Arctic Fire (45 page)

J
ACK
, T
ROY
, and Bill stood in a hallway in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, waiting exactly where they’d been told to wait. They’d been standing here for nearly thirty minutes and they were getting impatient. They would have walked out by now if they’d been iced like this by
anyone
else.

“I’ve got to ask you a question,” Jack said as he glanced at a nurse who was hurrying past. He’d wanted to ask this for a while, and now finally seemed like the time.

Bill glanced up, obviously aggravated by the delay. He’d been jingling the change in his pocket loudly for the last few minutes as he’d stared down the corridor. “What’s on your mind, son?”

“Son.” It was starting to sound right to Jack. He and Bill still had a long way to go, but they’d spent a lot of quality time together over the last few weeks, and things were finally getting better between them. A lot better. Though Jack still wasn’t calling
Bill “Dad” yet. He wasn’t quite there, even though Bill had mentioned it several times this week.

“Why did you tell me I wasn’t really adopted that day in your office? Why’d you pick then to drop the bomb?”

Bill thought about his answer for a few moments. “You may find this difficult to believe, but I don’t know for sure.”

That was difficult to believe. But then maybe Bill wasn’t as hard a man as Jack had always assumed. Maybe the emotional waters ran deep beneath that tough CEO exterior, but maybe they were there nonetheless. How could he really know if Bill was always so calculating, if he always had hidden agendas and ulterior motives? After thirty years, he and the old man were just now starting to understand each other.

“Subconsciously,” Bill continued, “maybe I actually wanted you to go to Alaska. I know I warned you not to, but maybe I really did. Maybe I figured knowing you were blood might help you at some critical moment, that it might give you that extra boost just when you really needed it. I do believe the mind works on many levels at the same time, most of which we’re not even aware of.” He shrugged. “I don’t know for sure.” He patted Jack on the shoulder. “All I do know for sure is that if you hadn’t gone to Alaska, Maddux would have tracked Troy down to that house and killed him. He would have overpowered that poor woman in a heartbeat if you and Ross Turner hadn’t been there.” He paused. “And I’d only have one son now.”

“That’s right,” Troy said heartily. In the last few weeks he’d gained back all the weight he’d lost, and he was his typical, energetic self. “I owe you my life, Jackson.”

“Thanks, brother.” Jack glanced back at Bill. “Why didn’t you call Roger Carlson to find out what happened?”

“Carlson didn’t know,” Troy answered for Bill. “Maddux was already way off the reservation by going after Charlie and me like he did. He was doing more and more things like that outside
the chain, without telling Carlson what was really going on. The assassination and the LNG tankers were the shining examples.”

“And Roger wouldn’t have told me about Troy even if he had known,” Bill added. “God rest his soul. It’s just too bad he had that heart attack.”

Jack glanced down the corridor both ways before saying anything. “Why wouldn’t he have told you? I mean, you’re an RCS associate, for crying out loud.”

Bill shook his head. “It didn’t matter. Those were Roger’s rules. The country always came first. No exceptions. I wasn’t actually a member of Red Cell Seven. Therefore, I still couldn’t know something so crucial even though it involved my son.”

Jack couldn’t accept that. He was black-and-white about a lot of things, and this was one of them. Family would always come first for him. Karen believed that with everything she had, and she’d convinced him to think that way too.

“Have they found Rita yet?” Troy asked.

“No. And I doubt they ever will.”

“Think she’s dead, Dad?”

“Damn good chance, I’d say,” Bill said grimly. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah, Maddux always covers his tracks.”

Bill gestured at Troy and then Jack. “Which is why both of you must be very careful at all times. Never let your guards down. He’s out there somewhere, and he’ll be coming at some point.”

Jack’s eyes flashed around. He was searching the shadows constantly these days.

“So she was Maddux’s plant, huh?” Troy asked.

“She was,” Bill replied, “and I still can’t believe it. More than thirty years with me, and she turns out to be a spy. It’s almost more than I can—”

“Gentlemen.”

The three of them glanced in the direction of the voice. Stewart Baxter was calling to them from down the hallway. Baxter
was President Dorn’s new chief of staff. He was a big man with an ego to match.

He waved to them and snapped his fingers twice. “This way, please. Hurry up.”

A few moments later Jack, Troy, and Bill were standing at President Dorn’s bedside after shaking hands with him carefully.

Jack stared at the president as he lay on the bed with tubes running in and out of him everywhere. The bullet had torn through his right lung after killing Rex Stein. It had been three weeks since the assassination attempt, and the president was still pale and drawn, but he would survive. If not for Stein deflecting the bullet slightly, the doctors and the forensics experts had determined President Dorn would have died on that stage in Los Angeles too. He looked terrible, but he seemed in good spirits.

“Thanks for coming,” he said feebly.

“No problem,” Bill answered for the three of them.

“Let’s keep this short, sir,” Baxter encouraged.

“Take a walk, Stewart.”

“Sir?”

“Leave us,” Dorn ordered in as strong a voice as he could muster. “I want to be alone with these men.”

“But—”

“Now.”

“Yes, sir.”

When Baxter was gone, Dorn smiled at the three Jensens and chuckled softly. “Well, well. Two liberals and a neocon. Exactly what I’m looking for. This way it’ll be two to two at crunch time.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll get to all that in a minute, Jack,” the president said. “But first I want to thank you guys for saving my life. I understand each of you had a part in it. Second,” he continued before they could say anything, “I want to tell you that I’ve had a lot of time to think, and I’ve come to a couple of very important conclusions.”

“Which are?”

“I don’t want death knocking on my door again anytime soon, Bill. Not for another thirty or forty years, anyway. I love my family too much. I love life too much. So I’m going to be much more careful about my personal security going forward.”

Bill nodded approvingly. “Good. I may not agree with your politics, but you need to stay alive. You are the president of the United States, and you are my president, sir. I don’t want you dying on my country or me.”

Dorn reached out and touched Bill’s arm. “Thank you. That means a lot to me, a lot more than it did a month ago.”

“What’s the other conclusion you came to?” Jack asked.

“I’ve decided this country needs men and women in the shadows after all,” the president answered gravely. “Lots of them, maybe even more than we have now. I’ve decided that I was a fool for wanting to destroy Red Cell Seven. Staring death down has a way of making you see how wrong you were on a lot of things. I know it has for me.” He shook his head. “You know, that first LNG tanker almost made it into Boston Harbor, and the second one came within
ten miles
of Virginia Beach. I know both of those crews had help from Shane Maddux. But I also know that neither of the ships would have been stopped if Red Cell Seven hadn’t come through.” He nodded appreciatively to Troy and Jack. “More importantly, since I’ve been able to sit up a little during the last week and start working again some, I’ve had a chance to dig into what Roger Carlson did over the last four decades. I’ve read through a lot of files, and I’ve spoken to a few very senior people at the CIA and the DOD who know the truth. What I found out is incredible. If the American public had any idea how many times RCS has saved this country, they’d be amazed.”

“And terrified,” Troy added.

“Right.” President Dorn smiled wanly. “So let’s make sure we don’t tell them. I can’t have a panic on my hands.”

“Yes, sir.”

“It is incredible what Roger accomplished,” Bill said. “I’m glad you’re finally seeing it that way, Mr. President.”

“I didn’t appreciate it before.” Dorn paused. “But I do now.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “Maybe in a strange way I even understand why Shane Maddux was trying to kill me.”

“In a
very
strange way,” Bill said quickly, shaking his head hard. “Killing the president of the United States can never be—”

“I know, Bill,” Dorn agreed with a wry grin. “Believe me, I’m not crazy. I’m not advocating my own assassination. The point is, Maddux was doing what he thought was right and necessary to protect this country. As misguided as he was, he was willing to do anything to make this as strong a nation as possible.” The president paused as he took several labored breaths. “Ultimately, he was a bad apple, clinically insane probably, but I can’t punish all of the outstanding people in Red Cell Seven just because of him. RCS must continue to exist. In fact, it needs to get stronger.” He glanced up at them. “That’s where you guys come in.”

“How?” Jack asked.

“I want all of you working for me.” Dorn gestured at Bill first. “I want you taking over Red Cell Seven immediately. I want you taking over for Roger Carlson.”

Bill put his hands up. “Mr. President, I can’t just—”

“I know, I know. You feel a loyalty to your shareholders at First Manhattan. You feel like you can’t just quit your job like that when you’re the CEO of a huge Wall Street firm. You think that might crater the stock.”

“Well, I—”

“I know, I know,” Dorn broke in again exactly the same way. “You’re too modest to say it, but that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Anytime any CEO resigns suddenly there are questions.”

Dorn raised both eyebrows. “But I thought you put America in front of everything, Bill, even your family. I thought even as just an RCS associate you were committed to that loyalty.”

Jack glanced at Bill. He could see his stepfather struggling for an answer. Just like that Dorn had boxed him in, and it was an unusual sight. Jack had never seen Bill like this, and it was actually a little satisfying. Dorn was good, even in his weakened state.

“Let’s do it this way,” the president suggested when he saw Bill was about to speak up. “Keep your CEO title for now. In the next few weeks you’ll announce an orderly transition, which will take enough time to placate the stock markets. But you’ll take over Red Cell Seven immediately. You can do two things at once. You are right now.”

“But I’m not sure I’m the right person,” Bill argued gently.

“You’re
exactly
the right person,” Dorn countered. “You’re an ex-marine. You already know a great deal about Red Cell Seven. You already command a great deal of respect in multiple circles in New York and Washington. And, most importantly, I trust you completely.” He laughed hard for a few seconds, but it was too painful and he ended up groaning and shaking his head. “I’m entrusting my life to a Republican. I never thought I’d do that.” He gestured at Bill. “And you might actually be an even more effective economic advisor if you aren’t the CEO of First Manhattan. You can be even more candid with me.”

“How about these two?” Bill asked, gesturing at Jack and Troy. “You said you wanted all of us working for you.”

The president’s eyes moved deliberately to Troy and then Jack. “I’ve thought a lot about this, and I want you two men to be my personal ghosts in the shadows. You’ll be deep, deep undercover. The only people in the world who’ll know what you’re doing will be your father and me. I’ll call you my Gray Men. Troy will no longer be a Falcon.” Dorn smiled mischievously. “And Jack, you need a job anyway, so it works perfectly for you.”

Jack laughed. “I do need a job. But I’m not sure about being a Gray Man. This is right up Troy’s alley, but it sounds a little crazy for me. I’m not trained for that.”

“From what I understand, you did pretty well in Alaska.”

“Still.”

“I’ll convince you,” Dorn assured Jack as his gaze turned intense despite his weakened condition. “The icing on the cake for me is that you’re a liberal, Jack. Though, like me, maybe not as much of one as you were a week ago,” he said, smiling grimly. He gestured at Bill and Troy. “So you can keep an eye on these two for me. You can make sure they don’t go too far to the right when I’m not looking.” He smiled a little. “You three won’t have to worry about the bad guys killing you. You’ll probably kill each other first.”

They all chuckled for a few moments.

“My biggest regret,” Dorn said as their laughter faded, “is that I didn’t appreciate how good a man Rex Stein was. I treated him like shit, but he still saved my life.”

“He was a patriot,” Bill said.

“He was a patriot,” the president agreed. “And I didn’t understand how important that really is until I was lying on that stage with blood pouring out of me. It’s all about trust at this level. Nothing is more important,” he said in a hushed voice. “And that’s why I want the three of you to work for me. I trust all of you completely.”