Finding North (25 page)

Away from the fire, Alex,
Leena, Vince, and Raz created ditches in the fields to act as fire
lines. Jesse joined them to help but was uniquely ineffective
against the fire. He went to find new fires caused by the wind.
Margaret and Joseph set up a makeshift medics’ tent. After bringing
Dex to the tent, Colin and MJ set to work on the injuries created
by the quick-moving fire and an inexperienced crew. Trece and White
Boy jumped right in and were soon leading a team of firefighters.
When pickup trucks filled with young men from surrounding farms
arrived, Troy, Royce, and Matthew led the young men into other
fields to fight the new flare-ups and hot spots that Jesse
found.

They worked quickly and
efficiently, but the fire was too much for their efforts. Alex and
Raz built row after row of fire lines as the dry wind easily
whipped the hot fire past their defenses. A half-hour later, Zack
and the Kid arrived with a Chinook with a large water basket
attached and Sergeant Dusty inside. They dumped the water onto the
fire and circled to a nearby pond for more water.

The tide began to turn.
The firemen and teams of farmers, combined with the Fey Team’s
efforts, began to put the fire out. One more load of water, and the
fire had lost. Filthy and reeking of smoke, the Fey Team loaded
into the Chinook. They were in the Chinook with Dex before anyone
was able to ask them who they were or why they were there. They
left the volunteer fire crews and farmers to any remaining
flare-ups and all of the acclaim.

“
Where to?” Zack
asked.

“
New York Presbyterian,”
Colin said. “They’re expecting us.”

“
Even
I
can’t land a Chinook in the middle
of lower Manhattan, Hargreaves,” Zack said.

“
New York Heliport,”
Joseph said. “I’ve spoken with them. They’ll have an ambulance and
a police escort waiting for us.”

“
Much more reasonable,”
Zack said.

“
He seems unusually
grumpy,” Leena said.

“
I heard that,” Zack
said.

Shaking her head, Alex
walked up to the cockpit.

“
What’s going on?” Alex
asked.

The Kid turned to look at
her from the co-pilot’s chair. He shook his head.

“
What do you mean ‘What’s
going on?’” Zack snarled at her.

“
Uh . . .”
Alex said. “Me, Alex. You, Zack. We, friends.”

She heard Troy shush the
team. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that they were listening
in.

“
Friends,” Zack snorted.
“What’s that mean?”

“
Uh . . .”
Alex said. “We met in Catholic school when I was ten. My brother
Colin rearranged your face when I was sixteen, and then your
parents made you look like a movie star when I was seventeen until
I broke your nose when I was twenty-two. In between all of that,
you ate dinner and spent almost every weekend at my house almost
all of junior high and high school, even after the tragic incident
between Colin’s fists and your face.”

“
That’s right!” Zack said.
“You broke my nose. Now get the fuck off my deck.”

Alex raised her eyebrows
but didn’t move. The flight engineer leaned out of his compartment
to watch what was going on. She thought for a moment. What could
possibly make Zack this angry?

“
How’s Tina?” Alex asked
about Zack’s drug-addicted ex-wife.

“
You know what? Fuck
Tina,” Zack said. “Fuck you, too!”

Alex pointed and nodded to
Cliff. He turned off Zack’s microphone to command.

“
Teddy was at his friend
Nash’s house for the summer when we left Denver,” Alex said. “Brit
and Sam are . . .”

Zack didn’t
respond.

“
Zack, where are Brit and
Sam?” Alex asked.

“
How the fuck should I
know?” Zack asked. “It’s not like they’re
my . . .”

Zack didn’t finish the
sentence. Alex put her hands on his shoulders in a kind of
hug.

“
Can you?” Alex
asked.

“
Only for a few minutes,”
Cliff said.

“
Come on, Zack,” Alex
said. “Let’s go make out in the gunner’s compartment.”

She reached down and
unhooked his seat belt. She tugged on his shoulders. He stayed in
his seat for a moment before getting up. He took off his helmet and
followed her to the gunner’s compartment. She hugged
him.

“
What happened?” Alex
asked.

“
I’m coming off shift to
come fly for you and I get handed some papers. DNA says
Brit . . .” Zack’s voice cracked.
“And . . . and . . . Sam
aren’t . . . And I . . .”

Alex hugged
him.

“
Doesn’t matter that I’m
the only Dad they’ve ever known,” Zack said. “All the nights and
days and phone calls and . . . I’m just the military
dad. They calculated the number of hours I’ve physically spent with
them and . . . It’s . . . shit. It’s
my
whole life
,
and to them it’s . . . it’s . . .
nothing.”

“
Tina’s just trying to get
back at you,” Alex said.

“
She’s succeeded,” Zack
said. “Tina and her herd of lawyers went to Mom’s house to force a
visit. But Mom didn’t . . .
wouldn’t . . . ‘When my lawyers tell me that you get
to spend even one hour with these children, then we’ll see,’ Mom
told Tina that. Threw her out. Step-dad followed them off the
property, but Britty is hysterical, and
Sammy . . .
my
baby boy . . . Tina’s going to
take them . . .”

Alex hugged him while he
wept into her shoulder.

“
You have only one
minute.” The flight engineer stuck his head in the
compartment.

“
Listen,” Alex said. “Tina
lost custody of the children. Period. Parental rights terminated.
Period. Do we know who their fathers are?”

Zack shook his
head.

“
Tina doesn’t know?” Alex
asked.

Zack nodded.

“
Okay, then,” Alex said.
“I’ll call my sister . . .”

“
Samantha?” Zack swallowed
hard.

“
The lawyer, yes,” Alex
said. “This situation is a little outside of her wheel house, but
you know, she’d do absolutely
nothing
for you.”

Zack snorted a
laugh.

“
You are not alone,” Alex
said. “You might fly alone in that U-2 in the sky, but here on
earth, you have a team. And you have me. What more could you
want?”

Alex wiped his face with
her hands.

“
Did you tell Bestat?”
Alex asked.

“
No,” Zack shook his head.
“She’d likely eat Tina whole.”

Alex laughed.

“
I love Brit
and
Sammy as much as
Bestat or our girl, Neuth,” Zack said. “Doesn’t that count for
anything?”

“
We’ll make it count,”
Alex said.

Zack gave her a fierce hug
and walked out of the gunner’s compartment. Alex waited a moment
and followed him to the cockpit. She waited for Zack to strap in,
connect to command, and take control of the Chinook before clearing
her throat.

“
What do you want?” Zack
asked.

“
Is Bestat in New York?”
Alex asked.

“
She’s in Alexandria,”
Zack said. “Why?”

“
I need to ask her
something,” Alex said.

“
That’s weird,” Zack said.
“She said that, if you asked about her, to tell you she would
welcome your company in Alexandria.”

“
Wanna take a trip?” Alex
asked.

“
I need to clock R and R,
or I’m over my limit,” Zack said. “But let me know when you
go.”

Alex nodded and walked
back into the passenger compartment. The Fey Team
applauded.

“
What’s that for?” Alex
asked.

“
You’re a Jakker-tamer,”
Matthew said.

Alex laughed and settled
into a jump seat next to Raz. He was talking to Colin about Dex’s
prognosis, so she leaned back to rest. After a few moments, he put
his arm around her. She leaned into him.

“
Colin says he thinks Dex
is going to be all right,” Raz said. “It’s touch and go,
but . . .”

“
Good thing he found the
pellet,” Alex said.

“
Yes,” Raz
said.

“
We’ll get him to New York
Pres.,” Alex said. “Would you like to stay with him?”

“
And leave you?” Raz
asked. “Let you go to Paris by yourself?”

“
I won’t be by myself,”
Alex said. “The team is going.”

Raz shook his head. She
closed her eyes.

“
Are you going to tell
me?” Raz asked in Alex’s ear. “How’d you know where to find
Dex?”

She grinned but didn’t
look at him.

“
What if I beg?” Raz said
in a husky voice filled with longing.

Alex burst out laughing.
She looked at him, and he grinned.

“
All of the people who
were kidnapped by Romulus were killed or left for dead — we don’t
know which — within a hundred miles of where they were captured,”
Alex said. “The first was at thirty, second at fifty, third at
forty, and so on. Even numbers on the tens. There was one found at
eighty-two miles. We figured it was a mistake.
But . . .”

Alex shrugged.

“
It was always within a
radius of a hundred miles from kidnap location,” Alex said. “No
more, no less. But Interpol announced to the press that the bodies
were found in a radius of three hundred miles, usually near the
three-hundred-mile mark.”

“
Why would they do that?”
Raz asked.

“
No one knows,” Alex said.
“At the time, we thought they were trying to be smart. After all
this time, it seems kind of . . . bizarre. If you go
to the Wikipedia page, it says . . .”

“
Three hundred miles,” Raz
said. “I read that while we were waiting.”

“
Ellenburg is within the
three-hundred-mile radius and within a reasonable margin of error,”
Alex shrugged.

Raz fell silent while he
thought through what she had said.

“
Very funny,” Raz knocked
her shoulder with his. “Three hundred miles is a huge radius. There
is no way you could have picked Ellenburg out of your
hat.”

Alex laughed. Raz
smiled.

“
So . . .”
Raz said.

“
Missile silo,” Alex said.
“I did some fast research on the decommissioned missile silos when
we were looking for Larry. After finding him
and . . .” Alex cleared her throat. “Everything. The
team worked on a list of missile locations that could potentially
be used for less-savory purposes. A couple of silos in the
Plattsburg AFB field came up.”

“
I guess I remember that,”
Raz shrugged.

“
These Atlas F silos were
sold almost immediately,” Alex said. “Most of them were sold within
a week of being decommissioned in 1965. Dex’s father bought one.
After the divorce, Dex’s mother built a house on the property. Dex
grew up there.”

“
He never mentioned
growing up next to a missile silo.”

“
He might not have known
it was there,” Alex said. “At the time, most people in Ellenburg
knew there were missiles just a block from town. But they weren’t
there long — a little less than a year — and we’re talking
1965.”

“
It was a long time ago,”
Raz said.

“
Exactly,” Alex said.
“Dex’s mother moved there in the 1970s. The missiles were long gone
and the silos decommissioned. Plus, from what you’ve said, Dex
didn’t find out about all of this stuff until his father died, as
his father found out when his grandfather died, and on and
on.”

Alex shrugged.

“
How did you
know?”

“
It’s in his detailed
background,” Alex said.

“
It is?” Raz asked. “I
didn’t put it there.”

“
You didn’t create his
background,” Alex said. “I think Leena and Vince did. I gave it to
them after Dex’s name came up in connection to an old silo. This
silo is a connection to us through you. When I saw the picture, I
knew right away that it had to be the site in
Ellenburg.”

“
The picture on Dex’s
murder-investigation board?” Raz asked.

Alex nodded.

“
I didn’t remember Romulus
and the mileage thing until we were in the alley,” Alex said. “I
checked on my phone. Then it was just a gut check — was Dex here? I
thought he probably was. We knew I was right after you reviewed the
satellite intel.”

Raz nodded.

“
We’re a good team,” Alex
smiled. “With a little luck, Dex will survive the ricin. That’s not
a bad day’s work.”

Raz grinned.

“
Are we all going to
Paris?” Raz asked.

“
Paris, tomorrow. We
probably need to get to China to see if there’s anything about
Linear A in the Mogao caves, and Bestat wants to meet us in Egypt,”
Alex said. “But we have children to raise. People to talk to.
Things like that. Tomorrow, we go to Paris.”