hermes,” he said.
“That’s my brother, Hector James. You don’t look Irish. I don’t
think Uncle Cian’s going to . . .?”

“
Who said my name?” Cian
came into the shared living space. He glared at Helen and at
Stefan.