Page 59 of Jacking Jill

Jack rubbed the back of his neck, frowning when he looked at his palm and saw that it was grimy with soot and sweat. He glanced at his Darkwater phone again to check for a signal.

No signal. He tossed it onto the desk, narrowly missing clocking Benson on the head with it.

Benson didn’t flinch. But he did lose the grin. Gazing sharply into Jack’s eyes, Benson shrugged up at him. “Look around, kid. You see anybody objecting to my decision? Take that as a sign that they understand why I’m doing this. Don’t make me explain it all over again.”

“I don’t give a fuck about your bullshit explanation.” Jack flicked his gaze to Nancy, who wouldn’t look at him. Moving his gaze around the table, Jack focused his attention on Paige. Benson might be giving the orders, but Paige was pushing the buttons. “Paige, you know this is insane. Turn our phones back on. Or send a message for help through your laptop. Benson can’t stop you from doing that. You’re former CIA. Kaiser knows you. Tell him we’re trapped and surrounded. He’ll send help. FBI or CIA or Homeland Security or local SWAT.”

“There is no local SWAT,” came Benson’s sharp response before Paige could say a word. “We’re in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia. Local police are forty miles away, and they’re neither staffed nor prepared for this level of action. Every other agency is also a non-starter. We cannot risk getting a cop or federal agent killed.”

“Then tell Kaiser to send in some CIA operatives,” Jack said, trying to stay steady and focused even as the sinking dread took hold of his insides as he began to understand why Benson was doing this. “Hell, call in Ax, Bruiser, Fox, the rest of the Darkwater guys. Kaiser can make one phone call to an air-force base and hook them up with a chopper. Why haven’t you already made the call? Are you insane?” He glared at the ashen faces of the men and women in the room. “Have you all lost your fucking minds?”

Benson stood now, leaning on his aluminum cane. The flames licking the outside of the thick window-glass cast strange shadows on the old CIA man’s face, making him look like some kind of shapeshifter, a being who’d inhabited many bodies, looked through many pairs of eyes, grinned many coyote grins.

“Jack, look,” Benson said, his tone softening. “CIA is technically a civilian agency, so Kaiser can’t just send a bunch of agents into a gunfight on U.S. soil. FBI is a non-starter, because they don’t see eye-to-eye with the CIA. Same with DHS and every other federal agency with armed officers. Sure, they’ll come blazing in to help, but after the smoke clears and everyone realizes it’s another Darkwater clusterfuck, Martin Kaiser will be done as CIA Director because of his association with us.” He shook his head, smiled a vaguely resigned smile that send a splinter of alarm up Jack’s back, like maybe Benson was checking out of the game, was ready to fold his cards and leave the table, take his final bow and let the curtain come down. “You know damn well that Kaiser was on rocky ground with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Yeah, when your brother took out Rhett Rodgers on that last mission, it gave Kaiser some breathing room, a clearer path to keep his position until Robinson won the White House. But it’s too close to the election for Kaiser to get tainted by another Darkwater mess or cover-up. Senator Robinson is the Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. And if a cop or federal agent gets killed in this skirmish, Robinson will have to force Kaiser to resign. Or else Robinson will be hurting his own election chances by appearing to give Kaiser a pass for covering up Darkwater’s sketchy operations on U.S. soil.” He shook his head again. “And everyone in this room—you included, Jack—understands that without Martin Kaiser’s behind-the-scenes support, Darkwater will die a slow death. Hell, Martin is a Darkwater man too.” Benson chuckled. “He might not admit it. Might not even realize it. But either way, for Darkwater to continue on its mission, Martin Kaiser needs to remain Director of the CIA, and Senator Robinson needs to get to the White House. That’s the bigger picture, the greater mission, the ultimate goal. And everyone in this room understands that sometimes you have to make tough choices for the bigger picture.”

Some choices aren’t yours to make, you crazy old coyote prick, Jack thought viciously as he rubbed his jaw and glanced at Jill, who stood silently against the far wall with Fay. She smiled hesitantly at him, blinking slowly and deliberately, like she was trying to communicate that she understood even if she didn’t know all the details. Jack frowned back at her, narrowing his gaze, tilting his head and trying to read Jill’s expression. But his brain was buzzing too hard, and he forced his attention back to Benson.

“All right, fine, you’re right. We can’t risk cops or FBI getting killed in the crossfire. Sure, there’s a chance Romeo just hightails it out of here rather than get into a showdown with law enforcement. But we can’t count on that happening. And if Romeo’s thugs get surprised by the cops or FBI, there’ll be shots fired and things could go to hell really fucking fast.” He took a breath, exhaled hard. “But we’ve got Darkwater reinforcements, Benson. Ax, Bruiser, Edge . . .”

“It’s almost Christmas.” Benson smiled, then shook his head, leaned on his cane, and limped to the window, stopping with his nose almost against the glass, his silver-gray eyes gazing out over the surreal scene of a crisp cold December night with angry flames licking the corners of the thick window-glass like orange serpent-tongues. The sudden snowstorm which had hit Philadelphia hadn’t made its way south to Virginia, and the sky was cloudless, like fate was making it clear that weather wasn’t going to save the day and put out the flames for them. Benson looked out the window thoughtfully, then turned to Jack and sighed. “I sent the other Darkwater guys home to their families yesterday. Ax is in Atlanta. Bruiser’s in Illinois. Cody is on the Texas coast. Dogg and Diana are in Florida. Edge and Emma are back in Vegas. Gavin’s in London with Gale.” He glanced at Fay, who was fidgeting restlessly against the far wall. “And although Fay is stuck here with us, Fox is in Montana with the kids. Of course, all those guys would be here in a heartbeat if I called, but they’d never get here in time. Not unless the Department of Defense has perfected that teleportation machine.” He tried to chuckle but didn’t quite pull it off.

“You know damn well that Kaiser can make one phone call and—” Jack started to say before Benson cut him off with a sharp look.

“Kaiser cannot get involved in something like this on U.S. soil without getting himself burned. Yeah, he’d do it, no questions asked. But that’s why I’m not going to ask, damn it.” He shook his head firmly, turned to face Jack. “And I won’t call Ax or Cody or any of the guys, won’t let you do it either. They might decide to say fuck it and just send the cavalry to save our asses. Which will still bring Kaiser down, thanks to his history with Darkwater.”

“You think Kaiser would choose his damn job over you, Benson? Over us?” Jack rubbed his eyes, shook his head, then sighed in frustration. “Of course he wouldn’t. That’s why you won’t call him and won’t let us call him. John Benson playing the great game of choice and circumstance, right? Choosing everyone else’s fate for them. Making other people’s choices for them. You decide who gets sacrificed along the way to Darkwater’s destiny, right?”

“That’s right, kid. I fucking decide who gets sacrificed,” Benson said sharply. He looked sternly around the room at the faces of his team, then chuckled darkly and glanced up at Jack. “But although I might be crazy, I’m not a monster, kid. Darkwater is the only family I have, the only family I’ll ever fucking have.” Benson’s eyes blazed with something dangerously serious as he surveyed the room once again with his commanding gaze. “And I will protect my Darkwater family until my dying breath.” He gazed grimly into Jack’s eyes. “Just like you will, right?”

“Roger that.” Jack’s response was immediate, instinctive, unconditional.

Benson nodded, then glanced at Keller. “How about you, Keller the Killer?”

Keller grunted out an affirmative response, no words needed to signal his willingness to do whatever it took.

“Good,” said Benson, glancing up at the blocked-off ventilator grill, around which wisps of smoke were beginning to curl into the room. “Then it’s settled. Jack, Keller, and I will go out the front three doors with guns blazing, drawing all Romeo’s fire on us, leaving the fourth exit clear. Hogan and Ice will get the women out the last exit, get them to Hogan’s truck, get them safely out of here.” Gasps rose up from the women as the realization set in that Jack, Keller, and Benson weren’t going to walk away from this. “Oh, stop it. Don’t get all sentimental on me now. You’re Darkwater women, damn it. You know I’m right—and if you don’t, then tough shit. I’m in charge, and my decision is final. Jack, Keller, and I are the only ones without families waiting for us at home. The rest of you do. And I will not have any Darkwater children growing up without a mother or father if I can help it.”

Protests and objections rose up around the table.

Then a single voice cut through the chatter.

“I’m staying,” came Jill’s voice from the side wall now, surprising everyone with its firmness. “I don’t have a husband or child waiting for me at home. I don’t even have any family. Except for Nina. And . . .” Jill looked at Jack, her sooty cheeks darkening as she blushed. She nervously touched her hair, cast another knowing look at Jack, then shrugged and flashed a little smile. “I’m staying with you, Jack. I . . . I love you, Jack.”

Jack stared as if the entire world stopped spinning. Every head now turned in his direction. He swallowed hard, clenched his fists and his jaw and everything else in his body to stop himself from rushing to Jill and taking her into his arms, holding her close for the last time, close enough that perhaps they’d merge into one, remain joined forever and beyond.

“I fucking love you too, Jill,” came Jack’s response that somehow made it out past the lump of indescribably thick emotion lodged in his throat. “Which is why you’re going with Ice and Hogan and the rest of the women. No questions. No objections. This is what’s happening, and that’s final.”

“Like hell it is,” came Ice’s voice now. Jack turned in surprise to see Ice storming towards Benson from his post by the window, shaking his head furiously, the coolest motherfucker in the room looking about as shaken as Jack had ever seen his older brother. “This is bullshit. We’ve got three Delta guys and a Recon Marine in the room. Keller, Jack, Hogan, and I are trained for this. We can hold off eighteen guys long enough for Benson to get the women out.” He glanced at Hogan inquiringly. “Am I right, Hogan?”

“Roger that.” Hogan didn’t even flinch.

Benson chuckled, wagging his finger at them like a schoolmaster reprimanding some smartass kids. “Absolutely not. Hogan and Ice, you two are going back to your wives. I don’t want to answer to Hannah and Indy in the afterlife. Knowing them, they’ll get a psychic to hunt down my soul and torment me while I’m trying to relax in that warm cozy spot reserved for me in hell.”

“Our wives will understand.” Ice shrugged stoically.

“Hannah knows what kind of man she married.” Hogan’s expression was cold determination.

“And Fox knows what kind of woman he married.” Fay’s voice wavered, but not enough to stop her from speaking up. “I’m not letting anyone die to save me. My husband will understand. So will my children.”

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