Finding North (10 page)

“
You thought you had
died,” John said.

“
Everyone was there,”
Alex’s voice became heavy. “Charlie and Paul
and . . . Jax and Y and Mike
and . . . even Larry and Dwight . . .
Dahlia, too. They were all there.”

“
Where?” he
asked.

“
Standing there,” Alex
said. “Along the wall of the pool, and
the . . .”

“
The cricket,” John
finished her sentence. His voice rose with concern. “You saw the
cricket this morning?”

“
He was sitting on the
bottom of the pool, waiting for me,” Alex said. “He reached out his
hand and told me to take the hand. I thought he meant
his
hand, but my
dad . . .”

Alex sighed.

“
Then it was light and
sound and everyone yelling and water and cold . . .
And my father,” Alex whispered.
“But . . .”

“
But?” John
asked.

“
Are they waiting for me
in the pool?” Alex’s voice filled with sorrow. Tears slipped out of
her guarded eyes. His hands went around her shoulders, and his
fingers held on tight. “Did I fail them
by . . .?”

“
Not a chance. No,” John
said. “I knew every single one of them. They would have wanted you
to be here, right here, with me.”

Alex sniffed.

“
Are you
feeling . . .?” John started.

“
Suicidal?” Alex asked.
“No. My life is wonderful. You, our babies, our friends, this
home . . . No. I’m not ready to go.”

“
Then, what is it?” John
asked in a low tone.

“
I’ve been so alone,” Alex
whispered. “Since Mom gave me the book. It’s just been me and that
stupid language. Just me. I barely see you; I barely see anybody. I
haven’t had twin time with Max in . . . months. I
miss you. And if I’d died, I would miss you so much, so much, much
more.”

He leaned over and kissed
her cheek.

“
The cricket said that I
do better when I collaborate,” Alex said. “‘You do better work when
you collaborate.’ That’s what he said. And I wondered if there are
people who can help me, but . . .”

“
You’ll have to travel
more,” John said.

“
I miss you,” Alex said.
“I miss Joey. I miss Máire.”

John chuckled and pulled
Alex close.

“
I don’t want to sleep
even a wink and miss my time with you,” Alex said.

“
Then, let’s not sleep,”
John said. “I’m scheduled off work tomorrow to cover Quince’s
holiday.”

“
I can sleep on the
plane,” Alex nodded.

“
But let’s not mope,
either,” John said. “I’ll miss you, too, but the moping
is . . . a waste. We’ve done this before, and it
only ends . . .”

“
In big fights,” Alex
finished his statement.

“
Exactly,” he
said.

“
What would you like to
do?” Alex asked.

“
I can think of a few
things,” he said in a throaty whisper.

Alex smiled and sat up to
face him. Leaning forward, he kissed her.

“
We need to feed the
babies around two,” Alex said.

“
Do you think we’ll have
enough time?” John asked.

“
Probably not,” Alex
laughed. “But we can always start again when they go back to
sleep.”

“
I like the way you
think,” he said.

F

Chapter
Seven

Monday morning

May 16 — 11:24 a.m. EDT
(9:24 a.m. MDT)

New York City, New
York

“
Here we are,” said
Orchid, the young female Homeland Security agent, as the limousine
pulled into the loading zone in front of a building.

She waved to the building
on their right. Anxious to prove herself, Orchid had met Alex, Raz,
and Colin at the airport. Orchid had Asian features and
hipster-short, purple hair, a nose ring, and skintight black
clothing. Alex guessed she was first-generation Chinese. When she
smiled, she looked like one of those
Disney
fairies. Of course, one look
at Raz, and she became all giggles and batting
eyelashes.

“
I’ll show you up.” Orchid
gave a big, sparkling-white smile.

“
That won’t be necessary,”
Raz said.

“
Oh,” Orchid said. “You’d
like me to brief you here? In the car?”

Sitting on the other side
of Raz, Alex took his hand and squeezed it. He gave a slight
nod.

“
Why don’t you bring us up
to speed, Orchid?” Alex asked.

“
Here?” Orchid
asked.

“
We’re just in from
Denver,” Alex said. “What would you recommend?”

“
Gosh, I know what that’s
like.” The woman’s shoulders shifted back, and she sat up
straighter. “Travel is so tough. Especially from the west. It took
me forever to get used to being here in New York.”

Orchid looked at Colin and
then at Alex. She carefully avoided looking at Raz.

“
I’ll show you up,” Orchid
said, and stepped out of the limousine.

Raz gave a soft groan.
Colin chuckled. The driver got their bags, and they went inside the
building. The CIA had picked up this converted warehouse for a song
when the economy had crashed. The inside of the building had been
demolished and the foundation secured. The agency had converted the
warehouse into civilian apartments. The sale of the apartments
easily paid for the care and maintenance of three floors of secure
apartments, including a secure elevator. Completely self-funded,
the building was off the budget and away from Congressional
oversight. With an unobstructed view of the river, the “Warehouse,”
as it was called by intelligence agents, was considered to be the
best safe house in town.

Orchid introduced the
ex-military-turned-CIA-operative doorman as “Tom.”

“
Mark?” Colin
asked.

“
Hargreaves!” said “Tom”
the doorman. “I thought that was you.”

“
You know each other?”
Orchid looked horrified.

“
Special Forces,” Colin
said. “Iraq.”

“
It’s a small world after
all,” “Tom” said.

Orchid got more and more
frustrated when Colin and Tom played the “What happened
to . . .?” game by the minute. Unable to tolerate it
any more, she regained control by reminding the doorman of his
place. They were in the secure elevator on the way to the apartment
in no time. On the fourth floor, Orchid took them down a long
hallway and opened a door at the end.

“
This is very nice,” Alex
said, to ease Orchid’s anxiety.

The loft apartment had a
master bedroom for Alex and Raz, and an additional smaller bedroom
for Colin. It was furnished to give the air of wealthy but not
pretentious. The floor-to-ceiling bulletproof windows had an
unobstructed view of the river.

“
Do you like it?” Orchid
brightened with Alex’s compliment. “I took the liberty of acquiring
a wardrobe for each of you.”

“
Thank you,” Alex
said.

Raz went to the kitchen to
check for plates, pans, and cooking utensils. He was pleasantly
surprised to find the kitchen fully stocked.

“
I had the procurement
team get groceries as well, Agent Rasmussen,” said Orchid, her
voice rising at the end of her statement. She cleared her throat
and blushed. “You should find all of your favorite foods
there.”

Raz opened the
refrigerator and nodded.

“
That was kind of you,” he
said and rewarded her with a handsome smile.

Orchid looked like she was
going to faint.

“
Would you like to give us
your update?” Alex asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Orchid said.
“We’ve analyzed Carlos Santalogo. He was born in Cuba and moved to
the US when he was five or six to live with a maternal uncle. No
one is quite sure which uncle. His parents remained in Cuba until
he was in his twenties. He’s married and has one child, with one on
the way. According to his Captain, he took the detective’s exam
three times before passing. It looked like he wasn’t going to make
detective when some old-timer . . .
uh . . . Dexter Zeno was his name. What a
name?”

“
Sounds Greek,” Colin
said.

“
Anyway, this Zeno is an
old-timer with a decent arrest and case-closure record. Before they
brought Santalogo up, he’d been on desk duty. Something about
losing a partner in 9-11. I guess he never got over it. His file
says that he was given the chance to retire or train a new
detective. He took the latter, and Santalogo became a
detective.”

Raz cleared his throat. He
took out the espresso maker and started to look for
coffee.

“
It doesn’t sound like you
found anything,” Alex said.

“
Just that,” Orchid said.
“Santalogo has been on the DHS watch list because he still has ties
to Cuba.”

“
Which are?” Raz
asked.

“
He has siblings in Cuba,”
Orchid said. She looked around the apartment in case someone was
listening. “One of his siblings works for the government of
Cuba.”

Orchid nodded as if that
explained everything.

“
What does his sibling
do?” Colin asked.

“
Oh,” Orchid said. “I’m
not sure. Uh . . .”

She cleared her throat and
began reciting facts.

“
Santalogo likes to surf
the ’net after his children go to bed,” Orchid said. “He’s partial
to Reddit, you know the site that . . .”

“
We’ve heard of it,” Raz
said.

“
Sure,” Orchid
nodded.

“
Porn? Drugs?” Alex asked.
“Anything we should know about?”

“
No drugs,” Orchid said.
“Some porn. His email indicates that he may be having an affair,
but it’s inconclusive. The NSA looked into him after we flagged
him. He doesn’t fit their algorithm for a terrorist.”

“
Thank you for your
assessment,” Alex said. “Do you know where to find him?”

“
His address is in the
file here,” Orchid said. “One interesting thing.”

“
Yes?” Alex
asked.

“
His partner owns a
building not far from here,” Orchid said. “Inherited it from his
father. I guess his family’s been in Tribeca for a long time.
There’s something about the building that makes it difficult to
surveil.”

“
Why would anyone bother?”
Alex asked.

“
The partner,
uh . . . Detective Zeno, fits the NSA algorithm,”
Orchid said. “But mostly because of Santalogo. No one is real sure
how or why he picked this Cuban for his partner. We tried to
interview Detective Zeno, but we could never catch up with him.
Cagey guy, but all those old guys are. They’ve just seen too
much.”

“
Makes sense,” Raz
said.

“
Should I bring him in?”
Orchid asked. “Put the screws to the old guy to get intel on
Santalogo?”

“
No, thank you,” Alex
said.

“
We’re here to take a
look,” Raz smiled. “We want to assess the situation before we take
any drastic measures.”

“
Thank you for your hard
work,” Alex said.

“
You’re after this
Santalogo guy?” Orchid asked.

“
We’ve been looking into
all Cubans in the US,” Raz said. “The president keeps saying he
will close Gitmo. He wants to be sure that the Cubans in the US are
not going to cause any trouble. We don’t want the Bay of Pigs all
over again.”

“
Good point.” Orchid
nodded as if Raz’s nonsensical logic was grounds for international
policy.

“
Colin?” Alex asked.
“Colin will escort you out. Thank you again. This is lovely, more
than we could have ever asked for.”

“
Great intel,” Raz said.
“Gorgeous place to stay. Thank you.”

“
I’m happy to help.”
Orchid beamed at the praise. “Call me if you need
anything.”

She looked Colin up and
down before shooting a glance to Raz.

“
Anything,” she
repeated.

Colin followed her out of
the loft. Alex went to Raz and put her hands around his neck. He
held her close.

“
Surveillance?” Alex asked
in his ear.

“
Four cameras in every
room.” Raz’s eyes indicated the location of the four video cameras
in this room. “We have to assume there’s audio.”

Alex nodded.

“
Ammunition?” Alex
asked.

“
Baseboard cabinet below
kitchen bar,” Raz said. “Military-grade shotguns and explosives as
well.”

Alex nodded.

“
Closets?” Raz
asked.

She kissed his cheek and
broke off from his embrace. He tapped her rear. She gave him a
suggestive smile and went into the bedroom. She opened the large
walk-in closet. It was filled with gorgeous gowns and designer
suits in her size. While not the special luxury of Claire Martins’
designs, the clothing was perfectly suited to her. She did a
cursory check for GPS tags in the seams of the clothing. Sure
enough, every gown and outfit had a tag. She checked Raz’s closet
before going into the small bedroom to check Colin’s closet. Raz
looked up when she came out into the main open area of the loft.
She nodded.