About Face Read online

  It was a lovely day — cool in the shade, warm in the sun, with the smell of a winter in the wind. She went to “her” bench under a tall pine tree. Jesse appeared to be sitting on the bench next to her. As always, he was wearing the military fatigues he’d worn for half of his life.

  “There’s no way this is a coincidence,” Jesse said. “Starting with Captain Gordon. The team’s kicked off the base and . . .”

  “Did you see his watch?” Alex said as an outbreath. She looked around to make sure no one was close to her.

  “Looked like the Felix-the-Cat watch Nathan wore,” Jesse said.

  Alex nodded. US Army Sergeant Nathan Johnson had been a member of the Fey Special Forces Team with Alex and Jesse. He’d been killed along with most of the team, including Jesse, in their storage compartment in the limestone tunnels under the streets of Paris.

  “Even the eyes moved,” Jesse said. “And he made sure you saw it.”

  Alex nodded again.

  “Weird,” Jesse said.

  Alex’s cell phone rang. She took it out and looked at it. US Army Major Joseph Walter. Joseph had been the Staff Sergeant on the Fey Special Forces Team and now shared the position as her second-in-command along with US Army Captain Matthew Mac Clenaghan. Alex nodded to Jesse, and he disappeared.

  “How’s Nancy?” Alex asked.

  “How did it go?” Joseph asked, rather than answer her question.

  “Worse than we thought,” Alex said.

  “Really?” Joseph asked. “I thought the Admiral picked this guy.”

  “He did,” Alex said.

  Joseph fell silent. They had been on edge ever since Alex’s mentor and friend had left his position as head of Special Operations to join the Joint Chiefs at the end of September. They had no idea what this meant for her team, The Fey Team. Joseph’s silence could only mean that, like Alex, he thought this was bad for the Fey Team.

  “Listen,” Alex said. “Did Nathan have a brother?”

  “Sisters, four, younger, I think,” Joseph said.

  “That’s what I remembered,” Alex said.

  “Why?” Joseph asked.

  “You remember that Felix-the-Cat Watch he used to wear all the time?” Alex asked. “Antique, from the 1920s. Eyes flick back and forth with the seconds? The eyes, I mean.”

  “Sure.”

  “Ingram was wearing one just like it,” Alex said. “The eyes even clicked. He went out of his way to make sure that I saw it before chucking me out of the big boys’ meeting.”

  “That is weird,” Joseph said.

  “Then I . . . remembered, I guess, this weird thing,” Alex said and fell silent.

  “What?”

  “Did you go to Nathan’s funeral?” Alex asked.

  Alex had been fighting for her life in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center when her Fey Special Forces teammates were buried.

  “I did,” Joseph said. “What did you remember?”

  “It’s fuzzy — makes my head hurt like hell,” Alex said. “Plus, it happened a long time before I started.”

  “What are we talking about?” Joseph asked.

  “You remember that Nathan’s mother cleaned houses, right?” Alex asked.

  “Nathan used his SF pay bump to help his mother start her own company,” Joseph said.

  “That’s right,” Alex said. “So maybe this is real.”

  “What’s real?” Joseph asked. “Just tell me. I can get Peaches to check it out.”

  “Good idea,” Alex said and fell silent.

  “You didn’t tell me,” Joseph said after a while.

  “Oh, sorry,” Alex said with a chuckle. “My brain’s a little fuzzy after being yelled at.”

  “It’s never easy,” Joseph said. “Let’s go back to Nathan. I remember that Nathan’s mother cleaned houses.”

  “In Alabama,” Alex said. “She was good and worked a lot of wealthy, mainly white, people’s houses.”

  “Wasn’t she a nanny for a while?” Joseph asked.

  “So you do remember,” Alex said.

  “I remember something,” Joseph said.

  “Nathan’s mother was a nanny for a wealthy family who owned a plantations,” Alex said.

  “Wasn’t she a nanny at the plantation where her ancestors were slaves?” Joseph asked.

  “Yep. Ingram plantation,” Alex said. “Anyway, she’d been the nanny for a girl before she started school. She just cleaned the house after that. When the girl was… I don’t know, twelve? Fifteen? Maybe younger. Nathan’s mom walked in the bathroom while the girl was giving birth. The girl had planned to kill her baby.”

  “That’s right!” Joseph said. “Nathan’s mother convinced the girl not to kill her baby if she would take the child. She assumed the parents would want their first grandchild, but they stopped by that evening and arranged for monthly support payments. They sent their daughter away to boarding school.”

  “Nathan’s mom raised the child,” Alex said. “The white child with the last name of Ingram.”

  “Good Lord,” Joseph said. “Do you think?”

  “He was wearing Nathan’s watch!” Alex said.

  “The new Admiral is Nathan’s little brother?” Joseph asked.

  “I think so,” Alex said. “We’re supposed to meet him later to talk about the future of the Fey Team, emphasis on ‘if’ there’s a future.”

  “Shit,” Joseph said. “I should be there.”

  “How’s Nancy?” Alex asked again.

  “She’s in recovery,” Joseph’s voice dropped with sorrow.

  “Do they have the results?” Alex asked.

  “Estrogen positive,” Joseph said. “They did a mastectomy.”

  “Both breasts?” Alex asked.

  “Yes,” Joseph said.

  His ragged breath indicated that he was crying. Nancy was the rock that Joseph’s entire life revolved around. Nancy was the single reason Joseph had survived even one day after the Fey Special Forces Team had been murdered. Alex wasn’t sure what would happen to Joseph if Nancy died.

  “I don’t care, you know, about her breasts. I just…” Joseph said in puffs of words. “I can’t live without her.”

  “We’ll do whatever is necessary so you don’t have to,” Alex said.

  “They said it’s the IVF,” Joseph said. “Combined with her genes, the cancer was like a ticking time bomb.”

  “Major Walter,” a male voice said in the background.

  “Go,” Alex said.

  Alex clicked off her phone. Wondering what would happen next, she stared at the rectangular flower bed in front of her. Pentagon maintenance had turned over the bed in preparation for fall. The dirt looked rich, deep brown, and empty.

  In many ways, her team was in the same position. They had been kicked off the base they’d called home, and now the new Admiral was threatening to end her military career.

  Jesse appeared, but she gestured for him to go and be with Joseph. He nodded and disappeared. Even if Joseph couldn’t see Jesse, he would at least have the love and support of his old friend.

  Alex looked at her phone. She longed for a conversation with her husband, Doctor John Drayson, but it wasn’t quite three in the morning in California, where he was studying for a year. He and their children, Joey and Maire, were asleep. With a sigh, she tucked her phone into her pocket.

  “He can only see us now,” Raz’s voice came from behind the bench. “Like right now.”

  Alex jumped up, and they jogged to the elevator. She pressed the call button.

  “Are you ready?” Raz asked.

  “I don’t think you can be ready for a day like today,” Alex said. “Some days, destiny hits you smack in the face.”

  Raz grinned at her.

  “Whap!” Alex said.

  Her head jerked back as if she’d been hit in the face. She stumbled backward. Laughing, Raz caught her. He put his arm around her shoulder and they rode up to meet with the Admiral again.

  FFFFFF

&n
bsp; Monday morning

  October 10 — 8:25 a.m. PDT

  Camp Pendleton, California

  “You sure you got this?” US Army Captain Andrew “Trece” Ramirez asked.

  Captain Vince Hutchins glared at Trece. They were standing in the hallway outside of the office of the Brigadier General who was the Commander of Camp Pendleton.

  “I mean, you don’t have much of an ass,” Trece said. “They might chew straight to the bone.”

  Captain Chris “The White Boy” Blanco chuckled. Vince glared at him, too.

  “I’ve got this,” Vince said.

  “Why don’t we go in with you?” Trece asked.

  “Make sure you don’t screw up,” The White Boy said.

  “I’m a Captain in the Navy,” Vince said through his teeth. “Your acting superior officer, as a matter of fact. I can handle this.”

  “Okay, okay,” Trece said. “Don’t be so touchy.”

  The White Boy straightened Vince’s tie and slapped at the shoulders of Vince’s dress uniform.

  “You need to buy us some more time here,” Trece said. “Emily won’t thank you if you have to leave your seventeen-year-old daughter, who graduated high school early for a spot on the US Women’s Soccer Team, all alone here in California, especially since she started at UC Irvine. You know how women are! Emmy’s going to think you abandoned your daughter.”

  “Again,” The White Boy said.

  “Again,” Trece repeated.

  “I am aware of that,” Vince said through clenched teeth.

  Vince raised a hand in an attempt to get Trece to stop talking. Trece slapped his hand as if he was giving Vince a “high-five.” Despite himself, Vince laughed. Trece grinned in response.

  “Alex isn’t going to thank you if she has to go back to North Dakota while John’s here in sunny Southern California for that fellowship,” The White Boy said with a shake of his head. “Winter is coming, Vince. And winter in North Dakota sucks. Imagine what it will do to your testicles.”

  “I am aware that winter is coming,” Vince said. “And the fact that Margaret’s daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime study relationship with a ninety-two-year-old shaman and that Royce is getting his Master’s Degree in Accounting here and that Sergeant Dusty is getting specialized Intelligence training and Erin is a visiting fellow at the Scripps Research Institute this year and…”

  “Leena’s new girlfriend,” The White Boy said. “Joseph’s wife is getting her cancer treatment here in California, too.”

  “Troy’s sons’ trauma therapy,” Trece said. “Colin’s in the middle of rehabbing that new knee.”

  “That’s not to mention that your wives are due to deliver in December,” Vince said. He gave them a leveling look.

  “Oh?” Trece raised an unconcerned eyebrow. He made a show of thinking for a moment. “Now that you mention it, I guess that is right.”

  Shaking his head, Vince laughed.

  “We are all about what’s best for the team,” the White Boy said with a confirming nod.

  “I am aware that Camp Pendleton is the best place for us for this year,” Vince said with a nod. “I get it. And, I can do this. Trust me.”

  “We should go in with you,” Trece circled around again.

  “No need,” Vince said with a smile.

  He gave Trece a big smile. For good measure, Vince patted Trece on the shoulder and went into the Base Commanding Officer’s Office.

  “Hutchins!” a commanding male voice said. “How the hell are you?”

  Trece looked at The White Boy. He shook his head as if he were clearing his ears. Trece poked his head in the door. The Brigadier General was patting Vince’s back.

  “Coffee? Or something stronger?” the Brigadier General asked.

  While they watched, the Brigadier General escorted Vince into his office. Trece pulled the door to the outer office closed. The White Boy shrugged. They left to go tell the other members of the Fey Team.

  F

  CHAPTER THREE

  Monday morning

  October 10 — 11:37 a.m. EST

  Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia

  They waited more than a half-hour before the Admiral’s assistant escorted them in to the office of Admiral William Moses Ingram, current head of United States Special Operations Forces. He was on the phone when they entered the office, so the assistant indicated that they could sit in the chairs in front of his desk.

  Having been through this with other supervisors, Alex refused to sit. Instead, she stood at attention. Raz stood next to her.

  They waited as Admiral Ingram finished his phone call. He took another call. The man looked up at them after the second phone call and squinted. He wrote a few lines on a piece of paper and took the next phone call.

  After that call, he asked his secretary to come in. He gave her a stack of papers. His secretary read the top sheet of paper. As she passed, his secretary gave the piece of paper to Raz. He looked at it for a moment. Taking a pen from his pocket, he wrote something down. The secretary took the sheet and left the room.

  A few minutes later, the Admiral’s phone rang. He answered it without looking at them. Admiral Ingram took phone call after phone call while Alex stood at attention. A half-hour passed. When an hour passed, the Admiral set the phone down.

  “Get the fuck out of my office,” Admiral Ingram said.

  Alex saluted, which he returned. She performed an about-face and marched out of the Admiral’s office. She didn’t say a word until they were sitting in the back of the limousine, driving away from the Pentagon. The streets of Washington, DC were monitored by every kind of surveillance. There was no way to have a private conversation and there’s no way Raz would speak unless he wasn’t being monitored..

  “This has truly been the weirdest day,” she said.

  Raz nodded. She didn’t say anything else until they were safe inside their-home-away-from-home in Washington, DC, the Sheridan Circle mansion owned by Captain Vince Hutchins’ father-in-law.

  “Where are we meeting him?” Alex asked.

  “New York,” Raz said.

  “When?” Alex asked.

  “In an hour-and-a-half,” Raz said.

  “Where?”

  Raz nodded in response.

  “Fair enough,” Alex said. “Just enough time to change.”

  She took off up the stairs to her bedroom. She changed out of her dress uniform and into jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt. She ran down the stairs. From the second floor landing, she spied Raz standing at the bottom of the stairs with two travel mugs full of hot coffee.

  “I do love you,” she said.

  He gave her the mug as she passed. They ran down the flight of stairs to the underground garage, where Raz hopped into the driver’s seat of an armored SUV. They were on their way to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling. Raz tuned the radio to jazz. They sat in companionable silence until they reached the less-surveilled highway.

  “You look like you’re dying to say something,” Alex said as she used the satellite blocker to keep anyone from listening to their conversation.

  “Yes, I am a cat,” he said in an artificially seductive voice.

  “A cat?” Alex laughed. “As in curiosity killed the?”

  Raz shot her an angry look.

  “Well, don’t choke on that hairball, kitty,” Alex said with a laugh. “Spit it out!”

  “What the hell was that crap with Ingram?” Raz asked. His Queen’s accent was more apparent when he was angry. “Fuck.”

  He shook himself like a wet dog.

  “I’m sorry,” Alex said.

  “Why are you sorry?” Raz asked.

  “You seem worried,” Alex said. Quoting their ever-expanding Department of Homeland Security partner manual, she said, “A worried partner is not a good partner.”

  “Worried?” Raz asked. “I’m not worried. I’m pissed off. What the hell is going on?”

  “With the Admiral?” Alex asked.

  The traffic
slowed, and Raz pulled the SUV to a halt.

  “You’re not going to answer?” Raz asked.

  “I’m thinking,” Alex said.

  “Think out loud,” Raz said, emphasizing every word.

  Alex leaned over and kissed his cheek. He turned to look at her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “You have every right to be angry.”

  Raz grunted. He squeezed her hand. They shared a fond look before the traffic started again.

  “Let’s see,” Alex said, leaning back into her seat. “What’s going on…”

  Alex fell silent again. Raz’s large hand grabbed her left shoulder, and she turned to look at him.

  “It’s happened to me before,” Alex said. “I guess that’s what I have to say.”

  “Where?” Raz asked.

  “SF training,” Alex said. “They may have let me in, but they certainly weren’t going to make it easy.”

  Biting her lip, Alex fell silent again. Raz waited an entire minute for her to speak. He squeezed her shoulder again. She gave him a confused look.

  “Impatient?” Alex asked.

  “I want to know why this happened,” Raz said. “I want to go to war against anyone who would treat you with such . . . disdain.”

  She touched his cheek. He glanced at her and smile.

  “So?” he asked.

  “It happened after training,” Alex said. “That’s what I was trying to remember. Charlie O’Brien, my Captain, put an end to it. I was trying to remember who did that and when.”

  She shook her head.

  “It doesn’t stand out as something . . . important,” she said. “I expected this kind of disrespect. It seemed like standard treatment for the girl who thought she was a Green Beret.”

  The traffic came to a halt, and Raz turned to look at her.

  “It hasn’t happened in a while,” Alex said.

  She gave him a sad shrug.

  “Charlie’s dead and . . .,” Alex said. “I guess need to figure out a way to do it myself.”

  Tears filled her eyes. She never spoke about her old team, the Fey Special Forces Team, without crying. She clamped her mouth shut against the longing that welled in her heart. She looked for Jesse but he wasn’t around. She felt instantly selfish. Jesse was with Joseph, who really needed him. She was just being a baby. She took a breath that sounded a lot like a sob.