by Cliff Ryder
"So she told me," he replied.
"What's going on that she needed to break cover?" Denny asked.
"The situation here has gotten extremely complicated," Jason said.
"All right," Denny said. "Break it down for me and don't leave anything out."
As succinctly as he could, Jason explained to Denny what had happened so far, and that he, Tina, her grandfather and Jesse were holed up in a hidden weapons bunker and trying to plan their next moves. "In short," he admitted, "the original mission parameters are FUBAR."
"That sounds accurate," Denny said. "What do you intend to do about it?"
Just as he was about to reply, he felt Tina tapping him on the shoulder.
"Don't forget to tell him about Feng Li," she said. "And put your gun away."
Jason slipped the Glock back into his shoulder rig and turned his attention back to Denny. "There's one more thing," he said. "The man behind it all. He's not Russian."
Denny looked surprised. "If it's not a Russian, who is it?"
"A guy named Feng Li," he said.
"What?" his boss said, coming halfway out of his chair. "He's dead!"
"Not as dead as I'd like him to be," Jason said. "Tina positively identified him."
"Hold on a minute," Denny said, sitting back down. "We need to bring someone else in on this one." He tapped at another icon on his desktop and it began to flash an urgent red. A moment later, the Room 59 director, Kate Cochran, appeared at the doorway.
"This had better be the end of the world," she said, striding into the room. "I was in the middle of a sparring session and that emergency page cost me a kick to the head."
"It's not the apocalypse," Denny said, "but it's close."
Kate looked at him soberly. "All right," she said softly. She took a seat next to Jason and glanced at him. "Agent Siku," she said. "Aren't you on a recon mission in Alaska?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "But it got…a little complicated."
"It always does," she said. "Give it to me," she added to Denny.
His boss went through everything Jason had told him, including the final bit about Feng Li.
For several moments, Kate was deathly silent. "Damn," she finally said.
"Excuse me, but I'm not quite clear on something," Jason said.
"What would that be, Agent Siku?" Kate asked.
"Well, when Tina told me about Li, she said she was terrified of him. Now you two are acting like his return from the dead is a sign of very bad things.
Can you tell me why everyone is so frightened of this guy?"
"Good question," Kate said. "And there's a simple answer. When we started Room 59, we put it together with one agent representative from each of the participating nations. A 'prime' is what they were called. They trained and developed future training methods at one of our facilities here in the United States, then returned to their own countries to train the agents there. Li was a prime. When he got tired of straight fieldwork, he asked to be promoted to midnight teams, and his request was granted without question. If the midnight teams are the best of the best, Li was a perfect fit."
Jason shrugged. "Okay, so he's a tough guy, I get that. But lots of agents are tough."
"You don't understand, then," Denny cut in. "When Li turned rogue, it took us a long time to track him down. And we didn't go in light. Two midnight teams of five and two field agents went in where he'd been cornered. He decided to make a last stand. He killed all but one agent. It was a disaster."
"So why'd you think he was dead?" Jason asked.
Denny shrugged. "I had a sniper — one of our best men — stand away and wait. He shot him," he said. "Twice in the chest."
"And he was dead, right?" Jason asked. "Dead, dead?"
"Yes," he said. "It was a clean, confirmed kill. He was shot twice in the chest from less than two hundred yards away with a sniper rifle using armor-piercing rounds. The sniper checked his body. He was dead."
"Not as dead as one would think," Kate said.
Despite himself, Jason felt a surge of relief wash over him.
"Maybe it's time to abort," Kate continued. "Extract Agent Siku, debrief Tina, take the smaller fish into custody and let things calm down."
"We can't do that!" Jason said. "No way do we let this guy go!"
"Agent Siku!" she snapped. "I'm thinking of your safety. The mission is a bust. There comes a time to admit that."
Jason shook his head. "It's not a bust yet. The sub is still out there — and the Asp. Give me twenty-four hours," he said. "Please."
Kate and Denny exchanged a long look.
"Look," Jason said, "they've got the sub, they have it armed with nukes and they even have the damn Asp helicopter. These small-timers don't mean anything in the big picture. Give me twenty-four hours to finish the mission — including Li and his men. If I come up short, then I'll pull the plug myself."
Denny remained silent. This one was Kate's call. She studied Jason carefully, then said, "Agent Siku, are you really as good as your friends at the CIA say you are?"
"How good do they say I am?" he asked, grinning.
"They say you're the best," she said.
"I hate to be immodest," Jason replied.
"You better be the best," Kate said. "Because if you're not, Li won't give you a chance to pull the plug on the mission. He'll hunt you down and kill you without hesitation."
"Understood, ma'am."
"All right, you've got twenty-four hours and not a minute more. If we don't hear from you by then…" She left the statement hanging.
"Then I'd best get started," Jason said, getting to his feet.
"Your orders are now modified," she said. "Use any local assets you've got available. Sink the sub and destroy the Asp, take them all out. Clean sweep."
He nodded in understanding, then turned to Denny. "Can your offshore team remotely control the Scorpion?"
"Of course," Denny said. "What did you have in mind?"
* * *
After wrapping up his report with Denny, Jason logged out of Room 59 and shut down the system. He put his laptop and the other gear into a field pack, thankful that Jesse had found most of his things including the handheld device that would be critical to his plan.
The others were talking quietly at another table on the far side of the room and he joined them.
"So," Tina asked as he approached, "do you still have a job?"
"For now," he said. "Thank you."
"For what?" she asked.
"Finally telling me the truth," he said. "If you hadn't…"
"I know," she said, grinning. "You would have killed me."
"Yes," he said grimly.
He saw the cold finality of his words sink in and the movement in her throat as she swallowed. He had her full attention; now it was time to go to work.
"I've received revised orders," he said, sitting down at the table with them. "And in order to carry them out, I'm going to need some help."
"What do you have in mind?" Jesse asked.
"I have to get back out to that submarine. By the time we make it back to the coast, the Scorpion will be repaired and waiting."
"How's that?" his brother asked.
"There's an offshore team of specialists," he answered. "They called the Scorpion remotely while I was talking with my superiors. They will get it repaired."
"Handy," Jesse said. "If only I could fix cars that way."
"And what will you do with the sub, assuming you can find it again?" Tina asked.
"I have orders to sink it," he said. He turned to Tanuk. "That's where you come in."
"How can I help?" the old man asked.
"I need some explosives," Jason said. "C-4 if you've got it, along with the detonator caps and timers."
Jesse laughed. "You're going to try to sink a submarine with C-4?" He shook his head. "No way."
Tina glanced at Jason, then said, "No, he can do it. From inside the sub. You're going in, aren't you?"
He nodded. "
It's the only way. I can get in the sub…"
"Come on!" Jesse interrupted. "You don't even know where it is anymore. They could have moved it all the way back to Russia by now."
Jason pulled the handheld out of his jacket pocket and turned it on. He typed in several coordinates, looking for a frequency response. "No," he said. "They haven't moved it. It's right where it was."
"Let me see," his brother said.
Jason held up the screen, which showed a sonar-style radar. It was pinging the sub and showing its exact location. Whatever cloaking mechanism they had in place was pretty good; he'd had to go to ultraviolet to find it.
"That's…amazing," Jesse said. "How'd you do that?"
"I put a tracer on the sub when I was down there before," he said. "You remember? When you and Chris and the guys were trying to kill me?"
"It wasn't personal, Jason," he said. "Just work. A man can change, can't he?"
"Yes, a man can change, but you didn't change your heart or your beliefs, Jesse, and that worries me. You just changed sides," Jason asked.
The tension in the small room ratcheted up several notches.
"What do I do with you, if you decide to change sides again?"
Jesse shook his head. "I won't."
"We'll see," Jason said. "But you need to understand something. Tina, I can trust. Tanuk — no offense — is nothing more than a pawn. But you…you were a player. If you switch sides again or try to betray us…I'll hunt you down like a rabid dog and kill you. Plain and simple."
"Harsh," Jesse said. "Considering I saved your life back there."
"It's better for you to know where we stand now, because I'm going to be asking you to do something for me."
"What's that?" Jesse asked.
"Once I'm all set at the Scorpion, you're going to get Tina and her grandfather out of here. I want them as far away as possible. Nome, if you can make it without stopping." He looked at Tina. "I'll catch up to you there."
Jason saw the understanding in Jesse's eyes. "Yeah," he said. "I can get them there, Jason."
"No way," Tina interrupted. "I'm not leaving you out here to face this by yourself. Have you forgotten Boris? Have you forgotten that Feng Li is out there right now, hunting us?"
"Yes, you are," Jason replied. He held up a hand as she started to argue. "Listen to me, Tina. I care for you and that's a distraction right now. I've got twenty-four hours to get this done or it's all over. You know the rules — it can't be personal. If you're here, it gets personal."
She started to protest, but her grandfather placed his hands over hers. "He is right, granddaughter," he said quietly. "Let him do his job, so you can do yours."
"Mine?" she asked. "What's my job?"
"Keeping me safe," he said, "as well as yourself. You will have more to do in the future. This is not your time to act."
"What are you talking about?" she said. "This is…look, I know I'm just a translator, but I've had the field-agent training. I can help!"
"Possibly," Tanuk said. "But you will have to trust my wisdom and insight in this matter. Jason is right. It is time for you to be elsewhere."
Thoughtfully, Jason considered the old man's words, then grabbed his hand. "The tattoo," he said. "Now I remember."
Tanuk smiled. "It is more often a curse than a gift."
Tina looked at the familiar design. It had always been there. "You told me they gave that to you as a child," she said. "For your first whale kill."
He nodded. "I lied."
"Arrgh!" Tina cried. "Does anyone here ever tell the truth?"
All of them looked at each other sheepishly, then Jason cleared his throat. "Apparently, not so much."
"So, what does it mean?" she asked Tanuk. "Where did you get it and why?"
"When I was eight," Tanuk said, "I had my first vision. A bad storm was coming and I warned the people in time. The village elders — you must remember, this was a long time ago — called me a seer. Trained me as a medicine man. The tattoo signifies that, but very few of us are left now who remember those days."
"And how did you know?" she asked Jason.
He shrugged. "I read a couple of books on Inuit culture before I came up here. There was some mention of it, just a line really and a picture of the tattoo, but when I first saw it, I couldn't remember its significance."
"I do not know what Tina's future holds," Tanuk cautioned them. "Only that now is the time for her to keep me safe and be far away from here. I feel that if she stays it could have dire consequences to her or you both. Better to be safe."
"This is crazy," Tina said. "I'm supposed to just walk away and let it go? I have a job to do, too," she said. "Denny authorized it, didn't he?"
"He did," Jason admitted. "But I'm inclined to trust your grandfather on this one. Whatever goes down is going to be very messy. I don't want to see you getting hurt. The basic field-agent training doesn't cover what's going to happen up here."
"I can handle myself," she said. "I kept my cover with you, didn't I?"
"This isn't going to be about cover, damn it," Jason said. "This is going to be fighting and bloody and nasty. People are going to die in ugly ways. That is not your world."
Her shoulders sagged in defeat. "You're right," she said, her voice quiet. "That's not my world. But I still want to help."
"And you will," he said. "But then you have to get out of here." Just knowing that she'd be far away when it all came down caused a surge of relief to wash over him. He cared about her future, which was more than he'd allowed himself to feel for anyone in a long, long time. "No more arguing."
She opened her mouth, then closed it with a snap, nodding.
"Good," he said. "What other weapons and supplies do you have stored away in here?"
"You might be surprised," Tanuk said. "What do you need?"
Jason considered it for a few moments, thinking of the terrain around the Quonset building, then said, "Aside from the C-4, here's my wish list — shrapnel grenades and smokers, Claymore mines, a sniper rifle and rounds to go with it and — in an ideal world — a rocket launcher and shells."
Tanuk smiled and nodded at Jesse, who said, "Let's get to work, brother. We've got a lot of loading to do."
"It will be better this way," Jason said to Tina. "You know we can't allow this to get any more personal than it already has. The mission first. We'll deal with the future if we survive all this."
"What do you mean we?" she asked. "Don't you mean you? I'm going to be a long way away, remember?"
"You aren't there yet," he said. "And I fully anticipate more arguments before I have to knock you unconscious and have Jesse load you into the truck to get you out of here."
"You wouldn't!" she said.
"In a New York minute," he replied. "Now, let's get to work."
"I could help, Jason," she said. "You know that."
"I do," he said. "But the best help you can give me is getting as far away from this mess as you can."
She nodded. "Want to help me carry some crates?"
"Sure," he said. "But let's not overdo it. We've got some time before the Scorpion will be back and we both took a good pounding back there."
Tanuk joined them as they headed for the larger cavern. "In life there is always heavy lifting," he said to himself. "That is why we have family."
18
Jason looked at the supplies that they had piled into the back of the SUV. His wish list was basically complete. All they had to do was get him back to the Scorpion, and Tina, Jesse and Tanuk on their way to Nome. He pulled out the handheld one more time, reviewing his maps and the new coordinates where the Scorpion was going to land. Then he double-checked his escape routes from the Quonset building. It wouldn't do him a lot of good to succeed in his mission, only to freeze to death before he could make it to safety. There weren't a lot of choices, but it was better to have it all firmly in mind.
"Are you ready?" Tina asked, coming up behind him.
"Yeah," he said. "We're all set.
It's time to get out of here and finish this."
He looked her over and realized that she had armed herself like Rambo. While he was still a little surprised that she worked for Room 59, and he knew she could take care of herself, seeing her looking as if she was planning on taking on an army made him uncomfortable. "The plan is still the plan, right?" he asked.
She nodded. "I just want to be extracautious. Feng Li isn't a fool. He'll know you're coming for him, which means he's going to have men spread out all over this area. If we get caught, I want to be ready."
"Tina," he said, stepping closer to her and lowering his voice, "I need you to promise me something."
"Anything you need," she said.
"I need you to promise me that you'll run before you fight. That you'll get yourself and Jesse and your grandfather to safety. This kind of work — it's what I do. You weren't a field agent and you have more than just yourself to think about."
"Don't you?" she asked pointedly.
He nodded. "I think I probably do," he said. "But we have to stop Feng Li now, and I can't do that if I'm busy trying to keep you and the others safe."
"I know," she said, hugging him tightly. "I just don't want to leave you. It feels like…like if I can see you, I can keep you safe."
He steered her toward the SUV as Jesse and Tanuk climbed in. "You can keep me safe by being safe yourself, okay? Promise me?"
"I promise," she said. "Run if I can, fight if I must. You're the agent in charge. I know the drill."
He smiled down at her. Part of him wanted to take her onto the sub with him, if for no other reason than the banter she provided would help ease the tension.
"Good," he said. "Understand that this mission has taught me a lot, including how important it is to have people to care about in my life. It's given me hope that I can allow people to be close to me and still do what I do. But right now, more than anything else, I need to keep you safe. Understand?"
She played with ground at her feet with the toe of her boot. Jason could see her wrestling with her thoughts, trying to come up with a way out of her promise, but knew that he had her.
"All right, but I don't like it very much," she said.
"You don't have to like it," he said. "I don't like it all that much myself. I just need you to do it."
