Page 174 of Enemy of My Enemy
“Why?” His mind raced, trying to put the pieces together. “Why invade Canada?”
“It’s the land route down to us? Step one of their invasion?” Elizabeth sighed. “Unfortunately, that’s not all. We lost two polar satellites and Thule Air Station just before the invasion.” Thule, at the top of Greenland in the Arctic Circle, was one of the Air Force’s first strike Arctic bases. It made sense to take the base out, from a tactical perspective. But something niggled at Jack, a conviction he’d learned the hard way.
“He didn’t just destroy those satellites and Thule to cover his invasion force. Madigan is up to something.”
“My thoughts exactly.There’s a Swedish weather satellite up there, pretty ancient, but it’s been taking air density photos for the past decade. The Swedes just sent us a few.”
Jack waited, his dread rising.
“Something up there in the Kara Sea, in the Russian ice, is causing methane hydrate to leak into the atmosphere. There’s a lot of it in the ice caps, and it looks like something or someone is breaking it loose. It’s leaking out. The Swedes’ density photos show enough methane hydrate has entered the atmosphere to penetrate the jet stream. It’s starting to snake around the world.”She paused.“Some of the science guys here are saying that this could turn into an E.L.E.”
Another one of every president’s nightmares, an Extinction Level Event. “How?”
“If enough methane hydrate saturates the atmosphere and something lights it all? It could set off a thermobaric explosion that would burn through the atmosphere of the planet.Incinerate the sky.” She swallowed. “That’s what our people are saying.”
He could imagine it. Could see his advisors panicked with wide eyes and pale skin, could see the Situation Room up in arms, furious and frantic.
And here he was, sitting in the dark with stiff knees beside Ethan’s cot, buried in the Russian wilderness.
In the Russian wilderness.
“Elizabeth. I’mhere. With our friend. We’re already planning to work north. We cangoto Madigan. We can get eyes on, get intel on what’s happening up there. He has no idea we’re here. We canfinallyget the upper hand on him.”
She was silent for a moment. Static hummed on the line. A muffled voice in the background murmured, asking her when she’d step back into the Situation Room. “If you could figure out what the bastard’s up to, I could send subs from Pearl. Send them to you and your friend, along with a few surprises. Get you guys under the ice up there. Throw a wrench in whatever he’s doing.”
“Do it. We’ll get going on recon on our end. We’ll find out what he’s up to. Take the fight to him. Finally be one step ahead of this asshole.”
She breathed out, long and slow. “All right, I’ve got to get back in there. Talk to your friend. I’ll get things in motion on my end.” She cut the line.
As Jack pulled the phone away from his ear, he spotted Ethan blinking up at him, bleary-eyed and frowning.
He leaned in close, scooping up Ethan’s hand, dropping the phone and cupping his cheek. “Hey,” he breathed. “Hey, how are you, love?”
Ethan frowned again. “Is that my phone?”
“I’m borrowing it. I left mine in DC. Didn’t want anyone tracking me.”
Ethan hummed, and he pressed his bruised cheek against Jack’s palm. “I don't think this is real. I don't think you're really here."
Jack pressed a kiss to Ethan’s cracked lips. “I’m here with you, love. I'm never going to leave your side. Not ever again.”
“Jack…” Ethan rolled his head away, frowning at the dark corner. “A lot happened—”
“I know.” Jack stroked Ethan’s hair, pushing strands off his sweaty forehead. “I know. I have so much to make up for, if I even can.” Jack’s shoulders slumped. “But first, we have to try to save the world again.”
* * *
“I knowwhere we have to go. Here.” Scowling, Sergey pointed at the faded and worn map of Russia—actually, the Soviet Union—tacked up on the wall in the bunker’s main conference room. Dominating the opposite concrete wall, a chipped mural of Comrade Lenin saluting his brothers, and the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union, played out in bright colors.
Ethan leaned on Jack, squinting at the map. “You pointed at the Pacific Ocean.”
“No. Simushir Island, in the Kurils. In the Okhotsk Sea, north of Japan.”
Jack blinked. “Could you pick someplace farther, perhaps? That’s on the other side of Russia. The other side of the continent, Sergey.”
“Howsmall is this island?” Scott stepped close to the map, trying to find the speck of land.
“It is there!” Sergey snapped. “Kraternyy naval base. It is an abandoned submarine base. The island is a string of four volcanos. The northernmost one, it blew, long time ago, and left behind a flooded caldera. A perfect deep water cove inside the island. Very protected. Soviet engineers blasted an opening, turned it into a submarine base to spy on you Americans.” He wagged his finger. “See? You had no idea!”
