Read Arctic Fire for Free Online Page B

out.
    “So you don’t have to pay me? Just so you can save eighty grand?”
    “That was a lot of traps we lost,” Duke mumbled in a hollow voice. “And eighty grand’s a lot of money.”
    Troy’s eyes flashed back and forth between the two men, searching for compassion from one of them. But he didn’t find it. “This is how you thank me for saving Speed Trap’s life?”
    “It’s a raw deal,” Sage agreed.
    “A raw deal?”
    “Yup.”
    “That’s all you can say?”
    “Yup.”
    “Over eighty grand. That’s what this comes down to?”
    Captain Sage stared steadily into Troy’s eyes for several moments. Then he shook his head slowly. “This ain’t over eighty grand,” he whispered. “You and I both know that.”
    How could Sage possibly know that? The question raced through Troy’s mind as he brought his fists up.
    Then it hit him. There’d been a sly wolf hiding inside that suit of sheep’s clothing after all. The man hanging on the fence in Nuevo Laredo had rolled over on him. The man had said all the right things when they’d met, but he’d been lying the whole time.
    Red Fox One was behind this execution.



CHAPTER 7

    J ACK SAT at the table in Bill and Cheryl’s kitchen, thinking about what had happened in the plane as he gazed at his laptop and then at a tall glass of red wine standing beside it. He was going to spend the night here. His cramped apartment was another half hour away, and he didn’t feel like driving after what had happened.
    The fact that Bill had turned around and picked him up had been surprising. Shocking, really. They hadn’t said a word to each other all the way home. But getting the ride had been a lot better than hiking all the way back to the mansion to get his car.
    As he glanced out the wide bay window and into the darkness, he heard someone coming down the long hallway toward the kitchen.
    “Hello, Jack.”
    “Hi, Cheryl.” He stood up and gave her a kiss on the cheek as she passed him to get a glass of wine for herself. “What are youdoing still up?” He eased back into his chair, relieved that it was Cheryl and not Bill.
    She was tall, slim, blonde, and elegant. She was fifty-eight but looked ten years younger.
    “I couldn’t sleep.” She ran her fingers through his dark hair lovingly as she sat down beside him with her wine. “So what happened? Why did I have to make Bill turn around and get you?”
    Of course, Jack realized. They must have spoken after Bill roared away from the small airport, and she’d shamed him into going back. She was the only one in the world who could.
    “I chickened out,” he admitted. He wasn’t proud of it, but he wasn’t going to lie. “But damn it, I hate heights and I’m not qualified to solo, especially at night.”
    “Bill had you jumping out of that plane
by yourself
?” she asked incredulously. “At night?”
    He didn’t want to be that whining kid. He’d never accepted pity, and he never would. “It’s done,” he said quietly. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
    She gazed at him for a few moments as she sipped her wine, and then she gestured at the laptop’s screen. “Anything interesting?”
    Jack pointed at the article he’d been reading on the
New York Times
website. “We blew away some mountain town in Afghanistan yesterday that was supposed to be a terrorist base.” He’d seen a quick story about it yesterday afternoon on Yahoo!, but the
Times
article had more details. “We blasted the place to hell with cruise missiles, but it turns out all we did was kill a bunch of innocent civilians. No terrorists.”
    “You got a problem with that, Jack?”
    Jack and Cheryl glanced up in surprise as Bill walked into the kitchen in his precise military stride. Neither of them had heard him coming down the long hallway.
    “Yeah, I do,” Jack answered, impressed as always by how quietly Bill could move despite his size. “A few of them, actually.”
    “Now, boys,” Cheryl murmured uneasily.
    “Like