Page 118 of Enemy Within

Ethan shook his head. “No, Kobayashi’s betrayal was the worst. He set Adam up for failure. For heartbreak. What kind of choice was Adam forced into?”

“It’s something we need to be ready for. But why did Kobayashi wait? Why didn’t he shoot us in the back of the head onHonolulu? Or at the first station?”

He shrugged. “I can’t understand it, Jack. I don’t see the rationale. But there has to be one. He got his orders from Madigan. Everything Madigan has done, from the first moment until now, has had a reason.”

“I’m afraid to find out what that is.”

Ethan glanced over his shoulder, looking first at Adam, and then at Scott. “Adam did say that Kobayashi didn’t kill Fitz.”

“I know,” Jack said quietly. “You know what that means.”

Someone else was working with Madigan. Someone in Tampa? Another supporter of Madigan’s at SOCOM? Ethan’s blood chilled as he counted who knew about Adam’s team, and who knew the men’s identities. One name stood out from the rest: General Bell. He’d hated Ethan on sight, and his contempt for Jack had been obvious. Was that a sign of his switched loyalties?

Something Jack said tugged on his brain. “Jack, I don’t know what I would have done in Adam’s shoes. If it had been Scott, or you… I can’t watch you die. I couldn’t watch someone kill you. If that means I’d make the same choice Adam did, then that’s what I’ll live with.”

“Ethan.” Jack stopped and faced him. He reached for Ethan’s arms, his elbows. “We have to think larger than ourselves right now.”

“What are you saying? Adam should have let them all die?” He didn’t want to follow that thought down its path. Didn’t want to think about what Jack was trying to say.

“The stakes are the highest they’ll ever be, Ethan.” Jack squeezed his elbow. “I don’t ever want to be without you. I don’t want a single moment to go by without you at my side. But this is, quite literally, the end of the world. If we have to make the tough call…”

Ethan clenched his jaw. He looked away, squinting into the fog. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

“If it comes down to me or the world, Ethan—”

“Youaremy world. You’reeverything. I can’t—”

“My life is not worth billions, Ethan.” Jack reached for him, cradling his face. “You are my whole world, too. My everything, forever.” He licked his chapped lips. “But this is bigger than us. You have to be able to let me go. It’s what I want if it comes down to that.”

His chest went tight and his heart hammered, thundering. He couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t look at Jack. “I can’t talk about this—”

“Ethan—”

Movement, farther down the ice, saved him. Sergey sat up slowly, grumbling and reaching for Sasha.

“Sergey’s moving,” Ethan grunted. “Let’s go.” He took off, jogging toward Sergey and Sasha’s crash and leaving Jack to catch up.

When he got to Sergey, he saw the Russian president scowling at Sasha. Sasha lay on his back, spread-eagled on the ice, and stared back at Sergey, grinning like a madman. It was the first time he’d seen Sasha really smile. On his harsh and normally dour features, the wide smile made him look unhinged.

Sergey glared at him, glared at the ejection seat, and then squinted back toward their crashed plane, a football field’s length away.

He turned his dark glower back to Sasha. “Let’snotdo that again.”

Sasha grabbed his jacket and pulled him close, kissing him full on the lips. “We lived.” He shrugged. “I did not think we would.”

When Sergey pulled back, his scowl had softened just a bit. He looked from Ethan to Jack and then to Scott and Adam as he slumped against the wrecked ejection seat with a sigh. “Now what?”

“WE’VE LOST THE ELEMENT of surprise.”

Ethan squatted and etched a quick map in the snow. Their plane crash and the burning station behind them. Ahead, Madigan’s Arctic base.

Adam quickly sketched out what he’d seen. The destroyer, and opposite that, K-27, risen from the sea. Off to the side, the black upthrust of a submarine’s sail soaring through the ice. Snowmobiles. The empty helo pad. “It’s about forty miles southwest.” He pointed toward the base, into the gloom. “There’s a lead here. Broken ice where Madigan’s destroyer chewed through the ice cap. It’s starting to freeze over, but it’s rocky ground. We could hide in there.”

“Forty miles, climbing over broken ice?” Jack shook his head. “There’s no way.”

“We are not all young men.” Sergey frowned, glaring at Adam and Sasha both.

“So, they know we’re here. When those assholes don’t report back in, someone’s going to come looking for them.” Scott jerked his chin toward the dead, still lying among the snowmobiles. “We need to be gone when they get here. I don’t see any other places to hide.” He turned, scanning the flat, empty horizon.