In the Grey (59 page)

“
I’m sorry,” Joseph said.
“I think we have to assume the worst.”

“
Let’s hope the intel is
wrong,” Alex said.

He gave her a vague smile
and Zack settled the helicopter in the landing zone next to the
camp. Matthew, Joseph, and Alex, with Trece at her side, walked to
where the camp administrators waited for them. A bored group of men
stood nearby to watch them, and a crowd of people gathered to see
what was happening. Children raced in front of them to see if they
had candy. Alex and Matthew gave them hard candy while the team
passed out oranges from the helicopter.

They were halfway across
the sandy space when a man darted toward them. Before they could
react, he slammed into Alex’s right shoulder. Alex gasped and
knocked into Matthew. Joseph caught them before they landed on the
ground.

“
Proper dress,” he said in
Arabic. “Infidel. Slut. Whore.”

He raised his hand to hit
her, but found himself staring down Trece and his machine gun. The
man spat at her instead. The camp security rushed forward to remove
the man, but as fast as he had appeared, he disappeared among the
people, dust, mud huts, and tents of Nasaji Bagrami.

MJ and Colin jumped out of
the helicopter and ran to them.

“
Are you all right?”
Joseph yelled over the helicopter noise.

“
Tore something,” Alex
said. “I need . . .”

Alex pointed toward the
helicopter. MJ and Colin grabbed either side of her and carried her
to the helicopter. Walking backward, Trece followed behind. In the
helicopter, Alex took her seat again.

MJ and Colin set to work.
Colin took off her sling and MJ began cutting through blood soaked
bandages.

“
Your stitches tore,” MJ
said.

“
How many?” Alex
asked.

“
You’re going to need all
new sutures, Alex,” Colin said.

“
Shit,” Alex
said.

“
Drs. Roy aren’t here,”
Joseph said as he stepped into the helicopter.

“
Today’s their day here,”
Matthew said.

“
So where is he?” Alex
asked.

“
Charahi Qambar delivering
babies,” Joseph said. “Emergency.”

“
The white man went with
him,” Matthew said. “The description matches Jack
Mac Kinney.”

“
I can tape the wound,” MJ
said. “That will hold until we get to Bagrum.”

“
Can we help?” Sher asked
Colin.

“
Actually, you can,” Colin
said. “Can you ask your wife to bring the box under her seat? It
has the tape we need.”

“
You may speak to her
directly, sir,” Sher said. “We have agreed to be more Western in
our interactions, as long as what you ask is not against the
prophet.”

Colin gave him a nod of
gratitude. Khudija brought the box from under her seat. Together,
Sher and Khudija assisted Colin and MJ in cleaning up Alex’s wound.
They were almost done when Sher plucked a piece of paper out of the
discarded gauze and tape.

“
What’s this?” Sher held
up the scrap of paper.

“
It looks like a code,”
Khudija said.

“
May I?” Margaret
asked.

“
We should go,” MJ
said.

Margaret led Khudija back
to their seats across the helicopter. Sher scrambled to sit next to
Khudija, and the helicopter began to rise. Alex watched the girl
turn to look into Sher’s face. He gave her a confident smile and
reached out his hand. She took it in both of hers. Alex smiled at
the quiet caring that passed between them.

“
Alex?” Joseph nudged her
arm. “I’ve received the report.”

“
And?”

“
Emal, Farooq, Emal’s
entire family, and most of the village,” Joseph said. “They burned
the sunflower fields.”

Alex gave a sorrowful nod.
He pointed to Margaret. Alex looked across at Margaret. She shook
her head.

“
Can’t get it,” Margaret’s
fingers moved in American Sign Language.

Alex held out her left
hand, and the note started its journey from hand to
hand.

“
I can’t convince you to
be sedated?” MJ asked.

“
As soon as we find Dr.
Roy,” Alex said. “I need to do this introduction and transition.
It’s . . . important.”

MJ gave her a quick
nod.

“
We shot lidocaine into
the wound,” MJ said. “It should wear off in an hour, so let’s keep
this speedy or we’ll have to do it there.”

“
Good to know,” Alex said.
“Is it bad?”

“
Not really,” MJ said.
“Torn stitches, nothing really exciting. The concern, as you know,
is infection.”

Alex nodded.

“
Does it hurt?” MJ
asked.

Alex wagged her head from
side to side.

“
We’ll have to make it
quick,” MJ said.

“
Once I do the hand off,”
Alex said.

“
They seem so young,” MJ
glanced at the teenagers.

“
They are,” Alex said.
“Hence the need for a good hand off. Sher was special to Jax. It’s
important to me and Joseph.”

Colin took a look at the
slip of paper and shook his head. He gave it to MJ, who passed it
to Alex. She opened the slip of paper. She stared at the slip for a
moment before shaking her head.

“
Can I have your
headlamp?” she asked Joseph.

He gave her his headlamp.
She clicked on the light and looked at the code. Written in Arabic
characters, the code was not straightforward. She closed her eyes
and allowed the characters to float in her mind. For the rest of
the trip, the letters stayed in the order they appeared. She was
about to give up when she felt Zack lower the
helicopter.

The letters started to
move. They began to shift into place until they formed a cohesive
thought. It was based on an old cipher she’d learned as a child.
She smiled and then realized what it meant. She tapped her lip with
her finger.

The blades of the
helicopter touched the earth. White Boy threw open the door to
begin their initial security check.

“
Did you get it?” Margaret
appeared in front of her.

“
I did,” Alex
said.

“
What did it say?”
Margaret asked.

“
Later,” Alex said. “We
have this now.”

Margaret
nodded.

“
Hey, are any of you the
new med assistants?” an Irish-accented man’s voice yelled in
English.

“
Yep, we’ve got them,”
Troy said.

“
I was sent to get them
and a medic if you can spare one,” a man said. “We’ve a couple of
lasses in labor – one breech and another with twins. Both
malnourished. Walked here from a village the Taliban took over. We
need some help.”

“
Felicia and Nazo?” Joseph
said in her ear.

Alex smiled but her eyes
betrayed her doubt.

“
We’ll take them, Alex,”
Troy said. “Don’t worry.”

“
Grab your bags,” Colin
said to Sher.

Sher got their bags, and
they followed Troy off the helicopter.

“
Is the Fey in there,
too?” the man asked.

“
Why?” Trece
asked.

“
I’m supposed to bring him
as well,” the man said.

“
She’s not taking this
stop,” MJ said. Trece relayed the message.

“
One lass is asking for
her,” the man said. “They heard the Fey was on their way here and
snuck out of the village.”

“
Nazo?” Alex said under
her breath.

“
Got to be why Sumit was
looking for you,” Joseph said. “Fairy luck.”

Alex got up and went to
the door. The man looked up. His hair was long, unkempt, and grey.
He squinted, causing his blue eyes to retreat into the deep folds
of his skin. His mouth was set in a grim line and his skin was
burned reddish brown. He had the look of someone who had recently
lost quite a bit of weight.

“
Jack Mac Kinney?”
Alex asked.

“
Can’t be.” Trece
said.

“
Who wants to know?” the
man sneered, and Alex smiled.

“
Someone who’s come a long
way to bring you home,” Alex said.

“
Don’ have one of those,”
Jack said.

“
Bring you back to your
wife and children?” White Boy asked.

“
Don’ have those either,”
Jack said.

“
Girlfriend?” Alex
asked.

“
Never been lucky with the
ladies,” Jack said. “No wife, no children, no girlfriend. No family
at all, in fact. I’m just Jack. Travel the world, helping out where
I can. I probably should have been a priest, but I liked fighting
too much when I was young.”

He nodded.

“
Now that you know my
intriguing details, will you come with me?” Jack asked.

His voice was surly, but
not cruel. The team surrounded Alex, and they left the helicopter.
Even with their thick winter Fey wear on, Alex was cold. They
followed Jack across the snow and ice to the medical
tent.

“
In here,” Jack
said.

“
No,” Trece stopped Alex
outside the medical tent. He and Vince entered the tent to check
that it was secure while Alex waited with MJ and
Margaret.

“
You may assist if you’d
like,” Alex said to MJ. “Margaret, he will need you.”

“
Yes, sir,” MJ and
Margaret said.

“
You remember the rules of
Islam?” Alex asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Margaret
said.

“
You will let me know if
you feel weak, or if the pain gets intolerable?” MJ
asked.

“
I will,” Alex said.
“Joseph, can you get someone to keep an eye on Jack? Now that we’ve
found him, I’d hate to lose him.”

“
Yes, sir,” Joseph said.
He turned to speak with Troy.

“
Alex,” Trece appeared at
the entrance to the tent. “It’s Nazo.”

Alex gave him a grim
nod.

“
The Taliban took their
village a month ago,” Trece reported what she already knew. “They
killed Emal and Farooq outright. Her father was able to hide Nazo
and Felicia. They got news that we were moving toward Kabul and
took to the road. Felicia is only six months pregnant; Nazo is
eight. The strain and worry has sent them into labor.”

“
Farooq and Nazo lived in
Kabul,” Alex said.

“
They moved home to be
close to her mother when Nazo got pregnant. Twins,” Trece said.
“Nazo is failing. Heartbroken, that’s what Dr. Dalal said. She is
asking for you.”

“
And Felicia?” Alex
asked.

“
The baby is stillborn,”
Trece said. “And she is stronger. She said to tell you she is
‘ghetto born and bred; Army hardened,’ but
Nazo . . .”

He shook his head and Alex
nodded. She closed her eyes for a moment and said a silent prayer.
In her heart, she knew that Nazo would never survive without
Farooq. When she opened her eyes, she nodded to Trece and stepped
into the medical tent.

From the corners of the
room, kerosene heaters did little to combat the cold. The wind blew
freezing fog into the tent, and Felicia screamed from under cotton
blankets. Sher kneeled down, and she grabbed on to his hand. In an
effort to turn the baby, Colin had a hand on Felicia’s belly. Sumit
worked between her legs. As Felicia squirmed and screamed, Colin
pushed and encouraged. Sumit grunted with the strain of moving
Felicia’s breached stillborn.

For all of Felicia’s
motion and noise, Nazo lay in still silence and blood. Her
bloodstained hands gripped the soaked blankets. Dalal looked up at
Alex and shook her head. Khudija leaned over Nazo to wipe her
forehead with a soft cloth. As if little bits of her soul were
being released with each exhale, Nazo’s breath came out in steamy
puffs. When Alex approached, Khudija looked up with tears in her
eyes.

“
Hang on sister, hang on,”
Khudija said in Pashto.

“
Alex,” Nazo held out her
hand to Alex. Alex dropped to a crouch so that her head was right
next to Nazo’s. “Thank you. Without you, there would have been no
Farooq. Without Farooq, there would have been no life.”

Alex squeezed her
hand.

“
He . . .
They shot him as an infidel, an American,” Nazo said. “They
came . . . they came into town yelling for the
American. But Farooq . . . gave up the mall and
cheeseburgers and . . . knowing the risks, to be
with me, in my country, for a new Afghanistan. How did they know,
Alex, that he was American? He looked like my grandfather, my
father; his parents were Pashtun. Our neighbors thought he was from
Pakistan. But they came . . . they came for him and
Felicia. They killed Emal. They killed my brother because he
refused to give up his beloved. How did they know? She
looks . . . she is an Afghan. Her parents emigrated
when the Russians were here. She lives . . .
Afghan.”