Cliff Ryder - The Ties That Bind

"You might as well accept the fact that that is never going to work."

"What's never going to work?" he asked.

"Trying to tell me what to do," she said matter-of-factly. Then she started up her quad, turned it around and left without him again, once more leaving him to play catch-up so he might have a shot at missing at least some of the boggy spots along the way.

"I hate complications," he muttered to himself as he followed behind her. "Why couldn't this have been a nice, simple assassination mission? Those were so much easier."

They got back to his cabin and Tina left to go check on her grandfather, with a warning from Jason to keep her eyes open. People knew that she'd brought him up here and they might decide to move against her on that basis alone. She assured him she could take care of herself and left while he went inside to contemplate the stubborn nature of the female half of the human species and log into Room 59. It was time to talk to the boss.

His avatar traveled down the hallway, but Denny wasn't online. Using the emergency-notice icon, Jason left an urgent message and waited. He didn't expect it to be long before Denny showed up and he was right. He only had to wait a few minutes before he received a notice and went back to Denny's online office.

"You must have found the sub," Denny said without preamble when Jason entered. "Good work."

"No, I haven't found the sub," Jason said.

"You used the emergency notice to pull me out of a meeting and you haven't found the sub?" Denny asked. "This better be good."

"It's not good," Jason replied. "Not good at all. That's why I used the emergency notice." He uploaded the images and the scanned data from his handheld onto Denny's system. "This is what I found. Most of the weapons are inconsequential, nothing that would really interest us, but then I found this…" His voice trailed off as he saw Denny's reaction to the data.

"A nuclear signature?" the older man said. "You have a gift for understatement. 'Not good' barely touches the surface of it."

"My equipment wasn't sufficient to determine the exact nature of the weapon, but I figured it was worth interrupting you for," he said. "It's not a huge leap to believe that if there's a nuclear weapon in this part of the world, the sub exists. Maybe it has supercavitation, maybe not. But it's here. It has to be."

"You're probably right," Denny muttered, studying the images in front of him.

"There's something else," Jason said.

"You mean it gets worse?"

"To be honest, yes," he replied. "This may be worse." He uploaded the next set of image files, which showed the Asp helicopter.

Denny didn't say anything initially, but stared at the image, stunned silent for a moment, before he whispered, "Aw, shit. How'd they get ahold of that?"

"I don't know," Jason said. "But I thought there were only a few people who even knew of its existence." He knew he didn't have to say anything else.

"Damn," his boss said. Jason could see him mentally running through scenarios and ways to address the problem. After a moment, he said, "Okay, I'll try to see what I can dig up on this end. Do you have any other information yet?"

"Just a name," Jason said. "Boris Ambros. I didn't find anything on him in our system, but he's involved on this end, so I figured you'd want to flag the name, see if anything turns up."

Denny made a quick note of the name. "It doesn't ring any bells for me, but I'll see what I can find. For now, I want you to stay focused on finding that sub and that warhead. Shut the whole thing down, Jason. I'd prefer to keep the midnight teams out of this if at all possible."

"Understood," Jason said. The very idea of having to have a midnight team called in for his first official mission made him squirm uncomfortably. They were the last-ditch resort of Room 59 — ruthless killers who would eradicate anything and anyone to "clean" an operational area. It would also make him look pretty incompetent if they were needed his first time out.

"Do you have anything else for me at this time?" Denny asked.

"Just a thought," he said. "I'm not sure how an operation this big has been going on without our knowledge."

"What are you getting at?" Denny asked.

"Just that if we didn't know, it makes sense that someone did. Maybe you could reach out to our friends in the CIA and see what they know about this. Either they know about some of it and it's covered or…"

"Or someone way up in the food chain is on it and has been helping to cover it up," Denny finished.

"There is no way that this has gone completely unnoticed. It's too big. I know that the resources up here are limited, but this would just be crazy to miss. The FBI has information on the gunrunning that is going on, so it has to be being watched by somebody."

"I saw the access to the FBI file. You think that this guy…Jesse is your family?" Denny asked.

"Even if he is my brother by blood, he's a total stranger to me. I'll handle it."

"If I need to assign a different agent, I need to know it, and right now," Denny said. "This is too big to let it get personal."

"No, sir," Jason said. "It's not personal and there's no need for anyone else. An extra player in the field would only make things more complicated." He shrugged, remembering how Jesse had acted toward him. "Besides, right now this guy is a suspect, nothing more. An expendable asset, just like the rest."

He knew what Denny was nervous about, but this was the job and there was nothing that was going to get in the way even if this was his brother and he had to kill him. There was a long pregnant pause.

"Look," Jason continued, "I know you can run the new biometrics tools on this conversation, see if I'm telling the truth. Go ahead. Review the data. I'm here for the job, and that's it. If it could become a problem, you'll be the first to know."

"All right," Denny said. He paused once more, considering, then added, "I'm going to send in some new equipment for you. Send the Scorpion out again and I'll have the offshore team load it and return it tonight."

They said their goodbyes, and Jason logged off. He looked at the images on his computer again. About the only good side of all this he could see was that no one appeared to be in any hurry. If they had a plan, it didn't seem to involve an immediate launch.

There was a sharp series of raps on his door, and he picked up his Glock and peered outside through the window. Tina was standing on the porch in only a sweater, rubbing her arms to try to stay warm. He quickly pulled open the door and moved out of her way, knowing she would rush inside.

"Are you crazy?" he asked. "It's freezing out there!"

"You're…telling me," she said, teeth chattering. "But I left my coat at my grandfather's. I was halfway here before I realized I'd left it behind and the wind started picking up. So I ran." She shivered again. "That almost helped."

Jason pulled a blanket off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms, trying to get her circulation going again. "Come here," he said.

He slid his arm around her shoulder and walked her closer to the fire, pulling a chair forward for her to sit. She eased herself down gratefully.

"Hang on a minute," he said. He went into the kitchen to pour her a cup of hot coffee mixed with a little brandy. It would warm her on the inside and help chase away the feeling of cold. He pulled a chair up next to hers and placed the drink in her hand, wrapping his hands on the outside of hers.

"That should help take care of some of that shivering."

Tina took a sip and cringed a little as the brandy seared its way down her throat.

"How much antifreeze did you put in that?" she rasped.