Page 149 of Enemy of My Enemy
He stared at Welby, Leslie’s screams bouncing off the walls of the White House. “Wha— How—” He couldn’t think, couldn’t process what he was seeing.
“Irwin needs to see you.Now. Let’s go, Mr. President.”
* * *
Jack foundhis anger on the way down to the parking garage. He pulled away from Welby’s gentle handling, fury crowding his mind.
Agents were waiting at his SUV, the door already open for him. Inside, Irwin was talking on the phone and barking out orders. “Get her into containment as soon as she arrives. I want an interrogator in there within the hour. Yes, into the tank. Get Flynn. He’s the best we have stateside.” Irwin glanced at Jack, his eyes dark. “The president just arrived. We’re leaving now.”
The SUV door slammed. “What the fuck is going on, Lawrence?”
Irwin rested his cell on his knee, twisting it just so until the edges were parallel to his leg. He pressed lips together, exhaling through his nose. “Jack…” He blinked, long and slow. “Jack, I’m sorry, and I didn’t want to be right. But I was.” A moment, as the SUV peeled out of the White House underground garage.
Irwin took a deep breath. “She’snotyour wife, Jack. She’s a plant. Your wife died sixteen years ago, and she was a hero. Whatever this is, whoever she is, this isnotyour wife. She’s been sent by Madigan.”
He stared at Irwin, static filling his mind, blocking out everything else. His vision tunneled, darkening until all he saw was Irwin’s face, watching him with too much sympathy. “What?”
“She’s not your wife,” Irwin repeated. “She’s been sent here by Madigan. And we need to find out why.”
“Her blood tests came back. She’s Leslie.” Hysteria clung to Jack, colored his words. “She’sLeslie! She knows everything Leslie knows! We’ve talked about the past, about our marriage, for Christ’s sake!”
“She’s a clone.”
Jack laughed, helpless and hysterical. “A clone?” He glanced out the window, watching as Washington whipped by. Wherever they were going, they were going fast. “Aclone? Are you kidding me?”
“We, and the other signatories to the treaty banning human cloning, use cloning procedures only for medical purposes. Cloned organs. Replacement body parts. We can grow tissues and save lives. Cure diseases that killed so many not that long ago. It’s a modern miracle. But, not everyone signed the treaty, Jack. Human cloning has been sought after as a weapon for years. DARPA did threat analyses onexactlythis scenario six years ago. Ordered by guess who?”
Jack’s mind screamed, the world tilting off its axis. “So, what, did they put her together like a puzzle? Clone all her organs and taped her together? She’s not a paper doll, Lawrence!” Jack laughed again, hysterical, losing his grip on reality. “Are you telling me her memories are cloned, too?”
“The memories were implanted. Cognitive implantation. A form of brainwashing, but in this case, the original mind is a blank.” He sighed. “For her, they used anything they could scrape from public sources. Think about it. How much of her life, her memory, is out there online? Interviews you’ve done? Retrospectives? The deceased wife of the president was a hot topic during your campaign.”
Jack’s eyes slid closed. Doubt crept in, lingering in the shadows. I told that story about the burned chicken at least a hundred times over the years.He chewed on his top lip. “A clone?” He shook his head. “How do you know? How did you find out?”
“I sent Ethan to track down anything he could about her story. Make sure what she said was true. He and I both share a desire to see you safe and protected, Mr. President.”
“Ethan?” Jack leaned forward. “Ethanfound this out?”
“Ethan almost died bringing this back to us.”
His heart clenched. “Is he—”
“He got out of there. Called it in. The first words out of his mouth were asking if you were all right.”
Jack stared down at the floorboards, his hands clenching until his fingernails pierced his skin.Ethan.His heart was too bruised, too broken to do anything more than ache. If all this was true, then what did that mean? That Madigan had dropped theoneperson into his life who could destroy everything he’d built, professionally and personally? Shatter his relationship with Ethan, right when he needed him the most? When he needed to fight back, try and right the world, but the only way he coulddothat was with Ethan by his side?
Had this been the plan all along? Separate him and Ethan? Divide them? Break them?
He’d playedrightinto Madigan’s plan. Walked right into crippling shame and endless guilt. Split from Ethan and cast himself adrift. Was on the verge of giving Leslie everything he could.
But he couldn’t juststoploving Ethan, and he’d chosen Ethan and their love over what he’d thought was his wife. That choice had been the firstrightthing he’d done in days, then and now. Even if this was his Leslie, he still wouldn’t give up Ethan. That was something true, all the way down to his bones.
She wasn’this Leslie, though. She was a plant, and he’d played right into Madigan’s schemes.Rightinto them.God, Ethan…
“Where are we going?”
“Langley. We’re going to interrogate her. Immediately.”
Ice-cold rage flashed through Jack’s veins. His head whipped up, and he stared at Irwin across the dark SUV. “I need to be there. I need to know what this sick son of a bitch planned.”
