Patterson, James - Alex Cross 14 - Cross Country

I crawled up and over a curb and then just lay there, partly on grass, partly on a sidewalk or walkway.

They hadn't killed me.

I was still alive.

Finally-I slept.

Cross Country

Chapter 152

THEN I WAS awake; at least I thought I was.

“I'm Officer Maise, with the DC Metro police. Are you all right, sir?” The patrolman spoke to me even as he lifted the hood that covered my head.

“Why are your hands tied? What happened to you?” he asked next.

“I'm Alex Cross. I'm a detective with Major Crimes- I was kidnapped.”

He had the hood all the way off now, but I couldn't see much of anything yet, not even his face. My eyes were slow to adjust to the light-to the streetlights mostly. It was dark outside. Night.

“Yes, sir, Detective Cross. We've all been looking for you,” patrolman Maise said. “Let me call it in.”

“How long… you been looking?”

“Three days.”

Finally, I could see his face, which showed concern but also surprise. He had found me. I was alive. I'd been missing for three days.

“Can you get these binds off?” I asked.

“I'll call it in first. Then I'll get the ropes off you.”

“No press,” I told him.

“Of course not. Why would I call the press?” the patrolman asked.

“I don't know,” I said. “I guess I'm not thinking straight yet.”

Cross Country

Chapter 153

I WAS TAKEN home by Officer Maise. The house on Fifth Street was dark and obviously empty Bree had been staying with us off and on, but she had kept her place, so I figured she was at her apartment tonight. Why would she stay here by herself?

I would call Bree soon, but I needed to go inside the house right now. I entered through the sunporch, passing the silent piano on my way, imagining playing it for the kids or, sometimes, just for myself.

No, I guess I was remembering.

The kitchen had been cleaned up since the last time I'd been there. Probably Bree had done it.

Now it was neat, as if nobody lived here.

I continued walking from room to room, everything quiet, and I felt unbearably sad. I turned on lights as I went, feeling like a visitor in my own house. Nothing about my life felt right, or even real. The world had become such a cruel, unsafe place. How had it happened?

How much blame should America take, and did accepting blame really help anybody? Wasn't it time to stop offering criticism and start providing solutions? It was easy to be a critic; it took no imagination. Problem solving was the bitch.

I finally made it up to my office in the attic, and I sat at my desk, looking down on the street, wondering if there was anyone out there watching me.

Had the interrogators believed me? Did it matter? It struck me that I didn't really know that much about the world, the larger picture, anyway. But who did these days?

None of us, maybe. That's what made it so daunting and scary-and took away hope too. That's what gave us a feeling that everything was out of our control. So who was in control? Somebody had to be-but who? Somebody had to have some answers. Somebody had just imprisoned and tortured me.

I continued to wander around the house. I needed to call people - Damon, who I hoped was still safely stashed away, and Bree and Sampson. But I couldn't make the calls yet. I didn't know what to tell any of them, or how to face them.

No, that wasn't it exactly. The truth was, I didn't want to put them in danger. Somebody out there might still think that I knew something, something dangerous and important, or maybe just embarrassing to them.

And the really scary part?

They were right.

Cross Country

Chapter 154

I HAD TOLD my interrogators about the possible CIA and Tiger connection, but that wasn't important to them. They'd let me go, hadn't they? They could deny all that-and besides, the Tiger was dead. I had cleaned up that particular mess for them.

But the thing I hadn't told them was the real subject of Adanne's story: The Americans, the French, the Dutch, the English, and several very important corporations were working with the Chinese in the Delta. China needed oil even more than we did. China was cutting corners. They were ready to pay top dollar for oil and willing to make deals, whatever it took. And because of these business ventures, thousands of Africans had died-men, women, and children. That was the one thing that I knew for certain. It was what Adanne had been researching and writing about.

It was what she had contacted Ellie Cox about; she had talked to Ellie about her research. That was what got her family murdered in Georgetown.

Adanne had told me horror stories during our time together, especially about life and death in Sudan. Rape was the weapon of war there, and girls of age five and up were abused, sometimes by “peacekeepers.” Hundreds and hundreds of mass graves had been discovered but were rarely reported on. Police corruption and brutality, some of which I'd witnessed myself, were rampant-an epidemic, really, and kidnappers were working in the Delta area, especially around Port Harcourt.

On the couch that had been in Nana's living room since I was a boy, I slept, finally. But not like a baby. That kind of sleep would never come to me again. The truth was, I had accepted that my family was gone, just like so many other families that had been murdered before them. Nothing would ever be the same for me again.

Cross Country

Chapter 155

I WAS WOKEN up early in the morning. Somebody was coming into the house!

I could tell that it was more than one person.

I jumped up from the couch, trying to collect my thoughts in a hurry, to focus on how to get to my gun in the den, when two men burst into the living room!

I was surprised-no, I was shocked-to see Steven Millard and Merrill Snyder from the CIA. Millard spoke first.

“Detective Cross, we didn't know you were here. We-”

Someone else walked into the living room behind Millard and Snyder. My God, it was Ali.

And he looked all right to me-unharmed.

He looked just incredible-safe, alive, home.

“Ali!” I called and went forward to him. “Ali”

“Daddy! Daddy!” he shrieked as he ran and threw himself into my outstretched arms. My little boy was crying and shaking uncontrollably.

No, no-I was the one crying and shaking. Ali was just holding on to me incredibly tightly. He kept repeating, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” I couldn't hear the words enough times.

What was happening here? I wondered, looking to the CIA men for answers. Now I saw that Eric Dana and my friend Al Tunney had come to the house as well.

Then I heard, “Alex? Is that you in there? Alex, is that you?”

The voice was Nana's, but the next person entering the living room was Jannie.

She had her arms stretched out, and she was sobbing as she ran and crashed into my chest. “Oh, my sweet girl, my darling girl,” I whispered as she pressed into me. “Oh, Jannie, sweetheart. Oh, my baby, my baby.”

'I'm okay, we're okay,“ Jannie said. ”They kept us in a room. They asked us so many questions. We didn't know why, Daddy, we didn't know anything."

“No, of course you didn't.”

Then Nana slouched into the living room, and she looked terrible and wonderful all at the same time. She came to us, and then we were all group hugging. The CIA agents just looked on, warmly, it seemed to me, but they said nothing.

“They didn't harm us,” said Nana. “Thank God, we're all here together. We're all safe.”

That was enough for this unbelievable moment, the most emotional one of my life-we were all together, and we were safe.