The Fey (32 page)

Sensing movement in the sitting area, Alex
looked past Raz to see a woman moving across the suite. That’s our
server from Elway’s. Alex raised a hand to say, “hello” to the
woman. She winked at Alex then let herself out of the suite.

“
I’m sorry Raz. Your date
just left.”

Raz looked down at her and nodded, “I need
your phone.”

Alex dug around in her clothing, piled next
to the bathroom, to find her cell phone. She gave him the
phone.

“
What did you tell
her?”

“
Cops,” he said. He put
his hand over the mouth piece of his cell phone. “I asked her if
she would mind leaving. She was delightful.” Turning his attention
to the phone, he said: “That’s what I thought. Can you check on
that?”

With the phone propped against his chin, he
said to Alex, “We’re looking for terrorists. She didn’t want to get
involved.”

“
Will you see her
again?”

“
Probably,” he said. “I
seem to be in Denver a lot these days.”

Alex smiled. There was a tap on the
door.

“
I ordered some coffee for
you,” he said.

Alex brightened which made him laugh. She
answered the door for room service then stood by the door drinking
a cup of coffee with a little cream.

“
All right, thank you,”
Raz said disconnecting his telephone. He looked at Alex, who was
completely absorbed by her coffee, and laughed. “Happy?”

“
Very.” She poured herself
another cup of coffee.

“
Let’s go into the suite,”
he said then answered his cell phone.

Alex moved into the sitting area and he
followed. Sitting down on the couch, she remembered that the coffee
was in the other room. She jumped up and ran back into the bedroom
where she grabbed the thermos of coffee, a cup and raw sugar for
Raz, and returned to the sitting area.

“
What’s going on?” Alex
asked. She poured a cup of coffee for him then stirred in the raw
sugar.

Disconnecting from his phone, he took the
cup and smiled at her generosity. Alex would never think to keep
something for herself. He took a long drink of the warm coffee
fixed exactly as he liked it.

“
Eleazar went underground
last month. He’s been in Jordan, visiting his mother, as King
Abdullah told you. Rather than returning to Jerusalem, he seems to
be traveling through the Middle East. We believe he’s been
recruiting people for an operation here in the States, but we don’t
really know.”

“
How did you know he was
on the phone?”

“
Ben said that Eleazar
would try to get to you before the Ketamine wore off. Prior to
viewing the vault… Do you remember the vault?”

Alex nodded.

“
You believed Eleazar
killed your team. He wants you to believe that he killed your team.
Ben thought he would contact you to clarify or convince you that
your memory was wrong.”

“
That Ben is a smart
guy.”

“
Like his daughter,” Raz
said.

Alex’s cell phone began to ring again.

“
Go ahead,” Raz said. He
waited until she answered the phone then connected through his cell
phone. He would listen to the conversation while tracing the
call.

“
Hello?”

“
You are hard to get a
hold of,” Eleazar said in English.

“
A girl’s got to keep her
distance from all the handsome men who want to talk with her,” Alex
said. “What is it that you want?”

“
I wanted to hear your
lovely voice,” he said. “You want to tell me how to get into the
vault.”

“
I do?”

“
You’ll tell me how to get
into the vault.” Eleazar’s voice was silky smooth.

“
What do you know about
that vault?” Alex asked.

“
Why?”

“
I’m the only one who can
get in that vault. I can give you a code but you won’t be able to
open the door. Why don’t you tell me what you want and I’ll
retrieve your property for you?”

Eleazar clicked off the telephone and Alex
threw the cell phone from her.

“
I feel dirty,” she
said.

“
I bet,” Raz said. “Is
that true about the vault?”

Alex nodded. “Charlie could get in too.”

“
The Army tried for a
month to get inside.”

“
Who closed the
door?”

“
They removed Jesse last.
The door has on some automatic mechanism. As soon as Jesse was
moved, the door swung closed. There was a guy inside who just
managed to squeak out.”

“
Huh,” Alex
shrugged.

“
They tried to force the
door…”

“
You can’t do that,” she
said.

“
Why so much
security?”

“
I was usually there by
myself. I felt like that vault was the safest place on the planet
but Charlie worried. I was supposed to close the door when I was
there alone.”

“
Did you do
that?”

“
Mostly,” Alex said.
“Sometimes I was running in to drop cash or a book and I’d leave
the door open but usually I closed the door. That’s what’s weird,
Raz. What could possibly be in there? I was there every single time
the vault was opened.”

“
And why didn’t they get
what they wanted after they killed everyone?” Raz asked.

“
I wish I knew,” Alex
said.

“
How does the lock
work?”

“
There are four spots that
scan for hand prints. One spot for each of my hands and each of
Charlie’s hands. If I put my hand in the wrong spot, Charlie’s spot
for example, the door cannot be opened for seven days. Mess up more
than once and the security has to be over ridden.”

“
How?”

“
In a long and very
painful process. The keypad is a complicated mechanism of
fingerprint scanning and code. The codes are sort of random.
Charlie had the system made some place in Asia… Laos I
think.”

“
I’ve never even heard of
such a thing.”

“
Yeah?” Alex asked. “The
door used to just have the keypad lock but around the time Joseph
left, Charlie changed the door. He set the codes to random and
added the hand print scans. He also added a bunch of security
inside the vault. There are compartments in the floor that only I
can get into.”

“
Why did he do
that?”

“
I don’t really know,”
Alex said. “Joseph and Charlie had been friends for more than
twenty years. When Joseph left, Charlie became increasingly
anxious. He would stay up after everyone went to bed as if he was
guarding us. He didn’t want anyone to go anywhere alone. I guess
that’s why we were in the vault. We usually roamed Paris then met
at the apartment to change and stuff.”

“
I remember. And you don’t
have any idea what was going on?”

“
With Charlie? No. I asked
him, more than once, but he would just assure me that everything
was all right. Joseph told me that he noticed the change in Charlie
too.”

“
When did Joseph see
Charlie?”

“
We routed through Denver
to meet his twins after they were born. Joseph said he asked
Charlie what was wrong. Charlie made an excuse and changed the
subject.”

“
Was that like
Charlie?”

“
Charlie? Oh yeah.” Alex
looked over at Raz. “Charlie was like a big Dad. He took care of
every worry, every problem. He said our work was hard enough to
have to worry about bullshit.”

“
Maybe the journals will
give you some clues,” Raz said then yawned.

“
Maybe. I’m going to need
help transcribing them.

“
Transcribing?

“
They are in a code based
in Navajo.”

“
You mean that someone has
ten years of your journals in a code? In Navajo?”

Alex nodded. Raz laughed then yawned.

“
Are you going back to
bed?” she asked.

“
I didn’t get much
sleep.”

“
I’m glad.”

Raz smiled. “Wanna snuggle?”

“
That sounds very nice,
but I should work on maps for a while. I haven’t listened to the
map phone messages in at least a week. The Intelligence Center
added video so that should be interesting.”

“
Will you wake me if
anything…?”

“
Of course,” she
said.

She stood and hugged him. “Thanks.”

He kissed her cheek then went into his
bedroom.

With her cup and pot of coffee, Alex went
back into her bedroom. She closed the door then sat down in an
armchair by the window. Lost in thought, remembering and reliving,
she watched the night turn into day. As the sun began to reflect
off the mountains, Alex promised herself that no one else would be
injured by Eleazar.

Not again.

Never again.

F

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The next night

September 29

Downtown Denver, Colorado

After spending a gutwrenching day
documenting everything that happened in Paris, Alex excused herself
from an afternoon meeting and a working dinner. She wanted to take
a long bath.

When Raz came to check on her, she was sound
asleep in the tub. He helped her out of the tub and got her into
bed before he left for their working dinner. Concerned about
leaving her alone, and exhausted himself, he promised to return
early. He peeked in around nine o’clock and she was curled up in a
ball sound asleep. With a sigh of relief, he was asleep in ten
minutes.

Max and John arrived from Paris around
midnight. Peeking into the rooms, they found Alex and Raz sound
asleep with their doors open to the suite. John pulled Raz’s door
closed then, raising a hand in good-bye to Max, he went into Alex’s
room. Max returned to the room he had been using.

Pulling off his clothing, John slipped under
the covers. He lay watching Alex sleep for a few moments. Drawn, as
if by a magnet, his lips brushed her cheek then her ear. When she
moved her hand, as if to bat at a fly, he put her fingers into his
mouth. She sighed, rolling onto her back, and he slipped on top of
her. She smiled slightly in her sleep then opened and shut her
eyes. Her arms went around him.

His lips caught hers, pulling at her tongue,
while his hands drew the T-shirt over her head. His mouth moved
along her neck then took her nipple, flicking his tongue across its
rising focus. She opened her eyes, looking down at him, as his
mouth moved across her belly. His teeth pulled at the diamond in
her belly button then his tongue explored the contours behind the
gem. His fingers grasped her behind, slipping off her panties while
his mouth worked along her fleshy contours and sensitive soft
folds. She gasped in pleasure, wide awake, holding his head in
place.

He chuckled, “Welcome home?”

She shifted her hips, rocking to his
attention, until she moaned in rising intensity. She pulled him up
toward her and he plowed into her moist depth. As she shuddered
against him, he pressed forward. She wrapped her legs around his
hips, giving him access to her deepest zones. He worked his hips
against her while his mouth tortured her neck and nipples, then
returned to plundering her mouth. She clutched at him lost in
sensation. They began releasing in together in waves of intense
pleasure, rising and falling, until he let go deep within her.

Resting with his head on her shoulder, he
said, “I have some news.”

“
Uh huh,” she said. Her
fingers played with the curls in his hair.

“
I’m not a father,” John
said.

Alex lifted her head to look at him. He
nodded.

“
Ben gave me the DNA
results before we left Paris.”

“
Who is?”

“
Néall. He’s also my
brother.”

Alex smiled, “Bastard.”

“
Yes, one more thing we
have in common,” he said.

“
Hmm.” Alex shifted
slightly and John moved to the bed. He stroked her warm
body.

“
I’ve only been married
one time.”

“
To Eimilie?” she kissed
his lips.

“
To you. I am your
lawfully wedded husband.”

“
I was having so much fun
as the other woman.”

“
Our international lawyer
spent the day in London. He was able to confirm that the records
were not filed and that the notation by the priest in London does
not constitute a legal marriage. The priest, who is no longer
living, cannot verify the written account. You know that Father
Seamus has confirmed with Rome that our marriage is
valid.”

“
That is good news,” she
said. “How shall we celebrate?”

“
I have an idea,” John
said.

Alex giggled when he pulled her on top of
him.

FFFFFF

One week later

October 8 – 4:30 A.M.

Fort Logan National Cemetery, Colorado

“
That’s the best we could
do.” Trece turned around in the front seat of an armored black
Expedition. “The area is clear by satellite and heat. You have a
half hour to yourselves.”

Joseph and Alex were sitting in the middle
seat of the car with Matthew and Troy in the back. Joseph nodded to
Trece. They were parked by the Memorial to the Fey Special Forces
team at Fort Logan National Cemetery.