“Start making sense, Kat,” Jack said sternly.
“Okay. Okay. So, when I was in high school Cypherus put out a reward for anyone who could hack a specific Unix security measure. It was a ton of money, and I was getting really good at hacking.
“Anyhow, after months of nothing, I finally cracked it! I won the money and got a huge amount of street cred, which launched my career.”
Jack smiled and said, “That’s amazing, Kat. I didn’t realize that you had prior experience with Cypherus. What’d you do with the money?”
Kat sighed and said, “My father stole it all from me.”
Jack’s expression grew dark.
“What the hell is wrong with that asshole?”
“Oh, where do I start?”
She grimaced and pushed the bitter thoughts of her family out of her life.
“Anyhow,” Kat continued. “I’m trying to get to the point of this whole thing. When I was poking around at this armor’s operating system, I realized it’s the same damned system that I had worked on ten years ago.”
“Holy shit,” Jack said.
“Damn!” Nathan exclaimed.
“Not only that,” Kat said, grinning from ear to ear. “They never fixed the security flaw.”
“Oh, fuck me,” Jack said. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
Kat nodded and said, “It means I can do whatever I want to the programing of these things, and if they’re networked together, then I might be able to do it to all of them.”
“Work on that now,” Jack said, glancing at Nathan. “I need to call this in. This shit is big. What are the fucking odds that the only person who could hack into these things is with us right now?”
“I have no idea, but this is about the best chance we have right now,” Nathan agreed.
“Let me tinker around some more,” Kat said. “I still have that script that I used to break into their system. I’ll have to run that first, and then I can see what else I can do.”
“How much time are we talking here?” Nathan asked.
“Five minutes for the script to run, but a lot more time for me to figure out what’s going on when I get to the rest of the program. Hopefully, it won’t be too complicated or in a programming language I’m not familiar with.”
“Okay, you’ve got an hour before Logan arrives with his team,” Jack said. “I’m going to call this in.”
Nathan nodded and said, “If she can do what she says, then we might actually be able to win this one.”
“Are these Conglomerate guys that dangerous?” Jack asked.
“Yes.”
✽ ✽ ✽
The Commander stared at Orson Carr and had to laugh. The man was pathetic in every way. Everything he did was sloppy, from the way he set up his security to where and how he stored his data. The Commander already had someone transfer the information from Carr’s private server to an external hard drive.
The Conglomerate’s mission was almost done. Once they had finished, the last part was clean up, which meant leveling the place and erasing anything or any person connected to this island. The charges were being set at this moment.
He walked up to Carr who kept fading in and out of consciousness. Slapping the man across the face, Carr startled and sat up from his slumped position.
“Time to wake up,” the Commander said.
Carr looked confused for a moment while he tried to get his bearings. Then, a look of fear crossed his face when he realized that he was indeed still being tortured for information.
Of course, the Commander was about to make things interesting.
“I’m ready,” he said into his mic.
The Commander shook his head as he looked back to Carr. He was weak; the Commander was not. In fact, the Commander had stopped using his real name long ago. His identity was wrapped up completely with the Conglomerate, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. He understood the cause, and it was important to him.
A few moments later, two of his men hustled the group of hostages in. There were three of them, plus Sasha, the very capable woman who had staked out the place before they had arrived. She was an excellent asset for the Conglomerate, and her connections to the mercenary group, Eclipse, made her an easy “in” for certain missions.
The Commander turned toward Carr and said, “I want company passwords, two-factor authentication information, and every location of anything related to the Conglomerate, or I’m going to start shooting.”
Carr’s face visibly paled. He had reason to be scared.
“I told you,” he said frantically. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
He spent the next ten minutes blabbing about anything and everything while the hostages looked on. The Commander recorded it all with his suit, although there would be people in the Conglomerate who would tear Carr’s company a part to make sure they had gotten everything.
Once Carr was done, he looked at the hostages nervously and said, “I’ve given you everything. Let them go. Let my wife go.”
The Commander smiled, though he knew no one could see him. He found it amusing that Carr thought that any of them were getting out alive.
No, the Commander corrected himself.
One person could leave, but that depended on how Peter Knowles responded to this next part.
“Come here, Mr. Knowles,” the Commander said in his helmet’s mechanicalized voice.
Knowles wavered for a moment until one of the Commander’s men shoved him forward.
“I don’t know what you want,” he said in accented English, “but I don’t have it.”
“It’s not what you have but what you can provide,” the Commander said. “The Conglomerate is extending you an offer of employment. If you work for us, using your connections in the region to further our advancement, you can get off this island alive and well.”
The Commander watched as Knowles began to tremble.
Finally, the guy said, “Even if I agreed, I doubt you’ll let me live.”
“Not true,” the Commander told him, looking over at Sasha. “Ms. Parker, would you like to walk out of here alive?”
As far as the hostages knew, she was still an innocent victim. She was an excellent actress.
“Yes,” she said, acting in a hesitant manner.
“Kill Mr. Westfield there, and you can go free. Just note that your life will belong to the Conglomerate from this time being.”
He pulled out his sidearm and offered it to her. Even if she wasn’t acting, there wasn’t much damage she could do with it versus the armor. Plus, the Commander had two other men here.
Sasha looked at him and then looked at the gun. Then, she took the gun.
Westfield looked at her in horror as she turned to him, gun aimed.
“No!” He shouted. “You can’t do this!”
“Sorry,” she said, sounding apologetic.
That was another act, the Commander assumed. She didn’t give a shit about him.
“No!” Westfield exclaimed, ultimately begging for his life. “Wait, wait, wait. Let’s not…”
BAM.
Westfield staggered back and then fell. Veronica Carr screamed. Peter Knowles stared, eyes wide with fear. The Commander had to admit that Sasha’s performance was on point. Now, it was time to follow through on his end.
“You may go, Ms. Parker,” the Commander said. “I’ll have one of my men escort you out. If I can have my sidearm back, please?”
She handed it back to him and left with one of his men without a word.
Good job, the Commander thought.
This should be much easier to convince Knowles to join the Conglomerate this way.
Veronica whimpered and hugged herself. She had no idea that she could be much more scared that she was right now. Mrs. Carr was next.
“What’ll it be?” He asked Knowles who stood there in shock. “You can leave right now if you prove your loyalty to the Conglomerate. Here.”
He held out his sidearm to Knowles. There was hesitati
on at first, but Knowles finally took the gun.
“I’ll do whatever I need to get out of here,” he said firmly.
“Good,” the Commander said. “Now, please kill Mrs. Carr.”
Veronica Carr shrieked, backing up to the wall, her knees buckling.
“No!” Orson Carr said, breaking his abnormal silence.
It was interesting that he hadn’t spoken a word when Westfield had been killed. It was either self-preservation, or Carr felt that his employee was expendable. Apparently, he felt differently for his wife.
“Sorry,” Knowles said, raising the gun.
Before he could fire, the door to the office burst open and one of his men came in with a limping man, shirtless with a sutured wound on his shoulder.
“Report!” The Commander said sternly.
“X59 reporting. I have Jack Hunter. How do we proceed?”
Chapter 21
One Hour Ago
The Wind Dancer glided smoothly through the water toward Faraway Cay. It was going toward the north part of the island, which was farthest away from the mansion. Hopefully, the Gray Tower guys wouldn’t be seen. Nathan had noted that the goal of the Conglomerate soldiers was to hold the island, not screw around with boats in the area. Logan hoped that his brother was right.
His brother.
Logan was still having a hell of a time coming to terms that Nathan was not only on the island but had been working for the Conglomerate for years. What had he been thinking?
Jack had mentioned that he had thought Nathan had been duped by them. He could understand how if Nathan had been kept out of the loop of the implications behind the missions. Hell, the kid had probably needed something like that to keep him together.
No, not kid, Logan reminded himself.
Nathan was a grown-ass man now, fully capable of handling himself. From what Jack had said, Nathan was extremely good at what he did. Logan had to admit that there was a certain sense of pride that he felt for his brother. Nathan may have been misguided, but at least he had gotten himself off the streets.
Logan just wondered why his brother had never made himself known. Perhaps because he was a mercenary for the Conglomerate?
Once the boat had gotten to its destination, Logan and his team piled in a small, inflatable motor boat with a bunch of gear. The Wind Dancer would then move around to the other side of the island where Mercer and Ryan would begin their assault.
Hopefully, everything would go smoothly. Logan wasn’t worried about the mission itself. He had learned long ago to push the nerves away. However, he was more concerned about seeing Nathan again. It had been too long.
Logan and his team climbed aboard the boat, and silently made their way to the island. It was easy to spot Jack’s location as it was under the highest point on the island—a tall rock formation that jutted out against the sea.
Once they got closer, Logan could see three figures. Two were against the shelter of the rocks. The other was standing guard in full combat gear, the prototype armor that Bryant had created.
Nathan.
Logan’s gut twisted a bit as the boat made landfall. His brother waved the team over like this wasn’t a big deal. Maybe it wasn’t for him? However, Logan was anxious as hell to see his brother alive and well.
When Logan and his team got off the boat, Nathan walked up to them and stared directly at Logan. He was definitely Nathan, though he had changed so much. His black hair was incredibly short, the same length of a slight beard that could just be a long five o’clock shadow. Nathan’s eyes were piercing blue. His face had matured and filled out.
“Hey,” Nate said softly, his posture rigid.
“Hey,” Logan replied.
They stood there for a few more moments before Nate stepped toward him and embraced him in a firm hug.
“Damn, it’s good to see you,” Nate told him.
“Likewise.”
The embrace ended, and the mood seemed to shift straight to business.
Logan nodded at Jack and Kat and said, “Well, it looks like it’s my turn to save your ass.”
Jack waved to him nonchalantly.
“This rodeo isn’t over yet, my friend.”
“True,” Logan admitted.
The plan was crazy, but these Conglomerate soldiers had to be stopped. Gray Tower had to do something about hostages inside. It was their obligation.
“Are you doing alright?” Logan asked seriously.
“I’ll be doing better when we get off this fucking island,” Jack muttered.
Logan was relieved to hear Jack’s normal banter. He may have gotten shot, but it seemed like his mind was in the right place.
Then, Logan looked at Kat and frowned. She was sitting next to Jack, laptop sitting precariously on her lap. The computer was connected to Nate’s helmet. The last Logan had heard was that she had gotten into programing that worked all the technology in the armor.
For the moment, though, Logan wasn’t concerned about her progress. He was eying the way she was up against Jack. It was pretty obvious what was going on: Jack and Kat were an item now.
Interesting.
This didn’t look like some fling either. They looked way too comfortable with each other to have just had a fling. Logan made a note to razz Jack about it when this whole ordeal was finished.
“Are you alright, Kat?” Logan asked, concerned about her more than Jack.
Although she had spent a little bit of time training, she had just been through some tough shit this last twelve hours or so.
Kat barely looked up from her laptop when she said, “I’m okay, just trying to get this one last thing.”
“What’s the progress on the armor?” Logan asked.
She paused for a moment and smiled triumphantly.
“I knew it! The armor is networked together!”
“So, what does that give us?” He asked.
“Everything.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Jack looked at Nathan and asked, “Are we ready to go?”
Nathan nodded.
“Good. You might have to help me a bit, though. This trek back to the house is going to be a little bitch.”
Each of them had an earpiece with microphone that was invisible unless you were giving an ear exam. They’d be notified when everything was in place for the assault.
Jack and Nathan were about to head off to Carr’s mansion. This whole thing was about to go down, though Jack was feeling a hell of a lot more positive now that Kat had found out how to hack all the suits.
Kat was now on her way to the boat. They had had a brief but meaningful goodbye. Logan looked on as Jack had kissed her as if he’d never see her again. Hell, that may be true if things went south. However, he wanted that one last kiss. Damn it if he didn’t love her.
That was a stunning realization that blew Jack’s mind. How had this happened? He was in love with the cute IT girl he used to tease incessantly.
Of course, Logan was going to give him hell for this when they got back. That was fine. It had been inevitable ever since he had laid a hand on Kat. Jack had always known that if he did that, he would never want to stop.
They began walking back to the mansion in silence. Nathan’s helmet was back on, and Jack hoped that this little ruse would work. He had been reassured that this Commander guy would want to interrogate him first instead of just shooting him on sight.
The walk fucking sucked. Jack may have underestimated his condition, but he was lucky that he was pumped up on adrenaline. His shoulder throbbed with pain which radiated down his right arm. The whole area felt stiff, and even slight movements made him cringe in pain. He was just hoping that he didn’t pass out before this mission was over.
When they reached Carr’s mansion, they were able to get up to one of the doors before being approached by another Conglomerate soldier. Jack couldn’t hear what the hell they were saying since they had a private comm system, but the guy let them through without much issue.
Nathan
nudged him in with the barrel of his rifle. Jack assumed that the act had started now, and they’d have to be on point with this ruse. A lot was riding on this.
They walked down a few hallways, Jack still in a hell of a lot of pain. It was getting worse the more he walked. He cringed and tried to push it out of his mind, but his body was starting to rebel.
Feeling light-headed, he stumbled. Nathan grabbed him with his non-dominant hand, trying to keep Jack and his rifle steady.
“Are you okay?” Nathan asked.
“No,” Jack admitted. “But it doesn’t look like I have a choice except to keep moving on.”
“Here,” Nathan offered.
He grabbed Jack’s good side and helped him down the hallways in a horrendously painful procession.
“They’re all in Carr’s office,” Nathan said, pointing to a door. “Are you ready?”
“About as ready as I’m going to be. Let’s do this.”
Nathan opened the door to the office, and they headed in.
✽ ✽ ✽
Kat sat aboard the Wind Dancer, her laptop in place. She had a headset on. It was just business as usual—or so she told herself. This obviously wasn’t the first time she had helped Jack on a mission, but this seemed so different. He was hurt, and there was some serious danger here.
There was also the fact that she was in love with him.
Dang it. Did she just think that?
Yeah, but is it true? She asked herself. Yes.
She had never been in love before, and she certainly didn’t think that it would ever be Jack Hunter of all people. Still, it was hard not to think about a life together. She realized that was the thing she wanted the most right now. Well, that and everyone from Gray Tower getting out safely.
A pit in her stomach formed as the Wind Dancer slowly approached Faraway Cay’s dock. Mercer and Ryan’s team were ready to leave as soon as they could jump off the boat to the dock. The captain—a man named Luke Mercado—would stay with her on the boat, doubling as her bodyguard.
She eyed Lucas and had to laugh. Was it just her, or did Gray Tower employ only gorgeous men for their missions?
That wasn’t quite true. There were some beautiful women who also did field work as well as all the behind the scenes ladies. Kat loved being a part of that group.
Troubled Paradise (Gray Tower Book 2) Page 18