Lean on Me (59 page)

Pete’s eyes went wide. Margaret popped to
her feet to protest the shift in assignment. Seeing Pete’s ardor,
Margaret hit Leena on the arm with the back of her hand. Leena
looked up. They smirked at the young soldier.

“
Yes sir,” Pete
said.

“
Sue Ann, I hope you don’t
mind,” Alex said. “I have to attend to some team business. This is
Sergeant Pete Beetle. He’s going to sit with you. Is that all
right?”

Sue Ann gave Alex a bright smile.

“
Nice to meet you ma’am,”
Pete said. “You’re petting Master Sergeant Bill Bailey.”

“
Really? You’re Beetle and
he’s Bailey?” Sue Ann giggled. “Like Beetle Bailey?”

“
Yes ma’am,” Pete gave her
a toothy grin.

“
I don’t know much about
this kind of thing,” Sue Ann said. “Alex is the only person I know
in the military. Krystal doesn’t know anyone other than Alex
either, but isn’t a Master Sergeant a higher rank?”

“
Yes, ma’am,” Pete said.
“Military dogs have a higher rank than their handlers. Bill is a
decorated soldier.”

“
You must be
too.”

“
Yes ma’am,” Pete cleared
his throat. “Is Krystal your…?”

“
She’s my life partner,”
Sue Ann said.

He blanched.

“
Not like that!” Sue Ann
laughed. “She’s marrying the cutest
male
Texas Ranger you’ve ever seen.
They just had a baby. He’s a friend of Alex’s.”

“
So she’s…”

“
Well, it’s
complicated.”

“
I believe we’ll be in the
air for a couple hours,” Pete said.

Smiling, Alex moved away from them to find
Bobby Lopez. Bobby had walked onto the plane and into a poker game.
He, Trece, and White Boy were already one hand into a competitive
game. Bobby had taken them for all of their money the last time
they were together. Trece and White Boy had some idea they would
win it back. Bobby looked up to acknowledge Alex and then went back
to his cards.

“
Attention here,” Matthew
said. “We have pizza and drinks up here. You have an hour and a
half off to eat, rest, and get ready. We have more work to do
before we get there.”

“
Yes sir,” the team
called.

“
Everyone’s here, sir,”
Matthew said.

“
Let’s go,” Alex
said.

“
You don’t want to go out
and say hi?” Matthew asked.

Max walked by with a thermos of coffee. She
was about to follow him when Zack stood in her way.

“
Come on, Alex. Don’t
chicken out,” Zack said. “Get dressed.”

Raz helped her with her jacket and her
scarf. She took her Ray-Ban sunglasses from him. She and Zack went
down the ramp to hang out with the men and women who had come to
see them. They shook hands and talked to people until Joseph
whistled that it was time to go. Alex followed Zack up the ramp and
onto the plane. Stepping into the passenger compartment, she saw a
beaming Pete lean into Sue Ann.

“
You’re meddling works
sometimes,” Raz said.

“
Sometimes?” Alex
smiled.

“
Come on,” Raz said. “Let’s
nap for a while. We’ll have an hour for you to warm up.”

She followed him to their seats. She sat
down next to Max. He looked up and smiled. With her twin’s arm
around her, she fell fast asleep.

FFF

Three hours later

Saturday evening

December 26 – 5:55 p.m. PST

Chiapas, Mexico

“
I don’t like this,”
Matthew said. “I don’t like this at all.”

Raz put his hand on Matthew’s shoulder.
Frustrated, Matthew shrugged off Raz’s hand. They were standing in
a small clearing near Efren’s family village about five miles from
the edge of the Pecos Oil property. The sun had just dropped behind
the mountains. Alex and Max had spent the last hour on the plane
warming up and the time to Chiapas, sparring with Colin and
Matthew. She was loose, warm, and ready for action.

“
Max isn’t even military!”
Matthew said.

“
Troy?” Alex
asked.

“
This entire situation –
the hostages, this location, and everything else – is set up with
one goal in mind,” Troy said. “To kill every one of us.”

“
And you know this?”
Matthew asked. “How?”

“
It’s on the micro SD
card,” Troy said. “Alex seemed to know this already, but I found it
while we were on the plane.”

“
Raz?” Alex
asked.

Raz gave Matthew a computer tablet. Matthew
flipped through heat and radar images of the location.

“
How did you know?” Matthew
asked.

“
Seen it before,” Alex
nodded to Joseph.

“
We made a lot of friends,”
Joseph said. “And a few enemies.”

“
You’ve done this before?”
Matthew asked. “When?”

Alex raised her eyebrows at him as if he
should remember. He shook his head.

“
When they rescued us,”
Colin said. “It was a set up. They knew the Fey Special Forces Team
would come for us. Their plan was to kill us when the team was
close and kill the team when they arrived. Alex and Max surprised
them. They saved our lives.”

Shaking his head, Matthew blinked at Alex.
She gave him a soft smile.

“
I need to finish getting
dressed,” Alex said.

Alex walked to where Max was waiting for
her. She wore her tightest, breast mashing bra under her Dragon
Body armor and black lycra unitard. Layer by layer, the twins
became indistinguishable. Only the white tips on Alex’s hair told
them apart. She held out her arms and Max dropped a double holster
over her shoulders. Max turned around and she put the same holster
on him. She held up a black bolero jacket with throwing knives in
pockets across the back under the neck. Max slipped it on and
strapped it tight.

“
That’s new,” Raz
said.

“
We’ve been learning to
throw from John,” Max said. “I had this made for us.”

“
Is it heavy?” Raz
asked.

“
Not as much as you’d
think,” Alex said. “We’re hoping to be able to use the knives to
incapacitate but not necessarily kill.”

“
That’s our hope,” Max
shrugged.

Alex turned around and Max put an identical
bolero over her shoulders. Trece and White Boy came forward with
their handguns and ammunition. Alex took a Glock 9mm, checked it
for ammunition, and holstered it on her left side. She took the
second handgun, checked it and holstered it on her right side. She
turned around so that Trece could strap on a utility belt filled
with clips of ammunition.

“
Your weapons are cleaned
and loaded, sir,” Trece said.

He dropped to the ground to strap knives to
each of her calves. He clipped her Leatherman Freestyle to her
utility belt.

“
Where’s your bow?” Trece
asked.

Raz held out a micro-compound bow. Trece
strapped it onto her back.

“
The trick to these micros
is making sure it doesn’t jam,” Trece said. “We’ve checked them
both a dozen times. Raz just checked yours. We think you’re good to
go but…”

“
I’ll be careful,” Alex
said. She heard White Boy repeat what Trece said to Max.

Trece held out her quiver.

“
You only have seven
shots,” Trece said. “Fourteen with Max.”

“
How many people do we
think are there?” Alex asked.

“
At least twenty,” Raz
said. “Zack said he can drop more arrows to you but you’d do well
to conserve.”

“
Got it,” Alex
said.

“
Water on your right,”
Trece clipped a water bottle to her utility belt. “Caffeine,
vitamins, and the like on your left.”

“
Morphine, coagulant,
antibiotics, aspirin,” MJ held out a tight package. Trece zipped it
into her utility belt.

“
Balaclava,” Colin put a
thin black balaclava over her head. “Face paint.”

Her younger brother dabbed black face paint
around her eyes and cheeks. He did the same to Max.

“
I must protest, sir,” Pete
said. “Bill and I should go out in front. That’s what we’re trained
to do. We want to go.”

“
You don’t want to be in
front of these two,” Trece said. “Trust me. Too risky.”

“
I’ve never shot a
friendly,” Max said. Alex looked at Trece in agreement.

“
There’s a first for
everything,” Trece said. He gave Alex and Max a nod. He and White
Boy walked away.

Raz held out an ear buds to Alex and to
Max.

“
We will maintain radio
silence until we get your signal,” Raz said.

Sergeant Dusty gave handheld computers to
Alex and one to Max.

“
These are turned off in
case they are tracking electronic signals,” Sergeant Dusty
said.

Alex and Max tucked the computers into their
vests.

“
Night-vision goggles,” Raz
said. “I know you prefer not to wear them, but we believe you
should have them in case you need them.”

Alex nodded. She put the goggles around her
neck.

“
Sir, Wyatt asked me to
give you this before you left for your mission.”

Sergeant Dusty held out a Saint Christopher
medallion on a metal chain to Max. Smiling, he stuffed it in the
pouch on his belt.

“
I will be here awaiting
your order,” Sergeant Dusty said.

“
The team is prepped and
ready to move in the second you give the signal,” Joseph said.
“Matthew and Colin are getting suited up to follow if you need
them.”

Alex smiled her thanks. Alex and Max walked
to where Bobby Lopez had been working with Sue Ann and members of
the local tribe.

“
What can you tell us?”
Alex asked.

“
We’ve been able to cross
reference everything we have with everything you have. This is the
location,” Bobby pointed to a patch of land about five mountainous
miles from where they were.

“
We are…?” Alex
asked.

“
Here,” Bobby pointed.
Consummate cartographers, Alex and Max memorized the topographical
map. “The tribe will provide you with guides to get you to the
property. It’s very tricky and difficult to reach. This whole
region might have oil, but between the mountains and the jungle,
it’s tough to get anything in and out. We use the tribe to help us
when we come here.”

“
These people,” Max said.
“The ones at the facility? They aren’t your employees.”

“
No,” Sue Ann said. “We do
not have employees at this location.”

“
Squatters?” Alex
asked.

“
It’s not suitable for much
of anything, Alex,” Sue Ann said.

“
This facility is in the
development phase. We send someone out once or twice a year to look
at everything,” Bobby said. “We had someone here…”

“
Two months ago,” Sue Ann
said.

“
Before the hostages were
moved again,” Alex said.

“
Until the roads are built,
we can’t go in to extract oil,” Bobby looked from Max to Alex.
“It’s got to be your hostages.”

“
Our best guess is that
they expect us to arrive by helicopter,” Joseph said.

“
He’d have to know about
our friendship with this tribe,” Alex said.

“
What was our last official
interaction with the tribal leadership?” Joseph asked.

“
A big misunderstanding,”
Alex said.

“
There’s a report of that,”
Raz said. “Remember, you and I came here alone to resolve the
issues. Ben doesn’t keep those kinds of records. By the time we
were out here doing training, you were in charge of record
keeping.”

“
I don’t keep those kinds
of records either,” Alex nodded.

“
Keys?” Max
asked.

Bobby Lopez held out a ring of keys for the
facility. Sue Ann gave Alex a worried smile. Troy came forward and
tucked something into Alex’s belt.

“
My mini-tool,” Troy said.
“In case you need it.”

“
Here are the heat
signatures,” Raz gave Alex the tablet. “We can’t be sure if all of
these are hostages or...”

“
Teams of people waiting to
kill us,” Max said.

Raz nodded.

“
Given the state of their
health, I think they’re hostages,” Raz said.

“
Or starving bad guys,”
Alex said.

“
They look like hostages to
me,” Raz said.

“
Are you ready, Lieutenant
Colonel?” Joseph asked.

“
Yes Major,” Alex said. “I
release the team to your command.”

“
Yes sir,” Joseph said.
“Try not to kill too many bad guys. It only upsets you.”

“
We’ll see you in a couple
of hours.”

Alex raised a hand to wave and walked toward
their two guides. The young woman, Efren’s sister, was small and
compact. There was an older man waiting with her. They were dressed
in light active wear.

“
You’ll be warm,” the older
man said in Yucatec.

“
Yes sir,” Alex replied in
the same dialect.