Learning to Stand (27 page)

The men trickled back into the room. Vince
went from person to person making sure they had weapons while Troy
checked for body armor.

Clutching a few sheets of paper, Larry ran
into the room. He offered the report to Matthew but Matthew pointed
to Alex. Alex looked up at Larry when he held the sheets of paper
to her. She took the sheets of paper. Smiling at the pages, she
went back to her work.

Larry stood in front of Alex for a moment.
Matthew motioned him away from Alex. Shrugging, Larry walked to
where the rest of the men stood.

Vince’s cell phone rang. After a short
conversation, he brought the phone to Alex.

“
Yes,” Alex said.

“
Sir, we have a region but
not a location.”

“
You can’t be
certain?”

“
Exactly. Schriever’s team
said something funny. They said: ‘See what the Fey can give us.’ Do
they want money or...?”

“
That’s got to be
Hougah.”

“
Yes sir.”

“
I’ve worked with her
before. Listen, can you patch me through but stay on the
line?”

“
Yes sir.”

“
Alex?” A woman’s tinny
voice asked. She was speaking on a speaker phone.

“
How many
watching?”

“
Fourteen,” Hougah
said.

“
It’s nice to have fans,”
Alex laughed. “You ready, Dani?”

“
Go.”

“
I’ve got Texas,” Alex said,
“but maybe not Texas.”

“
Yep, we’ve got that.
South?”

“
Um… Southern. I think they
call it West Texas near Mexico. But I don’t think
Mexico.”

“
Why not Mexico? Mexico fits
our data.”

“
Mexican nationals blend
into the background in Mexico… even with a bunch of white kids. The
captors are South American. They wouldn’t risk Mexico.”

Steve Pershing stood from the couch and left
the room.

“
That’s helpful.”

“
I don’t know Texas, Dani,”
Alex said.

“
We’re working the border,
Alex.” Speaking to her co-workers and the crowd of viewers, Dani
asked, “Anyone from Texas? Vacationed as a kid? Great. Ok, Alex,
they aren’t in the gulf. We have a triangle in Mexico. You sure
about Mexico, Alex?”

“
Mostly,” Alex chewed the
inside of her lip. “It has to be some place without a lot of
eyes.”

“
The phone is moving,” Dani
said. “God, Alex. You have the best luck on the planet.
Damn....”

“
I know where that is,” a
female voice said.

“
It’s one of those
translators you used, Alex. What’s your name Marine?

“
Private First Class
Margaret Peaches.”

“
They are here from the
sand.” Dani’s voice turned away from the speaker,
“What?”

The voices spoke. Alex heard them speak back
and forth but couldn’t tell what they were saying.

“
Alex, we’ve got it down to
the area around Big Bend National Park.”

“
A National Park? That’s got
to be it.”

“
I’ll be in touch,” Dani
said.

“
Sir?” Alex’s Sergeant
asked.

“
Yes Sergeant?”

“
I’ll be here as long as you
need me.”

“
Thanks.”

Closing the phone, Alex looked up to see the
men watching her. She blushed. She looked at Matthew then each
person in the room. They were ready to go.

“
I need to talk to these
guys.” Alex pointed to Ben and her father. “Where’s Steve? Oh
Mattie? Joseph? Can you come too?”

Steve Pershing walked back into the room.
Ben signaled for him to join them.

“
What is it, Pumpkin?”
Patrick put his arm around Alex’s shoulder.

“
Remember when we met
Tristan Joiner? He was at one of those rallies for Army Veterans.
2004 or so...”

“
He knew the Fey was my
daughter. He wanted to meet you.” Patrick nodded. “You and Max were
there. That was in… Texas some place?”

“
Colin was there too. We
were doing Army PR to get a chance to hang out together. Can you
remember where we were?”

“
Odessa,” Patrick said. “We
went to El Paso, Odessa…”

“
San Antonio. I couldn’t
remember if it was San Antonio or Odessa.”

“
Why?”

“
I received a telephone call
from Tristan Joiner asking me to help him. He said ‘they’ were
going to kill ‘us’ tomorrow. He was screaming when he got off
and...”

Alex shook her head.

“
What?” Ben
asked.

“
Someone was hitting him,”
Alex swallowed hard. “GPSOC thinks they can get a lock on the
phone. Ben? Steve? Where the hell is Joiner?”

“
No one knows,” Steve
Pershing said. “Not a soul. People are asking us where he is. It’s
bizarre.”

“
We’ve checked intel from
every source, Alex,” Ben said. “There’ve been times when I’m sure
they are not telling us something. This time? We aren’t the only
people looking for him.”

“
Do we have any idea what
he’s into? Tristan said Joiner told his captors to kill his
children rather than… I don’t know what.”

“
Cee Cee Joiner has been off
the radar for at least a year,” Steve said. “In fact...”

Steve glanced at Ben. Ben nodded.

“
What?” Alex
asked.

“
We believe he might have
been involved in the murder of...”

“
My team?” Alex nodded. “I’d
hoped everyone was wrong.”

“
We don’t think so, Alex,”
Ben said. “That’s why you don’t know. The Boy Scout is not talking…
except for this rubbish about you assaulting him.”

“
There’s a confirmed
connection between Robert Powell and Joiner,” Steve Pershing said.
“But South Americans? There’s no way to narrow the field. Joiner
pissed off almost everyone on the continent.”

“
Maybe Troy can help,” Alex
said.

A helicopter flew overhead. Zack.

“
That’s our ride. Anything
else to add?”

“
We’ll work from here,
Alex,” Ben said.

“
Larry and Vince will stay
here. They’ve been working on Joiner,” Matthew said. “Max and
Colin?”

“
Max works for me,” Steve
said. “He can be very useful.”

Matthew nodded.

“
Colin?”

“
I think we’d have to kill
him to keep him from coming,” Alex said. “He can be very handy in a
fight.”

“
He’s a medic,” Matthew
said. “God knows we need a medic.”

“
Pack it up,” Joseph said to
the men.

“
I don’t think you should
go,” Alex said to Matthew.

“
That’s my call,
Alex.”

Matthew’s voice was firm but his eyes
betrayed his nervousness. Joseph patted Matthew’s back with his
hand then moved away. Alex shrugged and Matthew let out an anxious
breath. She didn’t fire him.

“
Trece and White Boy come
with us,” Alex said. “We need the Texas Rangers, Border Patrol,
Park Service and whoever else patrols the region.”

“
We’ll take care of it,
Lieutenant Colonel,” Vince said.

Turning to her fathers, she said, “Dad?
Benji? You’ll tell everyone right? We should be back by
morning.”

Ben nodded as Patrick hugged her.

“
Yes, Pumpkin, we’ll tell
everyone. You feel okay to go?”

Alex smiled slightly.

“
Life comes to us, Daddy,”
she said. “We have only to respond with honor.”

Patrick hugged his favorite child as she
repeated one of his favorite sayings. With a pat on her back, he
let go. Ben hugged her then kissed on her cheek.

“
We’ll be here when you need
us,” Ben said.

Looking up, Alex saw Trece and White Boy
waiting for her. While she walked, she checked the handgun holster
at her sacrum for ammunition. Taking a second handgun and clips
from Trece, she followed the men out of the house.

She stopped walking when she saw the Black
Hawk Helicopter in the narrow street in front of their house.
Shaking her head at Zack, she stepped into the chopper. White Boy
closed the door. Alex sat in the spot Raz saved for her near the
middle of the helicopter.

“
Now is the time for rest,”
Joseph said. “If you can sleep, do it. If you want to read or
write, that’s fine. When we hit the ground, we work until we’re
done. Get your rest while we’re in the air. That is an
order.”

‘
Yes sir’ was the men’s
immediate response.

Alex raised her eyebrows at their
compliance. Maybe, just maybe, these men could become a team. She
nodded to herself. Raz slipped his arm around her.

. “You should sleep while you can,” Raz
said. “Really, you should have stayed home. You just had major
surgery...”

Alex held up her hand for him to stop
speaking.

“
I know you’re trying to
care for me. I don’t feel like I have a choice this
time.”

“
Just
ass-isting.”

They laughed. She rested her head on his
shoulder. In the safety of his arms, and the rocking sensation of
the helicopter, Alex gave in to her exhaustion. She was asleep in
moments.

F

CHAPTER TWENTY-Three

Three hours later

Friday night
March 28 – 11:34 P.M. CDT

Somewhere over central Texas

After pitching a major fit, the Jakker
agreed to allow a Super Hercules team to fly them to Texas. While
everyone conceded that Zack could fly the Super Hercules, a feat he
proved at take off and again while they were in the air, the Air
Force pilots wanted to fly the Fey some place, any place. The
Jakker huffed and puffed. But when Zack arrived in the passenger
compartment, he laughed about Alex’s video enhanced notoriety.

“
Do we know where we’re
going?” Zack asked Alex.

“
Big Bend National Park,
that’s all I know,” Alex said.

“
I’ll head to the cockpit,”
Zack said. “You haven’t heard from GPSOC?”

“
I have. Just nothing
certain. It’s not a huge park, but we have to cover a lot of
territory in a short amount of time. They want to be
sure.”

“
You’ll let me
know.”

Zack moved toward the cockpit. As if on cue,
Vince’s cell phone rang when Raz stood to use the restroom.

“
This is my call,” Alex
said.

The men looked up. No one knew where they
were going and they had little idea of what they were involved in.
Max stood to use the restroom. Alex opened the cell phone and held
it to her ear.

“
Fey,” Alex said. She waited
for voice recognition to confirm her identity.

“
Lieutenant Colonel?” Alex’s
Sergeant asked.

“
Yes Sergeant.”

“
I have Sergeant Flagg,
Captain Vardee of the Texas Rangers and our intelligence friend on
the line. I also have a full update from GPSOC.”

Alex smiled at her Sergeant’s use of ‘our
intelligence friend’ instead of naming Ben.

“
Texas Rangers first, sir,”
her Sergeant said.

“
Ma’am, this is Captain
Vardee. I’m in charge of Texas Ranger Midland Company.” Captain
Vardee’s deep voice spoke with a thick Texas accent. “We’d like to
thank you for involving us at this stage. We’re usually included in
these activities as they are going down. We appreciate the heads
up.”

“
We’ll need your help,
Captain Vardee,” Alex replied.

“
Yes ma’am,” he said. “We’ve
been working with the National Park Service. They have records of a
party entering the park near Maverick Junction.”

Feeling movement near her, Alex looked up
when Raz sat down. He pointed to the National Park Service Map of
Big Bend National Park on his laptop. Alex smiled her thanks. She
pointed toward the east end of the park.

“
That’s the east end of the
park, ma’am. Do you have a map?” Captain Vardee asked.

“
Yes sir, I’m looking at the
National Park Service Map,” Alex said.

“
Sir,” Alex’s Sergeant said,
“I put the topos and satellite maps to your project
area.”

“
Thank you Sergeant. We’ll
pull them down. Please continue Captain Vardee.”

“
Ma’am, the Park Service
says five men and two boys entered the park near the end of last
year. There’s no evidence they ever left the park. They were
supposed to clean up in the area around the Mariscal Mine. The Park
Service has checked for them a couple of times and has never
interacted with them. They have a trailer and equipment near the
mine, but the park ranger says they disappear when anyone gets near
their location. We have no verification that any work has been done
at the location.”

Alex pointed toward the tip of the national
park. Raz reoriented the map.

“
This area of the park isn’t
well monitored. There’s not a lot of visitor traffic and frankly,
there’s a lot of border related crime. We’ve spoken with the border
patrol agents in charge of the region. They’ve received a report of
a few boys swimming in Rio Grande near Tally Campground, near the
tip of the park, about two months ago. When they approached, the
boys were clearly United States citizens so they did not
intervene.”