Finding North (45 page)

Jesse nodded.

“
I remember
something . . .” Alex shook her head. “Zutterberg
says I was looking into why our bees had died. I was checking with
beekeepers around the world, wherever I was working, to see if they
had any ideas.”

“
Sounds familiar,” Jesse
said and then shrugged. “But I don’t really know.”

Alex nodded and kept
reading.

“
He said we’d stopped at
the honey stand on our way back,” Alex said.
“And . . . uh . . . ‘The targets ran
into an identical situation as a month before. Targets entered,
stayed for five minutes, and left visibly shaken.’ Any
ideas?”

“
We
saw . . .”

“
Bodies,” Alex said at the
same time Jesse said, “Corpses.”

“
I remember blood,” Alex
nodded. “The beekeepers had been murdered at their hives. There
were sunflowers . . .”

“
The honey stand was in a
sunflower field,” Jesse said. “And the beekeepers were
dead.”

Alex nodded. She scowled
and looked off into the end of the room. Squinting, she looked
up.

“
I think it happened
before.” Alex rubbed her head. “I can’t remember.”

“
Sounds like Zutterberg
thought it did,” Jesse said. “What does he say about this
incident?”

“
He says that we went
another mile and pulled over,” Alex said. “Zack came to get us, and
the team left Serbia. He lost us, so he went back to the sunflower
field.”

Alex fell silent as she
read. She closed her eyes for a moment and then
squinted.

“
What?”

“
He said that, like the
last time, he went back to the sunflower field and found nothing
amiss,” Alex said. “The beekeepers were working their hives, and
the honey-stand attendants were coming off break. He was confused
as to what had spooked us. ‘Sergeant Hargreaves and Sergeant Abreu
are trained, experienced soldiers. I saw no reason for their
immediate extraction.’”

“
It was a set-up,” Jesse
said.

Alex nodded.

“
But why?” Jesse
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Alex said.
“Clearly, it freaked me out. Do you think it was a joke? You know,
like the lighter?”

“
You mean, people we don’t
know pretend to be dead to trick us?” Jesse asked. “No
way.”

“
Then, why?”

“
I don’t think we ever
knew,” Jesse said.

“
Creepy,” Alex
nodded.

“
Totally creepy,” Jesse
said. “What are you thinking?”

“
Right now?” Alex
asked.

Her voice was a little
loud, and she glanced at the boys. They were still asleep. Jesse
nodded.

“
I think I collected all
of this sunflower stuff to remind me,” Alex said.

“
Of?”

“
Of the puzzle,” Alex
said. “I don’t think I ever figured it out. I mean, I clearly got
the sunflower and the compass rose,
but . . .”

Alex’s head bobbed up and
down in an unconscious nod.

“
The tattoos. The graves,”
Alex squinted and looked up at Jesse. “The
sunflowers . . . whatever Charlie saw in all those
cases that I . . . add that to Linear A, and you
get . . .”

“
They thought you knew,”
Jesse said. “They thought we were on track to uncover their
plan.”

“
I . . .”
Alex swallowed hard. Horrified, she couldn’t finish her statement.
Her eyes stared straight ahead.

“
You realize that means
the ugly bee must be a part of this,” Jesse said.

“
I . . .”
Alex nodded. “ . . .killed everybody.”

“
No, you didn’t,” Jesse
said. His tone was mocking, almost cruel. “
They
killed
everyone . . .”

“ 
. . .
because they couldn’t risk anyone finding out,” Alex
nodded.

“
Right,” Jesse
said.

“
That’s why they killed
Eniac, Zutterberg . . .” Alex said.
“Philippe . . .”

“
It’s why they want to
kill you,” Jesse said.

“
Human life means nothing
to them,” Alex whispered.

Jesse nodded.

“
Listen,” Jesse said.
“Maria just woke up and is looking for me.”

“
Go,” Alex
said.

“
You’ll read the rest of
it? See if anything else comes back?” Jesse asked. “I’ll be back
when the kids get to school.”

Alex nodded.

“
Don’t you give up,” Jesse
said.

“
I won’t,” she said, and
he disappeared.

Alex settled in to read
about her own life. Some of the information came from Zutterberg
himself. Some of it was collected off satellites and drones, or
from his agents. There were pictures and audio files. With the
sound off, she watched a video of a time she’d confronted
Zutterberg. Alex smiled at her own arrogance. The girl on the video
thought she was invincible.

She touched the image of
her own young face and sighed. In a few short weeks, lessons
wrought by bullets from the AK-47 would shatter her life and age
that girl beyond her years. In a few short weeks, she would change
so radically as to be unrecognizable to herself only a few years
later.

But the girl on the video
knew she was smart, strong, and extremely capable. She was unafraid
and righteous in her indignation. Alex gave herself a sad smile and
returned to the files.

When she finished going
through Zutterberg’s file, she compared his version of her life
with the transcripts from the large team journal she’d saved.
Zutterberg was able to fill in missing details in the team journal,
and the team journal filled in missing information in Zutterberg’s
file.

“
Hey,” Troy poked his head
in the door. “Any idea where my sons are? They managed to disappear
overnight.”

Alex lifted her arms to
show Hector James and Hermes sleeping on her lap.

“
God, I knew I shouldn’t
let them sleep down here,” Troy said. “Sorry.”

“
They’re wonderful,” Alex
said. “Don’t worry. Everything is fine.”

“
Come on, guys,” Troy
said.

He woke Hector James and
then Hermes.

“
Call the bathroom!”
Hermes said and ran out of the office.

“
Hey!” Troy ran after his
son.

Hector James looked at
Alex for a moment.

“
I had this wonderful
dream,” Hector James said.

Alex smiled.

“
I dreamed of Mom,” Hector
James said. “She was so beautiful. Even the photos don’t show how
pretty she was. She kind of radiated beauty.”

“
She did,” Alex smiled.
“What did she say?”

“
She told me that I was
beautiful, perfect, and that she would always love me,” Hector
James said. “She used to say: ‘Hector James, you are beautiful,
perfect, and I love you.’ But this time she said, ‘Hector James,
you are beautiful, perfect in every way, and I will always love
you.’ She said I was perfect in
every
way
, and she’d
always
love me. Always. No matter
what.”

The boy nodded.

“
Of course,” Alex said.
“Me, too.”

Hector James looked toward
the door when Troy called his name.

“
She said to tell
you . . .” Hector James looked at Alex’s face. He
smiled, “She used to say this, too.”

“
What?”

“
She used to say, ‘You
can’t be responsible for what you don’t know.’ She said I should
tell you that.” Hector James smiled. “Then she said, ‘It only takes
one person to stop a freight train, but only when they have help.’
Isn’t that weird?”

Alex hugged the boy. Troy
called Hector James again, and he got up.

“
Everything depends on you
remembering,” Hector James said.

“
What did you
say?”

“
It’s just something I
remembered,” Hector James turned at the door. “Everything depends
on you remembering, Alex.”

Alex blinked.

FF

She was freezing cold. She
saw the old one-by-eight joists supporting the first floor. She was
lying in the doorway of her office, bleeding to death. Her right
shoulder screamed with pain.

Dahlia was standing over
her. Jesse was standing beside her.

“
We’re here to remind
you,” Jesse had said.

“
Everything depends on
your remembering,” Dahlia had said. “Remember, Alex.”

FF

Alex gave a quick shake of
her head, and the image vanished. Hector James was gone. She let
out a breath.

She was sitting on the
loveseat at the end of her office. The gas fireplace was going. Her
lap was warm from the computer and the boys who’d rested against
it.

After all this time, Alex
finally understood.

F

Chapter
Thirty-one

Two days later

Tuesday
afternoon

May 24 — 1:17 p.m. Cuba DT
(11:17 a.m. MDT)

Camp Delta, Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba

Alex glanced at Neev, who
was standing on her left. They were looking through a one-way
mirror at Erin’s face. Her long red hair was brushed up into a
French knot. She wore casual but elegant clothing that accentuated
her early pregnancy. Her new diamond wedding ring was matched by
her mother’s diamond earrings. Using a language he’d understand,
she wanted Marcos to know that she’d moved on.

Behind Alex and Neev,
Helen and Samantha were whispering about something. Alex looked at
them, and they blushed. Clearly, they were whispering about her.
Raz came into the room and nodded to Alex.

In order to record the
interaction, they’d set up their own surveillance cameras. One
would show Marcos’s face, while the other was outside the door.
Alex planned to manage the interview and team, while everyone else
was told to focus on taking care of Erin.

“
We’re ready,” Alex said
into a microphone feed to Erin. “Are you?”

Erin gave an
almost-imperceptible nod.

“
You can back out at any
time,” Alex repeated what she had said over and over
again.

Erin gave the same
imperceptible nod.

“
Okay, Erin, love,” Neev
said. “Let’s take a breath . . .”

Erin’s chest rose with her
deep breath.

“
Hold it,” Neev said.
“One, two, three, four. Who are you?”

“
Erin Hargreaves-Mac
Clenaghan,” Erin said. “Safe and protected.”

“
Safe and protected,”
Helen and Samantha repeated. Neev nudged Alex. She joined the
chorus, “Safe and protected.”

Erin’s head moved in a
nod. Alex looked up at the surveillance monitor.

“
He’s outside the door,”
Alex said. “Remember, Royce and Vince are bringing him because they
are Navy. You won’t recognize them, but it’s them. Trece and White
Boy are at the door and can be inside in one second
flat.”

“
Colin?” Erin
asked.

Because Matthew was too
close to the situation, he’d agreed to stay in Florida. Colin was
Erin’s key support person.

“
He’s . . .” Alex paused. Colin slipped into
the room. “He’s right here beside me.”

“
Safe and protected,” Erin
said.

“
We’ve pulled straws to
see who gets to kill Marcos,” Raz said. “Colin won. But we think he
rigged the straws.”

Erin chuckled.

“
All right,” Alex said.
“Here we go.”

There was a knock at the
door, and Erin jumped to her feet. Royce and Vince dragged Marcos
into the room. Royce and Vince were dressed in black jumpsuits with
balaclavas and their colored scarves wrapped over their heads. They
wore black gloves over their hands and black shoes. The skin around
their eyes was tinted dark green, giving their brown eyes, the only
exposed part of them, an unearthly look. There was a hood over
Marcos’s head. His legs were shackled together, as were his hands.
He wore a loose cotton
shalwar
kameez
.

Royce and Vince dropped
him into the chair across from Erin. His back was to the mirror.
Alex checked the surveillance camera to make sure they had a good
view of his face. They locked his leg shackles to eyelets in the
floor and his wrists onto the metal table in front of him. Royce
pulled off the hood. Erin gasped.

Marcos’s hair was long.
His long beard fell to his chest. He looked every bit the radical
extremist. Erin smiled to cover her surprise.

He spit at her. Erin
hopped back, and the spittle landed on the table.

“
You asked me to come all
this way,” Erin said in an even tone. Then she said what they had
practiced. “I came all this way because of our history. That’s all.
If you are nasty, I will leave. If I leave before you answer
questions, you’ll void your sentence reduction.”