Page 105 of Enemy of My Enemy

Fifty feet from the southern bank, rotors roared overhead.

Ethan ducked, cursing, as bullets slammed into the front of their boat. He swerved, and the gunfire missed the boat’s tray but took out the engines. Black smoke belched, the engine dying with a hiss and a clank.

Scott fired at the Russian chopper closing in. The boat spun, adrift and moving on the inertia of Ethan’s last turn.

The chopper’s guns spat bullets into the water, a long, perfect path coming right for them.

“We’ve got to go!” Ethan grabbed Jack, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and leaped with Jack over the side of the boat. Next to him, Scott, Sasha, and Sergey leaped as well, Sergey held Sasha tight as they jumped together.

As they jumped, Daniels gunned forward, throwing his boat in the line of fire. Fiberglass shattered on impact, exploding, and Ethan saw Daniels jump free of his boat at the last moment and into the black, frigid waters of the sea.

Jack popped up, gasping for breath and treading water. He reached for Ethan, frantic. Above, the chopper’s searchlight flicked through the wreckage of both boats, Daniels’s and theirs, destroyed by the chopper’s guns.

“Are you all right?” Ethan grabbed Jack’s face in both of his hands. “Are you okay?”

Jack nodded. Wide eyes stared at Ethan, and he gripped Ethan’s soaked shirt too tight.

Splashes sounded nearby. Sasha and Sergey surfaced, Sasha hauling Sergey close, and then Scott, shaking water from his eyes. Daniels swam to their loose group.

Damn it, where did their fighters go? Had the MiGs drawn them away? They needed them,now, or they were all going to die. In moments, the chopper would find them in the water, and they would be an easy turkey shoot.

“Swim for the bank!” Ethan hollered. “Go!” They still had to fight their way forward. He wouldn’t give up, not ever, not with Jack’s life on the line. He reached for Jack’s waist, pushing him through the water as Jack began a furious free stroke.

Rotors whirred overhead. The searchlight zipped right and left, flicking through the wreckage. Moments, and it would be upon them. Ethan kicked forward, surging after Jack. He’d throw his body over Jack’s, shield him to his last breath. Take the bullets in his own back.

Everything stilled as he reached for Jack, sliding alongside him in the dark sea. Jack’s eyes darted to his, and he stopped swimming, just reached for Ethan, water cascading down his soaked face. Ethan cupped his cheeks, pulled him close, and turned his back to the chopper, blocking Jack’s view.

A hiss, and a streak of fire above.

The chopper exploded, bursting into a million shattered pieces of steel and flame. The air quaked, a shock blast pummeling them under the choppy waters of the Black Sea. Debris fell, and burning fuel stayed lit on the surface as superheated shards of metal steamed on impact, and glass sprinkled like raindrops on their heads. An American fighter zoomed over the fireball, flying straight up, engines blazing like a Fourth of July firework.

Jack smiled, a frantic, relieved laugh bursting from him. He reached for Ethan as Ethan reached for him, and they pressed their foreheads together as a wave crashed over their heads. Flaming jet fuel crackled and burned on the water around them both, but impossibly, they were alive.

“Move!” Scott shouted. “Get going!”

They swam, and when they reached the shore, Ethan shoved Jack onto the muddy riverbank first before following behind, slipping in the mud. Jack collapsed face-first in the tall grass while Scott and Daniels crept up the bank. Sasha and Sergey hovered beside them, Sasha checking Sergey over as Sergey leaned on the younger man.

“Jack? Are you okay?” Ethan leaned low over his lover, running his hands over Jack’s sides and back, checking for hidden wounds. “Talk to me.”

Jack opened one eye, staring up at Ethan. “You getting frisky with me?” He winked.

Ethan grinned and slapped at Jack’s soaked butt. “Only you could joke right now.”

He unslung his soaked rifle and tried to shake as much water off as he could. Jack pulled himself to his knees and did the same.

“How far to Olympic Stadium?” Ethan called softly to Scott.

They kneeled on the edge of a dark, empty road. The Russian military must have closed everything down for the coup. No traffic moved through the area. All the electricity was off. Sochi was like a ghost town, and pitch black.

“Two miles.” Scott nodded down the riverbank. “The other boats landed three hundred yards down. They’re covering for us. Let’s move.”

Scott took the lead, keeping low, his rifle ready. Ethan followed, one hand reaching back and holding on to Jack. Sasha and Sergey moved together, Sergey’s old FSB training seeming to rise to the occasion. Daniels brought up the rear, swiveling back and forth.

“Hello, Jack.”

The whole team froze, ducking low and hunkering on the edge of the road.

“We can see you, you know. Your frantic scrambling, trying to hide, is adorable. And it tells me you can hear me. Thank you for that.”