Page 87 of Enemy of My Enemy

Faisal’s soft voice tickled down Adam’s neck, and all the hairs on his neck quivered.

“Don’t you mean ‘we’? ‘We’ will prevail? We are working together, right?” He eyeballed Faisal as he chewed on his inner lip.

Faisal’s smile burned brighter than the Arabian sun and scorched his parched, aching soul. “We are, as long as you let us.” Faisal shifted, peering at Adam, and reached out, one hand tucking a stray hair behind Adam’s ear. He and his men had grown out their hair for their operations, some even growing beards, trying to look rugged and blend in.

Adam turned into Faisal’s touch for just a moment. He pressed his cheek to Faisal’s fingers, breathing over his wrist. Cardamom and peach filled his nose, and honey and orange dizzied his brain.

“Did you get my text while you were in Paris?”

Adam nodded. He’d saved it on their sat phone, even though that was so many different kinds of dangerous. Too many to count, in fact. But, he reread it six times a day, until his heart bled.‘As always, I will endlessly pray until I hear your voice again and I know you are safe. May Allah watch over you,azizy.’

Azizy.My darling. He’d rubbed his thumb over the sat phone screen, as if the word weren’t really there, as if he was just making it up in his desperate mind.

Faisal’s gaze seared his soul. “Samaya…” Naked yearning poured from him. His lips trembled, seeming to beg for a kiss.

Adam shuddered. He couldn’t take this, couldn’t take Faisal’s endearments. Couldn’t take being called Faisal’s bright sky, or his darling. He closed his eyes. He was fighting against himself, wanting to reach out, wanting to pull Faisal close, and struggling not to.

“We’re going back to DC tomorrow,” he blurted. “We leave at dawn.”

Slowly, Faisal breathed out, somehow managing to capture the sound of a heart breaking in his soft sigh. He took a step back, moving away from Adam. “Travel well,” he finally said. “As always, my home is open to you and your men when you return for your next mission.” His eyes pinched. “In shaa Allah, you will catch your shadow, Lieutenant. You will prevail.”

Faisal strode out of the office, walking away, and it was all Adam could do to choke down his own voice, his heart’s desperate pleading. Instead of chasing Faisal, running to him and throwing himself to the ground at Faisal’s feet, he turned back to the slowly cycling satellite feed. Empty holes stared back at him, mocking, like the empty spaces of his own heart.

Adam leaned forward, resting his forehead on the screen.

* * *

President Spiers Sits Down for First One-on-One Interview; Discusses Sexuality and Announces New Political Party

President Spiers sat down for a one-on-one interview with TNN’s own Nancy Conners, during which he spoke candidly about his sexuality for the first time, stating unequivocally that he is bisexual, and proudly so. “I’ve been lucky enough to find love twice in my life,” he said. “First with a woman, my wife, Captain Leslie Spiers, and then I discovered love again with a man, my best friend, Ethan Reichenbach. Finding love with Ethan was a process. A discovery of who I was, and who I was capable of loving. I couldn’t be prouder, or happier, to be who I am and to be with the man I love.”

The president also announced he was leaving the GOP and forming his own political party, the American Unity Party. A website describing their independent and inclusive platform with a video message from the president went live just before the interview aired. Over thirty million hits to the new party’s website in the first twelve hours caused it to crash, and just under three million Americans have already opted into the party’s platform online, asking to be counted as “Uniters.” State voter registration offices have been flooded with calls since the announcement.

The president’s actions come after his new engagement strategy with the press unfolded, a change in tone and tenor welcomed by many. President Spiers has taken over the Friday briefings at the White House, turning the afternoon brief into a lighthearted conversation. Nothing seems to be off the table, the president answering questions ranging from his controversial support of a Democratic piece of legislation to his weekend date plans with his partner.

Senator Stephen Allen, leading Republican challenger to the president, continues to hound Spiers, and recently called him a “traitor to his own party and toxic to the American people.”

President Spiers’s poll numbers have jumped ten points since the announcement.

* * *

Chapter 31

Washington DC

Jack and Ethanmet with Cooper and his men out of sight from the press at Andrews Air Force base after they landed. Cooper filled them both in on the Paris mission and their suspicions that Madigan was now in possession of the Yemeni freighter lost two years before, and had gone off the edges of the map.

“And two years ago he was still in the White House, even before I was. He would have been privy to the intelligence about that freighter. Would have known about it all along.” Jack shook his head.

“You think he planned this, Mr. President? All of it? Everything?”

“I think,” Jack said slowly, “that Madigan has about a dozen plans. And we need to stop all of them. He only needs one to succeed. And a few already have.”

Cooper nodded, a scowl stretched across his face. “I’ve asked Prince Faisal to search for any sign of the missing tanker. Madigan would have repainted and reflagged it by now, I’m sure, but someone has to have seen something. Sailors everywhere have one thing in common—they all talk and they love to share stories. We’ll find it.”

“This man worked in the shadows for decades. He created modern black ops for this nation. No one, save for your friend, Prince Faisal, and his associate, has figured out Madigan’s plans. He’s a snake, and we have to be careful. Madigan is dedicated to his mission. And he’s shockingly psychotic.”

Cooper stared out over the runway.