Cliff Ryder - The Ties That Bind

Jason dropped the Kornet, groaning in pain. "Help me up," he ordered Tanuk. "I have to make sure it's finished."

"No one could survive that," the old man said. "No one."

"I have to be sure," Jason said. "Get me there."

Tanuk helped Jason up and the two of them slowly crossed the snowy field to where the Asp was burning on the ground. Even as they got closer, Jason saw movement near the wreckage and he used his left hand to awkwardly take the Glock out of its holster. Personal my ass, he thought, holding the weapon. I should have just shot him and been done with it.

"There!" Tanuk said, pointing.

Sure enough, burned and horribly injured, Feng was trying to crawl away, using the wreckage as cover. He must have jumped from the Asp milliseconds before the warhead impact. Both of his legs were broken and he was dragging them behind him like broken sticks of wood.

"Feng!" Jason shouted.

The Chinese man rolled onto his back, slowly raising his hands. "You…win, Mr. Siku," he said. "I surrender."

"You don't understand," Jason said. "There are no winners, no losers. Surrender is not an option. You've forgotten what Room 59 was created to do. We keep the world safe from people like you, no matter what the cost."

"What…will you do, then, Mr. Siku?" he asked, panting for breath. "Will you become what they made me? A cold-blooded killer of men?"

Jason shook his head and raised the Glock. "No," he said quietly. "I will be more. I will finish the mission you forgot. The mission you walked away from." He squeezed the trigger three quick times, using the time-honored pattern of two to the chest, one to the head. At this range, even left-handed, he didn't miss.

"And I will help keep this world safe."

Slowly, he slumped to the ground. The warmth from the burning helicopter wreckage felt nice, and he knew he was drifting away. The last thing he saw before the darkness took him was Tanuk's face, the last words he heard were, "You can rest now, son."

Jason woke to the smell of woodsmoke and a scent that reminded him vaguely of cinnamon. He could hear hushed voices nearby, and he slowly opened his eyes. Above him, he saw a wooden roof with all kinds of symbols and signs hung from the rafters.

"He's awake," a cracked voice said.

Jason turned to see Tanuk and an old woman, her face wrinkled with time and years, move toward him. She was ancient, but her voice was strong and sure. "You're going to live," she said. "Though I wondered for a time if you still had the will to fight."

Remembering, Jason looked at Tanuk. He was confused and still a bit groggy. "Tina?" he asked.

A broad grin split the old man's face. "She, too, will live. The cold actually helped her survive," he said.

"Where is she?" Jason asked.

"A small hospital in Nome," Tanuk said. "It was decided to keep you here might be the safest course of action. You have many enemies."

"Jesse?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," Tanuk said. "There was nothing we could do for Jesse but release his spirit to the next world. Tina is waiting for you to come to her in Nome. There is much you need to discuss."

He had no sense of time. "How long have I been out?" he asked.

"This is the third day since they brought you here," the old woman said.

"Damn," Jason said. "I need my things, I have to…let people know what's happened here."

"I think they know," Tanuk said. "Your people arrived yesterday."

"My people?" he asked.

"Yes," he said. "The ones with the hard eyes and winter stares. One waits for you outside."

Pushing himself upright, Jason took a better look at his surroundings. He was in some kind of medicine hut, by all appearances. He felt better than he had any right to, though he was still sore. His right arm was in a sling. He looked at the old woman. "You took care of me?"

"Yes," she said. "I am a healer, though few come to me anymore. My art will soon be lost."

"That is sad," Jason said. "I feel much better."

"Good," said a voice from the doorway. "Denny is expecting a full report from you within two days, but I'd like a summary now if you're up to it."

A broad-shouldered man with long dark hair was standing in the doorway, looking a little out of place in a heavy parka. "You can call me Adrostos," the man said. He had a slight Greek accent. "When you didn't report in, Denny assumed the worst and sent me with a team in case things had gone to hell. Feng Li is — was, rather — a very dangerous man."

Jason laughed. "That's an understatement if I ever heard one."

"They tell me you killed him," Adrostos said.

"I had help," he replied, using his left hand to gesture toward Tanuk. "Really, everyone up here helped."

"And the submarine?"

"Bottom of the ocean," Jason said. "I'll send the coordinates to the offshore team today, so they can get it marked and start recovery, if they want to."

"Did you get the plans for it?" Adrostos asked.

The old woman made an eerie sound that flittered somewhere between a crow and a bear. "Enough!" she said. "You can talk more later. Now, he needs to rest and get his strength back. He still has a long journey ahead of him."

"I do?" Jason asked.

"He does?" the man echoed.

"Yes," she said, making a shooing gesture with her hands. "It should be enough for you to know that this bad man is gone and his evil weapons with him. You'll know more — in two days. Now go!"

Adrostos smiled ruefully and nodded. "Two days, Jason," he said. "In Denny's office. And check your system messages. Full debrief on any witnesses, cleanup if needed." He paused, then added, "Understand?"

"I got it," Jason said, watching as the man stepped back out the door. Even from inside, he could hear him telling the rest of the team to pull out. What Adrostos had meant was that if he had to, he was to eliminate anyone who knew too much. One thing he knew for certain — Adrostos was every bit as dangerous as Feng Li. He carried himself with the steady assurance of a man who had killed many others and slept well at night. Briefly, he wondered if Adrostos was part of the midnight teams, then dismissed it. There was no point in speculating about ghosts.

The old woman brought him a bowl of soup and placed it with a wooden spoon on a tray next to his bed. "You must eat all of that, if you are to get your strength back quickly. You have far to go."

"Where am I going?" he asked. "I did what I came up here to do. Now I go home."

"And where is home now?" Tanuk asked quietly.

Jason stared into the bowl of soup, his mind working on the problem. "I don't know," he finally admitted. "I just don't know."

"Eat your soup," the medicine woman said. "Not every answer is in your head or your heart. Some are elsewhere."

"Where am I going?" he asked her.

"In the long run," she said, "that is up to you. But first, you must go to Nome and visit Tina. When you see her, you may have more answers than you do right now."

"I hope so," Jason said. "Right now, I'm just confused."

"You're doing fine so far," Tanuk said. "It's not complicated really. It's just love."

The old woman laughed softly. "You should've been a storyteller," she scolded him. "You open your mouth and all kinds of bullshit comes out."

They both laughed again and Jason ate his soup, thinking of Jesse — a brother found and lost — and of Tina. What did she think of him now, knowing the cost of all this? What did he really feel for her?

What kind of life could he offer her?

A dangerous one, his mind answered. At the best of times.

And that, he knew, was precisely the problem. He couldn't offer her anything that she hadn't already walked away from.

This mission had been one of too many complications and too many questions already.