Troubled Paradise (Gray Tower Book 2)

by J. M. Brister

  Now, she was charged with helping her friends and colleagues. Her part was going to be the most important. She was going to wreck havoc on those darned suits.

  Kat had isolated Nathan’s armor, so he wouldn’t be affected. However, the rest of the networked armor would be messed with. It was the perfect revenge on these Conglomerate mercenaries.

  Once they pulled up to the dock, the two teams left quickly and quietly. Meanwhile, Luke stood next to her with a handgun, eying the dock wearily.

  It was showtime.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The Commander stared at the newcomers, one of his soldiers and another man who was shirtless and had a bandage on his shoulder.

  “Report!” The Commander said sternly.

  “X59 reporting. I have Jack Hunter. How do we proceed?”

  The Commander paused. This was unexpected. From what Sasha had said, it had seemed like Hunter had left the island. Regardless, this would prove quite interesting.

  “Bring him here,” the Commander said.

  X59 pushed Hunter who stumbled a bit. The Commander wondered how Hunter had gotten wounded and then stitched up, but there would be time for questions later. He wanted to see what this Gray Tower guy knew.

  The Commander pointed at Knowles who was still holding the handgun and shaking. One of his men grabbed the gun from him and back-handed the guy across the face. Then, the Commander walked over to Hunter and kicked him to the ground.

  To Hunter’s credit, he didn’t cry out, although the Commander would make him yell later. They had a few more hours before they had to blow this place. He could work Hunter over in plenty of time.

  “So, you’re Jack Hunter from Gray Tower, eh?” The Commander commented. “You don’t look like tough shit to me.”

  “I might surprise you,” Hunter growled.

  The Commander turned toward X59 and asked, “Where was he?”

  “Hiding on the far side of the island. Sorry it took so long.”

  “Why is he injured?

  “I got caught in a ricochet,” Hunter offered with a grunt.

  “You willingly offer up information?” The Commander asked, suspicion rising. “I find that highly doubtful.”

  “You’ll find that I’m full of surprises,” Hunter said with a smirk.

  Suddenly, the Commander heard gunfire coming from what sounded like outside of the Carr mansion. His back straightened when he heard it, and he switched to combat mode.

  What the hell was going on? He thought.

  He was about to bark out orders to his men when his helmet display blackened to nothing and the comms died.

  Chapter 22

  When Jack heard Kat’s voice in his earpiece that the armor was disabled, he jumped into action. In a split second, he dived for the soldier standing to the side of him, while Nathan went for the Commander.

  The mercenary Jack dived for was stunned for a moment. He didn’t even have time to start shooting. Kat had told him that she could completely turn off the armor’s helmet display. Since it was all digital, if it went down, the display would be completely black.

  The design was awesome as long as it was working properly because it would adjust to any condition, but if it wasn’t working, then the person wearing it was fucked. At the moment, all of the Conglomerate soldiers, except for Nathan, were completely blind.

  Jack and the soldier fell to the floor, Jack on top. He knew he’d be ineffective against the guy. The armor was too tough, and Jack wasn’t armed. However, there was a method to his madness.

  Now that the soldier was down, Jack was able to push the man’s rifle away so that he wasn’t on the receiving end of another bullet. He then reached for the man’s sidearm and pulled it free of its holster, his shoulder burning with pain. The soldier was grabbing at his helmet. When he finally popped it off, Jack was waiting.

  Almost straddling the guy, Jack fired two bullets from the gun in his left hand right at the soldier’s uncovered face. Blood and brain matter went everywhere, some spraying in Jack’s face.

  Screams filled the room from the hostages. Jack ignored it. If they were smart, they’d get the hell out of the room while they could.

  Gunfire boomed around him.

  Jack hoped that it was from Nathan. He turned to see the other soldier who was standing guard on the floor, tugging at his helmet. Jack assumed that Nathan had shot him, though there was a good chance, the bullets had only impacted on the guy’s suit, sending him down.

  He dove for the other soldier and repeated. For a second, he forgot about how much fucking pain he was in. He was running on pure adrenaline. Once the second guard was down, Jack’s vision got fuzzy, and he attempted to get his bearings.

  No luck.

  The room spun, and Jack prayed that he could get his shit together before he got his ass shot—again.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  When Nathan got the message that the helmets were off, he immediately jumped into action. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jack diving for one of the guards. Nate’s focus, though, was on the Commander. If he could take out the head, the rest of the group would crumble.

  Nate sprang forward, watching the Commander as he fumbled with his helmet. Rifle raised, Nate waited a few heart-pounding seconds before the Commander frantically popped off the helmet.

  The Commander was in his fifties with graying hair, cut short. Lines had formed across his forehead and around his eyes, but Nathan would definitely consider him handsome. Nate had followed the Commander’s orders for too long now, never questioning the mission. Looking around now at the chaos that the Conglomerate was causing, he knew that he had been on the wrong side the whole time.

  Nate stared down the Commander for just a few seconds before he raised his rifle and fired.

  Head shot.

  The Commander dropped backward and fell on top of Orson Carr who had been screaming the whole time, tied to a chair. Nate turned to see that Jack was in the midst of taking care of the second soldier.

  Relief washed over him as he realized their main concern was now taken care of. At least for the moment, the hostages were safe, and the Commander had been taken out. They would now have to rely on Jack’s team to take care of the rest, while they got the hostages out safely.

  Suddenly, Nate saw Jack teetering.

  Shit! Don’t pass out on me now, Nate thought as he rushed over to where Jack sat.

  “Hey, stay with me here,” Nate said, looking around at the hostages. “Somebody get Carr untied. Then, we’re getting the fuck out of here.”

  More gunfire sounded from outside.

  A darker skinned man ran over to Carr and untied him. A woman who Nate assumed was Veronica Carr stood in shock in the corner of the room. He glanced over and noticed what looked to be a civilian splayed on the ground, dead.

  “That’s Randall Wakefield,” Jack said, eyes coming back into focus. “They must have gotten to him.”

  Nate shook his head.

  How could he have been so wrong about the Conglomerate? It pissed him off to no end.

  Then, Nate heard something that made him relax just a tad.

  “Cade here,” said the comm. “We took out a ton. We’re missing three. What’s your status, Hunter?’

  “Three down here,” Jack mumbled. “We’ve got them all.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Kat listened to the comm feed and a wave of relief washed over her as she heard Jack’s voice saying, “We’ve got them all.”

  They had done it! Everyone was safe. No casualties on Gray Tower’s side, although she heard that one of the guys had been shot—though it wasn’t super serious. It was more of a graze than anything. However, she was concerned about Jack. How was he holding up? All she knew was that they had grabbed a few hostages, including Veronica and Orson Carr.

  Luke Mercado came up next to her and smiled.

  “You know that this only could have happened because of you, right?” He told her.

  Kat fidgeted uncomfortably.
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  She knew what she was doing, and she knew she was damned good. It felt weird, though, to be recognized by people. Even when she pulled off amazing things, it just was sort of expected that she could do it. Most people took for granted the amount of skill it took to pull off what she did.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Can we leave now?”

  Luke laughed.

  “As soon as we can round up all of the Gray Tower folks.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Jack’s world was spinning a bit, but he knew that if he pushed through, he could get to that damned boat and pass out for a while. Kat was there. He could pass out on Kat. That sounded good right about now.

  “Jack,” said a voice to his side. “Your sutures tore. You’re bleeding.”

  He looked down to see blood pooling on his shoulder.

  Fuck, he thought. Just get me off of this motherfucking island.

  “Can we get the fuck out of here?” He asked, feeling dizzy.

  “Yeah,” Nathan said and turned his head to the three hostages left.

  Veronica and Orson Carr stood there as well as Peter Knowles. Orson looked like shit. The Conglomerate had apparently beaten the shit out of him, which was fine by Jack. The fucker was going to pay for all the chaos he had caused. He’d get turned over to Uncle Sam for prosecution when this was all over.

  “Come with me,” Nathan told them, grabbing Jack’s good arm and pulling him up.

  Jack growled a few curse words as he got to his feet, pain radiating down his side.

  “You’re one of them!” Orson Carr exclaimed, pointing at Nathan.

  “Not anymore,” he replied. “Now, are you coming?”

  The group moved outside to the hallway. They had barely stepped out when Jack saw Logan and another Gray Tower operative jogging down the hall to meet them.

  “You look like shit,” Logan noted, giving Jack a once over. “Are these the only ones left?”

  “It sure looks like it,” Jack said. “Let’s get these guys out of here. I’m going to need you to do me a favor though.”

  “Sure,” his best friend replied with a nod.

  Jack quickly gave Logan directions who then left to run Jack’s little errand. It felt silly, but it was important to Jack that this got done.

  They started off down the hallway to one of the exits when Mercer Cade rounded a corner with a beautiful red head following him. Jack had almost forgotten about Sasha. He had figured that she had gotten off the island earlier. Apparently, that hadn’t been the case.

  “Jack!” Sasha exclaimed when she saw him. “I thought you had left! What happened to you?”

  “Got shot,” he muttered.

  “Thank goodness you’re alive!” She said. “I was so worried about you.”

  “I found this one trying to leave the building,” Mercer explained. “Another hostage?”

  “Yes,” Jack told him.

  “No,” Nathan said firmly.

  Jack glanced at Logan’s brother, frowning. Sasha froze in place when she noticed Nathan. Jack assumed she thought he was a Conglomerate soldier.

  “I mean, she’s not technically a civilian, but she’s not part of all this,” Jack explained. “She’s from the Eclipse mercenary group.”

  “No,” Nathan repeated.

  He pulled off his helmet and stared Sasha down. She paled when she saw him.

  “She’s a Conglomerate asset,” Nathan explained. “She came here to scout out the area before the teams came in.”

  No, Jack thought, the realization hitting him hard.

  Sasha Parker wasn’t always the nicest person in the world, but Jack would have never pinned her as a double-crosser.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me!” Jack exclaimed, looking pointedly at Sasha.

  “I don’t know what he’s talking about,” she told him. “Why are you even listening to this guy? Who is he anyhow? Isn’t he one of those soldiers who took over?”

  Nathan laughed.

  “She such a fucking liar. Don’t pretend you don’t know me, Sasha.”

  Jack blinked, realizing that he had never said Sasha’s name during the conversation. Nathan was right.

  “She killed Randall!” Orson Carr stuttered. “Was that all an act about them letting you go if you killed him?”

  Damn, Jack thought. You’ve got to be kidding me!

  How could he have been so wrong about Sasha?

  Of course, they’d have to take her in for interrogation and then hand her over to the US government.

  “We’ll take her to Gray Tower HQ and get intel from her,” Jack replied tersely. “Then, she’ll pay for her crimes”

  Sasha shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, Jack. I wished that you had left when I told you. This would have been a lot easier, but I can’t go with you. If I spill on the Conglomerate—or even if I look like I’m giving information—they will do unimaginable things to me. I’m sorry it’s come to this.”

  She bit down hard on something in her mouth and staggered backward.

  “Sasha…” Jack began but stopped when he realized what she had done.

  Mercer turned to her and shook his head as she dropped to the ground, her eyes rolling back in her head. Veronica Carr screamed as her husband and Peter Knowles looked on.

  Jack stared at her, regret washing over him. She had taken cyanide, possibly from a false tooth. Jack had no idea that she was in that deep with the Conglomerate. However, he knew that there would have been nothing he could do to save her. If she was that scared of them what would happen to Nathan when they figured out that he had helped Gray Tower?

  “Sorry, man,” Mercer offered.

  “It’s…fine,” Jack said.

  It probably wasn’t fine. Sure, Sasha may have been a back-stabbing bitch, but it was still hard to watch a former lover kill herself.

  The radio cut in before Jack could ponder the implications of all of this.

  “Uh, guys,” came Ryan Hale’s voice from the other end of the line. “We need to get the fuck out of here—like now.”

  “What’s wrong?” Jack and Mercer said at the same time.

  “Further inspection of this place reveals that the whole house is wired to blow,” Ryan replied. “It looks like one of the Conglomerate soldiers set a timer off before we could eliminate the threat. We have less than five minutes.”

  “You’ve got to be shitting me!” Jack exclaimed.

  He looked at Mercer and the rest of the group.

  “Time to leave.”

  “You get your team counted,” Nathan offered. “I’ll get the civilians out.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Jack said, grunting when another wave of pain went through his shoulder.

  He just hoped that he could get out of this fucking place before he passed out.

  Chapter 23

  Logan re-counted his team members, plus Jack and the hostages. They were at the boat, ready to get the hell off this island. It was only a few moments later that the first of the explosions began. There was a thundering series of blasts that came loudly, one after the other, that seemingly shook the island.

  At first, there was one big one. Several more followed suit, booming loudly. There were huge fireballs coming from the house. One looked like a mini nuke had been dropped on it. Luckily, everyone had gotten out safely and were about to leave this damned island.

  The unfortunate thing was that most of the evidence against the Conglomerate would be gone, though Logan knew that Gray Tower would come back and sift through the wreckage. He wondered if any of the armor would be salvageable for study. The clean-up team would certainly pick through anything and everything. Maybe they could salvage some more intel from this mission?

  Speaking of armor, Logan heaved a sigh as he looked one more time for his brother. He was gone, disappearing without saying goodbye, and Logan had no fricking clue where he was at. The only thing he did know was that Nate was not in the building that blew.

  When the civilians had arrived at the boa
t, Mrs. Carr mentioned that Nathan had left, telling them that he was sorry and not to look for him. It pissed Logan off to no end, but what could he do? Nate had his reasons for leaving and many of them probably had to do with his Conglomerate ties.

  His brother had indirectly been responsible for the death and injuries of a bunch of people—just on this mission alone. He had shot Jack as well. Who knew what else Nate had done doing his time with the Conglomerate? Staying with them would have put him in jeopardy of prosecution.

  It had been wishful thinking that Nate would come along with them, just a pipe dream really.

  When the last of the team had boarded the boat, Logan gave a nod to Luke who began the process of casting off. It would be good to get away from this fucking island. If reserves had been called in, Logan wanted to be as far away from this place as possible. Plus, they needed to get Jack some medical attention as soon as they could.

  Overall, the mission had been a huge success: no casualties, both Kat and Jack rescued, plus they had nabbed Orson Carr. However, Logan did allow himself to be a little bitter about his brother. Maybe one day he’d see him again, but he wasn’t counting on it.

  Still, it had been good to see Nate one last time. Knowing that his brother had finally matured into a man made Logan feel a bit better, even if the Conglomerate had gotten to him first. Hopefully, Nate could get away from them without trouble.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Kat stared down at Jack who was lying on a bench on the boat. He had finally passed out. Luckily, the Gray Tower team had brought medical supplies, including more sutures and an IV. They were pushing fluids as Jack had lost a lot of blood. Still, they were safe. It was a huge sigh of relief.

  She could feel the tension that had built up in her neck and along her back start to subside. The pit in her stomach that was her anxiety lessened a bit as she began to realize that this ordeal was finally over.

  Not only that, but she had survived and done a pretty awesome job at that. She knew that there were some people at Gray Tower who had underestimated her—Jack included—and she had proved them wrong.