Lean on Me Read Free Page A

and
answered.
    “ Hargreaves!” Colonel
Gordon’s voice came over her wireless headset.
    “ Sir?” Alex
asked.
    “ What the hell is going
on?” His voice was artificially gruff. He had an audience
too.
    “ I just touched down in
Pakistan,” Alex said.
    “ You’ve invaded Pakistan?”
he asked.
    “ As you know, we have
approval to cross any border in the course of our duty,” Alex said.
“We are not required to give notification. We are only required to
wear gear that identifies us as the Fey Team.”
    “ And what exactly are you
doing?”
    “ We are following the
course of our duty,” Alex said. “A US convoy is being detained in
Paktika Province. Rather than wait a month or so to free the
hostages, we were in the area and thought we’d intervene
early.”
    “ So noted,” he said. “And
you’re looking for the missing US Army PFC?”
    Raz signaled Alex to let her know that the
other teams had jumped on the other side of the canyon in
Afghanistan.
    “ Working on that, sir,”
Alex said. “As you know, he was picked up here but is no longer in
Paktika Province.”
    “ So noted,” he said. “Get
to work.”
    Raz nodded. The other half of the team had
landed in Afghanistan.
    “ Let’s go!” Alex
yelled.
    MJ, Margaret, and White Boy took off toward
the back of the southern ridge. She, Raz, and Trece took the trail
toward the northern ridge. They jogged up the hill until they were
close enough for the shooter to see them. They crouched and then
belly crawled the rest of the way to a small stone wall surrounding
the blind at the top of the mountain.
    They watched a thin, teenaged Pakistani boy
fire. His belly pressed against the blind, he shot through a small
opening in the rock wall. Alex pointed to Trece and he jumped over
the stone barrier. Trece took one big step and snatched the rifle
from the boy. He lifted the boy off the ground and was about to
punch him out when Alex jumped over the barrier.
    “ Mohamed Ali Sher!” Alex
yelled in Arabic. “Does your mother know you’re here?”
    Shocked, Trece and his cargo flipped around
to stare at her.
    “ What would Jax say?” she
growled at him.
    “ Alexandra Jinniyah Khan!”
the boy beamed at her. “What are you doing here?”
    “ Jax brought you into this
world and you repay him by being a terrorist!”
    Alex’s words came with fury. Having been on
the receiving end of Alex’s fury, Trece set the boy down and patted
his shoulder. Alex raised her pointer finger and slammed it into
the boy’s chest.
    “ A terrorist?” the boy
said. “Not a terrorist! I’m assisting in an American training
exercise. My friends and I. You know, Mohammed, Kamran, and Ali. We
were paid one hundred US dollars each to help.”
    The boy pulled a filthy hundred dollar bill
from his pocket.
    “ That,” Alex pointed to the
convoy below. “That is the President of the United
States!”
    “ Really?” the boy gave an
exuberant smile. “Do I get to meet him? I saw on the Internet that
some Afghan boys met the American President. Alexandra Jinniyah
Khan, can I meet the American President?”
    Trece raised his eyebrows. He turned his
back to Alex and the boy to keep from laughing. Raz radioed the
other teams.
    “ Jackson would be very
disappointed in you,” Alex said.
    “ No, no, he wouldn’t,” the
boy said. “Jax is my hero. I’m going to medical school like him so
that I can help kids and their moms. My father has been working at
the base and saving money for me to go to medical school. I study
every day for my entrance exams. Now I have one hundred American
dollars! Jax would be proud of me for helping the American’s during
their training exercise.”
    Alex’s hands went to her hips. Breathing
hard, she tried to match the fact that this boy was shooting at the
convoy along with what he was actually saying.
    “ Why did you shoot down the
drone?” Alex asked.
    “ We did not shoot down any
drone,” Sher said. “That would be… bad… for me, for my