Arctic Fire (43 page)

Stein stared through the darkness at the ceiling fan, which was rotating slowly above him as he lay on his hotel room bed down the hall from the president’s suite. He had a terrible feeling about this, like no feeling he’d ever had before. He hated David Dorn now, but the man was still the president of the United States.

He ran both hands through his gray hair and swallowed hard. What would he do at that critical moment if it actually occurred? He honestly didn’t know.

Emotionally, that was tearing him apart.

“T
HERE SHE
is,” Troy called out as he pointed through the helicopter’s windshield toward the lights in the distance. “That’s got to be her. She’s supposed to be the only ship in the area.”

One call to the Coast Guard station on Kodiak, a quick call back moments later from the CG, and they had the
Fire
’s position. Captain Sage had only gotten about thirty miles outside of Dutch Harbor, and the chopper was coming up behind the ship quickly.

“You ready, Jack?”

There were no doors on the chopper, just open spaces where the doors
definitely
should have been as far as Jack was concerned. As he peered cautiously down over the side of the helicopter at the dark ocean they were skimming across, he held on to his seat with a death grip. They were only thirty feet above the water’s relatively calm surface, but thirty feet was thirty feet. It was twice
fifteen, and the chopper was bouncing around in rough turbulence, which made everything even more gut-wrenching.

“Yeah,” Jack answered in a hollow, unconvincing voice, more to himself than Troy. But he had to go over the side if he was going to save Karen. “I’m ready.”

After Troy had removed the box and the bag from Maddux’s head, and Maddux had answered all of Troy’s questions, he’d told them that Charlie Banks had to be dead. That there was almost no chance he could have survived the way Troy had. It had been a year. Someone would have heard something by now. And Speed Trap hadn’t floated a raft to Charlie.

The Coast Guard was heading for the
Fire
too, by air
and
sea. But Jack and Troy weren’t waiting for them. Every second was precious, and they had to get to the ship and get on it as soon as possible—if they were going to save Karen.

“You really think we should have left Maddux with that old man at the house?” Jack was trying to think of anything but how he had to go over the side to get down to the
Arctic Fire
. “You know he’s gonna kill Maddux.”

“If he does, then I don’t have to.”

Jack shook his head. “You’re really going back to that house after this to kill him?”

Troy nodded regretfully. “I told you. We don’t have any choice. If we turned Maddux over to someone, he’d be free almost right away, and sooner or later he’d come after us. We’d live the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders. And we probably wouldn’t see him until it was too late, no matter how hard we looked. If Maddux doesn’t want to be seen, he won’t be. He has the infrastructure available to him to remain invisible as long as he wants. That’s what people don’t understand. You could never stay hidden like that, Jack, but Maddux can. He has fanatics around the world who’ll help him do almost anything.”

“Why didn’t you just kill Maddux before we took off?” Jack hated to admit it, but what Troy had just laid out scared the living hell out of him. He’d already been nervous because they were racing over the ocean with no door between him and the water, but now that speech had him
really
thinking. “Why make it so you have to go back?”

“I don’t want to kill anyone in cold blood, even that bastard. I…I…” Troy faltered.

“What?” Jack asked loudly. “What is it?”

“I hope the old man does kill him.” Troy grimaced. “That’s a terrible thing to say, but I do.”

Jack had been wondering about this since he’d found out that Troy was in Red Cell Seven, and now seemed like an appropriate time to ask the question. “You ever killed anyone, brother?”

“We’ll talk about that someday, Jackson. I’ll tell you everything. But not now.” Troy pointed at the ship. They were almost to it. “This is gonna have to be fast!” he shouted over the roar of the rotor and the engine. “There’s only one of you, and surprise is the only advantage you’ve got. You can’t hesitate at all when we get close. You’re gonna have to be on the rope and ready.”

“Jesus,” Jack muttered. His heart was already pounding so hard his vision was blurring with each beat.

“I wish I could do it for you!” Troy yelled. “But somebody’s gotta fly this thing.” He reached over and patted Jack’s leg. “Maddux said they didn’t leave any Special Forces guys behind on the
Fire
after they dropped Karen off.” He grimaced. “But if you think you see one of those guys, get over the side of the ship right away and throw yourself in the water. They’ve got too much training on you. The Coast Guard will pull you out of the water when they get here.” He hesitated. “Unless, of course, the sharks get you first or the SF guys shoot down the CG chopper.”

“Jesus,” Jack muttered again. He wasn’t finding this outdoor stuff at all exciting or invigorating anymore. All of a sudden trading bonds at Tri-State was looking pretty good again.

When they were a hundred yards off the
Arctic Fire
’s stern, Troy patted Jack’s leg again. “Time to go over! Come on, pal.”

Jack glanced down at the water again and instantly felt his body seizing up the same way it had on the plane that night over Connecticut after the jump door was open. The thought of even tossing the rope over the side of the chopper was paralyzing him.

“Come on, brother! You’ve got to do it.” Troy grabbed Jack’s chin and pulled it left so they were staring into each other’s eyes momentarily as the helicopter barreled ahead. “
Show me something, Jackson!
”

Jack gazed back into his brother’s piercing stare. Troy was right. He cared about Karen too much to let this stupid phobia control him. He’d asked her to come along with him on this crazy ride, and it was his responsibility to get her out of what he’d gotten her into. And he needed to show Troy that the little brother wasn’t the only one in the family with guts.

He tossed the rope over and watched it drop sickeningly fast down toward the water. That was where he had to go.

Maddux stole through the back of the house and into the night. There were no ties that could bind him permanently. Troy Jensen was as good as any man alive at securing a prisoner, but it didn’t matter. Harry Houdini was a rank amateur compared to Shane Maddux when it came to escape.

He’d thought about killing the old man, but then decided against it. He had nothing against the guy, and, in a small way, he felt bad for killing his wife. The woman had fired on him and killed one of his men during the battle, but she’d been protecting
her home. If she hadn’t been shooting at him, he wouldn’t have tossed the grenade at her. It had been a kill-or-be-killed situation in battle, and that was all.

Maddux took a deep breath. He had a long trek ahead of him, but that was all right. He was back in the shadows where he felt completely comfortable, and he loved it. There were enemies to kill.

When Jack dropped to the deck of the
Arctic Fire
, Grant was on him before he could even draw his pistol. In seconds, Grant had him pinned to the deck wall near the crane and was lifting him over the side as Troy circled above in the helicopter, unable to help.

But just as Grant was about to toss him into the frigid water, Jack got his right arm free, whipped Turner’s .44 Magnum from his belt, and slammed the big man in the head with it. Grant crumpled to the wet deck just as Duke emerged from a doorway beneath the bridge.

“Don’t move!” Jack shouted, leveling the huge pistol at the man as he sucked in air. “I’ll shoot you where you stand if you do.” He’d had enough. He had to help Karen if she was still alive, and he didn’t care what he had to do to find to her. If he had to shoot this man, so be it.

“Please don’t shoot,” Duke begged, throwing his hands in the air.

“Where’s the girl?” Jack shouted.

“I’ll take you to her,” Duke called.

Moments later Jack and Karen were in each other’s arms. She’d been hit in the thigh during the initial helicopter attack on Unimak Island, but the wound wasn’t life threatening and Duke
had bandaged her up after Maddux’s people had dropped her off on the
Arctic Fire
.

“Thank God you got here,” she murmured. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t.”

Jack smiled down at her as he shook his head in disbelief. “My brother’s a pretty amazing guy.”

She smiled back at him. “So are you, Jack.”

Ten miles, the leader realized as he stared sadly through the night-vision binoculars. Two fighter jets were streaking toward the
Pegasus
through the darkness. Just ten short miles and they would have plowed into the sands of Virginia Beach. That was how close he’d come to changing world history.

He saw a flame erupt from the wing of the fighter to the left, and he knew that the remainder of his life could now be measured in seconds. They could have boarded the ship, but the United States military had decided to send a message to any other would-be terrorists. And that message was clear: they weren’t afraid to blow an LNG tanker to hell.