Lean on Me (50 page)

“
Explosives?” Joseph
yelled.

Pete shook his head.

“
Body,” Pete
repeated.

“
Can you have him go on?”
Alex yelled.

Pete tried to give Bill the audio command.
Pete shook his head. Bill’s audio feed was out of range in the
concrete covered steel pipe.

“
Call him back,” Alex said
to Pete. Pete whistled for Bill. Turning to the team assembled
around her, she yelled, “We’re going in.”

She looked out across the field. Visibility
was down to less than a quarter of a mile. Through the snow, she
saw the civilian emergency fire trucks and ambulances line the
road. The storm had grounded the Chinook. Zack was still in the air
and swore he’d stay aloft through the storm. But Sergeant Dusty had
already arranged for alternate ground transportation.

The intact duct was connected to the blast
valve and the intake fan. The blast valve was designed to stabilize
the LEB from the negative pressure waves after a nuclear blast.
Sergeant Dusty’s Uncle Don believed a lot of the blast valves were
left in place. Considered solid gold on the bomb shelter forums, he
was certain someone had harvested this blast valve and exhaust fan.
In order to do that, they would have to have created access to the
LEB.

“
If the duct’s in place,
someone’s been down there to get the valve.” Or so Don
said.

So far, his predictions had been right.
Under the snow and ice, Trece and White Boy found heavy vehicle
tire tracks. The welding on the vertical intact duct had been
broken and foot hold pegs lined the pipe. Margaret and MJ had woken
the owner of the neighboring farm. He and his wife said they’d seen
activity on this site about a month ago. The trucks drove off
before he arrived to see what was going on. Their sixteen-year-old
son said he’d seen lights here a few times when he was coming home
late from his job delivering pizza in town. He figured some
military person used H-29 as his private party spot.

Something was definitely going on at H-29.
But what?

She hated going in blind. Their usual radar
and heat scans couldn’t penetrate the concrete and steel of the
LEB. The original surveillance equipment had been salvaged when the
site was decommissioned. There was no way to know what they would
find inside the LEB. Thanks to Bill, they knew they wouldn’t find
explosives and they would find a body. Bill barked from the bottom
of the pipe.

She glanced at her team. Trece and White Boy
were too large to fit in the pipe. Raz and Colin wouldn’t make it
either. After three years of hiding in Crested Butte with only a
weight set and three children to entertain him, Joseph was now
built like a truck. He wasn’t going to fit either. And Vince’s back
injuries made belly crawling almost impossible. She closed her
eyes. Her insistence on hiring her friends was biting her in the
ass again.

“
Margaret is tiny, Alex.
She can lead in case it gets too tight. You, me and Leena can fit,”
Matthew said in her ear. “Pete and Bill, of course. MJ thinks he
can do it and you know Troy’s game. We’re not going to have space
for more. The concrete jelly bean shell isn’t big
enough.”

“
Concrete jelly bean
shell?” Alex smiled.

“
That’s what Uncle Don
calls it,” Matthew said.

“
Uncle Don?” Alex raised
her eyebrows. Matthew smiled.

“
We can send the Delta boys
in first,” Joseph said. “They’re young and fit.”

“
We know the hostages,”
Alex shook her head. “We know the terrain.”

Joseph gave her a knowing smile. Captain
Charlie O’Brien had always insisted on the Fey Special Forces Team
going in first. He had used those same words when asked if someone
else should lead. Alex acknowledged his smile with a nod.

“
Let’s go,” Alex raised her
hand indicating it was time to go.

“
Peaches, Carmichael, any
hesitation on leading?” Matthew asked.

“
No sir,” Margaret
said.

“
It’s an honor,” Leena
said.

Alex gave her a strong look.

“
I’ll be fine in the
confined space, sir,” Leena smiled. “I can do this.”

“
You will work in pairs.
Peaches and Carmichael will set the lights,” Matthew said. “Ramirez
and Blanco give them the details.”

Trece and White Boy gave backpacks with
battery operated lights to Margaret and Leena.

“
Check to make sure you are
outfitted. We need infrared and night-vision,” Joseph said. “Knee
and elbow pads. Is everyone wearing body armor?”

“
Yes sir,” the team
called.

“
We’ll send Beetle in first
to handle Bailey. Peaches and Carmichael will have to go around,”
Matthew said.

“
There’s space sir,” Pete
said.

“
Good,” Matthew said. “Fey
and I will follow Beetle and Bailey. Hargreaves, combine supplies
with Scully. We’re setting up a pulley so you’ll be able to get
supplies inside, but it’s better to take what you think you’ll
need.”

Colin and MJ began transferring medical
supplies.

“
Scully, you’re next and
Olivas, you’ll take the rear,” Matthew said. “The rest of you are
released to Major Walters’ sole command.”

“
Delta, you are released to
Major Walters’ command,” Alex said.

“
We will provide back up
and communication for the team,” Joseph said. “Lieutenant Colonel,
do you want Sergeant Peaches and Petty Officer Carmichael to set up
the pulley lines?”

Alex nodded.

“
Yes sir,” Margaret said.
“White Boy was just showing us how they work.”

“
Good job,” Joseph said.
“We have to be prepared to get supplies in and men out.”

“
Yes sir,” Margaret
said.

After removing his winter gear, Pete started
down the pegs on the side of the intake pipe.

“
Sir, we’re set,” Leena
said. She nodded to Margaret. They were carrying full backpacks.
Trece and White Boy helped them with the packs. Margaret gave them
a nod and began down the pegs.

“
Alex,” Zack said into her
ear bud communicator. “Medivac is here from the
5
^th
Medical Wing at Minot AFB, but they’re whining about the
weather.”

“
Roger that,” Alex
said.

“
We’re ready and waiting
for you, sir,” an unfamiliar voice said on the line.

“
Roger,” Alex said.
“Captain Hutchins, you have the com.”

Nodding, Vince introduced himself to the
flight crew. Alex pulled out her ear bud and gave it to Raz. They
would be out of contact in the pipe and LEB. Three minutes after
Leena started in the pipe, Joseph whistled down to Pete and Bill
started down the pipe. After three minutes, Alex gave Raz her
jacket. He helped her step up on the pipe. She gave a wave and went
down the pegs to the pipe. Once at the pipe, she began to crawl.
She heard Matthew join her in the pipe three minutes later.

Her night-vision infrared goggles allowed
her to see the dark outline of Pete’s feet. The sound of their
shuffling crawl was accentuated by the light tap of Bill’s nails
against the pipe. Metal grates for drains broke up the bottom of
the pipe every hundred yards. She heard Troy’s whistle when he
entered the pipe behind MJ. They were all in and moving toward the
LEB.

They moved slightly down hill. They crawled
where they could and belly crawled when they needed to. Even
without her winter gear, Alex was dripping with sweat within
minutes of her journey. Matthew tapped her foot. She stopped and
rolled over. He climbed over her legs to talk to her.

“
How are you feeling?”
Matthew asked. “MJ gave me something for you if you’re in
pain.”

“
I’m good actually,” she
said. “Just slow.”

“
I sped up to check on
you,” Matthew said. “Where’s Jesse?”

“
With the families,” Alex
said.

Nodding, he backed up. There was a short
whistle ahead indicating Margaret and Leena had reached the body
and were on their way to the LEB. Bill yipped to indicate he’d
found the body. Pete sent the dog ahead to the women.

She smelled the body first. While the cold
had preserved the body, the smell was still strong. Her eyes traced
the blood pattern of a single bullet through the top of the
soldier’s blonde head.

And she knew.

This young man had been her goddaughter
Helene’s boyfriend and her friend, intern, Sergeant Larry
Flagg.

His face was marked by the surprise of being
shot. His movie-star good looks made him seem tragically young and
fragile. Grief rose from the very center of her being. Reaching out
her gloved hand, she smoothed his shaggy blonde hair off his
forehead. Larry hadn’t expected the bullet that ended his life. She
closed the lids of his blue eyes.

He’d graduated from Harvard before joining
Special Forces. He was green and naïve to the point of silliness
when she’d met him. He’d been terrified to go to war and now here
he was, dead in a steel pipe away from everyone who loved him,
frozen at least a mile under the North Dakota plain. She closed her
eyes to say a silent prayer for who he’d been and a prayer for his
soul to find peace. With a sigh, she packed her grief away. The
only thing she could do for him now was to rescue his team and find
his killer.

“
Oh God, Larry,” Matthew
said when he came upon them. He squeezed her leg in comfort. “He’s
been here a while.”

“
Cold storage,” Alex
said.

“
Presented for your view,”
Matthew said. “Yes.”

There was no way around his prone body.
Trying not to disturb him, she climbed over the bright young man
they’d called G.I. Joe. His legs were shattered at the shins and he
was thin. From this position, he seemed otherwise unharmed.

She touched Larry’s boot in silent good-bye
before continuing her belly crawl.

“
Sir!” Margaret yelled from
ahead. “Made it!”

“
Made it!” Leena when she
reached the LEB.

“
Made it,” Pete
repeated.

Alex finished the last of her belly crawl
and passed along that she’d made it. Pulling herself through the
end of the pipe, she scooted her legs around. They dangled a few
feet off the floor.

Uncle Don was right. The LEB looked like the
shell of a concrete jelly bean painted in military beige. The
tactical equipment had been removed leaving a few feet of bare
space. The generator took up most of the wall in front of her. The
air was clear and relatively warm indicating that the environmental
control had been functioning. Margaret and Leena had set up the
fluorescent lights so she pulled off her night-vision and infrared
goggles. The women were now working on the pulley system to get
things in and out of the LEB.

But there was no sign of Larry’s team.

Bill gave a sharp bark and then barked
again.

“
He thinks they are up
there,” Pete pointed to an equipment loft above them.

“
How would they get up
there?” Alex asked.

Pete helped her down from her perch. Matthew
took her place at the intake duct entrance to the LEB.

“
Bill thinks they’re up
there,” Alex said to Matthew. She pointed to the loft
above.

“
The ladder’s gone,”
Matthew said. “Didn’t we bring extra rope? Carmichael?”

Leena threw him a climbing rope and went
back to work on the pulley.

“
Generator is warm, sir,”
Margaret said as she placed another fluorescent light. “They must
have shut it off when they heard us or maybe Bill in the
pipe.”

“
They must be able to get
up and down from there,” Pete said.

“
Why wouldn’t they say
something?” Alex scanned the loft for movement.

“
The Fey Team is here. This
is the Fey,” Matthew said. “We’ve come to take you
home.”

Bill barked again.

“
Dead?” MJ asked from the
entrance to the LEB. He moved over when Troy appeared behind
him.

“
Hiding,” Troy shrugged and
jumped down. “More likely.”

Matthew and Troy helped MJ get down. MJ bent
to check his leg prosthesis.

“
Hey now spirit, whither
wander you?” Troy gave Puck’s first line from
Midsummer Night’s Dream
. He poked
Alex’s shoulder.

“
Over hill, over
dale, through bush, thorough brier. Over park, over pale, thorough
flood, thorough fire,” Alex repeated the fairy’s first lines
from
Midsummer Night’s
Dream
. “I do wander everywhere, swifter
than the moon's sphere.”

Alex fell silent.

“
I am
the fairy queen,” she added.

F

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“
It’s her!” a young man’s
face appeared over the edge of the equipment loft. “Guys, they’re
here.”

A row of men’s faces appeared around the
first young man.

“
Merry Christmas,
gentlemen,” Troy said. “Ho, ho, ho and all of that.”

“
Margaret?” Alex nodded.
“Notify Joseph.”

“
On my way,” she said.
Matthew boosted her to the tunnel. “Sir, I’m sorry about Sergeant
Flagg.”

“
Thank you,” Alex said.
“Pete you may begin documenting the area. We want to have pictures
of every single corner.”