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.
He finished his soup and allowed himself the luxury of falling into sleep again.
Sometimes, it was better to dream of a world he could never have, rather than try to live in the one that he couldn't change.
23
To call the facility in Nome a hospital was a bit like calling a goldfish a shark, Jason thought. With less than twenty-five beds, it served the Inuit and other native populations in a huge area — mostly with local clinics. Still, the facility itself appeared decent enough and the staff was professional.
After waking from his nap, Jason had decided to leave right away, rather than stay any longer. There was little point in putting off what he needed to do. He thanked the old medicine woman and shook hands with Tanuk, who offered him some words of advice before he left.
'Do you know, son, what the difference is between a man alone and a man with a family?'
Jason had shaken his head. 'Not really,' he answered.
'Wisdom, maybe,' Tanuk replied, then turned and went back into his small home.
Adrostos had done him a kindness, leaving him a floatplane that he could fly down to Nome, rather than use an ATV over the rough countryside. The flight itself had been fairly short and by early morning, he was in Nome, wandering the streets and waiting for a diner to open so he could get some breakfast and a cup of coffee.
What he was really doing, he knew, was putting off seeing Tina.
She'd put her trust in him, done everything he'd asked, and nearly lost her life in doing so. People in her village, people she knew, had died. Sitting in the dingy little diner, he finished off the last of his coffee and paid his bill. He couldn't wait any longer, and headed for the hospital.
He stopped at the main desk and asked the young lady there what room she was in. 'Just down the hall and then to your left,' the woman told him.
'Thank you,' he replied, then turned away and headed in that direction. He felt funny inside, almost wooden or as if nothing was real. He thought he had a handle on how he felt about Tina, but he didn't know what to do about
