In the Grey (58 page)

“
As soon as I’m fit to
go,” Alex said. “It’s either that or abandon Jack Mac Kinney
to the refugee camps. At some point, whoever set this up is going
to realize that this plan didn’t work out and Jack becomes a
liability. He’s expendable now. I only
hope . . .”

“
What?” John
asked.

“
There’s
a . . . story, I guess, about an Irishman; tall,
thinning hair, and working as a volunteer in the camps,” Alex said.
“Everyone likes him. He’s moving from camp to camp with a charity
group. If it’s him, his movements either put him in more danger or
are keeping him alive. I’m not sure which.”

“
But you have to go,” John
said.

“
I think so,” Alex said.
“Joseph’s been to the camps with me, but he doesn’t really
know
people there. This
is what I mean; I have to go, but I
really . . .”

“
You’ve never wanted to
go,” John said.

“
I know,” Alex said. “It
just seems stronger now.”

“
In some ways, all these
years later, it’s kind of nice,” he smiled.

“
It feels so unfair that
what I’m good at takes me far, far away from you,” Alex said. “And
what you’re good at takes you far, far away from me.”

“
Maybe that’s why we’re so
good when we’re together,” John said.

“
Because we’re good
apart?” Alex asked.

“
Something like that,”
John said. “Are you comfortable with Dawn?”

“
As our surrogate?” Alex
smiled at the thought of the young, vibrant Air Force wife who’d
already surrogated three healthy children. “I like her. She’s done
it before, and likes us. What’s not to like?”

“
I like her, too,” John
said. “Should we start now? Or when you get back?”

“
Mmm, when I get back, I
think,” Alex said. “I’d rather create new life when my plate is a
clear and I’m healthy. Knowing our luck, we’d get pregnant right
away and have babies while I’m still wearing this sling.
You?”

“
Makes sense,” John said.
“What would you like tonight?”

“
Good food; good sex?”
Alex kissed him. “You?”

“
How about great food;
great sex?” he smiled.

“
What did you have in
mind?” Alex asked.

“
Bath; make love; dinner
in bed,” he smiled. “Champagne to celebrate; cheese and crackers;
or maybe Chinese like we did when we were in college.”

“
What about the rest of
the family?” Alex asked.

“
What about them?” John
shrugged.

“
I like the way you
think,” Alex got out of bed.

She pulled off her
long-sleeved shirt with her left hand and slipped it over her right
shoulder. Walking toward the bathroom, she dropped it on the floor.
She was slipping off her pajama bottoms when he zipped around her
to the tub. He was naked and the tub filling when she got there.
She stepped into the luxury of his naked arms. With her healing
chest wound pressed against his heart, she felt overwhelming
gratitude for one more moment of this life. He tipped her chin up
to kiss her and helped take off her bandages.

Together, they stepped
into the warm bath.

FFFFF

A week and a half
later

Wednesday,
midday

December 15 – 11:32 a.m.
PKT

(December 14 – 11:32 p.m.
MST)

Near Peshawar,
Pakistan

They had started in
northern Pakistan three days ago. Slowly, the Fey Team worked its
way south through refugee camp after refugee camp. Even with
Pakistan’s recent initiatives to return refugees to Afghanistan,
the settlements were a vast overwhelming press of people and
problems. Many of the camps dated back to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. Entire generations had been born and died in what was
supposed to be temporary housing.

Dusty and Royce had stayed
in Denver to provide administrative support to the team. Raz’s head
injury hadn’t healed enough for him to travel. He stayed behind to
provide intelligence back up. Their official mission was to
familiarize themselves with the workings of refugee settlement
camps. Their unofficial mission was to find Jack Mac Kinney.
With Raz’s help, they had managed to touch base with intelligence
operatives along the route. The message was the same: there was a
white man, probably Irish, working as a volunteer; and her old
friend, Dr. Sumit Roy, wanted to see her.

So far, they had brought
supplies to doctors and assisted camp leaders with work they needed
done. The team was in good spirits. MJ and Vince played soccer with
kids along the way, while Margaret and Leena connected with Pashtun
women. After all the training, language skills, and work to get the
team ready, here they were – laughing, talking, listening, and
connecting.

They were every bit, every
inch, the Fey Team. She couldn’t have been more proud of them. They
were pretty proud of themselves.

Alex spent most of her
time practicing what her father called “armchair leader” skills.
She met with tribal leaders, talked to camp leaders, and connected
with Medecins des Frontières doctors and administrators. She also
spent a lot of time sleeping on the helicopter.

Trece never left her side.
Joseph had arranged for her to partner with her friends along the
way. The first day, she spent with Matthew. The next day, Troy was
her partner. Today, she was spending the day with Joseph. Overall,
the last few days had given her a wonderful chance to connect and
catch up with her friends. While MJ worried that there was
something more seriously wrong with her than a healing knife wound,
mostly she worried about what would happen next, and missed
Raz.

“
You miss being in the
middle of everything,” Jesse said. “Rank has its
privileges.”

She raised her eyebrows at
him. He was standing in the middle of the passenger section of the
Pave Helicopter. He laughed. She put her hand on her right arm
where her new Fey Team tattoo lay.

“
I wondered when you’d
notice that,” Jesse said. “Yes, I got one too.”

She smiled.

“
I am, after all, the very
center of the Fey Team now,” Jesse said.

Alex tried not to snicker.
The music was blaring a mix of “Tik Tok,” “Break Your Heart,” and
“Imma Be,” and the other top one hundred songs of the year. After
spending a night with Captain Jan and his team in Peshawar, they
were chasing down their best lead – the white man was in a refugee
camp outside of Kabul.

“
How did he pull that
off?” Matthew asked.

“
No idea,” Alex
smiled.

She heard a laugh and
looked across the helicopter. They had picked up sixteen-year-old
Mohamed Ali Sher and his wife, Khudija. Alex could barely believe
that it had been sixteen years since Jax had forced his way into a
birthing chamber to save Sher and his twelve-year-old mother’s
life. Sher laughed at something Joseph said, and Alex smiled. Sher
was handsome, smart, and funny. Jax would be really proud of
him.

They were taking the
couple to work with Dr. Sumit Roy in the Charahi Qambar and Nasaji
Bagrami refugee settlements near Kabul. Sumit and his wife had
agreed to mentor Sher for two years, an experience that almost
guaranteed him a position at any medical school in the world. Sher
demanded Khudija come with him. She wore a blue Hijab and
light-green dress that matched her green and umber eyes. Alex saw
Margaret was talking to the girl, so Alex clicked her headset to
their channel to eavesdrop.

“
We moved to Peshawar so
that I could improve my knowledge,” Khudija said in Pashto. “The
Taliban has banned learning for girls in our region again. But my
husband says that we are the hope of our people. We must take
advantage of our opportunities to learn and assist our tribe in the
twenty-first century.”

“
I know that,” Margaret
said in Pashto.

“
You do?” Khudija
asked.

“
It’s not very different
for me and my people,” Margaret said. “I feel caught between what
feels natural to me – stay at home, have children, make a garden,
take care of my grandparents – and what only I can do – help my
clan and tribe transition to the first world.”

“
My mother cried when I
left. She wanted me to fall pregnant and stay with her while Sher
went to learn, but . . . ,” Khudija gave a soft
shrug. “I must do what my husband and his father request of me. I
must not let them down.”

“
That’s tough,” Margaret
nodded.

“
You are an American,”
Khudija said. “How can you feel the same pressures?”

Noticing Alex’s gaze,
Margaret glanced at her and then back at Khudija.

“
I’m Diné,” Margaret said.
“Like you’re Pashtun.”

“
That’s your tribe? The
Diné?” Khudija asked.

“
Yes,” Margaret said. “My
uncle says that only a few of us have the chance help our tribe,
our world, because only a few of us can bear the enormous
cost.”

Khudija looked around the
helicopter compartment until she saw that Alex was watching
her.

“
Sher is fairy born,”
Khudija said. “That’s what my father said. ‘You will follow him to
great places,’ my father said. ‘Make sure you keep up.’ So far,
I’ve been to Peshawar and now to Kabul. Sher says someday we will
go to London or America. He wants me to be a doctor,
too.”

“
Can you do that?”
Margaret asked.

“
We have been engaged
since we were ten years old,” Khudija said. “His father selected me
because I was the smartest girl in my village. I have
studied . . . a lot. I thought we would get married
a year after we were engaged like most of my friends, but Sher’s
father said to wait.”

“
Probably better, don’t
you think?” Margaret said.

“
I wouldn’t mind a baby,”
Khudija said. “But Sher’s mother had trouble, so we shall wait
until we are ‘mature.’”

“
When is that?” Margaret
asked.

“
The studies show that
mothers over the age of nineteen have less infant and mother
mortality,” Khudija said.

Margaret
smiled.

“
See, I am smart,” Khudija
said.

“
Yes, you are,” Margaret
smiled. “Will Sher mind if you’re smarter than he is?”

Khudija blushed and shook
her head.

“
He already knows?”
Margaret asked.

Khudija gave her a sweet
smile, and Margaret laughed. The helicopter tipped to the left and
flew over Nasaji Bagrami. Khudija looked a little green.

“
What’s wrong?” Margaret
asked.

“
I will meet Dr. Roy’s
wife today,” Khudija said. “She will be like a mother-in-law to me.
She can tell me to do anything, even prostitute myself, and I will
have to do whatever she says. My father and mother were very
careful in my marriage, but this . . .”

Margaret
smiled.

“
Why did you smile?”
Khudija asked.

“
The LC said that Dr. Roy
is an obstetrician,” Margaret said.

“
No, Dr. Roy is a general
practitioner with a specialty in emergency medicine,” Khudija said.
“They are different.”

Margaret smiled and
waited. The girl looked at Margaret for a while, before a dawning
realization came over her.

“
Dr. Roy’s wife is a
doctor?” Khudija said.

“
I guess they worked in
refugee camps right after they were married,” Margaret said. “They
went to medical school together. She asked to return to the camps
after living in London for a while. They brought their youngest two
children. The LC said they are blissfully happy. Dr. Dalal Roy
would like you to be her assistant and help with the pregnancies
and births. Didn’t Sher tell you?”

“
Yes, yes he did, I
just . . . ,” Khudija shrugged. “I thought
there was only one Dr. Roy.”

Margaret laughed, and
Khudija smiled. The helicopter began to descend and Joseph put his
hand on her leg to get her attention. She turned to smile at
him.

“
Bad news,” Joseph said.
“I just got word that Emal and Nazo’s village was attacked by
Taliban.”

“
When?”

“
A month ago,” Joseph
said. “Eyes on the ground arrived there yesterday. Before you ask,
Emal and Farooq are confirmed dead and there’s no word on Felicia
or Nazo.”

“
There must be some
mistake,” Alex nodded to reassure herself. “Nazo and Farooq live in
Kabul.”

Felicia Niazi and Farooq
Smith had grown up in the projects of Chicago. They went through
basic training and did two tours in Iraq and a tour in Afghanistan
together. In the last month of their last tour as Army grunts,
their team had wandered through a hilly village and the old friends
ran right into love. Nazo and her older brother, Emal, were
returning to Kabul University when they were stopped by their
unit.

It wasn’t much more
complicated than that. A year later, when Farooq and Felicia were
out of the service, the Fey Special Forces Team had attended their
joint wedding.