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SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME is a common expression. And those were the words that best expressed how Mike Jacobs felt when he woke up to see Jack Widow standing over him.
He woke up in a strange bed in a strange house. He had confusion and fear in his eyes, and Widow watched as he reached quickly for his Beretta. But Widow had moved it, not that it would’ve mattered since it was empty anyway.
Amita stepped into view and said, “Mike, calm down. It’s me.”
Jacobs said, “Amita?”
“Yes. It’s me.”
“How? Where am I?”
“You don’t remember?”
He began to sit up, and it became obvious that he had a headache. He felt like someone had shot an arrow right through his head.
Jacobs was a good-looking guy. He was short, probably 5’8” or 5’9”, but despite the fact that he was now scrawny, it looked like he had once been solidly built. Widow figured this guy must’ve taken his spycraft seriously, especially the physical side of it. He’d put in lots of hours in the gym, unlike Widow who had given up his gym days after he left the SEALs. He was lucky to have a natural muscular build. He still looked like he spent hours in the gym—a trick of genetics and constantly moving.
Jacobs said, “I remember...ditching a truck that I stole back in Tower Junction. And I got a ride to the reservation. I remember sneaking into my old house with...with...” He started to look around, slowly at first and then frantically. Then he looked panicked. “Tomas? Tomas?”
Widow said, “He’s safe.”
“What? Who?” Amita asked.
Widow said, “The boy. He’s safe.”
Jacobs calmed and said, “Okay. Good. Where is he?”
“He made it out. We got him. He’s safe in the town. With her father.”
Jacobs looked relieved and nodded.
“Why don’t you tell us what the hell is going on?”
“First, who are you? Are you with them?”
Widow said, “I’m no one. I’m just a guy passing through. A total stranger.”
He figured it was best not to mention Shepard yet. At this point, he wasn’t sure if he trusted Shepard himself.
Picking up on the same idea, Amita said, “It’s true he’s not with anyone. Mike, what’s going on?”
Jacobs sat up and said, “I have to get Tomas and get out of here. They know we’re here.”
Widow said, “Slow down. Just tell us what’s going on.”
“There’s this guy. Two years ago, he came for me. At school. I had filled out online applications everywhere. And I was rejected everywhere. But it was the CIA that called me.”
Widow slipped the G36 with the homemade strap across his back, folded his arms, and listened. Amita sat down on the bed next to Jacobs and held his hand.
Jacobs said, “This guy. Shepard. He recruited me after I interviewed and sent me to the CIA farm to learn tradecraft. After that grueling experience, I was assigned to work on his team. He insisted on me. Kept vouching for me. Like I was exceptional or something.” Jacobs turned in the bed and faced a large, two-panel window behind Widow. He said, “This guy. He’s unlike anyone you’ll ever meet. He can convince you of anything.”
Widow nodded, said, “I know. I met the guy.”
Jacobs started to turn white.
“Shepard picked me up in the next town. Asked me to look for you because his guys were getting nowhere. They were searching and harassing the locals, but no one knew anything,” Widow said. “You’re bone thin. Like a man who’s been hiding out for weeks. I’ve seen it before with fugitives. They hide out in the woods or some abandoned house and never eat. Shepard fed me this story that you were undercover and looking for a terrorist group on the reservation. Searching for a missing canister of Ebola.”
Jacobs looked confused. Then he said, “I’m thin because of the guilt. I stopped eating a while ago. Then I ran.”
Widow nodded and continued, “I never really bought into it. Not really. I believed he was CIA. I believed you were missing for some reason. He didn’t want to tell me the truth, and I accepted that, but a weaponized biochemical weapon missing on an Indian reservation? It seemed ridiculous. But he was very convincing. I figured it was something.”
Amita said, “When did you figure he was lying?”
Widow said, “I always knew it. But I didn’t know he was the bad guy in all of this until just now. Look at how white Jacobs turned when I mentioned his name.” Widow turned to Jacobs and said, “Why don’t you tell us why you’re so scared of him.”
Jacobs said, “He’s evil. Pure evil.”
“What has he done?” Amita asked.
“He really is a CIA agent—that part’s true. But he’s twisted.”
Widow said, “A lot of them are. I’ve had experience with them in the past.”
“Shepard’s in the moneymaking business and not so much the spy business,” Jacobs said, paused and then said, “The man’s a hero to the CIA because he has a great track record for acquiring information. But his methods are...” He paused again and swallowed and said, “Terrifying.”
Widow stayed quiet.
Jacobs said, “He’s in the ransom business. My first time out with him was two weeks ago. I was nervous and scared and excited. He picked me up at a Texas airport, and we drove to Fort Hood. They had this stealth helicopter, a Comanche RAH-70. It was awesome! We flew the helicopter across the Mexican border. Our mission was to gain intel from a Mexican diplomat. He had information of a pending military coup. At least that was what Shepard told me. I don’t know what’s true.”
Widow said, “The Comanche RAH-70. It’s real?”
Jacobs nodded and said, “It’s real.”
“Go on.”
“The CIA uses a carrot-and-stick approach. I thought we were going to start with the carrot. Only we went right to the stick. With Shepard, there is no carrot.”
Amita asked, “Carrot? Stick?”
Widow said, “Carrot is money. The CIA usually pays for information, and they pay a lot for it. Money is the motivator of motivators.”
“Stick?” she asked.
“The stick is something else entirely.”
She said, “Like what? Like violence?”
Widow said, “Sometimes worse.”
Jacobs looked at Amita. Then he looked down like he was ashamed of the next part of the story. He said, “We planned an abduction. Shepard’s guys. They’d all worked with him for years. I was the only one who was new. He dressed up the mission briefing like he was explaining it to a new group. But really it was just me like a show. I was the only rookie. The other guys are just as evil as he is. He explained it all like a routine CIA mission. Like it was the way things were done. He explained to me that it was like being a cop. They teach you the classroom stuff, and then you learn the street stuff.”
Jacobs stopped, looked at Amita again. Her eyes stared into his. Widow could see there was still a lot of love between them.
Widow asked, “What happened?”
Jacobs said, “They didn’t tell me what we were doing. Not completely. I swear. We kidnapped this Mexican guy’s wife and son. Oh god! I really didn’t know!”
Widow said, “Calm down. What happened next?”
“At first, nothing happened. Shepard made it all seem routine and fake. You know, like we had to be mean to them to make them think it was real. We had to make them believe it. The guys beat the wife. Nothing major at first. Like slaps. Not even that hard. But then things progressed. They started doing it right in front of the kid. It felt real to me. Shepard could see the uneasiness on my face. He kept reminding me that it was all an act. They weren’t really going to do any permanent damage. He was ransoming their lives so that the Mexican guy would share information with us. This is how he always got such great information. He used the stick. But it got worse. Much worse.
“The Mexican guy was scared for his family. Of course. So he gave up all the information Shepard wanted. He gave him the names and dates of all kinds of secret Mexican government goings-on. But Shepard wasn’t satisfied. We didn’t turn the family back over. Instead, they raped and killed the wife. It was slow at first. Like they all took turns. They wanted me to participate, but I didn’t. I refused. I stayed with the kid. I protected him from them, but when those monsters killed his mother, I knew it was over for him as well.
“Then I found out that Shepard wanted more than information. He had ransomed the kid for diamonds. A shitload of diamonds. He made me pick them up. He promised they would trade the kid for them. So I did it. I’m the only face the Mexican guy has seen. When I returned to our meeting place, they still had the kid. So I did the only thing I could. I shot one of them and took off with the kid and the diamonds.
“We stole a car and snuck across the border. I was careful all the way. I used my training to get us away from Shepard and away from Mexico. I really didn’t know what I would do with the kid, but I couldn’t just leave him. Shepard would kill him. So we drove on. Occasionally, I traded vehicles, trying to remain untraceable.
“And we got to the reservation over a week ago. Or...I don’t know. I lost time. The winter came. I kept Tomas fed, but I couldn’t eat. We found food. But my nerves kept me from eating and sleeping. Finally, I passed out, and that’s when they came for us. I killed one of them, but they killed Mr. Gareth. And I thought that they had taken Tomas, too. But you have him?”
“He’s safe. He’s with my dad,” Amita reminded him.
“Jacobs, I owe you an apology because I led Shepard right to you,” Widow said.
Jacobs nodded, said nothing.
Widow said, “We’ll deal with it.”
Jacobs asked, “How?”
Widow paused a beat, and then he said, “We’ll give him the stick.”