Learning to Stand (6 page)

“
Heat, motion and visual,”
Raz said.

“
Did you get
that?”

“
Yes Major,” her Sergeant
said. “What are we looking for?”

“
People. I’d hate to meet
shooters on our way out of this room.”

“
Yes Major.”

“
Also, can you start the
paper chain for a quiet check of our other sites?”

“
Yes, Major.”

“
Thanks.”

“
Major?”

“
Yes, Sergeant,” Alex
said.

“
Your father called. He
asked me to tell you, ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe’.”

“
Yes, thank you, Sergeant,
“Alex said.

Alex closed her eyes. Unable to deal with
the expectation on the men’s faces, she turned away from them.

What the hell did her father mean?

“
Major?” Vince
asked.

Turning toward him, she saw the satellite
imaging on the screen.

“
Can you and Raz work with
that?” Alex asked. Walking toward the east wall, Alex pointed, “The
latrines are here. Water is located...”

“
It’s here with the MREs,”
Troy said.

“
Thanks. I need a moment,”
Alex said. Matthew moved toward her but she shook her head. Smiling
to reassure him, she said, “Need to think.”

Taking a bottle of water from Troy, she
walked to a chair near the back of the room. From her location, she
watched the men work with the satellite imaging. She was so lost in
thought, she didn’t notice Jessie until he spoke.

“
Boo.” He laughed when she
startled. “I always wanted to say that.”

She smiled at him.

“
Bet you wondered where I’ve
been,” he said.

She nodded while taking a drink of
water.

“
I was bored with being
stuck in rooms.”

She laughed. Jesse had been her constant
companion last fall.

“
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe?”
she mumbled into her water bottle.

“
Walls. Count the walls.
You’ve forgotten.”

She shrugged her ‘What else is new?’

“
Two ways in and two ways
out?”

She looked at him.

“
You're right," he responded
to her look. "The second exits were determined to be security risks
in the 1980s. They were cemented in. But remember who made these
rooms?”

Alex smiled.

“
I found a tunnel, but I
can’t figure out how it connects to the room.” Noting the smile on
Alex’s face, he said, “I figured you’d know how to find the
door.”

She stretched her neck side to side to
indicate her lack of certainty.

“
Well, Zack is confident you
will get out. He’s been ordered to return to base, but he hasn’t
gone. The winds are picking up so he’ll have to leave
soon.”

Alex nodded. She glanced at Jessie.

“
You’re welcome,” he said.
“Better get going lazy butt.”

Taking a drink of water, Alex walked from
wall to wall. Each wall was supposed to be marked – eeny, meeny,
miny, moe.

Dropping her head
back, she noticed a diamond with four boxes drawn into the cement
near the ceiling. Walking from wall to wall, the diamonds were
repeated. Every diamond shape had the same four letters within the
square – E, M, m, M. The letters rotated around the diamond. The
south wall had an ‘E’ in the square at the upper point of the
diamond. A capital ‘M’ held that position on the east wall. North
wall’s diamond had a small ‘m’ at its point where as the west wall
had another capital ‘M.’

Eeny, Meeny, miny, Moe.

The exit was in the north wall.

“
Ok,” Alex said. “Let’s pack
up and get out of here. The Jakker isn’t going to be in the air
much longer. We need to get going.”

Every face gawked at her. She smiled.

“
To answer your question,
Captain Mc Clenaghan,” Alex said. “These rooms were built in the
early 1930s. As you can imagine, there was a tremendous political
unrest during the Depression. The rooms were designed to hold
portions of the government for an extended period of time. There’s
one in almost every state. The rooms are connected via telephone
and wire. The government could run in hiding.

“
Although the Army Corps of
engineers designed the rooms, they were built by individual
contractors. In most cases, they were built by people who had
experience covering their tracks.”

Alex looked from face to face. She saw only
skepticism. Raz’s face pinched as if she had lost her mind.

“
The rooms were built by
bootleggers!” Alex smiled. “They knew the rooms would never be
used. The bootleggers built then used the rooms to store alcohol.
Remember, Prohibition was the law during the Depression. They found
forgotten cases of bourbon when they remodeled in the
1980s.”

“
Troy, I need you to
distribute the field protective masks; the ones with the
mini-oxygen tanks. Vince? Can you make sure everyone is hydrated?
Matthew? Will you tell Cheyenne we are getting out? Guards? Secure
your prisoner for transport. Remember, the forest is on
fire!”

Raz was about to intervene when she said,
“Get moving! That’s an order.”

F

CHAPTER FIVE

“
Why is the resolution of
every B horror movie so anti-climatic?” Raz asked.

He stood between Matthew and Troy watching
Alex work. Standing on a chair, Alex played eeny, meeny, miny, moe
with the square at the top of the north wall.

“
Because it’s a resolution?”
Troy replied. “Alex, have you found a...”

Alex hit the last square and there was a
soft click. A door sized one-inch depression appeared in the wall.
Alex cursed.

“
Our exit is covered...” She
started.

Troy punctured the depression with the knife
from his mini-tool. The small blade stuck in the dry wall. Pulling
a nine inch bowie knife from its sleeve on his leg, Matthew held
the larger knife up to Troy.

“
Now, this is a knife.”
Matthew gave his best Crocodile Dundee.

“
Don’t start dissing my
mini-tool or...”

“
OLIVAS. MAC CLENAGHAN.”
Alex jumped down from her chair. “Knock it off.”

Mumbling, ‘He started it,’ the men cut the
dry wall around the door. Raz grabbed pieces and threw them off to
the side. They revealed a metal sliding door.

“
Hutchins? Tell the Jakker
we’ll be five minutes,” Alex said.

Vince relayed the message to Alex’s Sergeant
then disconnected her pocket computer.

“
Gas masks. Check to make
sure your oxygen is working. Check the person next to
you.”

The men put on their gas masks then checked
each other.

“
Special Forces first,” Alex
commanded. “Prisoner in the middle. Agent Rasmussen and Captain
Hutchins and I will take the back.”

Sliding open the metal door, Troy revealed
another concrete door. He groaned. Alex swatted him out of the way.
There was a combination lock on the door. She opened the padlock
then stepped aside. Matthew and Troy pulled open the door.

“
Everyone. Guns out. We do
not know what we’ll encounter. Let’s make certain we are on guard.”
Seeing Jessie ahead, she said, “Ok. Go.”

Alex put on her mask when Matthew and Troy
ran down the tunnel. Raz checked her oxygen. Reaching a turn, Troy
ran ahead. Matthew signaled for the Weasel and his guards to enter
the tunnel. Alex watched their backs as they moved down the tunnel.
Raz nudged Alex into the tunnel.

They heard the sharp report of machine
gunfire.

“
Go,” Alex
yelled.

Raz and Vince ran down the tunnel. Using all
her strength, Alex yanked the cement door closed then reset the
lock. Running down the tunnel, she found Raz waiting for her. They
ran together down the rest of the tunnel.

“
They were shooting so Zack
would notice them.” Raz shouted through the mask. “They are going
up on wires.”

“
Can you make a wire?” Alex
asked.

“
No other option,” Raz
said.

Alex shook her head at his usual response to
his back pain. She opened her mouth to ask again about his option
to have surgery then realized it was pointless. He was going to do
what he was going to do.

They slowed at the entrance. Troy and
Matthew had hacked enough space to step around the enormous
Cottonwood tree trunk that grew over the tunnel’s entrance. On
fire, the tree dropped flame and ember in the opening. Raz stepped
a leg through the opening. Pressing his chest against the
smoldering tree trunk, he shifted to pull his other leg
through.

His back seized. With Alex pushing on one
side, and Vince pulling on the other, they managed to get him
through opening.

When Alex stepped, her left hip cramped.
Vince pulled her through the opening. They stood in a small
clearing surrounded by burning timber. She pointed to the wire.
Vince clipped himself to the wire and went up with Raz.

Her forgotten ear bud squealed then began
working.

“
Heya Alex,” Zack said.
“I’ve got everyone. You gonna hike out?”

Alex waved up to him. She saw movement in
the passenger compartment and Troy slid down with a wire. Hooking
her to the wire, he wrapped himself around her.

“
To what do I owe this
pleasure,” Alex yelled through her mask.

“
Lost a bet,” he laughed.
“Your hip’s off. I didn’t think you could make the
wire.”

She smiled her thanks. At the passenger
compartment, the men pulled Alex and Troy into the compartment.
They piled their gear and masks into a cargo container then took
their seats.

“
Where to?” Zack asked
through the intercom.

“
Super Max,” Alex replied.
“We’re taking this one home.”

“
WAIT!” The Weasel
screamed.

Troy pulled the helicopter door closed and
the men clicked into their seats. Following Alex’s lead, they
ignored the Weasel protests. The helicopter flew across Southern
Colorado then slowed as they approached the United States
Penitentiary Administration Maximum Facility.

“
Last chance,” Alex said.
“Talk now or forget it.”

The Weasel motioned her to sit next to him
on the helicopter. She responded by forcing him to sit next to her.
Untaped and undocumented, for the remainder of the trip, the Weasel
told Alex everything he knew about the murder of the Fey Special
Forces Team. When the helicopter landed, the Weasel’s mouth closed.
Without saying another word, he and his guards left the
helicopter.

“
What was that?” Raz
asked.

Alex shook her head. Buckling into her seat,
she stared out the window at the dark clouds of the snowstorm.

What was that indeed?

FFFFF

Two hours later

Tuesday Night
March 25 – 7:30 P.M. MDT

Military Intelligence, Buckley Air Force
Base

Alex waited until the last of the men
checked through medical before returning to her office. She sent
her Sergeant home, shut off the phones then began filing out the
stack of paperwork on her desk. Every assignment came with at least
one stack of papers. This year, she and the men had completed one
stupid assignment after another until the paperwork towered on
Alex’s desk. Flipping on her coffee maker, she settled in for a
long night.

The coffee maker had finished its last
burble when a coffee mug entered her line of site. She looked up to
see her boss, Colonel Howard Gordon. He was wearing a dark cap and
his overcoat as if he stopped by on his way home.

“
I was surprised you didn’t
look up when I came in,” he said. “Fascinating paper
work?”

“
Oh...” She sighed. “I fill
in the boxes while I think about something else. I was miles
away.”

He sat down across from her.

“
How did it go today?” he
asked.

“
Which part?”

He laughed.

“
You might have missed the
reports, but there was an incident while attempting to interview
the Weasel.” Alex shrugged. “I know you’re busy.”

“
Yes, Major. I missed
entirely the destruction of a national wilderness area.”

“
I guess that’s not funny,”
she said. Holding up a stack of pages, she added, “But it does
provide for some excellent paperwork opportunities!”