The Ties That Bind

'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.'

'And you will,' he said. 'But then you have to get out of here.' Just knowing that she'd be far away when it all came down caused a surge of relief to wash over him. He cared about her future, which was more than he'd allowed himself to feel for anyone in a long, long time. 'No more arguing.'

She opened her mouth, then closed it with a snap, nodding.

'Good,' he said. 'What other weapons and supplies do you have stored away in here?'

'You might be surprised,' Tanuk said. 'What do you need?'

Jason considered it for a few moments, thinking of the terrain around the Quonset building, then said, 'Aside from the C-4, here's my wish list — shrapnel grenades and smokers, Claymore mines, a sniper rifle and rounds to go with it and — in an ideal world — a rocket launcher and shells.'

Tanuk smiled and nodded at Jesse, who said, 'Let's get to work, brother. We've got a lot of loading to do.'

'It will be better this way,' Jason said to Tina. 'You know we can't allow this to get any more personal than it already has. The mission first. We'll deal with the future if we survive all this.'

'What do you mean we?' she asked. 'Don't you mean you? I'm going to be a long way away, remember?'

'You aren't there yet,' he said. 'And I fully anticipate more arguments before I have to knock you unconscious and have Jesse load you into the truck to get you out of here.'

'You wouldn't!' she said.

'In a New York minute,' he replied. 'Now, let's get to work.'

'I could help, Jason,' she said. 'You know that.'

'I do,' he said. 'But the best help you can give me is getting as far away from this mess as you can.'

She nodded. 'Want to help me carry some crates?'

'Sure,' he said. 'But let's not overdo it. We've got some time before the Scorpion will be back and we both took a good pounding back there.'

Tanuk joined them as they headed for the larger cavern. 'In life there is always heavy lifting,' he said to himself. 'That is why we have family.'