Page 183 of Enemy Within

Ethan curled around Jack, burying his face in Jack’s hair, gasping as a bomb burst in his chest.Guilty. The word hit him like a shotgun blast, shattering his bones and atomizing his soul.

Jack went pale, the blood draining from his face. “Oh God…”

“However,” Elizabeth said, speaking fast. “They’renotrecommending charges be brought, and the Department of Justice has confirmed they’ll abide by the recommendations of the committee.”

The world lurched, a hard jerk to the right. Had he heard that correctly? Or was that just his imagination?

Jack sputtered, searching for words. “What— No charges— You said guilty—”

Elizabeth cleared her throat, her voice changing, obviously reading from a statement. “‘It is the opinion of the committee that prosecution of these charges would not be in the nation’s best interest. While the exposure of Top Secret information to foreign nationals was clearly intentional, it was not malicious in nature, and served the goal of American national security. That does not excuse the dangerous, dreadful errors in judgment shown by President Spiers-Reichenbach. However, it does provide context and clear mitigating circumstances that led to these decisions. This additional context leads us to conclude that we believe a prosecution would not, ultimately, be successful. Successful prosecutions for violations of the Espionage Act have historically centered on the malicious, willful release of classified or Top Secret information to harmful foreign nationals. The foreign nationals working with President Spiers-Reichenbach were not named allies, but were operating in a cooperative and non-hostile manner at that time.’”

Ethan stared at Jack, his jaw hanging open. “What does this mean?” he grunted when Jack stayed silent.

“It means the Attorney General isnotgoing to press charges. It means you’refree, Jack,” she said carefully. “The committeedoesthink you’re guilty, but the DOJ won’t prosecute. The case won’t hold up. It’s too complex. Your reasons for what you did were made in a fluid environment. The law is rigid, written for an inflexible world. What you went through, the choices you had to make… they can’t be quantified on paper, charted out in black and white and weighed for public review.” She sighed, long and loud. “There will be people around the country who will be furious at this. At you. There’s going to be backlash…”

Elizabeth kept talking, but her voice faded away, a low warble as the truth landed in the center of Ethan’s heart. Jack wasfree.

Jack beamed, smiling as tears rolled down his cheeks. He dropped the phone on Ethan’s chest and cradled his face, pressing kiss after kiss to his lips, around his wide smile.

They could deal with backlash. They could deal with anything. Together.

“Jack, Senator Allen is still on the line. I need to get back to him. I’ll call you later. We’ll discuss next steps. I know Pete wants to give you a call, ask about a statement.”

“Later, Elizabeth. I need to let this sink in.”

They heard the smile in her voice. “I know. It’s a relief for us all, Jack. We’ve been biting our nails all weekend. The whole team is here. I’m going to announce it to them after this call.”

“We’ll wait for it to leak to TNN.”

She laughed. “Senator Allen says they’re going to release soon, too. It will all be over in a few hours.”

Jack breathed out. “Thank you. Thank Stephen for me. Whatever he did… it helped.”

“Politics. You never know who your friends and enemies are, do you?”

“You always know who your true friends are.” Jack smiled, his gaze fixed to Ethan. “I’ll talk to you soon, Elizabeth.”

78

Washington DC

ELIZABETH TRANSFERRED BACK TO Senator Allen. “He’s been told.”

“I’m sure he’s relieved.”

“We all are, Senator.” Elizabeth leaned forward, flicking through a manila folder. A Top Secret cover sheet lay nearby. “Now, let’s discuss the findings from your Senate Select Committee investigation.”

“It’s all there. We started with the president’s testimony, and then went through Reichenbach’s and Agent Collard’s as well. Investigators pulled data from Madigan’s freighter, and his house of cloning horrors shipwrecked off Saudi Arabia, and from the sunken Veduschiy in the Arctic.”

“And the committee is confident in these findings?”

“Greater than ninety percent confidence. Madigan created five clones. Leslie Spiers, Noah Williams, and three more, still unaccounted for.”

Elizabeth sighed, closing her eyes as the words swam on the pages before her.

Senator Allen spoke again. “Are you going to share this with President Spiers-Reichenbach?”

“I think he’s earned a reprieve, don’t you? Let him sleep at night. This is our problem now.”