Cliff Ryder - The Ties That Bind

"Understood, ma'am."

"All right, you've got twenty-four hours and not a minute more. If we don't hear from you by then…" She left the statement hanging.

"Then I'd best get started," Jason said, getting to his feet.

"Your orders are now modified," she said. "Use any local assets you've got available. Sink the sub and destroy the Asp, take them all out. Clean sweep."

He nodded in understanding, then turned to Denny. "Can your offshore team remotely control the Scorpion?"

"Of course," Denny said. "What did you have in mind?"

After wrapping up his report with Denny, Jason logged out of Room 59 and shut down the system. He put his laptop and the other gear into a field pack, thankful that Jesse had found most of his things including the handheld device that would be critical to his plan.

The others were talking quietly at another table on the far side of the room and he joined them.

"So," Tina asked as he approached, "do you still have a job?"

"For now," he said. "Thank you."

"For what?" she asked.

"Finally telling me the truth," he said. "If you hadn't…"

"I know," she said, grinning. "You would have killed me."

"Yes," he said grimly.

He saw the cold finality of his words sink in and the movement in her throat as she swallowed. He had her full attention; now it was time to go to work.

"I've received revised orders," he said, sitting down at the table with them. "And in order to carry them out, I'm going to need some help."

"What do you have in mind?" Jesse asked.

"I have to get back out to that submarine. By the time we make it back to the coast, the Scorpion will be repaired and waiting."

"How's that?" his brother asked.

"There's an offshore team of specialists," he answered. "They called the Scorpion remotely while I was talking with my superiors. They will get it repaired."

"Handy," Jesse said. "If only I could fix cars that way."

"And what will you do with the sub, assuming you can find it again?" Tina asked.

"I have orders to sink it," he said. He turned to Tanuk. "That's where you come in."

"How can I help?" the old man asked.

"I need some explosives," Jason said. "C-4 if you've got it, along with the detonator caps and timers."

Jesse laughed. "You're going to try to sink a submarine with C-4?" He shook his head. "No way."

Tina glanced at Jason, then said, "No, he can do it. From inside the sub. You're going in, aren't you?"

He nodded. "It's the only way. I can get in the sub…"

"Come on!" Jesse interrupted. "You don't even know where it is anymore. They could have moved it all the way back to Russia by now."

Jason pulled the handheld out of his jacket pocket and turned it on. He typed in several coordinates, looking for a frequency response. "No," he said. "They haven't moved it. It's right where it was."

"Let me see," his brother said.

Jason held up the screen, which showed a sonar-style radar. It was pinging the sub and showing its exact location. Whatever cloaking mechanism they had in place was pretty good; he'd had to go to ultraviolet to find it.

"That's…amazing," Jesse said. "How'd you do that?"

"I put a tracer on the sub when I was down there before," he said. "You remember? When you and Chris and the guys were trying to kill me?"

"It wasn't personal, Jason," he said. "Just work. A man can change, can't he?"

"Yes, a man can change, but you didn't change your heart or your beliefs, Jesse, and that worries me. You just changed sides," Jason asked.

The tension in the small room ratcheted up several notches.

"What do I do with you, if you decide to change sides again?"

Jesse shook his head. "I won't."

"We'll see," Jason said. "But you need to understand something. Tina, I can trust. Tanuk — no offense — is nothing more than a pawn. But you…you were a player. If you switch sides again or try to betray us…I'll hunt you down like a rabid dog and kill you. Plain and simple."

"Harsh," Jesse said. "Considering I saved your life back there."

"It's better for you to know where we stand now, because I'm going to be asking you to do something for me."

"What's that?" Jesse asked.

"Once I'm all set at the Scorpion, you're going to get Tina and her grandfather out of here. I want them as far away as possible. Nome, if you can make it without stopping." He looked at Tina. "I'll catch up to you there."

Jason saw the understanding in Jesse's eyes. "Yeah," he said. "I can get them there, Jason."

"No way," Tina interrupted. "I'm not leaving you out here to face this by yourself. Have you forgotten Boris? Have you forgotten that Feng Li is out there right now, hunting us?"

"Yes, you are," Jason replied. He held up a hand as she started to argue. "Listen to me, Tina. I care for you and that's a distraction right now. I've got twenty-four hours to get this done or it's all over. You know the rules — it can't be personal. If you're here, it gets personal."

She started to protest, but her grandfather placed his hands over hers. "He is right, granddaughter," he said quietly. "Let him do his job, so you can do yours."

"Mine?" she asked. "What's my job?"

"Keeping me safe," he said, "as well as yourself. You will have more to do in the future. This is not your time to act."

"What are you talking about?" she said. "This is…look, I know I'm just a translator, but I've had the field-agent training. I can help!"

"Possibly," Tanuk said. "But you will have to trust my wisdom and insight in this matter. Jason is right. It is time for you to be elsewhere."

Thoughtfully, Jason considered the old man's words, then grabbed his hand. "The tattoo," he said. "Now I remember."

Tanuk smiled. "It is more often a curse than a gift."

Tina looked at the familiar design. It had always been there. "You told me they gave that to you as a child," she said. "For your first whale kill."

He nodded. "I lied."

"Arrgh!" Tina cried. "Does anyone here ever tell the truth?"

All of them looked at each other sheepishly, then Jason cleared his throat. "Apparently, not so much."

"So, what does it mean?" she asked Tanuk. "Where did you get it and why?"

"When I was eight," Tanuk said, "I had my first vision. A bad storm was coming and I warned the people in time. The village elders — you must remember, this was a long time ago — called me a seer. Trained me as a medicine man. The tattoo signifies that, but very few of us are left now who remember those days."

"And how did you know?" she asked Jason.

He shrugged. "I read a couple of books on Inuit culture before I came up here. There was some mention of it, just a line really and a picture of the tattoo, but when I first saw it, I couldn't remember its significance."

"I do not know what Tina's future holds," Tanuk cautioned them. "Only that now is the time for her to keep me safe and be far away from here. I feel that if she stays it could have dire consequences to her or you both. Better to be safe."

"This is crazy," Tina said. "I'm supposed to just walk away and let it go? I have a job to do, too," she said. "Denny authorized it, didn't he?"

"He did," Jason admitted. "But I'm inclined to trust your grandfather on this one. Whatever goes down is going to be very messy. I don't want to see you getting hurt. The basic field-agent training doesn't cover what's going to happen up here."

"I can handle myself," she said. "I kept my cover with you, didn't I?"

"This isn't going to be about cover, damn it," Jason said. "This is going to be fighting and bloody and nasty. People are going to die in ugly ways. That is not your world."

Her shoulders sagged in defeat. "You're right," she said, her voice quiet. "That's not my world. But I still want to help."