Page 31 of Enemy of My Enemy

“What are we doing here, Sergeant?”

“Lieutenant Cooper is in there, sir.” The sergeant glanced back. “We will wait here, sir.”

Daniels and Ethan shared a long look. They were on their own. General Bell was being especially unhelpful with executing his orders. Did he not realize that Ethan would tell Jack everything?

The stockade was quiet, save for the hum and rattle of the window air conditioner cooling the bullpen where two Air Force security specialists sat in front of computers. One rose. “Can I help you, gentlemen?” He paled when he recognized Ethan and straightened even further before slapping his partner’s shoulder as inconspicuously as he could.

“We’re here for Lieutenant Cooper. May we see him?”

A slight hesitation as the young airman debated his options. If he chose to confirm the orders with General Bell, they could be there a while.

“Right this way, sir.”

Finally, a break. Ethan and Daniels followed the airman through a controlled access point, badging through three sets of locked doors before they came to a line of cells. “Last one on the left.” The airman waited at the end of the hall, standing at parade rest as Ethan and Daniels headed for Cooper’s cell.

Their footsteps echoed, leather and rubber on old linoleum. Other prisoners were racked out, sleeping on the narrow cots affixed to the walls. There were only three others in the cells. Most were empty, including all the cells around Lieutenant Cooper.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he approached Cooper’s cell. Inside, Cooper sat on the edge of his cot, slumped over, his elbows on his knees and his hands in his hair. His hair was too long, far too long for a Marine, and he had a few days’ growth of beard darkening his face. Dried blood splatter stained the front of his green USMC undershirt.

This was not the same man who had helped Ethan survive Madigan’s assassination attempt or retake the White House.

“Lieutenant?”

Daniels waited just out of sight while Ethan strode to the center point of the bars stretched across Cooper’s cell.

Cooper froze. Slowly, he looked up. His eyes locked with Ethan’s. Snorting, he shook his head and dropped his gaze.

What was that? What had put so much defeat and rage into Cooper’s eyes?

“What happened?”

Cooper stayed silent.

“How’d you end up in here?”

“I punched out Captain Oliver. One of General Bell’s attachés.”

Ethan’s eyebrow quirked up. “Did he deserve it?”

Finally, some life in Cooper’s eyes. He nodded. “And more.”

“I’d say well done, but I’m supposed to be politic now.”

Cooper shook his head but pushed to his feet. “What are you doing here?”

“Asking for your help. I just delivered orders to General Bell seconding you and your men to a new mission we’re setting up. Let’s take a walk while I fill you in.”

The airman hesitated for a longer moment when Ethan asked him to release Cooper, but eventually opened the cell doors. Cooper, his eyes narrowed as he peered at Ethan, followed him down the hallway and out to the stockade’s side yard, where they stood under a palm tree, out of sight from the building and anyone else as Daniels stood guard. Not the most ideal place for a briefing, but it was better than one of the interview rooms inside, where anyone and everyone could listen in.

Cooper listened as Ethan spoke, nodding along, and when Ethan walked through the bones of his insertion mission, sending Cooper and his team to South America, he adjusted a few areas and added details specific to his men and their abilities.

“So, are you onboard? Should I go tell that nervous airman that you won’t be checking back in?”

Cooper stared into the sun for a moment, squinting. That look of pinched anger was back, but overlaid with a weariness that was new. When had the weight of the world ended up on Cooper’s shoulders?

“Yeah, I’m in.” Cooper held out his hand, and Ethan shook it. “When are we wheels up?”

“The CIA is handling all your logistics. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we don’t trust General Bell to be as efficient as we’d like. A plane should have landed by now with your equipment. Get your men. Get them briefed. You’re wheels up by zero two hundred.”