Page 117 of Enemy Within

“I’ve got him.” Jack squinted through the scope, watching the new arrival draw closer. He saw the man raise his rifle and take aim. Jack’s finger started to squeeze the trigger.

Ethan’s target jerked. Blood sprayed over the ice and snow, a fan of red. He fell sideways.

Jack froze, finger half-squeezed. “My target took out his own man!” He watched the new arrival sight in on the last attacker and fire, right as Madigan’s man turned toward him. “He just killed the other one, too.”

“What the fuck?” Scott grumbled.

“I’m not taking any chances.” Ethan motioned to Scott. “Lay down cover fire. Keep him pinned.”

Scott nodded and fired at the mystery man. Bullets chewed the ice in front of and behind his snowmobile, forcing him to stop and dive for cover. Scott kept firing, keeping him pinned as Ethan edged away, jogging wide over the ice and slipping through Madigan’s destroyed attackers. He signaled to Scott to stop firing and then ran the last ten yards to the mystery man’s position.

The man rose slowly, peeking over the saddle of his snowmobile. He had his rifle in his hands but kept it low.

Ethan came up behind him and shoved his rifle against the back of his skull. “Freeze! Drop it! Now!”

The man’s hands came up slowly. His weapon fell sideways to the snow. “Ethan…”

Ethan’s blood froze. His stomach sank, dropping beneath the ice cap. “Adam?”

Slowly, Adam turned. His beaten, bruised face stared up at Ethan, one eye swollen shut, lip and cheek busted and oozing blood. He trembled as he knelt in the snow.

“I’m sorry,” Adam rasped. His teeth clenched, and a tear rolled down his cheek. “You told me to stay away from Cook. I’m sorry. But he was going to kill them all. He shot Ruiz right in front of us. And—” He couldn’t finish. Adam’s voice cut out, his lips quivering as another tear slid down his cheek.

Realization crashed into Ethan, harder than the plane slamming into the ice. “The others?”

Desperate hope burned in Adam’s gaze. “Is Faisal with you? The radio said survivors…”

Slowly, Ethan shook his head. He dropped his rifle.

Adam’s face twisted, anguish destroying him as the truth slammed into his soul. Ethan watched him crumble from the inside, curl in half and topple to the snow. He buried his face, pressing his bloody cheek against the ice cap as he wailed. Tears streamed from his eyes, freezing when they hit the glacier.

“We are Allah’s, and to him we shall return.Ya hayati…” Adam whispered wetly. Spit and blood dripped from his face.

Ethan spotted Sergey and Sasha lying farther down the ice cap, flopping free from the ejection seat, and Scott and Jack striding toward him and Adam, their rifles up. He waved Scott and Jack over and then crouched down.

Once, Adam had held him when he thought Jack was gone. Adam and Faisal, both. It was a debt he’d never wanted to repay.

He grabbed Adam’s shoulder and hauled him close, wrapping him up in his arms. Adam’s face pressed against his chest, tearstained, snot-covered, and bloody. Adam’s hands rose, grasping Ethan’s arms. Buried against Ethan, Adam let it all out, wailing, screaming, bellowing his agony, his fury, the loss of the love of his life.

Ethan held him through it, holding him on the freezing ice as Scott and Jack watched silently.

WHEN ADAM WAS ABLE to breathe again, he spilled his guts, telling them everything. What had happened at the station. His team going missing, one by one. Cook threatening everyone and murdering Ruiz. Threatening Faisal. His capitulation.

Being taken to Madigan’s base.

Seeing Kobayashi and K-27 above the ice, and the scope of Madigan’s army. Fewer men than they had all estimated before, from all of the prison breaks. Madigan must have lost some of his men in the coup in Russia, and then more in the move up to the Arctic. But still enough fighters to be a problem. A big problem

They were all silent, absorbing the information. Fury blazed in Jack’s eyes. Ethan watched him carefully.

He helped Adam up and passed him to Scott. Scott helped him walk, supporting him as they headed for Sasha and Sergey. The ejection seat lay on the ice, and, next to it, two bodies, tumbled free, not moving.

Ethan walked ahead of Scott and Adam, next to Jack. “This is coming apart fast, Jack. We’ve lost everything. Adam’s team. Adam himself. He won’t be effective now.” He glanced ahead, to the still forms on the ice, but said nothing. “We’ve lost the element of surprise, too. Madigan knows we’re here.”

Jack nodded. “Adam made that call to lure us in and changed everything.”

Exhaling, Ethan nodded. “Cook had his team. Threatened to execute them one by one unless he complied.”

“What Adam did was the worst thing that could have happened. Madigan knows we’re coming. And they’ve raised K-27 already.”