Page 88 of Enemy Within

“That well?” Faisal chuckled softly.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he nodded to the hammock. “Any room in there?”

Faisal squinted at him but said nothing.

“These can hold dudes up to four hundred pounds. You and me together aren’t even close to that. Scoot. Make room.” Adam waited as Faisal slid to the side, and then he clambered into the hammock. They almost tipped, and Faisal made a wild grab for the bulkhead to steady their sudden swinging plunge. Adam snorted but scooted close to Faisal once the hammock was stable. He wrapped his arms around Faisal’s waist and buried his face in his neck, breathing deeply.

Faisal ran his hands through Adam’s hair. Pressed his lips against Adam’s forehead and his messy hair. “What are you doing?” he breathed.

“Making a choice.” Adam’s lips moved against Faisal’s skin, a kiss with every word. “No more hiding. I can’t operate like that. I can’t be torn in half.” He sighed, nuzzling Faisal’s jaw, the warm skin beneath his ear. “I love you,habibi. That love gives me strength. I won’t hide it. I won’t hide who I am. Not anymore.”

Faisal’s exhale, over Adam’s head, was shaky. He felt Faisal's pulse beneath his lips quicken. Felt Faisal’s arms tighten around him. “Habibi…” He swallowed, and Adam kissed the burnished gold skin, the rise and fall of his throat. “Bismillah, are you certain?”

“More certain than I have been for years.” He squeezed Faisal’s hips, stroked one hand over the small of his back. “I’m sorry, Faisal, for—”

“Shhh.Maa shaa Allah.It is all in the past.”

Squirming, Adam shimmied until he was face-to-face with Faisal. He held his gaze, the soft sheen of his eyes reflected in the dim lights of the torpedo room. A red glow hung in the room but didn’t fill the shadows. One curl of ruby light tickled down Faisal's cheek. It looked too much like blood. He wanted to brush it away. “Promise me something.”

“I will promise you anything,habibi. In this life, or the next.”

He cupped Faisal’s cheek, covering the streamer of red. “Promise me you will be careful. You will be safe.”

Faisal frowned.

“We’re going to do this. Take Madigan down. I want you at my side, like we used to be. But… I can’t lose you. I can’t see you get hurt. Ican’t.” Adam licked his lips, shaking his head. “You have to stay safe.”

Faisal reached for him, cupping his cheek in return. “In shaa Allah, I will be safe. And you will be as well.Subhanallah, we will all be relaxing by my pool in one week, drinking mango juice and eatingluqaymat.”

Adam smiled. “I thought we went naked when we were at your pool. That was your rule, if I remember right.”

Faisal winked. “That is for you and me alone. Your team must wear their swimming suits. I won’t share you.”

Laughing, Adam nuzzled his nose against Faisal’s, exhaling softly. “Be careful,habibi,” he said, becoming serious again. “You are everything to me.” He held Faisal’s gaze, staring into his eyes. “I’m fighting this fight to go home,” he breathed, barely whispering at all. “Home tous. I want our life back. I want to be by your side every day, from now until the end of time.”

“I do, too,” Faisal whispered. “I pray for that every night.In shaa Allah, Adam, we will have it.”

“In shaa Allah.” His lips moved against Faisal’s. “Barakah Allah.”

37

USS Honolulu

THE BERING STRAIT LAY dead ahead.

Tension strained the dark Control Room. Dim running lights cast the crew’s faces in half shadow and made their eyes gleam as they stared at their controls.

Captain Anderson stood just before the periscope stand, his arms crossed. His eyes darted over every control panel, over every person. The contact evaluation board, mounted ahead of him and scattering soft blue light, tracked targets and ranges to anything picked up withinHonolulu’sdetection range. Trailing behindHonolulu, their partner, the sub that had stayed with them from Elizabeth’s fleet,USS Bozeman, followed.

Depth, speed, angle, and trim displays crowded space with fire control consoles and weapons. Behind the periscope in the center of the Conn, the navigator hovered over his plotting table, furiously calculating their course and checking it against the computer display. Transparent charts lay over the plotting table’s crimson light board, marked up with grease pencils. On a submarine, redundancy and double, even triple checks, meant the difference between life or death.

Ethan couldn’t turn without bumping into someone. He stayed still, pressed against Jack’s side, and tried to be out of the way. That was nearly impossible. A dozen men were crammed inside what looked like an airline cockpit shoved into a large bathroom. Stacked from the deck to the low, curved overhead bulkhead were display screens, gauges, bundles of cables and wires, consoles and toggles, emergency equipment, and more. The Conn was stuffed full, jammed to practically bursting.

Honoluluhad submerged, and beneath the ocean, her movements were smooth as glass. If he didn’t know they were underwater, he wouldn’t have guessed.

One of the helmsmen, a young enlisted man, exhaled shakily. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

The Bering Strait was one of the most difficult crossings in the world, even during peacetime. A shockingly narrow undersea canyon filled with a jungle of undersea mountains and craggy valleys, the clearest passage was barely deep enough to slip a sub through fully submerged. Sneaking through the Strait into Russian waters, beneath a storm, and entering an Arctic war zone with two heads of state on board was insanity by any definition.