In the Grey (5 page)

“
It’s a lot of work,”
Patrick said.

“
You’re exactly right,
Sergeant,” Ben said. “What’s going on while we’re distracted with
this?”

“
I think she’s asking
about what are ‘we’ . . .” Alex gestured to her
team. “Not watching?”

Ben and Patrick turned to
look at Alex. The silence dragged.

“
Don’t make the child say
it, you old fools,” Mammy said. “
They
are the active intelligence
team. No one knows our little group exists, and if they even think
of us, they know we’re retired. Didn’t you tell everyone you were
going to sleep for a year when you retired, Patrick?”

Ben and Patrick gave each
other a sly smile.

“
She’s right,” Ben
said.

“
Of course, I’m right,”
Mammy said.

“
My team will take over
tracking the participants,” Patrick said.

“
Could we do it as a joint
effort?” Matthew asked. “I know Margaret and Leena would like to
continue following up with the girls. Margaret has a number of
connections in the Native American community. Joseph, Colin, and MJ
have special knowledge that can help. The rest of our team can work
through what we’re supposed to miss.”

“
Good thinking,” Patrick
said. “What are we calling this project?”

“
Solarus, sir,” Joseph
said.

“
Shining light on a lot of
dark places,” Patrick said. “Good thinking.”

“
Hey Dad? Alex? You got a
second?” Colin said as he came into the room.

Alex and Patrick stepped
away from everyone. Ben shifted over so he could hear what was
going on. Colin came to the front of the room.

“
I just got the weirdest
call,” Colin said. “It was Mom. I took the call because she’s
watching Paddie today. And . . .”

Colin looked at Alex and
blushed.

“
What?” Alex
asked.

“
Mom said that she just
got an email from Steve. I guess he’s off getting married in Aruba.
He wanted to invite everyone, but ‘Alex never got over him dumping
her.’ That’s a direct quote. Mom says Steve was Alex’s first lover
and . . .”

Alex felt the blood drain
from her face. Patrick and Ben noticeably paled.

“
What’s happened?” Joseph
asked.

“
Steve Pershing’s been
taken,” Ben said.

F

Friday
afternoon

November 5 – 3:47 p.m.
MDT

Buckley Air Force Base,
Aurora, Colorado

“
One more,” Alex said to
Leena.

They were in the
martial-arts gym working out. About a year ago, Steve Pershing had
encouraged Alex to share her knowledge of mixed martial arts and
get her team members to share theirs. Every day at three-thirty,
the team met to work out. Over the course of the year, they had
each had at least a month of training in each other’s
specialty.

Raz was boxing with Royce
on the other side of the gym. In the middle, Colin was teaching
Zack and his co-pilot, Sergeant Clifford Mauer, Krav Maga. Troy and
Trece were locked in a sweaty battle of Vacón, a Peruvian
hybrid-martial art. White Boy was schooling MJ in Eskrima, a
martial art from the Philippines, which White Boy had learned from
his step-father. Near the mirrored wall, Dusty was working through
a complicated stretching program he’d learned from Leena. Matthew
and Margaret were locked in a Brazilian jujitsu hold next to where
Vince and Joseph were working through wushu forms. They were hot,
sweaty, and having a good time.

Alex was helping Leena
with her kickboxing form.

“
Hop, spin, knee up,
that’s right, kick, kick. Harder,” Alex said. “Good. You’ve been
practicing.”

“
But?” Leena’s head was
wet with sweat.

“
I’d like you to practice
your kicks in three separate motions,” Alex said. “Rather than one
fluid motion. They teach one fluid motion in a lot of classes, but
real power comes when you learn to control all three
movements.”

She lifted her right knee
to the side and then straightened her leg.

“
The knee raise gives you
power, and your calf gives you speed. If you can control your foot,
you control your strength,” Alex said.

She spun in place and did
a fast three-movement kick at the person coming up behind her.
Patrick blocked her kick with his forearm. He took a quick side
step which diffused the energy of her kick.

“
Sorry, Dad,” Alex
said.

“
Nice kick,” Patrick
nodded a greeting to Leena. “Try it in pieces.”

Much to Alex’s amusement,
Patrick lifted his knee and threw a perfect kick. Alex
clapped.

“
You have to practice in
three pieces before you learn to do it as a fluid movement,”
Patrick said. “It seems like a pain in the rear, but it’s worth the
trouble when you need it. Alex?”

Alex spun in place, lifted
her leg with it folded at the knee, and then kicked her foot
forward. Her pointed foot stopped less than a half inch in front of
him.

“
You need that kind of
precision,” Patrick said.

“
You never know what
someone’s going to throw at you,” Alex said while she held the
kick. “I’ve thrown a kick and had my opponent pull a knife or a
bayonet. The momentum of my leg would have cut off my foot. I have
to be able to stop mid-motion.”

“
Go ahead,” Patrick
said.

Alex slapped him with her
foot. The force of the shot knocked him to the side.

“
That’s why this kick is
so powerful,” Patrick smiled. “Why don’t you try it while I talk to
your LC?”

“
Yes, sir,” Leena
said.

“
Dusty?” Alex waved for
Dusty to come over and practice with Leena. Dusty jogged
over.

Patrick took her arm and
led her to the side of the room.

“
Any news on Steve?” Alex
asked.

“
Nothing,” Patrick said.
“If we hadn’t set up those automatic emails we’d never have
known.”

“
But you’ve got guys
tracing his last actions?” Alex asked.

“
He’s not stateside,”
Patrick said. “Or wasn’t as of a week or so ago.”

“
Put Tom Drayson on it,”
Alex said. “He’s the British Ben.”

“
Already done,” Patrick
said. “Great minds.”

Patrick’s eyes reviewed
the action in the room. He nodded toward Trece and Troy.

“
Vacón?”

“
Troy took formal training
when he was stationed in Peru,” Alex said. “Trece learned it in
prison as a kid. It’s interesting to see the differences between
what’s taught in a dojo and what happens on the street.”

Patrick nodded. Alex
glanced at him and then into the room.

“
I have a duty to my team
to share my knowledge and skill, sir,” Alex said. “You’re welcome
to stay and watch, assist, or even train, but if you’re to observe,
I should get back.”

“
You were going to come up
with ‘better questions,’” Patrick’s eyes reviewed Alex’s face.
“You’ll remember you didn’t like the questions we were asking. They
were too . . .”

“
Cold War,” Alex said. “I
don’t really give a shit about the
who’s
and
why’s
of some random historic
program. They use what they learned from those programs in S.E.R.E.
now.”

“
And in ‘advanced
interrogation methods’,” Patrick said. “Yes, I’m aware of
that.”

“
I know you are,” Alex
said.

“
Did you come up with
better questions?”

Alex glanced at him to see
if he was angry. He seemed amused. Patrick raised his eyebrows in
challenge.

“
Well?” he
asked.

“
We had ten questions
before we started our workout,” Alex said. “Our protocol is to wait
to see if anything comes up during workout.”

Patrick nodded.

“
The General would like to
know your questions,” Alex said to the team. “Just shout them
out.”

“
Why does this action seem
to happen in the fall?” Raz yelled and punched at Royce. “We’ve
thought it was the Fey’s birthday or intended to trigger her PTSD.
As the years pass, and we continue to have an action in the fall,
we’re wondering if there’s another reason for that.”

“
You’re right,” Patrick
nodded. “That’s a better question.”

“
Why take Steve Pershing?”
Matthew asked. “Sure, he’s the head of a black ops unit, but with
the mind controls activated, it seems more personal.”

“
If it’s personal, why not
take one of us?” Margaret asked. She grunted and flipped Matthew
onto his back. “Or you, sir?”

“
You think Steve was taken
because of something he was working on or involved with,” Patrick
said.

“
We don’t know,” Alex
said. “We’re just asking questions.”

“
Most obvious question:
Does he expect any of the mind control subjects to fulfill their
mission?” Joseph asked.

“
From those we’ve talked
to so far, it seems unlikely,” Patrick said. “As you noted, it’s
been too long since induction.”

“
But what if there’s one
or two?” Joseph asked. Vince pointed, and Joseph stepped into the
next form.

“
In the middle of the
thousands, one or two of these guys fulfill the mission objective?”
Patrick nodded.

“
Look at the damage and
chaos Kaczynski caused. If his brother hadn’t turned him in, he’d
still be out there,” Alex said. “A man with a plan, and the
wherewithal to pull it off, can inflict a lot of pain.”

“
What’s your assessment?”
Patrick asked.

“
Just questions, sir,”
Alex said.

“
Any others?”

“
If the MK-Ultra and
MK-Search documents are phony, who in the agency is involved in the
cover-up?” Leena asked.

“
How so?” Patrick
asked.

“
The documents were
redacted in 2001,” Alex said. “Who released them? Who redacted
them? Who certified them as MK-Ultra files? Who told everyone the
files were stored in the wrong place? A lot of this happened a long
time ago, but some of this puzzle unfolded recently.”

Patrick nodded.

“
Any ideas?” Alex
asked.

“
You?” Patrick
asked.

“
You’re hilarious,” Alex
said. “I wasn’t involved nor was Ben. Carlos was too stupid and Raz
wasn’t in intelligence at that time. But someone was involved.
Who?”

“
I have some ideas,”
Patrick said.

“
Good,” Alex
said.

“
Anything else?” Patrick
asked.

“
We have a few questions
related to Robert Ludlum and his characters,” Alex said. “White
Boy?”

“
Robert Ludlum was burned
alive in his recliner in March, 2001,” White Boy said. “The
MK-Ultra files were declassified in July, 2001. Was he killed
because he’d know the documents were fakes?”

“
Was there ever anything
like Treadstone71?” Trece asked.

“
Yes,” Patrick
said.

“
Those guys would be at
the center of this whole thing,” Trece said. “Where are
they?”

“
Dead,” Patrick gave Trece
a grim look. “And before you ask, they were killed by the
agency.”

Trece stopped moving, and
Troy gave him an open hand to the face. Trece stumbled and fell.
When Troy leaned over to help him up, Trece pulled him down. They
grappled on the floor.

“
What about the movies?”
Vince asked. “There’s such an interest in the Bourne movies. Is it
a coincidence that the men were activated now? Do the movies relate
to the program?”

“
How so?” Patrick
asked.

“
Is there a large action
coming that they want to be able to explain via MK-Ultra or
whatever?” Alex said. “Are they using the movies to get to make
their case before the action starts?”

“
A kind of pre-action jury
tampering?” Patrick asked.

“
Sure,” Alex said. “After
seeing the movies, who would convict Jason Bourne of
anything?”

“
Or are they just movies?”
MJ asked.

“
I don’t like
coincidences,” Patrick said.

“
Right, but maybe the
movies gave him the idea,” Alex said.

“
We don’t know,” Patrick
said.

“
Exactly.”

“
Why use the same kind of
action as last time?” Colin asked.

“
What do you mean, son?”
Patrick asked.

“
Last year, we ran around
the world rescuing hostages while he was planting a virus in the
most secure computers in the nation. This action should keep us
super busy and distracted.”