Learning to Stand (32 page)

Even in the semi-dark, her eyes glittered
with sincerity.

“
I’m going to turn this off
to save the rest of the battery.” Alex turned her headlamp
off.

“
You can use
mine.”

“
Your headlamp broke in the
first blast. It will take a second but my eyes will
adjust.”

Alex watched Colin dig through a pile of
mine junk for his divining rod. There was a 50/50 chance they would
find accessible water in this tunnel. At least, Colin was busy
looking for it. She felt a tug on her hand. Looking down at Raz,
she noticed that he was staring at her.

“
I…”

“
What can I do?” she
asked.

“
Will you kiss
me?”

Alex leaned over him and kissed his
lips.

“
Thank you for saving me,”
he whispered. His left hand stroked her face. “I forget how soft
your lips are.”

They kissed again. Alex smiled at him.

“
Hey you two! Knock it off,”
Colin yelled from a junk pile near the wall. “I don’t care what you
say. Friends shouldn’t kiss each other on the lips. Or sleep in the
same bed. Any third grader knows that!”

Alex laughed.

“
Found it!” Colin
exclaimed.

Turning, Alex watched Colin pull a piece of
rebar from a pile of junk. Raz tugged on her hand.

“
How will anyone ever find
us? Joseph removed all of our GPS locators. The Boy Scout destroyed
the one in your hip. Alex, we are lost and stuck in this hole and
I’m...”

“
Shh… there is a hole to the
outside. They are moving equipment here to dig us out. We’ll be out
in a matter of hours. We have to wait.” To distract him from his
anxiety, Alex asked, “Tell me about your back. You’ve dealt with so
many huge things, why is this such a big deal?”

“
You know I played
football.”

“
Recruited as a running back
to play for the Giants.”

“
To
start
for the New
York Giants. I was drafted in the second round. Big contract,
signing bonus. My future was set,” Raz said. “One false move, my
second game in the NFL, and a helmet hit me in the back. I don’t
think he did it on purpose. The player was devastated. My vertebrae
broke. I lost everything. I had… no one. Momma was dead. The Giants
pulled out of the contract. I didn’t even get the signing bonus. I
had no money. No family. My high school coach let me stay in his
spare bedroom until I was walking. I was supposed to have surgery
but I… couldn’t.”

“
Why? Why has surgery been
so impossible for you?”

“
I…” he snorted a laugh. “I
didn’t want to be paralyzed. I’m terrified of this… this very
thing. Trapped and unable to get out; I have nightmares about being
paralyzed and alone.”

“
You’re not alone anymore,”
Alex said.

“
Well hello sweetheart,”
Colin yelled. “Bring the empty bottle, Alex.”

Alex hopped up to help. Wandering around an
ore cart, she saw that Colin had found a small spring streaming
along the wall of the tunnel.

“
It was under this junk,”
Colin said. “No divining necessary.”

Alex hugged him.

“
Take one more swig,” she
said.

Colin took a long drink from his vodka then
gave her the bottle. While Colin filled Raz’s water bottle, she
pour the rest of his vodka onto the ground. He filled his bottle
then took a drink.

“
Have another Xanax?” he
asked.

“
You’ve had a lot of
alcohol.” Looking up at her six foot five inch brother, she
whispered, “I don’t want to lose you.”

He smiled.

“
I’m sleepy enough now,” he
said. “Do you mind taking care of everything while I
nap?”

“
Easy,” she said.

Colin lifted her off the ground in a
hug.

“
You’re the best second
sister twin a guy could want,” he said.

“
You’re the best bigger
little brother a girl could want,” she repeated her usual
response.

He kissed her cheek. They walked back to
Raz.

“
We have water!” Colin
said.

Raz gave a weak cheer. While Colin made
himself comfortable next to Raz, Alex helped Raz take a drink of
water. She watched Colin sigh then fall asleep.

“
How does he do that?” Raz
asked.

“
Childhood training,
military training,” she said. “You have to learn to sleep on demand
because you never know when you won’t be able to sleep. Would you
like some water?”

“
I need to urinate,” he
said.

“
I can help,” she
said.

She opened the buttons of his jeans then led
his left hand to the gap in his white boxer shorts. She turned her
back to give him some privacy.

“
Ok,” he said.

Alex helped him button his pants. She held
the bottle for Raz to take a drink of water.

“
I think I’ve been
underground more in the last week than I have in ... Well, ever,”
Raz said. “Why have we been underground so much?”

“
I’ve wondered if it’s
supposed to trigger me to the room or maybe to the
vault.”

“
Before we left Ben said the
weirdest thing,” he said.

“
And?”

“
Right.” Raz laughed. “Much
of what he says is strange or obtuse.”

“
It’s how he thinks. He says
a part of some puzzle he’s working on. I usually ignore him until
he has a cogent thought. What did he say?”

“
He told me Antigone was
buried alive underground. I think he meant you.”

“
I’ll do my best not to kill
myself,” Alex said.

“
We are buried
alive.”

“
She was buried alive as
punishment for burying her brother against the wishes of the king.
I haven’t buried anyone.”

“
Alexander.”

“
An empty grave doesn’t
really count,” Alex said.

“
I’m stretching back to high
school English here, but I thought she was buried because she
followed her own moral code. Her defiance of the King is an act of
civil disobedience. And she was never sorry she did it. She felt
her moral code was more valid than the King’s law.”

“
Okay,” Alex
said.

“
You’re like that,” he
said.

Annoyed, Alex rubbed her head creating a
dirt smudge across her forehead.

“
Who’s the King?”

“
Good question,” Raz
said.

“
Since we’re talking about
good questions,” Alex said. “Who called you to tell you the Fey
Special Forces Team was killed? Ben never said.”

“
Someone who is no longer
living,” Raz said.

“
That’s what he’s told
everyone. I tried to search your phone records but they were
deleted when all of the Fey Special Forces Team files were deleted.
Why is this a secret?”

“
I think Ben’s afraid you
will get upset.”

Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise. What
could possibly upset her more than the murder of the Fey Special
Forces Team?

“
Who?”

“
Carlos.”

Alex reacted as if he had punched her in the
face. Unable to express her horror, she hopped up to put more wood
on the fire. Jesse appeared by the fire.

“
Sweet Jesus! Carlos?” Jesse
asked.

Alex shook her head. Carlos was Ben’s
assistant prior to Raz. He was a handsome, sweet talker who used
sex to get what he wanted. His test scores and work history spoke
of a brilliant operative. But Carlos was incompetent. Because he
claimed he and Alex were sexually involved, it took Ben and Alex a
year to get rid of him. The last time she saw Carlos, he told her
she was the love of his life.

To stall for time, she set about replacing
the cool stones around Raz with warm stones from the fire. When she
sat down near Raz’s head, she saw his deep concern for her.

“
How did he die?”

“
He shot himself through the
roof of his mouth,” Raz said. “When we were forced to leave you, we
went to his home in Amsterdam. The coroner places his death around
the time he called us.”

“
You’re sure he killed
himself?”

“
Yes. We intercepted a coded
letter he wrote to you.”

“
How involved was
he?”

“
He believed he was a major
pipeline of information for the killers,” Raz said.

“
That doesn’t mean anything.
He was grandiose and delusional.”

“
At best,” Raz said. “He
knew the Fey Special Forces Team had been killed.”

“
He’s not the King,” Alex
shrugged. “God, poor Carlos. He was so talented at so many things.
He wanted so badly to be a super spy. He just wasn’t.”

Raz smiled at her sweet sentiment. Only Alex
could feel sorry for someone who gave her so much grief.

“
Shall I call you Antigone
from now on?”

“
Hey, I might be a bastard
child, but my mother is not Ben’s mother.” Alex laughed.

Raz laughed then groaned.

“
You should sleep. Tomorrow
will be a long day.”

“
Will you rest?” he
asked.

“
I’ll probably talk to
Jesse. He’s been commenting on everything we’ve talked
about.”

Raz smiled.

“
Would you like more pain
meds?”

“
No, I’ve been fighting
sleep,” he said. “I only have to shut my eyes...”

He was sound asleep. Stretching her neck,
she heard the sound of large machinery. It wouldn’t be long. Jesse
sat down next to her.

“
Wanna talk?”

“
Not really,” Alex said.
“You?”

“
Nah. We’ll figure it
out.”

“
Together.”

Alex held her hand out. Jesse placed his
hand over hers.

“
Together,” Jesse
said.

Holding hands, they sat in silence watching
the sleeping men and the fire. Twelve hours later, an earth moving
machine broke through the surface. While Alex put the fire out,
Colin used a morphine auto injector from the team’s medical pack on
Raz. Raz would sleep for the rest of the trip home. Trece and White
Boy carried him from the tunnel.

After all those hours of silence in the warm
tunnel, the wind, air, noise and people were overwhelming. And very
welcome.

They were flying toward the Castiloon
parking lot before anyone realized Alex’s arm was in bad shape. She
waved off the drama but accepted an actual arm sling. Once back in
the Super Hercules, she nestled against Max.

Home was only a short nap away. She fell
asleep thinking of John, Maggie and her new fluffy bed.

F

CHAPTER TWENTY-Seven

Five and a half hours later

Saturday night

March 29 – 11 P.M. MDT
Buckley Air Force Base

“
I don’t get it,” Alex said.
The Black Hawk began descending toward the Air Force base. “Where’s
John? He always meets me when we get back. Especially on a Saturday
night.”

“
Something’s up, Alex,”
Joseph said. “We’ve been trying to get in touch with your Sergeant.
We lost connection about a half hour ago. Then…
nothing.”

“
What’s the media say about
last night?” Alex asked.

“
Texas Rangers saved four
boys in Big Bend National Park,” Joseph said.

“
Cell phones?” Alex
asked.

“
I wasn’t able to get the
replacement phones before we left. Our bank account is fucked
up.”

“
The Fey Special Forces Team
account? I totally forgot about that.”

“
For the life of me, I can’t
figure out what’s going on.”

“
Boy Scout,” Alex
said.

“
Boy Scout fucked
up.”

“
Give the bank account to
Troy,” Alex said. “He’s really good at that kind of
thing.”

“
Troy?” Joseph glanced at
Troy. Troy was using his finger puppets Enrique and Frieda to
embarrass Larry with their pornographic exploits. “You
sure?”

“
His last tested IQ is 187,”
Alex said. “He’s a genius, especially with numbers. What about
Vince’s phone? Wasn’t it military issue?”

“
Vince’s doesn’t work – shut
off.”

“
From the electromagnetic
pulse?”

“
I called Nancy to check in
after we reached the Hercules. Now it’s off. Your pocket
computer?”

Alex pulled the computer from her back
pocket. Flipping open the cover, she pressed a few buttons.
Nothing.

“
It’s not working. I mean it
was an hour ago. It’s not now. But you know it breaks all the time.
It doesn’t really mean anything,” Alex said. “Satellite
internet?”

“
Same thing. Last half hour
or so.” Joseph shook his head.

“
Zack?” Alex asked through
the intercom.

“
You better come up,” Zack
said.

Alex walked down the hallway to the
cockpit.

“
Fuck! You smell! God damn,
Hargreaves!”

“
I’ve been worse,” she said.
“What’s going on?”