Learning to Stand (28 page)

Closing her eyes, Alex paused. It never
ceased to amaze her how many times people see hostages, and know
something isn’t quite right, but never think to intervene.

“
Captain Vardee? Does the
border patrol state how many boys?”

“
Ma’am, how ‘bout I call the
officer and find out?”

“
That would be very helpful.
We’re not certain the number of boys. It could be two or as many as
nine boys. A date and a number would help.”

“
Ma’am, we’ve moved a team
of men into the park. They’re waiting for your command at the
Castolon Visitor’s center, down river from the sighting. You won’t
be able to use a chopper or motorized vehicles in any area of this
park. Sound echoes in this terrain. These villains will hear you
from miles away. We have canoes and river guides for waiting you.
Once you’re near, you’ll need to walk.”

“
Thank you, Captain Vardee,”
Alex said.

“
I’ll get the information
for you.” Captain Vardee clicked off the connection.

“
Sergeant Flagg? Can you
hold a minute?”

Turning to Raz, she said, “Can you get into
my project area? My Sergeant has sent us some more maps.”

“
Got it,” Raz
said.

“
Ok, Sergeant Flagg. What do
you have?”

“
We’ve contacted all of
Joiner’s ex-wives, girlfriends, and miscellaneous mothers of his
children.” Larry stumbled over a few words then stopped talking.
Vince said something encouraging in the background. “Sir, we
believe the mothers are lying to us.”

“
Wouldn’t surprise me,” Alex
said.

“
Oh. Oh. Okay. Um… We
researched the missing persons report for Tristan Joiner. It was
filed in Long Beach right after Christmas. The Long Beach police
canceled the investigation after Tristan’s mother, Buffy Joiner,
assured them that Tristan was with her. We telephoned the person
who filed the report and spoke with... Uh… Beth Ann Lopez and her
father, Robert Lopez.

“
Bear with me a moment, sir.
This is where it gets complicated. Tristan was living with the
Lopezes in Long Beach until two days prior to Christmas. He left
Long Beach to visit with his mother for three days. He was to
return to Long Beach. Sir? He was enrolled at Long Beach High
School last fall as a transfer student. The school records state
that Robert Lopez and his wife, Estefanie, are Tristan’s legal
guardians.”

“
Are they?”

“
Not legally.”

“
Sergeant?”

“
Yes sir?” Larry and her
assistant asked in unison.

“
Not you Larry.”

“
Yes sir,” her assistant
said.

“
Can you make certain the
girl and her family gets into protective custody? You know what?
Can you arrange travel for them to Denver? I need to speak with
them in person.”

“
Yes sir,” Alex’s Sergeant
said.

“
Please continue,
Larry.”

“
That’s about all we
have.”

“
In a nutshell, we don’t
know how many kids are missing but we think the mothers know more
than they are saying.”

“
We’re guessing that there
are seven boys missing,” Larry said.

“
But that’s a guess.” Vince
said in the background.

“
Just in case, I’ve emailed
you photos, descriptions and pertinent information for the boys,”
Alex’s Sergeant said.

“
Thank you, Sergeant,” Alex
said. “We’ll use them. Is there anything else Sergeant
Flagg?”

“
Um… sir? One more thing, I
spoke with one boy. He answered the phone. Um… Lance Joiner. He’s
the oldest of the illegitimate children. I heard a child in the
background but I couldn’t tell you if it was a boy or a
girl.”

“
Did you speak with his
mother?” Alex asked.

“
Krystal Joiner? Captain
Hutchins spoke with her.”

“
Alex,” Vince said taking
the phone from Larry. “Krystal Joiner was surprised we were
calling, shocked even. She seemed legitimately confused as to
missing children. She assured me that her two boys were present. In
fact, she put the other boy, Jason, on the phone to speak with
me.”

“
Two boys weren’t
taken?”

“
Only two and the unborn
child,” Vince said. “Oh, and Alex? Krystal Joiner was much sharper
than the other women. She wouldn’t speak to Larry. She insisted on
calling us back. She called a few people before she was sure we
were on the up and up. The other mothers? They acted like they
almost expected our call.”

“
I wonder what that means,”
Alex said.

“
No idea,” Vince said.
“We’ll keep working.”

Vince clicked off the line.

“
Well that’s confusing.
Benji, what do you have?” Knowing her Sergeant was fluent in
French, she spoke French.

“
Nothing nice,” Ben replied
in French. “We’ve been reviewing off shore accounts with potential
Joiner connections and consistent activity. These accounts show
patterns that match Cee Cee Joiner’s usual level of
activity.”

“
Hookers and fried food,”
Alex said.

“
They prefer the term
escort. But yes, we found the accounts through some of his regular
vendors. They’ve been very friendly with immunity granting
Federals. We’re about ninety percent certain these accounts belong
to Cee Cee Joiner. A member of the security team will be at the
bank when they open. We are hoping to find him through these
accounts.”

“
And the
children?”

“
Nothing. Larry and Vince
have worked their butts off. And they have nothing. We’ve found
nothing.”

“
Do we know what Joiner was
up to before he disappeared?”

“
Shady oil deal?”

“
Any idea who was involved
or where the oil deal took place?” Alex asked.

“
No. I was trying to be
funny,” Ben said.

Alex didn’t state the obvious. Ben was a lot
of things, but funny was not one of them.

“
Patrick is working his
contacts,” Ben said. “Almost everyone in South American hates
Joiner. Did you know he was jailed in Venezuela?”

“
Which time?” Alex asked.
“You’re saying: We don’t know who; we have no idea why; and Joiner
is off the map.”

“
Yes, that’s what I’m
saying,” Ben said. “Your Sensei wants to speak with
Olivas.”

“
Thanks Ben,” Alex
said.

“
How are you
feeling?”

“
Worried,” Alex
said.

She avoided mentioning the obvious pain,
swelling, bruising. She was even bleeding. Again.

“
Yes, hostages first. We’ve
got your back.”

Alex closed her eyes at his usual assurance.
These simple words said from mentor to student told her he was
worried about her. She nodded to herself. That’s good. She was
worried too.

“
Sergeant? Any word on where
we’re going?”

“
Yes sir. The Mariscal Mine.
It is an abandoned mercury mine. It’s in the portion of the park
Captain Vardee mentioned. Do you see it? It’s between Tally
Mountain and Mariscal Mountain.”

“
I see it.” Alex pointed to
the topo map and Raz opened the topo map for the region.

“
The Park Service received
notification that a non-profit environmental group was going to
clean up the Mariscal Mine with new mercury abatement technology.
About four months ago, a crew arrived to begin work. The Park
Service has copies of what looks like legitimate paperwork.
However, the IRS has no record of this non-profit or anyone related
to this project.”

“
Bingo.”

“
The men Captain Vardee
referenced? They were supposed to be working on the clean up crew.
Fake IDs, fake credentials. “

“
What do you get from the
satellite heat imaging?” Alex asked.

“
GPSOC found five faint GPS
signals. Cell phones, they think. The satellite heat reading shows…
well… I’ll send you the latest pictures. Agent Rasmussen is skilled
at reading heat scans. Can you ask him to confirm what he
sees?”

“
He’s right here.” Pointing
to a new email, Alex said, “That’s for you.”

Raz opened the heat reading for the
abandoned mine. Raz looked at the picture and puzzled. Pointing at
the distinct blurry blobs, he counted. His finger hovered over one
set of images.

“
May I have the phone?” Raz
asked.

Alex nodded.

“
Sergeant,” Raz said. He
listened to something the Sergeant said. “Yes, I confirm your
findings. Yes, that’s correct.”

Raz gave the phone back to Alex.

“
I think that’s it, sir,”
her Sergeant said. “Call me when you get to the park.”

“
What about the heat
reading?”

“
Agent Rasmussen will tell
you. Oh sir, I received a message from Captain Vardee. He says the
border patrol saw five boys.”

“
Only boys?”

“
Only boys,” he
said.

“
Thank you
Sergeant.”

Alex closed Vince’s phone. Looking up, she
discovered the men had been watching this entire time.

“
We have a location!” Alex
said.

The men cheered.

“
We’ll brief in five
minutes,” Joseph said.

Joseph tapped Matthew’s shoulder. Joseph
gave Alex an Ensure shake to drink. Distracted by the ringing cell
phone, she opened the drink then set it down.

“
Troy, can you take this
call? Steve wants to talk to you about possible South American ties
to Joiner.”

Surprised, Troy looked up from his cards. He
took the phone from Alex then walked toward the back of the
plane.

“
What’s on the heat,
Raz?”

“
Two dead people, one
dying,” Raz said. His eyes searched her face.

“
People?”

“
Small people.”

“
Children,” Alex said. “Your
theory?”

“
I assume they are killing
them one at a time to get to Joiner.”

Alex closed her eyes for a moment. There was
nothing was worse than finding a dead hostage. A dead child? Rather
than think the next thought, she asked her next question.

“
Do we believe any of the
children are alive?”

“
Yes. There are three, maybe
four other children, five at the most. Two adults have a child
between them. No way to tell what they are doing.”

“
That matches Larry and
Vince’s guess of seven boys,” Alex said. “They’re in a
mine?”

“
Maybe a mine office or the
opening to a tunnel. They are not deep, less than a mile from the
surface.”

“
Anything else?”

“
The second picture shows
four adults in a building or a trailer near the tunnel. I assume
the adults are in the trailer. You can see the trailer on the
satellite imaging. What is our intel?”

“
Captain Vardee of the Texas
Rangers confirms the location of a trailer. Outside of vague
satellite image, we don’t have great information. The Space Shuttle
is on the other side of the globe and U-2’s don’t fly over the
continental United States.”

“
We’re acting on what we
have,” Raz said.

“
We can’t risk not acting,”
Alex said.

“
No matter how much
information we have, we always end up walking in the dark,” Joseph
said.

Joseph picked up the Ensure and gave it to
Alex. Alex looked up into the face of her old friend, her Fey
Special Forces teammate. She took a drink of Ensure then set it
down.

“
Charlie said that before
every mission.”

“
Kill plan?” Joseph asked.
“I’m not aware of a policy.”

“
We don’t have one,” Alex
said. “Not yet. I prefer the no-kill policy of the Fey Special
Forces Team.”

“
Leadership needs to
decide,” Matthew said. “We’ll communicate our decision to the
mean.”

Again, Matthew words sounded confident but
his voice betrayed his uncertainty. He did not want to offend
her.

“
Same thing,” Alex shrugged.
Her mind had moved on to how they were going to get
there.

Matthew sighed out the breath he’d been
holding. Glancing at Raz, he saw he was not fooling Raz. When Raz
wagged his eyebrows, Matthew almost laughed out loud.

“
What do you want Matthew?”
Alex asked.

“
I think we kill when we
need to. We should not shackle the men with arbitrary policies,”
Matthew said.

“
Raz?”

“
I’ve never been in this
situation, Alex.” Raz shrugged. “I don’t really know what it’s like
to be in battle. That said, as a cop, we shot as the last resort.
Period. Every shooting is reviewed. Our job was to protect life,
even the lives of the people who were criminals. No bad
guys.”

Alex nodded.

“
Joseph?”

“
I like what Raz said. I
know we struggled to keep to ‘no kill.’ In the long run, it made us
trustworthy to captors. They could trust us to deal with them, not
kill them out of hand.”