Chapter 48: Lexa

Around four-thirty, we all decided to head back to shore for the cookout. When we arrived, there were already about twenty or so people there, and As we passed the pool, I saw Asher playing in the shallow end with a few kids who looked his age. Once he saw me, he got out and come running over to me, "Where have you and Larke been, Xa? You were supposed come watch me play."

I couldn't help but laugh and pick him up even though he was wet. "I'm sorry little man. I was surprised to see my friend Blake here. I haven't seen him or Abby since your mom and I came home from Afghanistan. I've been talking with them. How about you come to find me later after you are done in the pool, and we can hang out for a while. How does that sound?"

He looks at Blake and Abby, then back to me, "Okay, Xa, but it not nice not to introduce me to your friends." He looks at Blake and reaches his hand out, "Hi, my name is Asher, but my friends call me Ash. Your name is Blake?"

Blake takes his little hand, "Nice to meet you, Ash. I am Bellamy, a friend of Xa's. Who is your mommy?"

Before he can answer, a little girl who looks to be around the same age as Asher comes running up to Abby screaming, "Grandma!"

I snap my head towards Clarke and then to Abby, "Grandma? Wh-what, who…h-how…."

Asher looks at me and says, "Why you stuttering? That is Brina, my friend. Her dad is Larke's brother." I put Asher down and give Clarke and Abby a confused look.

"Um, Clarke, why didn't you tell me you have a brother?"

She looks at Abby and then to me, "Because he is never around and is usually overseas in Great Britain where he lives. He never comes to any family events and only calls on birthdays and Christmas."

Around this time, an older guy walks over toward us. He is a little shorter than me, probably around 5'8" tall. He has the same curly blonde hair and green eyes as Clarke. He looks to be in relatively good shape. When he makes it to us, he says, "Mom, it is so good to see you. I'm glad that you are finally home." He then looks at Clarke, "Hey little sis, it's been a long time."

Abby wraps him in a hug. "Hey, son, I didn't know you would be here. Nikko, I would like to introduce you to Lexa. She is Clarke's…um…."

I extend my hand to him, "I'm Lexa, a good friend of Clarke's, and I know your mom from Afghanistan. It is nice to meet you."

He shakes my hand and says, "It's nice to meet you too, Lexa. Amelia has been talking non-stop about you and Ash and the proposal last night. I hear there is going to be a wedding later tonight."

I feel Clarke grab my hand, intertwining her fingers with mine, and I smile. I look at Nikko, who is now looking at our hands, and I say, "I bet I will be hearing a lot of that tonight. It was…"

Clarke interrupts me, "Nikko, why are you even here? Lexa is my girlfriend, not my good friend. She was just trying to be polite because mom couldn't spit it out, apparently."

I look at her and can tell she is not happy. So I put my arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to me, kissing her temple. Abby says, "Clarke, let's not do this tonight, okay."

Clarke just says, "Whatever! Lex, let's go see if we can find Ashley."

She starts to walk away. I glance at Abby. She just shakes her head. I quickly catch up with Clarke as we make it inside. We see Ash and Callie talking to a group of people mostly dressed in fatigues. As we approach, I recognize Raven and Echo. Raven sees me first and looks spooked for a minute, making Ash look over and see me. I walk up to Raven and say, "Hey, I didn't know you would be here. It is good to see you."

Raven looks like she doesn't know what to say, and her eyes go wide. This makes Ash laugh, which makes Callie ask, "What am I missing?"

Ash is still chuckling, "I'm not completely sure, but I think that Raven is expecting Lexa to murder you right here in front of all of these people."

Raven turns red, and Callie gives Ash a look before she says, "What?"

Ash says, "Well, Raven is scared to death of Lexa, and I just introduced you to Raven as my fiancé. When Lexa and I left…well, we were together, and…."

Now I can't help but laugh, "Raven, it's fine. Things have changed, and I am extremely happy for the two of them. I would like you to meet Clarke. Clarke, Raven. Raven, Clarke is my girlfriend."

The look on her face is priceless. Clarke extends her hand and says, "It is nice to meet you, Raven. How exactly do you know these two troublemakers?"

Raven seems to loosen up a little and says, "Um…I was Ash's physical therapist when she woke up from her coma."

Clarke smiles, "Oh, I am so sorry. I bet that was a fun job."

Everyone laughs. An older guy in a suit walks up, and Ash says, "You didn't have to dress up for my account, Julian."

Hearing that name puts me on edge. I know from DC that he is Ash's boss at the CIA, and he is here for one reason, to tell Ash about her next assignment. Julian smiles and says, "I hear congratulations are in order. Which one of these beautiful women was stupid enough to say yes to your marriage proposal?"

I'm not sure why, but that statement really pisses me off. I think Clarke must feel the tension in my body because she grabs my hand, probably to keep me from doing anything stupid. It doesn't, however, make me keep my mouth shut because I say, "And why would someone have to be stupid to marry Ash? She is an amazing, caring, loyal and beautiful person. So who wouldn't want to marry her?"

As soon as it leaves my mouth, I know that someone will take it the wrong way. I look at Callie and Clarke. Luckily, they are just smiling at me. Clarke squeezes my hand to let me know that she didn't take it the wrong way, but Julian just laughs and says, "So, I guess that means you are the one."

Ash speaks up, "What? No, Julian, this is Callie, my fiancé, and that is Lexa, my best man, I mean best woman."

My mouth drops open, and I just stand there. Then, of course, Ash starts to laugh. Julian just shakes his head and says, "Can we go somewhere private and talk? I want to get this out of the way before everyone gets here."

Ash says, "Sure, follow me." She gives Callie a kiss on the cheek and tells her this shouldn't take long. As she walks away, Julian follows. Ash takes a couple of steps before she notices that I'm not following them. She looks back at me and says, "Well, are you coming, Lexa?" Julian gives her a questioning look as I kiss Clarke and fall into step with them.

Ash

It only takes Julian a couple of minutes to pull me away from the party, but I'm not surprised. However, he looks pretty pissed when I tell Lexa to follow us. He will just have to get over that because I'm not keeping secrets from her. She's the one person I trust completely and know that if something goes wrong, she will find me, whether I'm dead or alive.

I take them into my office, where we have access to an encrypted phone and internet line. As soon as I close the door, Julian says, "Ash, what the hell is she doing in here? All of this information is classified."

"That may be true, but you wouldn't be here in person if this were a mission without high risks. I trust Lexa completely after Afghanistan, and I'm sure I can get her clearance if I have to, but she is my backup plan; therefore, she needs to know everything."

"Ash, you know that this is against protocol. Therefore, I can't allow it."

"Julian, we both know that if this mission were on the books, you wouldn't be here in person."

"Fine, you're right. This is an off-book mission, and if anything goes wrong, you are on your own. The CIA and the United States will deny knowing anything about it."

"That's what I figured and why she is here. Look, I'm about to be married and have a son, so I'm not that person who doesn't care if she lives anymore. I will be more careful, and I will have an iron-clad backup plan that doesn't include any government affiliation. Now tell me what you have for me. Besides, it was Lexa's plan and execution of the said plan that brought down Ahmed and all his men while I was in a coma."

He just looks at Lexa and then back to me before walking over to the computer and placing a flash drive in it. He then brings up what looks like a breakdown of blood and DNA. I look at him and ask, "What am I looking at exactly?"

"Remember the blood sample you had Abby send to me that was found in that hideout that you raided?"

I glance at Lexa to see if she's following that it's her blood. "Yeah, I remember. Abby said that it appeared the DNA had been mutated with wolf DNA probably while still in the mother's womb."

"Right, well, we were able to run more extensive tests on this sample and a few others that were obtained elsewhere and found that there is a lot more to it than what it seemed at first. See this?" He points to some information and brings up some more as he explains, this shows that there was an infusion of three percent wolf DNA, but this here indicates something entirely different. See this breakdown here. It shows that the DNA was also infused with something else. In the case of the sample Abby sent, it shows that whoever's sample that was also had been mutated by an ancient form of DNA that we just recently figured out where it came from. In all the other examples we have been able to find, it is pretty much the same. It is always three percent wolf and five percent ancient most of the time, extinct DNA markers.

"Julian, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that someone is using unborn babies as test subjects and infusing their DNA with not only wolf DNA but DNA from ancient warrior civilizations, like the Amazonians, Spartans, Akkadian, and Assyrian's just to name a few. From what we have gathered, whoever is doing this is building an army of assassins with unknown abilities. We have been able to narrow down their base location, but the last agent we sent in hasn't reported back in almost four months. That's why I came to you. You said you wanted to know if we found out anything."

"Wait! The DNA that Abby gave you was not only infused with wolf DNA but also something else?"

"Yes, that sample was 3% wolf, 5% Amazonian, 75.8% European, and 19.2% Middle eastern. However, we aren't completely sure what that means without being able to obtain more DNA samples or find the person it belongs to, to run more tests."

"Wow! So, do you have a plan?"

"Sort of. We know that the organization's base is somewhere near Chernobyl or the surrounding Polesie State Radioecological Reserve. The last report we received from agent Natalia Rybak was she had made contact with a child trafficking organization that operated out of Minsk. Usually, this wouldn't raise any red flags, but this particular group only bought girls and young women between the ages of 16-30, which we know is the prime childbearing years. Natalia said that this group never sold, only bought, and never outside of that age range. She had found a source that told her the group started off recruiting young women from abortion clinics willing to sell their children after birth instead of going through with the abortion. They were given room, board, and all doctor's care while carrying the child. Once it was born, the mother was paid, and a nondisclosure agreement was signed."

"So why did they move into buying women instead of continuing this?"

"Apparently, some women had second thoughts after the childbirth and created problems, so now they buy women. The source went on to say that now they keep the women drugged and sedated pretty much the entire nine-month period. Anyway, Natalia's source is a former doctor at the facility where they are doing the experiments. Her name is Anny Steinbeck from Sweden. She has agreed to meet with you in Minsk and show you where the facility is so that you can find a way to infiltrate it and hopefully find Natalia."

"Julian, that isn't much of a plan. Why is Anny willing to help us? What's in it for her?"

"Like I said, she was a researcher at the facility until she realized they were actually experimenting on humans. She was told that it was strictly theoretical and then on primates. When she started asking questions,…well, let's say that it didn't turn out well for her, and she was barely able to escape. I don't know much beyond that because it wasn't my mission, but I trained Natalia, and I need to be able to tell her family something."

"Okay, I will go to Minsk and talk to the contact. Beyond that, I can't promise anything. I have a family to think about now, but I will assess the situation and go from there. I do have one condition."

"What?"

"Lexa is kept in the loop, and if I miss more than two check-ins, you get her anything she needs to come to find me."

"Fletch, are you insane! You know that I can't promise that. There is no way anyone at the agency will sign off on it."

Lexa speaks up, "I honestly don't give a damn about what your 'agency' will or will not sign off on. What I do care about is Ash. So if she misses check-ins, all I need from you is the up-to-date information she has and a way to get weapons into the country. I can handle everything else."

Julian looks from Lexa to me, "What is she talking about?"

Lexa says, "Look, I don't have time for this! Something is wrong, and I need to find Clarke. Ash explain to him that I just need the info, weapons smuggled into whatever country, and paperwork for my team. That's it. The rest I will handle. Now you can fill me in on the rest. I have to go now!"

I don't know what to think about her saying Clarke needs her or how she knows. I look at Julian and explain my plan and how Lexa fits in.