Cliff Ryder - The Ties That Bind

The evidence was damning. Chris must have been waiting here for her to report back to him.

Inside, all the confusion he'd been feeling since this mission started faded away. He knew who he was, what he did, what he had to do. He didn't need or want a family. He was an assassin, a spy, a professional — and he'd let his feelings for Tina get in the way.

Jason turned his gaze back to Tina, letting every ounce of cold he felt pour out toward her. "Not involved, huh?"

He grabbed his coat off the chair by the door and could tell from its weight that the handheld was still in the pocket. He pulled it on, turned and stormed out the door, slamming it behind him. Taking several deep breaths, he stood for a moment on the porch and wondered why he hadn't just killed them both, but he realized that no matter what, he needed time to process this new information.

Maybe there was a way to work all this to his advantage, to use them both. In all his years, he'd learned that wasting a local asset should always be reserved for a final option. They were all but impossible to replace quickly. And the simple fact was that he wanted to go back in the house and take them both out, but he knew that was his anger doing his thinking for him. He had to hold back a bit, to wait. They weren't direct threats, at least not yet.

He ran all of the way back to his cabin, cursing himself the entire way. How could he have missed it? How could he have been so blind? She was a better actress than he'd given her credit for, and he'd fallen for the entire show. He tore open the door to his cabin, the wood creaking in protest, and stomped inside.

The whole mission was compromised. His cover was totally blown. And now, in addition to everything else, he was going to have to kill Tina. There was no other choice.

"Damn!" he said.

He changed into dry clothes, making sure to put on several layers to keep the cold at bay. He checked his weapons and stepped out into the bitter night.

He still had a lot to do. Checking his watch, he knew that the first order of business was to get to Blue Whale Bay and send out the Scorpion to get the next load of equipment. Once that was done, he could come back and do what needed to be done with Tina and Chris.

The only silver lining to having his cover blown was that he could use whatever means were necessary to extract information about the operation from Chris.

Considering the man's attitude and how he was feeling right now, he might actually enjoy that.

Jason sent the Scorpion to the offshore team even before he reached the cove. The rain had eased its temperamental drumming, but it did nothing to change his mood as he waited for the machine to return. He waited nearly an hour, huddled on the rocks, before the Scorpion returned, climbing onto the beach like a giant insect. The new equipment in tow was easily removed, and he started entering the navigational coordinates he thought he would need to get into the underwater cavern. Then he'd follow one of the submersibles out into the ocean, and with any luck at all, it would lead him straight to the submarine. He could accomplish his primary and secondary missions, then handle the cleanup.

"I thought I'd find you here," he heard Tina say.

He almost smiled. The damn woman had done it to him again. He reached into the Scorpion once more and turned on the scanners, then pulled his Glock out and turned around to face her. A quick glance at the scanners showed that there was no one else in the area. She was either extremely confident or extremely foolish to come alone. He knew what he needed to do next, and the laser dot appeared on her chest.

In the darkness, she noticed the steady red point of light, then brought her gaze up to meet his.

"It's amazing how quickly we've gone from stay to go," she said. She took a hesitant step back. "At my house, you thought I'd betrayed you," she said.

"Don't move," Jason said, his voice calm. She knew he intended to kill her and would do so without hesitation. "So," he continued, "I suppose this is the part where you tell me it was all a coincidence. Chris just happened to be at your house."

"Yes," she said. "It was a coincidence. It's not like I invited him over." She sat down on his quad and waited for him to approach.

He moved closer, keeping his aim steady. "Well, at least you're following the script now," he said. "Next you'll beg me not to kill you or maybe offer me up some of your smuggler friends instead — isn't that right?"

She started to reply, but he cut her off.

"I knew that I shouldn't have trusted you," he continued. "Save the pleas for mercy and since I already know who the smugglers are, offering them up won't do you any good. I should have ended all of these complications the first day out of Nome."

He raised the weapon a little bit higher. "The mission comes first."

"You really do live an empty life, don't you?" she asked. The words hit him like a cold, hard slap on the face. "You don't have anyone in your life that you trust. No one you can count on. I almost feel sorry for you, having been there myself once."

His finger tightened on the trigger. He had to do it.

Tina kept talking. "You know, if I really believed that you would kill me outright, without giving me a chance to even explain, I wouldn't have come out here. I hope my grandfather is right and that I'm a good judge of people. I think if you were going to kill me, I wouldn't have gotten out word one."

"Perhaps," he whispered. "I've been doing this job a long time. It's the little amusements that carry one through the tougher times."

"I don't know who you really are, Jason. And I've told you the truth. I'm not involved and I don't have any friends that you would really be interested in. I can't imagine telling you that my grandfather smokes illegally imported Cuban cigars will win me many points." She held up her hands in defeat. "I guess you'll either have to listen and make your choice or kill me and have to go on living life just as you have in the past."

He shrugged. "My past isn't so bad. I've been living with it for a long time. But what the hell, I'll play along. Why was he there? And don't tell me he was just taking a walk around the block and you ran into him."

"I don't know," she said. "He was waiting at the house when I got back. He's been after me for some time to go out with him, but I've always turned him down. I sort of figured it was done, that he'd gotten the message. Suddenly he has a renewed interest and I don't know why. But I do know that after you barged in, he didn't seem all that excited to be talking with me. If I were to guess, I'd say that he and his smuggler friends suspect you of being onto them, of having been the one that broke into their facility earlier. They probably sent him to me to try to get some information."

Jason nodded. It made a certain amount of sense. How did she manage to cloud his judgment so easily? "Anything else?" he asked.

"That's all I've got," she said. "He took off right after you did, so at this point your guesses would be as good as mine."

He moved closer, watching her breathing patterns, studying her body language. If there was even a hint of a lie, he'd shoot her dead…but there wasn't. If she was lying, she deserved an award for her acting. Still, he had to know if he could really trust her. A wandering nuclear weapon and a submarine capable of delivering it were far more important to the safety of the world than one dead woman, whether he liked her or not.

There was one button he could push, and maybe find out where she really stood.

"And the sex," he asked. "Was that all a setup, too?"

Tina jumped off the quad, marched straight up to him and slapped him across the cheek. Hard. He didn't stop her. "You bastard," she hissed.