Lean on Me (3 page)

They watched a thin, teenaged Pakistani boy
fire. His belly pressed against the blind, he shot through a small
opening in the rock wall. Alex pointed to Trece and he jumped over
the stone barrier. Trece took one big step and snatched the rifle
from the boy. He lifted the boy off the ground and was about to
punch him out when Alex jumped over the barrier.

“
Mohamed Ali Sher!” Alex
yelled in Arabic. “Does your mother know you’re here?”

Shocked, Trece and his cargo flipped around
to stare at her.

“
What would Jax say?” she
growled at him.

“
Alexandra Jinniyah Khan!”
the boy beamed at her. “What are you doing here?”

“
Jax brought you into this
world and you repay him by being a terrorist!”

Alex’s words came with fury. Having been on
the receiving end of Alex’s fury, Trece set the boy down and patted
his shoulder. Alex raised her pointer finger and slammed it into
the boy’s chest.

“
A terrorist?” the boy
said. “Not a terrorist! I’m assisting in an American training
exercise. My friends and I. You know, Mohammed, Kamran, and Ali. We
were paid one hundred US dollars each to help.”

The boy pulled a filthy hundred dollar bill
from his pocket.

“
That,” Alex pointed to the
convoy below. “That is the President of the United
States!”

“
Really?” the boy gave an
exuberant smile. “Do I get to meet him? I saw on the Internet that
some Afghan boys met the American President. Alexandra Jinniyah
Khan, can I meet the American President?”

Trece raised his eyebrows. He turned his
back to Alex and the boy to keep from laughing. Raz radioed the
other teams.

“
Jackson would be very
disappointed in you,” Alex said.

“
No, no, he wouldn’t,” the
boy said. “Jax is my hero. I’m going to medical school like him so
that I can help kids and their moms. My father has been working at
the base and saving money for me to go to medical school. I study
every day for my entrance exams. Now I have one hundred American
dollars! Jax would be proud of me for helping the American’s during
their training exercise.”

Alex’s hands went to her hips. Breathing
hard, she tried to match the fact that this boy was shooting at the
convoy along with what he was actually saying.

“
Why did you shoot down the
drone?” Alex asked.

“
We did not shoot down any
drone,” Sher said. “That would be… bad… for me, for my mother and
father who have sacrificed so much for me and…”

“
This is bad for you!” Alex
said. “What are you doing here?”

“
This is dangerous
country,” the boy said. “We’re helping the Americans so that they
can learn to get through Paktika safely.”

“
Alex?” Trece held up the
rifle the boy had been shooting with. It was an M-24, the standard
US Army rifle. Raz held up a box of “green” bullets –
copper-jacketed, lead-free ammunition made exclusively for the US
Military. Jesse, Alex’s best friend, who had died with his head on
her lap and was the best weapons officer she’d ever met,
materialized in front of her.

“
Those are US Army-issued,”
Jesse said. “He might have gotten the weapon from the Taliban but
not the ammo. I know you’re pissed but Sher is telling the
truth.”

Alex blinked her understanding to Jesse.

“
Where did you get this?”
Alex asked.

“
From the American,” the
boy said.

“
What American?” Alex
asked. “Which American?”

“
From Zutterberg,” Jesse
said.

“
That one,” the boy leaned
over the blind to point at Hank Zutterberg. A bullet whizzed by his
face. Trece pulled the boy back to safety. “He shot at me. He shot
at me. He almost killed me!”

The boy sank down against the barrier.

“
We’ve been tricked!” he
said.

Sher popped to his feet. Using a mirror, he
signaled his friends in the other blinds. The shooting from the
other mountain blinds halted. The shooting from the canyon floor
continued.

The boy turned away from the canyon, hopped
the stone wall, and ran down the mountain. They heard over the
walkie-talkies that the other boys were following suit. Alex,
Trece, and Raz ran alongside Sher.

Using one of the passages on Alex’s newly
drawn map, Sher jogged less than one hundred yards before meeting
another familiar boy. Joseph, Leena and Troy caught up with the boy
as soon as they were joined by the boy from the southern ridge and
Margaret, MJ, and White Boy. They waited only a moment before the
fourth boy, trailing Vince, Colin and Joseph, arrived.

The boys shifted uncomfortably as the twelve
soldiers surrounded them. In rapid Arabic, Sher told the boys that
they had been mislead and betrayed.

“
Alex!” Zack’s voice came
from the walkie-talkie. “Apaches, two minutes out. They’ve targeted
the…”

The Apache attack helicopters flew above
them. Without hesitation, the pilots fired. The blinds blew with a
spectacular display of fire. The team and boys ducked as dirt and
rock rained down on them. Hidden from the Apaches in the passage,
they heard the men at the bottom of the canyon cheer. The trucks in
the convoy started and they could hear them move out.

“
Did anyone grab the
rifles? Ammunition?” Alex asked.

Raz, Leena, MJ and Colin held up the rifles
and the ammunition.

“
Good,” Alex said. “Hold
onto those.”

Too stunned to respond, the boys stared at
the blinds where they had spent the entire day. A look passed
between the boys. Before anyone could say anything, the boys tried
to escape. Alex shook her head. Trece, White Boy, Vince and Joseph
stopped them.

“
Mohammed Ali Sher!” Joseph
gave the boy in front of him a slight shake. “Does your mother know
what you’ve been up to?”

“
Let’s go find out,” Alex
said.

F

CHAPTER TWO

Three days later
Saturday early morning

October 24 – 2:15 a.m. EDT

Sheridan Circle Mansion, Washington DC

“
So what did you do?” John
Kelly Drayson, Alex’s husband and vascular surgeon, asked. Alex
stepped into the warm lavender scented bath where he was sitting.
When she made a small grunt, he looked up at her with
concern.

“
Is your hip off?” John
asked. His London accent seemed to accentuate his worry.

“
Not that I know of,” Alex
lied. She smiled to reassure him, but turned away so that he
couldn’t see her grimace when she joined him in the
bath.

“
Good,” John said. He gave
her a glass of red wine and repeated, “What did you do?”

“
We covered our faces and
marched them into the center of their village with their hands tied
behind their backs,” Alex laughed. “We made the boys kneel and
placed the rifles, ammunition and hundred dollar bills in front of
them. The boys did their part by looking pathetic.”

“
And their mothers?” John
smiled at her delight.

“
Sher’s mother threw
herself over him to protect him,” Alex said. “I pulled my scarf
down. When she saw me, she started interrogating him. The other
mothers followed suit. We left the boys’ punishment to them. Never
piss off a Pushtan mother.”

Alex smiled at the memory.

“
Zack landed right after
that,” Alex said. “We spent the next few days immunizing kids,
checking the pregnant women, and introducing the team to the tribes
in that region. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to hang out, drink
tea, eat lentils, and laugh. They have so little, and laugh so
much.”

John held out his arms and Alex leaned back
against his chest. He kissed her head. She closed her eyes for a
moment to absorb the luxury of this amazing man.

“
You should have seen
Margaret,” Alex said. “Having spent so much time in active service
in Iraq, she’s struggled with our mission to build friendships with
the ‘enemy.’ I think the few days in the village really opened her
eyes to the fact that these people are just people. She helped MJ
with the pregnant women and elderly. She kept saying they were like
the Diné.”

“
The Navajo Nation,” John
said.

“
You remembered!” Alex
smiled at him and he kissed her. She settled back against him. “The
Pushtan women took to her as one of their own. They were surprised
over and over again that she wasn’t in the very least South Asian.
It was fun to see.”

She took a sip of her wine and set it down
on the ledge behind the tub. Seeing his face, she kissed him.

“
How did you know I’d be
here?” Alex asked. “We weren’t due in until tomorrow
afternoon.”

“
Troy’s engagement day,”
John said.

“
You mean that Dahlia’s
divorce will be finally through tomorrow?” Alex asked.

“
I knew you’d do whatever
you could to make sure that Troy was home tonight,” John shrugged.
“Max changed our flights yesterday.”

“
I’m glad you’re here,”
Alex kissed him again because she could.

“
Me too,” John said. “You
know about Max?”

“
You know about Max?” Alex
laughed.

“
I think it’s love,” John
said. “He’s very happy and terrified. How do you feel about
that?”

“
I’m happy for him,” Alex
said. “He’s clear that I’m still his first person identical twin
and he’s still my first person identical twin. It doesn’t change
much. How do you feel? He’s your best-friend.”

“
I’m happy for him,” John
said. “And I’m still his best-friend. That hasn’t changed while
they’ve been dating.”

“
I doubt it will,” Alex
said. “Max has a wonderful consistency in his
relationships.”

“
If he loves you, he loves
you,” John smiled. “Did you give Troy the ring?”

“
From the first time he was
engaged to Dahlia?” Alex asked.

John nodded.

“
On the plane home,” Alex
said. “He cried. Vince told him to go with the original and not the
one he bought.”

“
Yeah, Vince has been
through this,” John said.

“
Less messy,” Alex said.
“But yes. I would guess they are engaged by now. What is the final
count on the Marine Marathon?”

“
Matthew, Troy, and Vince
are running with me. Colin’s running way ahead as usual,” John
chuckled. “Jimmy’s due in from wherever. He said he’d be here by
now. So who knows?”

“
I haven’t heard anything,”
Alex said. John’s elder brother, James Kelly, was an MI6 operative
she’d rescued from a Czech mafia prison. The youngest of twelve
Northern Irish children, John’s siblings had a tendency to pop up
when you least expected them to. “Last I heard he was in the
Falklands.”

“
He says he’s been
training,” John shrugged. “I couldn’t talk Raz into running it.
He’s worried his back can’t handle the miles. So he’s pacing us the
last three miles. Max is pacing miles eighteen to
twenty-three.”

“
When you’re supposed to
hit ‘the wall’?”

“
Indeed,” John said. “When
does Erin get here?”

“
Erin and her lovely baby,
Grace, will be here on Saturday,” Alex smiled. “They are flying
with Emily and Amelia on Emily’s father’s plane. I think a few
other Fey wives are coming but I’m not sure.”

“
Grace’s really cute,” John
looked at the big smile on Alex’s face. “You look
happy.”

“
I’m really happy for
Matthew and Erin. Everything is perfect,” Alex said. “Their house
remodel turned out beautifully.”

“
And just in time,” John
said.

“
I know!” Alex laughed.
“Erin had Grace in a kiddy pool in the kitchen only two days after
they moved in.“

“
I remember,” John
said.

“
Mattie is so happy. It’s
amazing what happiness does to a man.”

John made a sound and she turned around to
look at him. He nodded as if he knew exactly what happiness could
do to a man.

“
I hope Troy can find
that,” Alex said. “Dahlia is
not
my favorite person on the planet.”

“
Or hasn’t been,” John
said. “After that party at Red Rocks, she went to
therapy.”

“
She moved out from
Hector,” Alex said. “I never realized he was so
controlling…”

“
And abusive,” John said.
“She was very brave to get away from him with the boys. She has a
restraining order on him.”

“
What gets me is the boys,”
Alex said. “Do you think she knew?”

“
I think she did what she
could for them,” John said. “It wasn’t enough, but I doubt she
could have done more.”

“
I agree,” Alex said. “I
don’t ever want to be that controlled… that helpless.
Bleck.”

Alex gave an involuntary shiver.

“
Troy says she’s been an
awesome mom since they’ve been on their own. Special diets,
therapy, and all the bits they need. The boys are
happy.”

“
I know,” Alex
said.

“
You know, Mama Bear, when
Troy came to talk to her last April, she’d already filed for
divorce.”