Learning to Stand Read Online Free PDF

oxygen
tanks. Can you find them?”
    The men hopped to their activities. The
Department of Corrections guards sat the Weasel down in a
chair.
    “ Troy, I need a telephone
too.”
    “ I found a panel, Alex,”
Troy said. “Over here. I’ll trace the phone.”
    She jogged over the panel. Set on top of a
small table, the panel was a mixture of 1920’s electricity and
1980’s technology. And the manual was... She bent under the panel
to look for the manual.
    “ B horror movie,” Raz
mumbled as he walked past her.
    She held up the manual to Raz. He raised his
eyebrows.
    “ It’s in French.”
    She confirmed his suspicion. Like all bad
movies, the documentation was in a foreign language.
    He laughed.
    She sat down to read the manual. Most of the
panel managed lights and recording devices. With a flick of
unmarked switch, she heard large metal fans begin to vent the room.
Alex switched them off. Until they had oxygen to replace what was
removed, they needed what they had. They were going to have to
sweat.
    She looked up when Troy’s shadow fell over
the panel. He held a phone wire stripped to its four copper strands
in one hand and his Leatherman Mini-tool in the other hand.
    “ I need your computer,” he
said.
    She dug her pocket computer from the back
pocket of her jeans. He looked at the wire and the connection, and
then set to work.
    Alex turned her attention back to her
manual. After testing all the climate control features, she sent a
ping to Cheyenne Mountain to let them know they were in this room.
Within minutes, she received a Morse code message back.
    “ I’ll do it,” Matthew said.
He dropped into a chair next to her.
    “ My Morse code isn’t bad,”
she said.
    “ Oh really? What did you
get?”
    “ Um, they want to know who’s
here?”
    “ Guesser,” he said. “Don’t
worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
    “ Thanks,” she
said.
    Standing, she touched his shoulder. He
looked up at her and winked.
    After checking in with each of the men, she
decided to use the time while they worked to speak with the Weasel
now. She moved to the end of the conference table where the Weasel
was sitting.
    She held her Homeland Security badge up.
    “ Can I have some privacy?”
she asked his guards.
    The guards nodded then stepped away. She
pulled a chair in front of the Weasel.
    “ Who are you?” the ex-agent
said.
    “ I’m the Fey,” she said. She
pushed up the left sleeve of her oversized jacket to show the blue
Fairy tattoo.
    “ The Fey is a man,” he said.
“Special Forces doesn’t train women.”
    “ Listen. I have about five
minutes to talk to you. You can either use the time to tell me what
happens in Special Forces, and then serve your full sentence. Or,
you can answer my questions and get the reduction. It’s your
choice.”
    Alex felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning,
she looked up into Raz’s grey eyes. She gave him a vague smile. He
sat down next to her.
    “ Agent Rasmussen is going to
tape our interaction,” Alex said.
    Raz set up a digital recording device then
gave Alex a clip microphone. Noting the Weasel’s shackled hands, he
clipped another microphone on to his orange corrections
jumpsuit.
    “ You’re not talking?” the
Weasel asked Raz.
    “ No,” Raz said. “Go ahead,
Major.”
    “ This is Major...” Alex
fumbled for a moment before she remembered the fake name that
belonged to her fake blond hair and fake blue eyes. “Major Alyssa
Drayson. I’m in Shelter 17 speaking with...”
    She rubbed her face to avoid saying his
name.
    “ Are you ready to begin?”
Alex asked.
    “ If you can do something
about the heat. It’s hotter than hell in here.”
    “ Nothing can be done about
the heat,” she said. “Explain to me how a decorated Secret Service
officer, with almost twenty years in, winds up in the middle of an
assassination attempt on the President of the United
States?”
    “ I needed the money,” he
said.
    She shook her head at his answer. She let
the silence lag