Page 14 of Enemy of My Enemy

Irwin nodded. “Yes. That way it’s totally off the books. No one would know. And we’d need an eyes-only directive to the head of Special Operations Command with orders to task a team to exclusive presidential direction. If we had such a team now, they could be on the ground in Colombia giving us the answers we need.”

“I like it so far.” Jack turned to Ethan. “What do you think?”

He’d have distance from the dirty business, but not much. And a nimble, aggressive strike force dedicated to hunting down Madigan. Fast, agile, and unencumbered by the bureaucratic tape holding others back. An immense amount of responsibility, and a huge weight of power. Unfiltered intelligence. Worldwide purview. The authority to act anywhere, do almost anything. “Do you trust me to lead this for you? This is huge.”

Jack smiled. “I trust you with everything.”

Irwin continued. “We’d need to select the right special operations team for this. Someone we can trust completely. Someone who can take this mission and lead his men—”

“I know who.” Ethan interrupted Irwin. “I already know who can do it.”

Irwin’s eyebrows rose.

“And so do you. He’s one of the only men I trusted when the world went to hell. We still don’t really know who all is connected to Madigan’s Black Fox unit, but Idoknow that when I needed to trust him, this man came through.”

He’d fought through the White House with Ethan, fought to get Ethan back to Jack’s side from half a world away. Had rescued him from the wastes of Africa and hauled him to safety in a bolt-hole in Saudi Arabia. Hell, he’d even been targeted for death by Madigan. That had to be some kind of seal of approval. “Lieutenant Cooper and his Marines.”

“I remember him. He could be good.” Irwin nodded and turned his attention back to Jack. “Mr. President? Your thoughts?”

“Give me a day to think it over. I do need to run it by counsel. I’ll let you know.”

Irwin stacked the Top Secret folders and then pulled out a sheet from his notebook. “I also have a short list of vice presidential candidates for you to review, Mr. President.”

“I have a suggestion, too. Elizabeth Wall.”

“Secretary of state Wall?” For the first time in a while, Irwin looked surprised.

Ethan watched Jack as he leaned back on the couch. Secretary Wall was a strong secretary of state, and she’d been a pillar of Jack’s Cabinet through his first year. He listened to her counsel more than others, at least, from what Ethan had seen when he’d been in the White House.

“She’s a go-getter. And yet, she gets the balance that we have to strive for right now, especially with everything I’ve done. I like how she views the world and how she approaches her decisions and her foreign policy.”

“All excellent reasons for keeping her secretary of state, Mr. President.”

“And I also know that she wants to make a run for the White House. Her political star is rising. I’d like to help her along. She’d be a great choice to pass the baton to for the next term.”

“Jack…”

“I don’t want two terms, Ethan. I really don’t.” Jack’s hand moved to Ethan’s, covering the back of his before Ethan snaked their fingers together.

“And thoughts of a replacement secretary of state? If she accepts?”

“I’d like to ask her. I think she’ll have good insight. I’ll reach out, make the ask, and let you know when I hear back from her.”

Jack stood, and Irwin and Ethan followed. “I’ll work on getting you more information from Colombia, Mr. President. And I’ll be waiting for your decision.”

* * *

Ethan stayedwith Jack through the afternoon, sitting beside the Resolute desk and talking through the ramifications of Irwin’s strike team proposal. It was almost like old times, the two of them in private, discussing the political problems Jack faced. Almost. This was bigger, larger, and more surreal than anything before.

Diana Ramirez joined them, picking through the finer legal points of a strike team dedicated to the tracking and execution of an American citizen. A traitor, to be sure, but an American citizen. Legal precedent from a decade prior granted Jack’s predecessors the authority to conduct extrajudicial executions of anyone who was an imminent threat to the United States and whose arrest was impractical, including American citizens. Still, Ramirez was exacting in her work, in protecting Jack from potentially catastrophic decisions.

Ethan sat back, and though he tried to listen, his mind was elsewhere. Back in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. Before he’d been an agent, he’d been a soldier, and accepting this mission would bring him right back to those days. To the days when he hunted bad men doing evil things.

Squinting, he gazed out the windows of the Oval Office.Thatwas the kind of reductionism he’d used for years. What he was truly about to do was open up a part of himself he’d buried. Reach back and touch a piece of his soul that had gone dark, twisted from death and war.

There was a part of him, buried deep, that wasn’t a good man. Jack didn’t see that side of him. He kept it hidden, buried under years of pushed-aside memories and an iron-clad grip on his heart.

Or, at least, he’dhadan iron-clad grip on his heart. His eyes traveled over Jack’s profile, over the lean, accented features, the Roman nose. His kiss-soft lips.