In the Grey (24 page)

The truck’s gears ground,
and the vehicle shook before starting up a narrow dirt road into
the mountains. Pressed tight against Max, Alex closed her eyes and
tried to clear her head. Her anxious thoughts bounced with the
tempo of her butt on the bench.

Why was Steve Pershing
taken?

What condition would he be
in?

What did Steve have to do
with the mind control subjects?

How was Trece doing? At
the thought of Trece, her stomach turned over. The warden had
informed Matthew that Trece had been in a fight. Trece was now
lingering in the SHU. She worried about his mental state. His first
round prison had nearly destroyed him.

And what about Wyatt? Neev
had been working with him, but she had no idea if Neev was
effective. Joseph had met with Neev a few times, but said he didn’t
trust her. He preferred to work with his VA therapist. What if
working with Neev didn’t work?

What did Cee Cee Joiner
mean when he said “joke’s on you?” She opened her eyes to ask Max
and noticed that the hostility in the truck had risen while she had
been thinking. The North Korean soldiers looked like they were
going to eat Ji. While the Korean People’s Army was assisting in
the retrieval of Steve Pershing, the matter was classified. The
soldiers in their truck had no idea why they were traveling with
them.

“
Do you come here often?”
Alex asked the young man sitting next to Ji. “Fancy meeting you in
a place like this.”

She intentionally spoke in
English to see if she could get a laugh. These standard pickup
lines were well known around the world. The young man grinned. He
repeated her words in Korean. The men laughed and the mood
lightened. Ji shot a grateful glance in her direction.

The truck made a labored
stop at a check point. The canvas flap covering the back of the
truck flicked open. The frigid wind blew snow and ice into where
they were sitting. The North Korean soldiers complained bitterly
about the cold. Max and Alex scooted down in their seats. There was
no way to know what might happen at the check point. The guard shut
the flap with no more than a cursory look. The engine revved, the
gears clanked into place, and they were once again bumping along
the dirt road.

Alex leaned into Max, and
he leaned into her. She closed her eyes to focus on the nagging
buzz of “joke’s on you.” Bouncing along for another hour, the “you”
became a cartoon fluffy white sheep with knock-knock jokes cut into
its fleece with a razor. Cee Cee Joiner kicked his leg over the
sheep’s back, and the sheep fell flat on her face. The ewe bleated,
and Alex chuckled. Max shook her shoulder. She squinted at
him.

“
We’re here,” Max
said.

The brakes squealed, and
the truck came to a slow halt. They climbed over the North Korean
soldiers and jumped out. The truck rumbled, the gears clanked, and
it continued up the road.

“
Over here,” Ji pointed to
three all-terrain vehicles parked along the side of the road. They
jogged to the vehicles.

“
Our headsets should
work,” Alex said.

She started her ATV before
tossing a headset to Ji and Max. She stuck hers in her ear and
turned it on. They were treated to a rousing argument in Mandarin
about the wonders of Asian-style sex. Alex groaned.

“
Nice to see you’re
getting along,” Ji said in Mandarin into his headset.

“
Is the
LC . . . ?” Royce started in English.
“Shit.”

“
Every. Single. Time,”
Alex said in Mandarin. “Someday I’m going to join in, and you’re
going to not sound like horny teenagers.”

“
Not likely,” Ji’s team
lead said. Everyone laughed.

“
Radio silence,” Alex
ordered.

“
Yes, sir,” the teams
called.

“
It’s another six or seven
miles, and then we hike the rest of the way,” Ji yelled over the
noise of the all-terrain vehicles.

“
We’ll follow you,” Max
said.

“
Do we know
when . . . ?” Alex started.

In the distance, a land
missile being launched with a loud boom followed by the
high-pitched squeal of the mortar falling. The Korean People’s Army
had started their assault on the mine shed. Ji glanced at Alex and
Max to make sure their ATVs were working, before taking off up the
creek bed. The rat-a-tat-tat from a machine gun echoed through the
gully. People in the compound were prepared to defend it. A
ground-rumbling flash of light and fire indicated that the first of
many missiles had landed.

Under the cover of the
Korean People’s Army, the plan was that the Russian Vympel team and
the Chinese Furious Tigers would secure the building. Alex, Max,
and Ji hoped to slip in and grab Steve. The Fey Team and Ji’s team
were to assist Alex, Max, and Ji in Steve’s rescue, as well as
gather intelligence about what was going on in the mine shed. As
soon as they had obtained Steve, the teams would slip away, leaving
the Korean People’s Army to finish the fight.

Alex followed Ji in a
bone-rattling ride up the creek bed in the pitch black night. She
pushed her ATV until engine was steaming with effort. She was
moving so fast that she overran the headlights. A Pave Hawk
helicopter with the Vivaldi “F” on its tail flew low over them on
its way to the mining compound. The Russian and Chinese helicopters
carrying the special operations teams flew low over the
area.

“
Any intel?” Ji asked the
Furious Tigers over the communication feed.

“
No movement on the
ground,” the Chinese special operations team leader responded. “Are
we sure they’re there?”

“
We have them on radar,”
Raz said from inside the Fey Team helicopter. “In what looks like
an office in the mine shed.”

The machine guns fire came
from the roof of the mining shed.

“
Returning fire.” The
Chinese helicopter fired on the people in the mine shed.

Alex felt something on her
face.

“
Snow,” she said. Snow
streaked down in front of her.

“
Sir?” Sergeant Dusty’s
garbled voice came from halfway across the continent to her
headset.

“
Dusty?” Alex
asked.

Alex leaned hard to her
left to miss a tree in the middle of the creek bed.

“
The action has begun,”
Sergeant Dusty said from Pakistan.

“
And the phoenix?” Alex
asked. She ducked a branch and sped to catch up with Ji.

“
As you thought,” Sergeant
Dusty said.

“
Thank you, Sergeant,” Raz
said from the Fey helicopter. “We’ll relay further messages from
here.”

“
Roger that,” Sergeant
Dusty said. “We’re following procedure B.”

“
Thank you, Sergeant,”
Alex said. There was a click on the line indicating her line had
been separated from Sergeant Dusty’s feed. She fought with the ATV
and the creek bed, while she waited for Raz to return to the
line.

“
Sir?” Raz
asked.

“
The SSG?” Alex asked if
Pakistan’s special operations group, the Special Services Group,
had responded to her call for assistance.

“
Surrounding the
building,” Raz said. “Fey Team is an hour out still.”

“
Procedure B it is then,”
Alex said.

“
Yes, sir,” Raz said. “You
are within range of the mine shed.”

“
Recent maps?” Alex
asked.

“
No need,” Raz confirmed
that the head and radar maps she’d seen hadn’t changed.

Before Alex could ask for
him to check again, Ji screeched his ATV to a stop and hopped off.
He ran up the hill. She pulled her ATV next to his and waited a
moment. Max jumped off his ATV before it came to a stop. The ATV
banged into hers and they ran to catch up with Ji. Between the deep
night, the wet snow, and his dark clothing, Ji was almost
impossible to see. They found him waiting for them at the edge of
the compound.

“
Go,” Ji said.

The Russian and Chinese
helicopters landed on the site. The 1st Special Forces Operational
Detachment team floated down in parachutes. The people in the mine
shed responded with machine gunfire.

Alex pointed to the back
of the mine shed. Built into the mountain, the flat-roofed building
covered three floors of the elevators into the mine. The main
entrance was on the backside, single story portion of the shed.
From where they were standing, they saw three floors with windows
into the shed.

According to Raz, Steve
was being held in the bottom-floor office near this side of the
building. They hoped to get to him before he disappeared into the
mine or the North Koreans destroyed the building. They had to move
fast.

Alex glanced to her right.
In the cold and dark of this North Korean slope, she felt a wave of
relief. Even though she couldn’t see them in the dark, her team was
nearby. A female member of Ji’s team lit a propane torch and gave
it to Troy. She lit another torch, and they began cutting into the
aluminum wall of the building. She raised her fist to tell Max and
Ji to wait.

A US soldier from Delta, a
friend, ran past her into the dark and she smiled. She’d thought it
was fishy that a Delta team was hanging around. They were clearly
using this action as their ticket into North Korea.

Troy and Ji’s team member
stepped back. Matthew kicked the aluminum wall. A four foot square
of aluminum fell into the building. Matthew stepped back. Alex ran
to the opening. At the building, she waved Ji and Max to
her.

“
Sir,” Raz called from his
position in the Fey helicopter. “We have visual confirmation that
the phoenix is eating dinner. Fifteen minutes until
landing.”

Unwilling to risk the
noise, Alex didn’t respond. She pulled her balaclava so that only
her eyes were visible. She pushed her black, knitted cap low on her
head. She loosened her bow and unstrapped her machine gun so that
they would be ready for use if she needed them.

Alex dropped to her hands
and knees and crawled through the space. Ji followed her. Max took
the rear. They were standing in the hallway around the edge of the
building. The mine elevator took up in the center of the building.
Offices lined either side of the hallway. The Fey Team and Ji’s
team would follow them into the building after they were out of
sight.

“
To your right,” Raz
said.

Alex moved to her right
with silent ease. She stopped. Ji and Max caught up with her. She
peered around the corner but saw no one. Hearing a noise behind
them, they scooted around the corner. An armed guard had noticed
the hole in the wall. He was lifting his walkie-talkie to his mouth
when Max’s arrow stopped his report. A man from Ji’s team slipped
through the entrance hole to dispose of the body.

Alex gave Max and Ji a
quick nod. Max ran down the hallway. The dim light and dust gave
the hallway a paranormal feeling. Alex wondered if there were
ghosts waiting and watching to see what was going to happen. Almost
on cue, Jesse appeared up ahead. She smiled.

Ji followed Max. She
waited until they had reached the end of the hall before following
them.

The ground shook from a
large explosion in front of the building. Max and Ji struggled to
stay standing. She heard the faint echo of voices drifting through
the building.

“
Two doors,” Raz yelled
over the bombs. “Left.”

Alex raised two fingers.
She took a step forward, when Jesse flew in her
direction.

“
Get down!” Jesse
yelled.

Alex turned and threw
herself on top of Ji and Max. A fireball blew through the hallway,
adding force to her tackle. They slid in a pile until they hit the
hallway wall with a thump.

“
ALEX!” Raz
yelled.

“
Trap,” she grunted. “All
breathing.”

“
They know we’re here,” Ji
said.

She looked up at Jesse. In
American Sign Language, she signed “Please find Steve.”

“
Don’t have to find him,”
Jesse smirked. “I know where he is. But you have
company.”

He pointed down the empty
hall. Three men with machine guns turned the corner. Seeing them,
the men started running and firing in their direction.

Alex rolled off Ji and
Max. They lay flat on their bellies. Alex grabbed her compound bow
and threaded an arrow. She fired at the man on the far left. Max
shot at the person in the middle. Ji released a razor-sharp, steel
throwing star. The arrows hit their assailants’ throats a second
before the star hit the third man in the eye. The force of the
arrows caused Alex and Max’s targets to fall back. Ji’s target
crumpled in place.

She looked at Max. He
nodded. They looked at Ji. He’d taken the brunt of the slam into
the wall. He nodded that he was all right. He ran to pick up his
star.

“
Where to now?” Ji
whispered.

Jesse waved her
forward.

“
Follow me,” Alex
said.