Page 77 of Enemy Within
“How fuckingdareyou!” Welby twisted Levi’s arm, hard. Levi tried to kick Welby’s legs out behind him. Welby slammed him into the wall again. “Every time I close my eyes, all I can see is the president’s broken body.Tell me he’s alive!” Welby’s voice rose, bellowing. “Tell me he’s with Ethan, and they’re still fighting Madigan.Tell me!” He shuddered, and then dragged in a ragged breath. “Tell me we’re on the same side,” he breathed.
Levi thrashed and then went limp, sagging against the wall with a sigh. He rolled his forehead against the concrete and groaned. “Luke…” he groaned, using Welby’s first name. “Jesus Christ, I want to trust you. I fucking do. I hate this. I hate not trusting anyone.”
“Why don’t you trust us, Levi? What’s going on?” He kept Levi pinned.
“There’s a mole,” Levi whispered. “Another one. Someone in the White House. Someone close to the president. Pictures from Evgeni Konnikov’s funeral ended up in the president’s duffel with Madigan’s signature on them. Pictures of Ethan and Spiers were at Madigan’s base, where Leslie was made. There’s someone on the inside.” He glared over his shoulder, looking Welby dead in the eyes. “Is it you?”
Welby blinked. His heart hammered. “No. It’s not me.”
Levi breathed hard, his nostrils flaring. “I think it’s an agent. Someone with our level of clearance.”
“It’snotme.” Welby let Levi go and backed away. “Levi, it’s not me.”
Levi turned and leaned against the wall. Defeat poured off him in waves. He stared at Welby, eyes wide. “I want to believe you.”
“Then do.” Welby spread his hands and held them up as if surrendering. “Trust me, Levi. I want to help the president and Ethan. I want to bring them home. Why are they in Russia?”
Levi doubled over, blowing out as he braced his hands on his knees. “Fuck, how do you know where they are?”
“Pete and I have been trying to track everything down. Lieutenant Cooper and his team. Ethan, and how he found out about Leslie. Where Scott went after the blast. They’re all together, aren’t they?”
Levi leaned back against the wall, thunking his head against the cold concrete. “They will be soon. Luke, who else knows? Who else knows what’s going on?”
“I don’t think we do know what’s going on. But it’s just us. Pete, me, Jason, and Jennifer.”
Exhaling, Levi closed his eyes. “At least you didn’t tell another agent.”
“You really think another agent has turned? Now? After everything?”
“I’m fucking terrified of it.” Levi held Welby’s gaze, and Welby saw the naked fear in Levi’s eyes. Raw, aching worry, the kind that Welby lived with. The kind that pitted his bones and turned his guts to barbed wire tied in knots.
“Trust me, Levi.” Welby dropped his hands. He looked at Levi, really looked at the younger man. Levi looked destroyed. Torn apart and put back together wrong. Sunken, bloodshot eyes, and deep bags on his face. His shoulders, normally ramrod straight, were slack, and he leaned forward like a someone had sliced the strings holding him up. Everyone knew when Ethan had put Levi on his team guarding President Spiers that Levi was on the fast track. Everyone knew Levi would inherit the detail from Ethan, after Ethan’s fifteen-to-twenty glorious years running it.
How plans changed. Levi was supposed to have another fifteen plus years before he had to command the detail, the White House Secret Service. And he was supposed to trust his people, not go it alone.
“I want to trust you,” Levi breathed. “Your background came back clean. Twice.”
“We’re on the same side. Let me help you.”
Levi swallowed, and then slowly, with halting, grinding words, told him everything. Jack’s plan to stay dead to fool Madigan, and his and Scott’s spine-meltingly terrifying journey to smuggle themselves into Russia. Madigan’s plot in the Arctic. Jack, Ethan, and Scott joining Sergey Puchkov’s insurgency and racing across Russia to meet with American subs. And Jack’s plan to head to the Arctic himself, with Ethan’s team and a pair of subs, and take Madigan on.
When he finished, Welby couldn’t breathe. He turned away, pacing, and tried not to faint. Tried to stop the world from spinning off its axis. “Fucking hell,” he finally whispered.
“You see?” Levi laughed bitterly. “None of that can get out. Fuckingnoneof it. Theirlivesdepend on it. And everyone else’s, too. They’re trying to sneak in and stop Madigan, when even a SEAL team failed, Luke. And the fucked-up thing is? This could be our only hope. A president everyone thinks is dead, a Russian insurgency, and Ethan and Scott.”
“I’ll take those odds.” Welby turned and faced Levi, his hand on his hips. “I’ve served with Ethan and Scott for over a decade. I know what they can do. I’ll put my money on them, every time.”
Levi looked away. Welby watched him swallow hard. “What is it?”
Closing his eyes, Levi dropped his head. “Scott,” he said softly. “There’s no background check on him. I can’t find it. Everyone else has one… except him.”
31
Bering Sea
THEY SPENT THEIR FIRST day onboardHonolulurunning through familiarization briefings and exercises, learning emergency procedures for fires on board, explosions, and man overboard situations. Jack’s head spun, too much information coming at him too fast.
The executive officer and the navigation officers gave up their two cabins, hot racking with other officers while Jack, Ethan, Sergey, and Sasha were onboard. Jack and Ethan moved into the executive officer’s cabin, and Sergey and Sasha moved into the other. Scott volunteered to hot rack with the chiefs in the Goat Locker, sharing their bunk when they were on duty and getting his butt out of it when they were off. In the forward compartment, hammocks had been pulled out in anticipation for Adam’s team in the torpedo room, the same place SEALs crashed when they were hitching a ride on board a submarine. It was going to be a tight fit, with everyone crammed inside.
