Generations Beyond

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Colorado

Two days later Cross got the phone call. He took it in the office with Alex and Christina there with him. “Z,” he said, “you’re on speaker. Give us some good news.”

“Hey gang,” Zak’s deep voice came from the speaker, “We’ve got it figured out. We’ve run a lot of background, and we’ve ID’d all the players. We’ll extract the targets in a week, at the soonest. Move them through Orlando and into Toronto. The Caribbean thing wasn’t working.”

“Excellent. We’re sure we have all the hostiles identified, Z?”

“Yeah, boy. You remember Little Jimmy, right. He says we’re gold.”

“Hey, Z,” Alex said, stepping up and leaning against Jonathan’s shoulder to look at the speaker phone. “Canada works out. We’ve revised the plan and we’ll laying low in Montana until it’s clear.”

“Sounds great, need any supplies dropped?”

“Nah, Z. We’ve got it covered. Need to get the family out and to Vancouver. We’ll take it from there.”

“Thanks a lot, Z,” Jonathan smiled at Christina, “We appreciate the help.”

“Yeah, Z, thank you,” she leaned in close to the phone, “I owe you a drink.”

A deep chuckle sounded from the phone. “You owe me one, girlie. Takin’ away my Alex for this long. But it’s my pleasure. Yer family now.”

“We’re a go, Z,” Jonathan said with a nod.

“Understood,” Zak said, “the team goes dark twenty-four hours out. No contact until the targets are extracted and moved.”

Jonathan nodded. “We’ll be in touch.” He picked up the phone and disconnected the call.

Christina stood and bounced on the balls of her feet. “So,” she said, “What’s next? How can we speed this along?”

“We wait,” Alex spoke up, looking at the bouncing ball of excitement. “Jonny gave the green light, now it’s a matter of waiting until we hear from the team post exfil.” She smiled and held her arms out for a hug. “We pack go bags and make sure we leave nothing that could burn us.”

Christina moved in and hugged her tight. “Do we need to get supplies for the road? Do I need to make a list,” she asked as she rattled off questions.

“Calm down, analyst.” He shook his head and stood. “I have cash in the basement safe. We aren’t going straight to Montana, we’ll go to Seattle, dump the car and cross into Vancouver. We’ll meet your family there and head back east by train then travel south through the mountains into Montana on foot.” He put the phone into his pocket and gave both of the women a hug, far gentler than the one Alex gave.

Christina nodded. “Three days, right?” she asked. “Sorry about your car though.”

“It’s a car,” he shrugged. “We’ll get cash out of it, too. We want to drop off the grid once we ghost out of here.”

Alex nodded. “Exactly. No cards, nothing familiar, no cell phones, public phones.”

“Right,” she said, looking between the two of them. “New identities are waiting for everyone in Vancouver as well?”

Jonathan let them go and leaned back on the desk and Alex loosened her hug but didn’t let go. “My people will meet us there with everything, yes. New names, everything.”

He shook his head with a chuckle and stood before walking toward the door. He retreated to his room to grab his bag and plan more specifics.

Christina watched as Jonathan sulked away, then turned to Alex, “Did you tell him about what they took from me the last time?”

She shook her head and pulled away a touch to look down. She laid a hand against Christina’s abdomen under her shirt. “No, honey.” Alex looked up again into Christina’s eyes, “I’ll lay some of ya’ll shit out there, but this one is all you. I’m not gonna force that on you.”

“I’ll tell him.” She put a hand over Alex’s and looked down then back up.

Alex shook her head. “Don’t rush it because of him. If he loves you like I think he does, it won’t matter.” Alex paused and tilted her head. “And if he doesn’t, and it matters,” she shrugged. “Fuck him. He wasn’t worth it anyway, and I’ll be waiting.” She winked.

Christina nodded. “I want to tell him because I don’t want to feel like I’m keeping a secret. I would rather him find out sooner than later. And,” she said looking at Alex, “thank you.”

“Any time, Blondie.” She smiled and leaned to give Christina the gentlest of kisses; a brief touch of the lips. “Go get him, I need to prep my go bag.” She slipped away with a lingering touch before leaving the office and heading to her bedroom.

Christina blinked after the kiss. She turned her attention to Jonathan’s door. She took two steps and stopped. After taking a deep breath, she knocked twice.

“Come in,” he called from inside the room.

Christina opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind her.

He left his rucksack on the bed and was packing things into it as she came in. When the door closed, he looked at her.

“I need to talk to you.” She moved into the room and sat on his bed.

“Sure,” he said. He stopped packing, cleared a spot on the bed and sat down next to her. “What’s up?”

She put her hands in her lap, her fingers tangling around each other. “I didn’t tell you what happened in the lab, other than that they took more samples.”

He furrowed his brow and looked at her. “What did they take?” He reached out and laid his hand on her thigh, giving her a gentle squeeze.

She looked at his hand and at him before she put her hands near her healing incision. “They took it away from me. They took it all,” she said as her hands shook slightly.

“Took it away?” he repeated, before his breath caught in his throat. “I’m so sorry,” he said, not mad, but hurt, “I’m so, so sorry.”

She shrugged. “I try not to think of it much, never thought I needed it,” she said, laughing with a frown. “Hell, I never thought I’d have sex until I met you.” She shrugged again and put her hands back in her lap. “I didn’t want you to find out later and think I was hiding it from you.

He did it, Penn, because he found out about us. He didn’t want to risk another generation of us. My child would be stronger and he wouldn’t have control.”

“Christina,” he looped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him in a hug. She put her head on his chest. He said nothing as he held her.