Lean on Me (42 page)

“
Let’s have some cocoa,”
Raz said.

“
I love cocoa,” Samantha
said. “Will you make it from scratch?”

“
Is there any other way?”
Raz opened the door to his carriage house and guided Samantha
inside. “Would you like some brownies?”

“
I love brownies,” Samantha
said as the door closed.

Alex waited for a few minutes before Colin
arrived. She told him the story and he rushed into the carriage
house. Noticing she was alone, she tried to stand. She bit her lip
to keep from crying out. She dropped onto the cement bench.

“
That was dumb,” Jesse
said.

“
Had to try,” Alex
said.

“
Are you okay here?” Jesse
asked. “I should get back to the kids.”

“
Go,” Alex said. “And
thanks.”

She reached out her hand and he pressed his
against hers. For a moment, she felt the tingle of him being there.
And then he was gone. Unable to leave the patio, she lay down and
practiced her yogic breathing. Or what she called yogic breathing,
which was really breathing to the rhythm of her worries.

Only able to watch, she saw the police
arrive at the carriage house. They stayed for less than five
minutes before racing out. Around that time, one of the men from
her father’s team wandered by. A Denver Police Detective, he asked
about Samantha, listened to her words intently, and then went into
the Carriage house.

The ex-Senator was going to get all the
media attention he so richly deserved. Alex smiled at the idea of
his photo splashed all over the “awful-media.”

“
I looked out the window,”
John’s voice came from across the yard.

Alex tried to sit up but had tightened up
from lying in the cold. She lay back on the bench.

“
You won’t believe what I
saw,” John’s voice came from nearby.

His face appeared above her.

“
What did you see?” Alex
asked.

“
I saw the love of my
life,” John said. “Aren’t you the love of my life?”

“
Hmm.” Alex tapped her chin
with her index finger. “Let me see…”

John laughed.

“
Yes, I believe I am the
love of your life!” Alex beamed at him.

“
Come on, love,” John
picked her up.

Alex cried out in pain.

“
How long have you been
here?”

“
I don’t know,” Alex said.
“I was doing yogic breathing.”

“
Worrying?” John
laughed.

“
You know me so well,” Alex
said.

Hearing a sound, they looked up to see an
ambulance pull up to the carriage house. In a few moments, Samantha
was wheeled out. Raz got in behind her. For a moment, they watched
the ambulance pull out. Alex bit her lip with worry.

“
Worrying won’t help Sami,”
John said. “Let’s just thank God this phase of her life is
over.”

“
Good point,” Alex
said.

John went out the side gate.

“
Where are we going?” Alex
asked.

“
Warm room,” John said. “We
had the infrared sauna installed while you were gone. I’d like to
get you warmed up.”

“
That sounds very fun,”
Alex tugged at his collar. He kissed her lips. “What are you
planning?”

“
Draining your
wound?”

“
Ooooh,” Alex laughed.
“Talk dirty to me.”

Laughing, he opened the side door and
carried her to the basement warm room.

F

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The next day

Saturday afternoon

November 14 – 2:17 p.m. MST

Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, CO

“
I’m sorry, you’re breaking
up,” Alex nodded to Sergeant Dusty and he disconnected the call.
She lay back onto the inflatable mattress she’d set up on floor of
her office. She was receiving her push of IV
antibiotics.

“
You know he’s going to
call back,” Raz sat down next to her.

“
Hmmm,” Alex
said.

The phone rang. Alex looked at Sergeant
Dusty.

“
I don’t hear anything
either,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
Thank God for caller ID,”
Alex said.

“
Lieutenant Colonel
Hargreaves?” the base receptionist’s voice came out of the speaker
of her phone. “Listen, hon, I know you’re in there. Don’t play
games with me.”

“
Yes Martha?” Alex
smiled.

“
You don’t want to talk to
Mr. Jerk?”

“
Not until he gives me what
I want,” Alex said.

“
The men who did all of
that horrible nasty business to Petty Officer
Carmichael?”

“
How do you know that?”
Sergeant Dusty asked.

“
Oh son, Martha knows
everything,” the receptionist laughed.

They laughed.

“
Leena told me,” the
receptionist said. “That man has called every single day since
Colonel Gordon went on leave. I won’t pass along that kind of
cancer. Martha takes good care of her girls.”

“
He’s just not used to
anyone saying no to him,” Alex said.

“
Especially a woman,” Raz
said.

“
Hi Agent Rasmussen,”
Martha said. They could hear her eyes bat at him over the phone. “I
didn’t know
you
were there. Did you bring Martha some…?”

“
Yes ma’am,” Raz smiled. “I
have your brownies right here.”

“
You know just what to say
to a girl,” Martha said. “I’ll deal with Mr. Special.”

“
Bless you,” Raz
said.

“
Oh shoot,” Martha said. “I
think I just hung up on him. Would you like me to call him back,
Lieutenant Colonel?”

“
No,” Alex laughed. “Thank
you.”

“
You know I can’t answer
his calls while I’m eating brownies.”

“
I’ll be right up,” Raz
said.

“
I’ll look forward to it,”
Martha said.

Alex smiled. Raz had his own
“look-but-don’t-touch” harem of women at the base. Most of them
were underpaid, mistreated Air Force privates hoping to get wings.
Martha was a special case. With two years left on her forty-year
pension, Martha was stricken with severe arthritis brought on by
active duty in three war zones. Colonel Gordon had arranged for her
to finish her time answering the base phones.

“
Ok, we have the feed,”
Sergeant Dusty said. “The Air Force is over ‘contamination
junction.’”

“
The Marshall Islands?”
Alex asked.

“
Yes sir,” Sergeant Dusty
said. “I have the feed from the planes.”

“
And the Navy?”

“
The
Mercy
is prepared to take the men and
women,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
Are they prepared for
radioactivity?” Alex asked.

“
Yes sir,” Sergeant Dusty
smiled. “You’ve asked…”

“
Four times, yes,” Alex
said. “I’m lying down and in a lot of pain, Sergeant. I’m not at my
most empowered.”

Sergeant Dusty smiled at the notion of Alex
not feeling empowered.

“
The pilot wants to speak
with you,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
Can we do it without
video?” Alex asked.

Sergeant Dusty held up his hand indicating
she’d asked that question five times. She smiled.

“
You can’t be too careful,”
she said.

Smiling, he held out a pair of wireless
headphones. She put them on.

“
Sir?” the pilot
asked.

“
This is the Fey,” Alex
said. “What can I do for you?”

“
We’d like you to watch our
feed,” the pilot said. “The Jakker sent a wire around that you’re
looking for a few contractors who assaulted a member of your
team.”

“
Yes?” Alex
asked.

“
Happy Birthday,” the pilot
said.

The plane flew over Bikini Atoll. Five men
waved their arms and yelled to signal the plane.

“
That’s them?”

“
Three of them,” Alex said.
“It’s one of the missing rent-a-soldier teams.”

“
They’re all yours. The
Jakker and the rest of your team are waiting on the ship,” the
pilot said. “Would you like me to release them?”

“
No, we’ll pick up everyone
else first,” Alex said. “Thank you.”

“
It’s my pleasure, ma’am,”
the pilot said.

“
You call the Fey ‘sir,’”
Sergeant Dusty said.

“
Sorry, sir,” the pilot
said. “The Jakker told me that. It’s just that… I have two teenage
daughters, twins, blonde hair, and... These monsters should be
eviscerated for what they did.”

“
Good that the Jakker is
picking them up,” the co-pilot said. “I wouldn’t be able to handle
it either.”

“
We are Americans,” Alex
said. “We’re supposed to be the good guys. We leave the torture and
raping to the monsters. I expect you to conduct yourselves like
United States soldiers, not monsters.”

“
Yes sir,” the pilot and
co-pilot said.

“
Good,” Alex said. “And I’m
glad I’m not there either.”

The pilots laughed.

“
Thank you,” Alex said.
“We’re going to need your help with this one. It’s too big for us.
I appreciate the heads up.”

“
It’s a pleasure to work
with the Fey,” the pilot said. “Out.”

“
What’s the word?” Raz
asked as he entered the room.

“
I have your scans.”
Sergeant Dusty pointed him to a laptop on Alex’s conference table.
Raz nodded his thanks and sat down.

“
The word is three teams
total. One US Army Rangers, one UK Special Air Service, and one
rent-a-soldier,” Alex said. “Mattie and Joseph are leading teams to
pick up the British and US teams and bring them to the USNS
Mercy
. They seem fine.
The Brits played Master and Commander and the US team went looking
for Amelia Earhart. The US team believes they found a piece of her
airplane.”

“
Really?” Raz’s eyebrows
spoke his disbelief.

“
I kid you not,” Alex
said.

“
They’re severely
dehydrated and suffering from radiation poisoning,” Sergeant Dusty
said. “They’re probably hallucinating.”

“
I’ve been stuck in all
kinds of places,” Alex said. “It was awful at the time but so much
fun in retrospect. You would not believe the goofy stuff we did. So
I bet it’s a little of both. They’ll be glad to be home. I’m just
glad…”

“
You’re glad?” Raz looked
up from the laptop.

“
Oh nothing,” Alex said.
“We still have four military, no three since the Indian’s went to
Pakistan, and one rent-a-soldier teams to find.”

“
When are you sending our
team to pick up the men who…?” Raz asked.

“
When Mattie and Joseph
have picked up the others,” Alex said. “I want the contractors to
know what it really means to assault, rape, torture, and hold a US
soldier hostage.”

“
The orders are to pick up
the contractors after the military teams are settled on the
USNS
Mercy
, Agent
Rasmussen,” Sergeant Dusty said. “I wish I could be there. They
replaced the LC, Captain Olivas, you and me with three female
marines. Chief Tubman told me they are hand-selected by their
command.”

Raz smiled.

“
Pete and Bill are there,”
Alex smiled. “They’ll take off when Matthew and Joseph get
there.”

“
It’s going to be an
old-fashioned rodeo,” Raz said.

Alex smiled.

“
We have video monitoring
in everyone’s helmets to make sure nothing gets too out of line,”
Sergeant Dusty said. “The contractors will be aided by the
USNS
Mercy
and
then shipped to Anacostia where they will await trial. And before
you ask, JAG will prosecute them for their acts against a US Navy
officer.”

“
Hope it works,” Alex
said.

“
I think we all hope it
works,” Raz said. “The previous President gave the contractors
carte blanche permission to do what they wanted to whomever they
wanted without review. This will be a test case to see if the
military can protect their own.”

“
Look, they’re starting to
pick up,” Alex said.

Sergeant Dusty squatted
down and Raz lay down beside Alex. They watched Joseph’s Special
Forces team retrieve the British soldiers and carry them to the
USNS
Mercy
. While
Joseph and his team were ferrying British soldiers, Matthew’s team
landed another Chinook to assist the US Army Rangers.

“
Isn’t that your friend?”
Alex asked Sergeant Dusty.

Sergeant Dusty nodded.

“
We won’t tell anyone if
you call his wife,” Raz said.

“
Thank you, sir,” Sergeant
Dusty got up to use the telephone.

Before the Rangers would leave their island,
they insisted on documenting their Amelia Earhart findings.
Matthew’s team photographed and collected their evidence.