When the bottle reached him, Jake took a huge swallow. It bit the back of his throat and warmed his stomach. As he extended the bottle towards LaFontaine, the door from the diesel compartment opened, and two unexpected people appeared. Followed by a large black man in a pinstriped suit, Olivia walked towards Jake. The banter of the Frenchmen died, and Jake’s heart sank.
“Gentlemen,” Olivia said. “I present to you CIA Director Gerald Rickets. No need to play games with who’s who here. Just listen to what he has to say.”
“I know what you guys did,” Rickets said, “and it was some serious, gutsy stuff. You saved countless American lives yesterday.”
Rickets tugged at his suit lapels and cleared his throat.
“Yes?” Renard asked after blowing a cloud of smoke. “We are acutely aware of our contributions. Did you come here to thank us, or perhaps to explain why we, at least Jake and I, will rot in American federal jail cells?”
Rickets grunted.
“Cocky to the end,” he said.
“If you wish to judge me,” Renard said, “then be aware that I have only ever tried to protect your nation and its democratic allies. Do not be so quick to label me a criminal.”
Rickets’ glare hardened.
“If you’d seal your mouth, you’d realize that I’ve come here to offer a deal.”
Jake’s spirits rose.
“A deal?” Renard asked as he slipped off the main motor. “Why didn’t you say that? I live for negotiation.”
“Negotiation?” Rickets asked. “I doubt it. I think you’ll be thankful enough for what I have for you.”
Renard stepped to Rickets and extended a hand.
“Okay then,” he said. “I am Pierre Renard, and these are men loyal to me. I’m sure you know them all, by dossier at least. If you can offer each man a destiny commensurate with what they have earned, we will do whatever bidding you wish.”
Rickets accepted Renard’s hand.
“Let’s start with the easy ones,” he said. “Those guys, everyone except you and Slate, have committed no crimes and are free to go. I’ll arrange military transport for each back to Marseille, but they must travel in secrecy, starting with the moment they pop their heads outside this submarine.”
Renard glanced at his countrymen. Per Renard’s payment for their efforts, France’s five newest millionaires nodded and raised thumbs.
“Agreed,” he said.
“Much as I know you were behind the theft and loss of the Colorado, I don’t have enough evidence to make it stick,” Rickets said.
“Pity,” Renard said.
“But I can make your life hell,” he said. “I can have you watched — and that includes your family. I can turn every trip across a national border into a strip search, I can make commercial air flight nearly impossible, and I can keep your chartered flights grounded. You don’t want me as an enemy.”
Renard puffed smoke into a ventilation intake.
“What would you have me do, then?” he asked.
“I am confident there are nuclear weapons within the Hamza’s hull, and there’s one lying on the ocean bottom in American waters. The one you evaded, I mean.”
“It is all quite possible,” Renard said.
“I want you to make sure that each one finds its way to Taiwan without American intervention.”
“Dear god, man!” Renard said. “This is exactly what I had intended.”
“This is a gift,” Rickets said. “It’s the cleanest chance to arm Taiwan with nukes. Even if Beijing finds out where the weapons came from and wants to accuse Washington of helping Taiwan salvage the warheads, they’d have a tough time explaining how they wound up here in the first place.”
“Indeed,” Renard said. “Purchasing Russian warheads and reselling them to a Pakistani rogue submarine for an attack against America. I see your logic. I like it.”
Jake felt that his fate was the next subject of conversation. He glanced at Olivia, but she cast her eyes to the deck.
“And what of Jake?” Renard asked.
“Lieutenant Jacob Slate, United States Navy,” Rickets said, “is a traitor and subject to a Court Martial.”
Jake’s spirits fell.
“However,” Rickets said, “given his service to his country yesterday, I can make a concession.”
“I’m free? I’m pardoned?” Jake asked.
“Never,” Rickets said. “There will never be a pardon for you. That would require admitting you survived in the first place. No, you instead revert back to that Jacob Savin pseudonym Renard set up for you and return to France. Your life becomes that living hell Renard gets if he doesn’t cooperate. I mean you don’t so much as go to the Swiss border and inhale their air without one of my agents knowing about it.”
A fantastic joy overcame Jake.
I am free enough, he thought.
“Consider it witness protection under parole, where you’re confined to France indefinitely. You’ll be checking in with one of my men every day until I get tired hearing from you. And believe me, that will be decades.”
“Can I ever return to the states?” Jake asked.
“We’ll talk about it when you’re old enough that no one would recognize you. Don’t push for more. I always have the option of arranging a top-secret Court Martial. You better just agree while I’m in a good mood.”
Renard glared at Jake, his expression demanding him to shut up.
“I would hate to see you in a bad mood,” Renard said. “We accept your terms, all around. What is the protocol?”
“All of you,” Rickets said. “You dress up like you did when you made that phone call on the bridge yesterday.”
“You saw that?” Renard asked. “Impressive.”
“Yeah. Candid camera. Don’t ask. Anyway, you guys dress up so that you can’t be recognized, and at nine o’clock tonight, you all board a coast guard vessel that’ll be mating with the Hai Lang. From there to the coast guard base, to a waiting van, then to a C-130. This will be serious cloak and dagger stuff, but as long as you guys get out of here without the media asking about the white guys who popped out of the Taiwanese submarine, we have a deal.”
Renard blew another cloud into the ventilation.
“And the weapons?” he asked. “You would have Taiwanese divers clear out the vessel first under the guise of looking for survivors. When they stumble upon the nuclear weapons and confirm their presence, then what?”
“That’s for you to coach Commander Ye about before your departure,” Rickets said. “But I will grant you this. The first place the rescue submersible is going to stop is over that weapon you evaded. It sank itself in American waters, but the world doesn’t need to know that. It’ll be the first weapon returned to this submarine, and you officially found it on the Hamza in international waters.”
“Then you’ll refuel the Hai Lang?” Renard asked.
“Yes,” Rickets said. “Admiral Jenkins will bend over backwards to get your Taiwanese buddies out of here. Your comrades will have food, fuel, whatever they want before they leave, just as long as they leave with the Hamza’s nuclear weapons.”
Jake felt a rush of emotions, and he realized that with his freedom resolved, they highlighted his loneliness.
“What about her?” he asked.
“She has a bright future in the CIA,” Rickets said. “She has decided to return. But no more high-risk stuff for a while. She’s been through enough on her last two field assignments, and she did some great work figuring out where Hayat was taking the Hamza. She’ll make a fantastic analyst.”
Olivia raised her eyes.
“Look, Jake,” she said. “I—”
Jake hopped off the main motor and went to her. He extended a hand, and she accepted it.