She half tuned back into Holland’s oath. ‘—the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability—’
Europe would flare. Estonia. Moldova. Ukraine again. North Korea again. Syria again. It wouldn’t take long. It never did. Excitedly, Harry took her hand, gripped it hard. ‘Now, Steph. Watch this,’ he said. As Holland spoke, a strap ran across the bottom of the screen. A joint military operation had destroyed a missile base at Toksong in North Korea. The base was now neutralized and posed no further threat.
‘—preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.’
What was going on? Four nations, China, Japan, Russia, and the US, had moved against North Korea. Together. Stephanie could barely take it in. While Holland wanted war against Moscow, her ex-husband had been fixing up for Russian and American pilots to fly side by side with Chinese and Japanese air crew riding shotgun? Or something like that. Applause from the National Mall lifted to a crescendo smothering the voice of Prusak, still on air, trying to explain. ‘Yes… unprecedented… Swain acted with friends… And I should add—’ But the crowd drowned him out completely. Add what?
Holland began speaking. ‘Thank you. Thank you. My fellow Americans, it is a humbling experience—’
She studied Holland’s face, looking for signs that he was backing down. There were none.
‘—our enemies must be punished for violating our freedom,’ he thundered.
Sweat filmed round the hollow of Stephanie’s neck. Holland’s face was impassive, his tone strident and unforgiving, like that wounded animal that keeps lashing out. Her phone buzzed with a message from Prusak, in fact a photograph of the Oval Office desk, empty apart from two envelopes, one cream and compact addressed to Holland in Swain’s handwriting, the traditional letter from the outgoing to the incoming President. The other, held down by a glass crystal paperweight, was a larger, pristine white envelope that carried an official logo of the Justice Department.
‘What?’ messaged Stephanie.
Before Prusak responded a news strap ran under Holland speaking. President Holland subpoenaed for Grand Jury investigation on alleged breach of Logan Act.
Stephanie threw her head back, laughing. So, Swain had done it! Barely a hundred seconds in and Holland’s presidency was as good as dead.
Holland accused of deliberately escalating the Diomede crisis.
Stephanie tuned out. It was over. She cut the line to Prusak, ignored a call from Downing Street, and found herself turning to Harry. She flung her arms around his shoulders and gave him a full-on-the-mouth lovers’ kiss. What the hell! They had won!
FORTY-ONE
Rake paced the edge of the helipad of Little Diomede, taking in the rush of activity around him. Nearby, Carrie sat on a rucksack, in the shadow of a slowly turning rotor blade that changed her face from dark to light and back again as she sorted through her medical bag. Boots crunched through snow, soldiers, doctors, social workers, engineers, all deployed to mop up a war zone on American soil. Floodlamps lit the village like a stage. Noise from snowmobiles and aircraft drowned conversation, which was just as well because Rake and Carrie had tried talking and it hadn’t worked.
As soon as Rake had reported the Russian base clear, he rifled through Vitruk’s coat to find the key and unlock Carrie’s cuffs. He helped her to her feet and embraced her. He told her he loved her. Thank God! She was OK! They were safe. It was over. He talked too much and she stayed quiet. Different people. Different reactions. He wanted to hold her, carry her off like in a story. But she was stiff, holding him, then pushing him away, holding him again. Prusak, the White House Chief of Staff, called and told Rake to film Vitruk’s ID; to show the American flag, which he did with Henry. Troops arrived on a Black Hawk and hoisted a bigger one on the Russian flagpole, and the helicopter flew them all back to Little Diomede where they had medical checks and debriefs.
‘All that killing you did was needed,’ said Carrie, trying to explain, her eyes were everywhere, except on him. ‘But I don’t know if I can love you with it.’
You knew, he wanted to say. You met me like that. But he didn’t feel like justifying. Not to Carrie. They had been together at the start and the end. In between, they went through their own horrors, and ejecting horror takes time.
That was how they ended up, him pacing, her sitting floodlit under roaring aircraft engines, Carrie to Brooklyn, Rake staying on the island because the army needed him.
She wore a new dark green army jacket, hair tufting out of the hood. Her eyes carried a long-distance stare. Her mouth kept shaping itself as if she were about to speak, shout something to him above the noise. But he heard nothing, and his imagination may have been willing it, playing tricks. He wanted to shout out to her, but what to say. No point yelling for something that no longer exists. She was a Brooklyn East Coast liberal, he an Eskimo soldier from the Diomede. They did hostile places well together, but only a crazy person would imagine the kids and white picket fence thing could ever work. He didn’t know how to keep Carrie, didn’t know what would happen if he lost her. Rake had never been so afraid.
He heard Timo’s voice. ‘Uncle Rake, Uncle Rake, they need you.’ Timo, the kid who almost got them all killed, ran up, panting with excitement, burning energy, wearing the same loose thin anorak. Carrie stood up, animated, drawing on the boy’s energy. She held both his hands. ‘How are you, Timo? Are you feeling better?’ She lifted the hood of his jacket to feel his forehead.
‘We all think you’re great, Dr Walker.’ Timo’s voice quivered.
‘Your uncle is great, too,’ Carrie glanced at Rake. Warmth flashed through her eyes, then vanished.
The pilot walked across. ‘We’re good to go, Dr Walker.’
Rake went to help with her rucksack, but Carrie was faster and picked it up herself. She got into the helicopter, buckled up, and put on headphones. The rotor blades powered up. Rake held Timo close against the down draught. He watched to see if Carrie would say something, just a word, even a signal. But the window was dirty and the light awkward. Maybe she did and he missed it. Then, as they took off, Carrie did touch her lip with her finger and gave a short wave.
The helicopter turned into the wind and rose in the sky, getting smaller and smaller until it became a black dot lost among the flocks of birds drawn out of the hillside by its noise. Rake wasn’t sure he had ever understood white people.
Timo led them up the hillside where they heard singing and the rhythm of seal-skin drums. Henry and Joan stood over two open coffins. The bodies of Don Ondola and Nikita Tuuq, recovered from the ice, lay side by side in the burial ground. They had fought. They were family. Only the governments of white men had separated them. Flames lit the faces of villagers as they honored their dead with hunting songs from the islands of the Diomedes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to the people of Little Diomede for their hospitality during my stay including Opik Ahkinga, Frances Ozenna, Gabriel Ozenna, Robert Soolook, Andrew Milligrock, John Ahkvaluk, Joan Kaningok and Henry Soolook who guided in our helicopter. I have borrowed names and drawn on your stoicism and bravery, but all characters are fictitious. Pilot Michael Kutyba from Erickson Helicopters dodged the weather to fly us in and out. Poloumi Basu came with me capturing the people and atmosphere of the Bering Strait and the Diomedes with her superb photography. In Nome, Jim and Bernadette Stimpfle and Sue Steinacher gave time and insight and Nancy Fiskaux and her family found accommodation even when their beautiful Angel Camp by the Sea was full up. In Anchorage, thanks to Tandy Wallack of Circumpolar Expeditions and to Colonel Patrick Carpentier and Colonel Charles Butler at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson which is responsible for protecting the US and Canadian borders and is home to the Eskimo Scouts and to Jon Gordinier for showing us around. Hugo Gurdon, Michael Barone at the Washington Examiner and others guided me through the pitfalls of a fractious transition and thanks to Dan Burton, Claire Bolderson, Bob Drogin, Matthew Felling, Craig Fleener, Claudia Milne, Cait Murphy, Larry Moffitt, Carrie Roller, Claudia Rosette, Harlan Ullman, Andrew Wilson and to the many who prefer to remain anonymous.