He sauntered to a sports bar and ordered a Miller Lite. When his phone chimed, he snatched it from his pocket in hopes of learning his fate, but the caller identification surprised him with his brother’s name.
“Nick?” he asked.
“Hello, Jake.”
“How’d you know I’d be available?”
“It just felt like the right time to call you.”
Jake lifted the phone and scanned his call log. This call marked Nick’s first attempt at contact since he had left Michigan. He returned the phone to his ear.
“Jake?”
“Yeah, sorry,” Jake said. “I was just checking something. Where do you think I am?”
“Far away, but closer to home. I’ve felt you moving around a lot.”
“Well, damn, you’re good,” Jake said. “You caught me. I’m on dry land.”
“But you’re not coming home now, are you?”
Jake extended the phone again and checked the time. He wanted Renard to call.
“I don’t know. You won’t tell Linda I’m not on a submarine will, you?”
“No. It would only scare her. You’ve escaped a life-threatening risk — the one I felt before you left — but you’re still in danger.”
“Still in danger,” Jake said. “You know how to cheer a guy up. What the heck am I supposed to do with that?”
“You have split loyalties.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“But it matters.”
“You’re saying I should come home? I’m not sure I can. I just made a commitment.”
“To Pierre?”
“To Pierre,” Jake said.
“Part of you wants to come home to Linda, but someone far away needs you. I think it’s him.”
A waitress poured a Miller Lite into a clear mug, and Jake forced a smile.
“Let’s say Pierre needs me,” he said. “Don’t I owe him? I mean, if it weren’t for him, I’d be doing God knows what in some dismal failed life. Thanks to him, I’ve got tons of cash, I live adventures most people couldn’t dream of, and I get to make a difference in the world. Why shouldn’t I be his servant? It’s selfish of me to think otherwise.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
“Fuck you.”
Jake bowed his head.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean that.”
“I know you didn’t.”
“What are you getting at?” Jake asked.
“I didn’t mean split loyalties to people. I meant split loyalties to principles. I meant you’re torn between life and death.”
“Well, shit, Nick. Isn’t everybody? You’re slipping into useless metaphysical mode again.”
“No, I’m being specific. It hit me after your latest danger slipped into your past. You think you’re free and clear of your anger, your hatred, and your vengeance, but you’re not. You still have deep, unresolved wounds, and it’s driving you to kill.”
Jake reflected on the malice inflicted upon him when a scared man, in an attempt to protect his career, infected him with HIV after an accident on an American naval submarine. The bottle of antiretroviral pills rattled in his pocket as he shifted his weight over the bar stool.
“Yeah,” he said. “So what? I’ve got a right to be angry. I deal with it.”
“I don’t think you deal with it. I believe that you distract yourself from it by killing, and you justify the killing by labeling your victims as an unjust enemy.”
“Come on, Nick! I took down a guy that was going to launch a nuclear bomb, I’ve taken down Chinese submarines that were out to kill Taiwanese sailors, and I didn’t even kill the guy who wanted to cripple every electrical device in America! I don’t see what’s wrong with any of this!”
“You keep seeking out situations that let you vent your anger. I’m afraid that your anger will backfire and get you killed.”
“No,” Jake said. “I’ve been through that. When it comes to pulling the trigger, I get real calm, real quick.”
“I’m not concerned about your demeanor when in combat. I’m concerned that you’ll let anger and bloodlust push you into combat when killing should be far from your mind.”
Jake heard a beep and moved the phone to his face.
“Hold on Nick. I need to take another call.”
Jake switched to the incoming call from Renard.
“Pierre?”
“Yes, my friend. How are you?”
“That depends on what you’re about to say.”
“I have an opportunity for you that promises to be—”
“I’m in,” Jake said. “There’s a plane leaving for Tokyo in two hours I can still make.”
“I haven’t even finished stating my case.”
Jake guzzled half his beer and plopped the glass on the counter.
“Do you need me?”
“This is a serendipitous opportunity, but it incurs uncertainty. I require a level of expertise, intuition, and delicacy that few men possess. You are the only one who is capable and familiar with the team and assets.”
“No sales pitch needed, Pierre. Do you need me?”
“Yes.”
“Then let me get to Tokyo,” Jake said. “I’ll trust you to get me transportation from there to wherever I need to go, and I’ll study whatever material you send me.”
“So be it, my friend. I appreciate your support.”
Jake wiggled his thumb across the capacitive touchscreen and pushed the phone against his cheek.
“Nick?”
“Yes. I’m here.”
“You know what you were saying about the killing? Did you consider that I need to help Pierre out of selflessness? Maybe I need to appreciate what he’s done for me despite the danger.”
“I’m concerned that you’re going too far.”
“Too far or not,” Jake said, “I’m off to kill again.”
Jake remembered taking a sleeping pill and a shot of whiskey before reclining into a deep sleep in a first class chair. When he deplaned in Tokyo, a uniformed Japanese colonel greeted him in flawless English and escorted him to a military jet.
As Jake’s solitary companion in the cabin, the colonel let him fall in and out of sleep. After a nasty bump in turbulence, he asked the man where he’d learned English.
“The University of Washington,” he said.
“You’re a Husky,” Jake said.
“I am.”
“You’ve been ordered to not ask me questions about where I’m going or what I’m doing, haven’t you?”
“Of course. But I do know, however, that you will be taking a helicopter from Minamidaito Island to meet with a surfaced Taiwanese submarine in the Philippine Sea. I must know this to translate with our helicopter crew and the submarine crew to help you get safely aboard.”
“So, you speak Mandarin too?” Jake asked.
“I studied it while I was a Husky.”
Jake shifted in his seat and looked out the window at endless water.
“What do you think about the hydrophone array the Taiwanese have strung between your islands?”
“Like most of my compatriots, I find it to be a great shared asset. Our allies from Taiwan provide the design, monitoring, and upkeep. We merely provide the communications connections and electrical power from generators on inhabited islands. And Chinese submarines are no longer free to pass into the open ocean undetected.”
Jake said little else before landing on a tiny speck. He deplaned, and a humid afternoon breeze brought the taste of the sea. From a small team of Japanese rescue divers, a wetsuit appeared in his hands, and his translator escort asked him to don it. A radioed helmet followed, and after ambling through unmoving time, he realized he crouched in a thumping helicopter seat.
The island became a distant bright dot in glimmering darkness. His bones shaking, he extended his leg and stretched it. A crewman stood, offered him a winch harness, and helped him strap it on.