Lean on Me (24 page)

“
Alex?” Raz touched her
arm.

Surprised, she jerked to the present. She
looked at Raz and noticed the group standing around her. Unsure of
what she’d missed, she smiled.

“
What did I miss?” Alex
asked.

“
Gordon and the Admiral
took a month’s leave,” Sergeant Dusty said. “Medical.”

“
I sure hope they’re all
right,” Alex smiled.

“
That’s it?” Trece
asked.

“
What’s what?” Alex
asked.

“
Your Captain and his boss
are on leave and…?” Matthew asked.

“
People get sick,” Alex
shrugged. “We have a lot of work to do. Can we go to our
offices?”

“
No,” Sergeant Dusty said.
“We’re to stay on the plane.”

“
Well, that’s odd,” Alex
said. “Do we know where we’re going?”

“
Asia and Africa,” Sergeant
Dusty said. “Mostly.”

“
Why can’t we send people
to get them?” Alex asked.

“
It’s a condition of the
prisoner release,” Sergeant Dusty said. “The captors feel like they
did you a favor by collecting our guys.”

“
They probably did,” Alex
said.

“
They’re waiting for you to
contact,” Sergeant Dusty said. “I have a replacement for your
laptop.”

“
Ok, drama’s over,” Joseph
said. “Get out your computers and wait for assignments. Trece and
White Boy are with me.”

“
Mattie, I need about
fifteen minutes before I know what we have to do,” Alex said. “I
wish we had Troy.”

“
His mother was released,”
Matthew said. “But there’s no way he’s going to risk having her
watch the boys. Dahlia’s due to… come home at the end of this week
or early next week. Leena’s mother is going to be moved early next
week.”

“
That’s our target,” Alex
said. “We pick up these teams and get back to help Troy and
Leena.”

“
Yes sir,” Matthew
said.

“
Ok listen up,” Alex said.
“We are now bonded to this plane. For the next few days, we will
live on this plane. Flight crews will rotate around us. We’ll land
at bases from which Zack and Cliff will fly us to our target
destination.”

“
You heard her,” Matthew
said. “Get ready so you can work the moment you have an
assignment.”

“
Trece and White Boy,”
Joseph said. “You may deplane to get our nutrition. We did this a
couple of times on the Fey Special Forces Team. We’re going to fly
from place to place picking up people. We need food for the next
four days. No MREs. Lots of water. Coffee. Ensure. Oranges. Lots of
oranges. Oh hell, I’ll make a list.”

Joseph dropped to a seat and began rummaging
through his duffle for a pad of paper.

“
Colin, MJ, give Trece and
White Boy your list of supplies,” Matthew said. “Plan for four
days.”

“
Assume the worst,” Joseph
said. “The absolute worst.”

“
We need ammunition and
weapons,” Alex said. “Even though these are friendlies, we must
assume the worst.”

“
When I’m done with this,
I’ll work on that,” Joseph said. “We can pick up what we need at
the bases.”

“
Jesse can help,” Alex
said.

“
He’s waiting for me to
finish my grocery list,” Joseph smiled at Alex.

“
We need someone on
families,” Alex said.

“
We can take that,” Vince
said. “Leena and I. Our work won’t start until you know where and
what. We’ll start the family contacts.”

“
Great,” Alex said. “What
about that kid? The intern?”

“
He’s waiting for us in
Washington DC,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
And the dog?” Trece
asked.

“
He’s coming along,”
Sergeant Dusty said.

Unsure of how to respond, the team looked to
Alex. She shrugged.

“
He seemed pretty handy,”
Alex said.

“
Dog food, dog treats,”
Joseph said looking up from his list. “Got it.”

“
Request permission to
handle the music, sir,” Cliff, the co-pilot, said.

“
Permission granted,” Alex
said.

“
Let’s do this thing,”
Matthew said.

FFF

Wednesday early morning

October 28 – 2:04 a.m. MDT

Between Denver and Washington DC

“
I’m delighted you called,”
John said.

Wearing her wireless headset, Alex’s eyes
reviewed his face on the Skype video. Thanks to satellite Internet,
and a great tech team, the plane had high-speed Internet
access.

Like something out of
Indiana Jones, their trip was created while they were in the middle
of it. Men and women from every branch of the military worked
through the night to ease their journey. They were polite and
efficient. Gratefully, the Pentagon’s commitment to “any resource”
meant
any
resource. After planning their route, she had worked with
Sergeant Dusty to coordinate their transportation. Royce cleared
every financial request with ease.

“
Can’t talk?” he
asked.

“
Everyone’s asleep. I’m
just not sure what to say,” Alex said. The sight of his face made
her smile. “I’m glad to see you. Thanks for waiting up for
me.”

“
Actually…” He moved the
netbook’s webcam to show that he was in their bed with their
English Springer spaniel, Maggie, by his side. “We were
napping.”

She smiled.

“
I had big plans for
tonight,” John said.

“
Plans?” Alex
asked.

“
For our anniversary,” John
said.

“
Last week?” Alex
asked.

“
My plans were for
tonight,” John said. “We’ve now missed our
make-up-for-missing-the-actual-anniversary date.”

Alex pressed her hand to her heart. Tears
appeared in her eyes.

“
It’s not the first one
we’ve missed,” John said.

“
Doesn’t make it any
easier,” Alex said.

“
No, it’s not
easy.”

Alex bit her lip to keep from asking her
automatic question: “Is it too much? Should we split up?” After
last winter’s fiasco, she had promised him she’d stop asking him if
he wanted to divorce her.

“
Biting your lip?” John
smiled.

She nodded.

“
Kind of you.”

She smiled.

“
I want updates on
everything,” he said. “But… mostly I want to see you, hear how you
are and tell you all about me.”

“
My news is pretty boring,”
Alex said. “I’m in a plane on my way back to Washington to pick up
a guy with a dog. Then we’re going to… I think Libya, but I don’t
know if that’s completely determined yet. This plane is going to be
my home for the next few days.”

“
Few?” John
asked.

“
We have five stops to
make,” Alex said.

“
Five? I thought Nancy said
it was four,” John said.

“
Got another call,” Alex
said. “Team from Spain may be in Libya.”

She raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“
The rest are US teams,”
Alex said. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get other calls while we’re out.
Otherwise, it’s boring old spy work. How are you?”

“
I miss you,” John said.
“I’m not sure why it’s so bad this time. I miss looking at you. I
guess that’s weird.”

“
Why don’t you tell me your
news?” Alex asked. “Maybe that will help.”

“
Good thinking,” John said.
“Fionn is indeed here.”

“
Your sister Rita’s second
son?” Alex asked. “Wow.”

“
Student visa,” John said.
“He’s going to take a few review classes, get his residency, and
take the MCATs.”

“
He told me he wanted to be
a doctor like Johnny,” Alex said.

“
That’s what he says,” John
said. “He’s going to follow me on my rounds tomorrow morning. We’ll
see how he does.”

“
How is it for you to have
him around?” Alex asked.

“
Weird,” John said. “I have
a tremendous fondness for him, like he’s my own son. Yet, I don’t
know him at all. He’s easy to be around, funny. He seems happy to
be here.”

“
Sounds nice,” Alex
said.

“
I think you’ll love him,”
John said. “Helene came down from Boulder to ‘show him the ropes’
of living with us. He followed her around like a lost puppy. He
knows she has a boyfriend, but you can’t stop the
heart.”

Alex beamed at him.

“
That’s what he says,” John
said.

“
He
says that?” Alex laughed.

“
I know,” John said. “Let’s
see… Cian thinks something very dangerous might be going on next
door.”

“
How do ‘very dangerous’
and ‘might’ go together?” Alex asked.

“
Oh sorry,” John said. “The
‘might’ is mine.”

“
What’s going on?” Alex
asked.

“
Someone bought the house
next door,” John yawned. “Between us and Mattie and Erin’s house.
Paid cash. The first thing they did was dump some junker car in
their garage.”

“
Junker car?” Alex’s
eyebrows went up.

“
I was going to ask Raz to
take a look at it,” John said. “I think it’s a vehicle, but Eoin
thinks it’s some kind of bomb. Anyway, the new possibly dangerous
neighbors are working on the house, but they’re not doing the usual
stuff.”

“
Usual stuff?” Alex
asked.

“
Kitchens, baths,” John
said. “Painting, stuff like that.”

“
Maybe they’re not
rehabbing the place,” Alex said.

“
No,” John said. “They’ve
had work men there since we got back from Washington. Electricians,
mostly. They’re friendly enough but…”

John shrugged.

“
If the bizarre remodeling
wasn’t enough,” John said. “The guy who moved in is odd. Long white
beard, belly paunch, and weird accent. He looks like something out
of Master and Commander.”

“
Should I check it out?”
Alex asked.

“
I know my brother and his
friend are as paranoid as all hell,” John said.

“
Their spidey sense is a
little on the sensitive side.” Alex furrowed her brow and drifted
off into thought.

John tapped the webcam to interrupt her
thought.

“
Drifted off?” she
asked.

He nodded.

“
Sorry,” she
said.

“
You always pull into
yourself when you’re on a mission,” he said. “Remember, we used to
row about it when we were first married?’

Alex nodded. He smiled.

“
Sorry,” she said. “Was the
car an Oldsmobile?”

“
I believe so,” he nodded.
“Why?”

“
I was going to say that
their spidey sense is sensitive,” Alex said. “But accurate. Looks
like they were spot on.”

“
You’ll check it out?” John
asked.

“
Yep,” Alex said. “I don’t
think it’s anything to worry about, but you’ll be safe?”

“
According to Jimmy, all of
us Kellys are in danger,” John said.

“
You’ll be safe?” Her
eyebrows knitted together with worry.

“
Will you be safe?” he
asked.

“
Of course,” she
smiled.

“
I’ll do the same,” he
said.

“
How are you recovering
from the marathon?” Alex asked.

“
I’m all right,” John said.
“My morning run was short and a little stiff. Is Troy coming
home?”

“
Sunday or Monday,” Alex
said. “We’re going to try to get back in time to help him bring
Dahlia home.”

“
Really?” John’s face lit
up. “That’s excellent news. I thought you’d be gone five weeks or
more.”

“
We have to find all these
people,” Alex said. “We’re better equipped to do that at
home.”

Alex’s head bobbed up and down in a nod.

“
Your plan?” he
smiled.

“
My order,” she
beamed.

“
Good to be the boss,” John
smiled.

Alex nodded.

“
How was last night?” John
asked.

“
Good. Hard,” Alex said.
“I’m not sure why, but it was harder than other years. Seemed like
everyone felt it. The whole night felt more real.”

“
Someone took a few
photos,” John said.

“
Really?” Alex’s hands sped
across the keys. “Where?”

“
Twitter,” John said. “From
a window above. It’s taken with a phone so the quality isn’t great.
But I can see you and Raz. God, that’s a gorgeous dress. You’ll
wear it for me?”

“
I have it in my bag,” Alex
said.

“
And the shoes?”

“
In the bag.”

“
I’m a lucky man,” he
said.

“
You don’t have a Twitter
account,” Alex said. “How did you see the photo?”