In the Grey (60 page)

“
I will find out,” Alex
said.

“
For me,” Nazo
said.

“
Save your breath,” Alex
said.

“
I don’t have much,” Nazo
gave her a sweet smile. “Farooq wanted to ask you to be an aunt or
special friend to our babies. They would not exist if not for you.
Two months ago, we signed papers – if anything should happen to us
and our family, you were to become their guardian. We were so
happy; excited to tell you. I couldn’t wait for my babies to
arrive. But now . . .”

As if gathering her
strength, Nazo took a long slow inhale.

“
Now, I must ask
you . . . will you take them back to America with
you? Will you love them as your own?”

“
Nazo,
I . . . ,” Alex said.

Dalal touched her shoulder
and Alex stood up.

“
She won’t make it, Alex,”
Dalal said in her ear. “There is nothing anyone could do. Even the
best hospital in all the world will not cure her broken heart.
She’s only hung on for you. She hasn’t the strength to deliver, and
she won’t survive a cesarean. The babies are alive, for
now.”

“
Don’t leave my children
here, where evil has removed all light from my sky,” Nazo
said.

Khudija made a small sound
and began to cry.

“
Alex, please,” Nazo
gasped with pain. Her eyes took on a feverish hue. “For
love.”

“
I will take care of
them,” Alex said.

Nazo smiled.

“
I knew you would,” Nazo
said. “It’s so nice to see Jesse again. Reminds me of spring time,
laughter, and . . . love. Everything was
so . . . glorious.”

Her eyes flicked to Alex.
For a moment, their eyes held.

“
Love them well,” Nazo
said. “Tell them . . . they
were . . . loved.”

Her eyebrows moved up and
down as if she was working something out.

“
Farooq?”

Her face broke into a
radiant smile, and she was gone.

“
I’ll take the babies
now,” Dalal said.

“
No!” Felicia screamed
from the other cot. “Oh God! No! Nazo! No!”

She tried to get out of
her cot, but Sumit ordered her to be still. Felicia started keening
with grief. Overwhelmed, Khudija looked at Alex.

“
I’ll assist here,” Alex
said. “Go to Sher.”

“
Medic?” Dalal
asked.

“
Here,” Margaret gestured
to MJ.

“
We have but a minute,”
Dalal said. “We must take the twins at once.”

They set to work. Dalal
shouted instructions as MJ began the first incisions.

“
Get me warm towels and
clothes,” Dalal yelled. She pointed to a storage cabinet. “They are
there.”

Alex started to
move.

“
No Alex, you stay,” Dalal
grabbed her arm. She gestured to Margaret, “Go.”

“
Mmp,” MJ pointed to his
incision

“
Go ahead,” Dalal said.
“We’ll take them together.”

Dalal looked at Alex. Her
eyes scanned Alex’s face.

“
This is it, my friend,
you must welcome your babies into this world, now,” Dalal said.
“Are you ready?”

“
Uh,” Alex
said.

“
Welcome to the club,”
Dalal laughed. She touched MJ, “Go ahead.”

He reached into Nazo’s
abdomen and pulled out a child. He set the baby onto the warm
clothes in Dalal’s arms.

“
God is great; there is no
God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer,”
she whispered the traditional welcome for an Islamic baby,
the
Shahādah,
into the baby’s right ear. “We have a boy.”

Dalal cleared his nose and
mouth. He howled at her efforts. Dalal set him in Alex’s arms. Alex
wrapped the child tight in the warm blankets. Margaret put more
cloth blankets in Dalal’s arms, and MJ set another child
there.

“
God is great; there is no
God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer,”
she said in the baby’s right ear. “Not identical like their mother
had hoped, but beautiful nonetheless. We have a girl.”

Dalal made quick work of
cleaning her mouth and nose. Alex took the girl from Dalal before
she realized her arms were full. The girl began to cry.

“
Let me help,” Leena
appeared at her side. She held out her arms for a child.

“
No,” Alex said. “It will
only make them upset.”

“
But your chest, sir,”
Leena said.

“
Alex, you’re bleeding,”
Dalal said. “First lesson of parenting: hand off when you can. Let
the girls have them.”

“
You’ll keep them near
each other,” Alex said.

“
We will,” Margaret
said.

Alex moved to give the boy
to Leena and was unable to let him go. Leena gave her a soft
smile.

“
It’s only for a moment,”
Leena said.

Alex kissed his face and
gave him to Leena. She had a stronger reaction to letting go of the
girl nestled in her arms.

“
Sir,” Margaret said.
“When our souls meet again, we feel the loss of all the time we’ve
spent apart.”

Alex turned to look at
her.

“
Please,” Margaret
said.

Alex kissed the girl’s
cheek. The moment she set the girl in Margaret’s arms, the room
began to spin.

“
Trece!” Margaret
yelled.

Trece caught Alex before
she hit the ground. He lifted her into his arms. MJ blocked him and
held up a blood-soaked finger. Trece nodded. MJ wiped his hands on
a towel and doused them in antibiotic gel. He unzipped Alex’s coat
and pushed through her clothing to look at the wound. He pointed to
himself and out of the tent.

“
He has to take care of
Alex now,” Trece said to Dalal.

“
There’s not much left to
do here,” Dalal said. “I will close up and care for Nazo. She will
be ready for burial tomorrow.”

MJ nodded. Trece carried
Alex out of the medical tent, through the ice and snow, and back
onto the helicopter. He set her on the floor between the
seats.

“
Go!” Trece
yelled.

Zack lifted off for Bagram
Air Base.

F

Wednesday
evening

December 15 – 7:17 p.m.
AFT

Bagram Air Base, Kabul,
Afghanistan

Alex opened her eyes. She
was lying in a hospital bed. The babies were in a large double
incubator next to her bed. She sat up and scooted to the edge of
the bed to look at them.

“
They’re sleeping,” a man
said.

Alex had to force her eyes
away to see who was talking. Dr. Sumit Roy sat in a chair in the
corner of the room. He smiled at her.

“
That’s some scar,” Alex
gestured to the line she’d once created across his forehead.
“Sorry.”

“
Actually, I should thank
you,” Sumit said. “This scar has allowed me to leave my old life
and pursue this one.”

He got up and came to the
bed.

“
They are quite safe,”
Sumit said. “Let me help you.”

He helped her back under
the covers. He checked her IV lines before sitting down
again.

“
You’re out of
intelligence?” Alex asked.

“
I’m obviously in enough
to gain access to the base and this hospital,” Sumit smiled. “But
yes. I am out, mostly. When I came home, after our little
adventure, Dalal asked me if we could go back to the life we’d had
when we were first married. We waited until our second left for
college. The younger two were excited for a change of scenery, so
we left.”

Alex smiled.

“
You knew that,” Sumit
said.

“
It’s in your file,” Alex
said.

“
It’s a funny thing,”
Sumit said. “As a parent, you do things because you want your kids
to have everything you didn’t have, everything they desire, and
most of all, a chance to live in a safer world. Of course, all they
want is you – your time, your love, your wisdom, if only to ignore
it. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined my
spoiled-rotten, London-raised children would be happy here, but
they love it.”

Alex smiled. She turned
her head to see the babies.

“
I tell you this as you
are a parent now,” Sumit said.

“
I am?” Alex asked. “What
about Nazo’s family?”

“
The Taliban killed the
entire village. No survivors. They burned the houses to the
ground,” Sumit said. “We didn’t tell Nazo and Felicia, because they
were in such bad shape.”

“
And Felicia?” Alex
asked.

“
Heartbroken; angry,” he
said. “She will return to America now. They were truly a beautiful
family.”

“
So brutal, even for the
Taliban,” Alex said. “Any idea why?”

“
Felicia said they were
looking for Americans – CIA spies,” Sumit said.

“
How did they know?” Alex
asked. “Nazo kept saying that. How did they know?”

“
I’m out of that
business,” Sumit shook his head. “But I know you’ll figure it
out.”

“
How do you like being a
doctor again?” Alex asked.

“
I love it,” Sumit said.
“I love being this kind of doctor – no magic pills that are
supposed to cure everything, no insurance companies or government
service to beg services from, nothing but straight forward, basic
medicine. It’s wonderful. Dalal is in heaven. Once in a while, the
Medecins Sans Frontières come through to remind me that I don’t
want to return to my old life.”

“
I know that feeling,”
Alex smiled.

“
Yes,” Sumit said. “I bet
you do.”

“
How are Sher and his
bride?” Alex asked.

“
I don’t think Khudija has
taken her eyes off Dalal even for a moment,” Sumit smiled. “And
Sher is smart, motivated, and dedicated to his people. They remind
me Dalal and I when we were first married. They are just learning
about each other, excited to be in the world, and scared to death.
I think they’ll be happy, and we’ll enjoy having them.”

“
Well, thank you,” Alex
said.

“
Actually, thank
you
. We can use the
help,” he smiled. “I should let you rest. Before I go, let me tell
you about your son and daughter.”

“
They are mine?” Alex
asked.

“
I’ll let your team tell
you about that,” he said.

She nodded.

“
The only question is
about their lungs. They are on oxygen for now,” Sumit said. “The
boy is a tiny bit stronger than the girl, but she is gaining fast.
They will need to stay under the lights for maybe a month; maybe
longer. It depends on how they do. They aren’t able to eat yet, but
that’s fairly normal for a premature birth. For what they have been
through, they are shockingly healthy.”

He smiled.

“
You are also shockingly
healthy,” he said.

“
I remember passing out,”
Alex said.

“
The body blow knocked
your stitches loose,” he said. “They operated to be sure they
didn’t miss anything. You’ve been out since the
surgery.”

“
I feel nauseous, like I
usually do after surgery,” Alex said.

“
By all means vomit,”
Sumit said. “Don’t let me stop you.”

She smiled, took the
nearby bowl, and put it on her lap.

“
Don’t let me stop you,”
Sumit said. “I’ve seen plenty of vomit in my life, and you’ve seen
plenty of mine.”

Alex threw up into the
bowl. He took the bowl and dumped it in the bathroom. He returned
with a towel.

“
I’ll see myself out,”
Sumit said.

“
Any idea what the ‘joke’s
on you’ means?” Alex asked.

“
Besides the obvious?”
Sumit asked.

Alex nodded.

“
A long time ago – gosh,
maybe even thirty years ago – there was this conversation that went
something like: ‘What if there is nothing else?’ ‘What if there’s
no answer to your questions?’ Another way of saying that is: ‘if
you believe there’s a system to all of this, then the joke’s on
you.’”

“
Chaos Theory?” Alex
asked.

“
Sure,” Sumit said.
“Individual particles or beings long for order. This order is
created out of chaos. Yet the slightest change will send everything
back to chaos. We humans like to believe there is a greater plan or
system underlying everything, when in truth, chaos is the basis of
everything.”

“
There is no deeper
meaning or system to life,” Alex said.

“
Right,” Sumit said.
“Because the foundation of everything is chaos, the smallest change
in any condition can result in vast differences in the final
outcome.”