In the Grey (23 page)

“
Joseph’s on the laptop,”
Raz gave Alex his laptop.

“
Can you keep working to
figure out where exactly the priest is being held?” Alex held out
her laptop. “The Admiral arranged satellite priority.”

Raz gave her a nod and a
smile. He walked to a place where he had good reception.

“
Troy, why don’t you help
him?” Matthew asked.

Troy jogged over to where
Raz was working.

“
Hey, Joey,” Alex
said.

Joseph appeared to be
riding in the back of a helicopter. He laughed at her use of his
wife’s nickname.

“
Go,” Alex
said.

“
We’re in the air,” Joseph
said. “We should get to the college with about a half hour to
spare.”

The secretary of state was
receiving an award at the Jinnah College for Women at the
University of Peshawar in the northwest frontier province of
Pakistan.

“
Did you confirm with our
people that the phoenix is there?” Alex asked.

They had agreed to use the
term “phoenix” to indicate the secretary of state.

“
A team of female Marines
has joined the wait staff,” Joseph said. “They have confirmed that
the phoenix is in attendance. That’s all we know.”

“
Where’s the Jakker?” Alex
asked.

“
Controlling the music
feed,” Joseph grinned.

“
Sounds awful,” Alex
smiled.

Joseph nodded.

“
Did you pick up a team?”
Alex asked.

“
No, sir,” Joseph said.
“We’re doing this old school. I did, however, speak with our old
friend. Jax’s baby and his
wife
are living in Peshawar.”

“
They marry young.” Alex
grinned at the mention of Mohammed Ali Sher. A breech birth, he
would have died without her Fey Special Forces Team member
Jackson’s intervention.

“
He’s my Alex’s
age!”

“
A little older,” Alex
said.

“
Not by much,” Joseph
said.

“
It’s a different world,
my friend,” Alex said. “I need to go pick up the
priest.”

“
Good luck,” Joseph
said.

“
You as well,” Alex said.
“We should be done with this before you start, but the timing is
pushed by others. I’ll be available on wire if you need me. We
don’t know how well that will work.”

“
Affirmative,” Joseph
said. “And the pestilence?”

“
Done,” Alex
said.

“
Did you discover a
cure?”

Alex shook her head.
Joseph’s nod expressed their mutual regret that another door had
closed and that there was no answer in sight.

“
Raz has located the
priest,” Matthew said to her.

“
Alive?” Alex turned away
from the laptop to look at Matthew.

“
Seems like it,” Matthew
said.

“
Anything else?” Alex
asked Joseph over the laptop.

“
Not until we arrive,”
Joseph said.

“
Out,” Alex said and
clicked off the video transmission.

She looked up to see a
Russian helicopter landing nearby with the Russian special
operations team, Vympel. She returned Yury’s wave. Another
helicopter landed with the Furious Tigers, Shenyang’s special
operations team.

Matthew called the team to
him, and Raz began a briefing about the area they were going into.
His briefing was broadcast via shortwave radio to the Russian and
Chinese teams. Ji passed along the plans he’d received from the
Korean People’s Army. The plans were coordinated with the Russian
and the Chinese teams. When they’d finished, the Russian and
Chinese teams went to prepare for battle.

Alex swallowed hard. She’d
never been to war. She’d been around large military actions, but
always as an outsider passing through. This was the first time
she’d been involved in the planning or execution of a large
military campaign. She’d had to rely on her father’s childhood
warfare instruction. Her father reveled in the dust, noise, and
coordinated chaos of this type of large military action. She only
hoped she hadn’t forgotten anything.

She felt Raz’s warm hand
on her lower back, and she looked at him. As if he could hear her
anxiety, he nodded. She smiled.

“
Who’s leading this
action?” Matthew asked.

“
Each team leader has
their team. The team leaders are coordinating their action,” Alex
said.

“
Sounds like a mess,” Troy
said.

“
Maybe,” Alex smiled.
“Look at them.”

They turned to look at the
Russian and Chinese teams.

“
They are the best at what
they do,” Alex said.

“
And young,” Raz
said.

“
We’re lucky to have
them,” Alex said.

“
And us?” Colin
asked.

“
Max, Ji, and I start out
ahead of the Fey Team and the Sh
ā
sh
ǒ
uji
à
n,” Alex said. “You will be dropped
in, and should be in place by the time we get there. You’ll assist
us directly, and then collect intel. I’m asking each of you to find
a counterpart on Ji’s team. We’ll work better that way.”

“
Make it so,” Matthew
said. “Col, you see their medic?”

“
On it,” Colin jogged over
to the Sh
ā
sh
ǒ
uji
à
n
medics.

“
Troy?” Matthew pointed to
the Sh
ā
sh
ǒ
uji
à
n team
member, who was peering into a computer looking at scans. “Start
there.”

“
Done,” Troy grabbed his
backpack and went over to the men working on laptops.

“
Royce?” Matthew
asked.

Alex nudged Matthew and
pointed to a smiling young woman walking in their
direction.

“
Excuse me,” the young
woman said in nearly perfect English. “My commander has asked me to
extend our greatest courtesy.”

“
Intelligence officer?”
Alex asked in Mandarin.

“
Yes, ma’am,” the woman
gave a slight nod.

“
Rasmussen?” Matthew
pointed him to the woman.

“
Ma’am?” Raz asked. He
smiled at the woman. She looked up at him and flushed bright red.
“Shall we?”

He nodded to a quiet area
where they could talk.

“
Royce?” Matthew
asked.

“
Sir?”

“
What are you still doing
here?” Matthew asked.

Royce gave Matthew a
toothy grin and went to meet Ji’s Sh
ā
sh
ǒ
uji
à
n team.

“
I’d like to register my
concern about you heading out into the dark, cold, snow with this
Ji,” Matthew said.

“
So noted,” Alex put her
hand on his arm. “I’m glad you’re here. I know how seriously you
take your role as team leader. This is a chance for you to get into
the field.”

“
Yes,
but . . . ,” he started.

Hearing Colin laugh, they
looked up to see him entertaining a couple of the
Sh
ā
sh
ǒ
uji
à
n team
with a wild story. Alex’s eyes sought out each of her team, only to
find them enjoying an easy conversation with Ji’s elite Chinese
team. Matthew pointed to Royce. He was helping a soldier get the
gear out of the truck.

“
I know how much you love
to shoot your weapon, kill bad guys, and kick ass,” Alex repeated
what Matthew had said when she’d asked him why he was in Special
Forces training.

“
Lose the shackles of an
oppressive command?” Grinning, Matthew added the final thing on his
list of why he was in SF training.

“
That too,” Alex said.
“Oh, and . . .”

“
Yes?”

“
Can you remind everyone
not to shoot us in the back?” Alex asked.

Matthew grinned and walked
across the street.

“
Captain?” Alex yelled. He
turned to look at her. “Were you dismissed?”

He laughed and saluted
her. She returned his salute. Standing alone, Alex watched her team
mingle with Ji’s team. She’d trained her team to be overly polite
and generous. She knew they’d reviewed their Mandarin on the way to
China. The Chinese responded to her team with the same generosity
and good nature.

“
Want to get ready?” Max
asked.

“
I’m dressed,” Alex turned
to face him. “You?”

He nodded.

“
Do you know where our
weapons are?” Alex asked. “Our backpacks?”

Max gave her a backpack.
They went through the process of strapping the weapons Max was able
to harvest from the armory in Chongqing. They wouldn’t have
throwing knives, but they had compound bows and razor-tipped
arrows. She strapped hers tight to her back and tied the quiver to
her right calf. She hadn’t brought her Glock 9 mm to China.
Max had obtained two Type-77B, 9 mm handguns. She checked to
make sure the fifteen-round magazine was full. He gave her another
clip, which she stuck in her pocket. He had also obtained a
familiar MP5 submachine gun, a Calico M960, and a Benelli M4
Italian-made shotgun.

“
For Colin?” Alex asked
Max about the shotgun. He nodded. Colin loved shotguns, especially
shiny Italian ones.

“
You want this common MP5
used by every lowly Spec Ops or this gorgeous, fully automatic
carbine Calico?” Max asked.

“
The Calico shall be your
prize,” Alex smiled.

She took the MP5 from him,
checked it, and slung it over her shoulder. They strapped Bowie
knives to their left calves before pulling on their black
balaclavas.

“
Warm enough?” Raz asked
Max.

“
Finally,” Max said. “I’ve
been freezing.”

“
Mind if I have a minute?”
Raz asked.

“
Go ahead,” Max said. “I’m
going to check in with Ji. We leave in five.”

Alex nodded. A Pave Hawk
helicopter, with an American flag and a large Vivaldi “F” on the
back, landed near the other helicopters. Cliff was here. Raz pulled
her to the side.

“
Are you sure you’re up
for this?” Raz asked.

“
I feel fit,” Alex said.
“MJ and Colin both gave me the okay.”

“
Here,” Raz put his hand
over her heart.

She smiled at him. He
grinned back.

“
I will always come for
you,” Raz said. “I will always find you.”

She nodded. She would have
hugged him, just to feel the warm, safety of his arms, but there
were too many strangers around. She needed to be manlike, tough,
and direct. He gave her a soft smile as if he
understood.

“
Alex!” Max yelled. He
waved and stepped into the passenger compartment of a Chinese
helicopter.

“
Time to go,” Alex said.
“See you on the other side.”

Alex gave his hand a quick
squeeze and ran to the helicopter. She had just stepped in when the
helicopter took off. They flew an easy four miles to the Yalu River
on the border between China and North Korea.

Their reconnaissance had
confirmed that Steve was being held six miles from the Chinese
border in what intelligence thought was an unused mine near a
Korean People’s Army supply base. Alex thought it was odd that he
was being held so close to the border, but the Chinese intelligence
officer assured her the western slope of Chang Bai Shan was
inhospitable making it a great place to hold someone.

While Alex had nodded and
smiled, she couldn’t shake off Cee Cee Joiner’s last words –
“joke’s on you.” Did he mean they’d lose the secretary of state if
they retrieved Steve? She knew him better than anyone else. She
should know what he meant. But she didn’t have a clue what “joke’s
on you” meant.

If she was talking to Raz,
he would tell her to let things unfold. Ben would move his head up
and down in a socially acceptable nod to acknowledge that he’d
heard her. She would feel better for having told him. But Ben and
Raz weren’t with her.

She bit her lip to keep
from longing for the Fey Special Forces Team. She opened her eyes
and saw Jesse standing in the middle of the landing
zone.

Alex hopped out of the
helicopter and followed Max into the back of an ancient Korean
People’s Army personnel carrier. They were given ill-fitting
uniforms and told through gestures to squeeze onto the bench seat
near the cab of the truck. Ji sat across from them. Max slapped a
North Korean armored hat onto her head and gave one to Ji. She
glanced at Ji. Buttoning his uniform, he looked like he was going
to crawl out of his skin. She smiled to steady him. He nodded at
her effort.