Chapter 15
Alex stared at the ceiling of her bedroom.
It was five-thirty in the morning, and she couldn’t sleep.
Even though Nathan had texted he was okay, she still worried.
His mission was dangerous, and even though she admired him for doing it, she wished he hadn’t taken it upon himself to destroy all the super soldier suits.
She was also concerned about the ramifications.
Joel had given a brief report, and everyone was shaken.
He had a full debrief this morning in person.
Miles was sending the company jet to pick him up.
They knew there was a mole in Gray Tower.
This hadn’t been the first time, but Miles had been certain he had kept this mission secret.
The irony was that he had. Alex was the one who had betrayed him, and she felt horrible.
Yet, the factory was destroyed, and there were a few suits eliminated. Joel wouldn’t have been able to get those results with the tools he was given. Nathan had been effective, but that didn’t absolve her of the guilt.
She debated on getting up, even though she had barely gotten any sleep, when her cell phone buzzed from her nightstand. She looked over to see a text from Nathan. Bolting upright, she snatched the phone from its charger and read the message.
Nathan: Are you up?
Alex: Yes.
Nathan: Can I come over?
Alex: Yes. When?
Nathan: This was more of an ask forgiveness than permission thing.
She frowned and almost jumped out of bed when a knock came on her bedroom door.
“It’s me.”
Nathan.
“Come in,” she said, her heart hammering in her chest.
Alex watched as he quietly slid into the room. Nathan paused at the door, giving her space. He was wearing all black, and he practically blended into the darkness. She should be freaking out; there was a man in her bedroom. But it was Nathan, and she trusted him.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he told her. “You said you wanted to see me, and I finished unpacking and showering. You were the first stop. I can come back if—”
“No!” she exclaimed, kicking the covers off and rising from the bed. “I was so worried. It doesn’t matter what time. I couldn’t sleep anyhow.”
“That wasn’t because of me, was it?”
She nodded guiltily.
“And everything going on at work. Can you tell me what happened with Joel?”
“Joel?”
“The Reaper.”
Nate chuckled and said, “I was wondering what his name was. He’s…a character.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
“You’ll eventually have to enlighten me.”
She nodded and said, “I got his preliminary report. He’ll be in later today for a full debrief.” She yawned. “We were up so late that Miles pushed our report time to ten instead of eight like it usually is.” Then, she studied him. “But you haven’t gotten any sleep at all, have you?”
He shook his head.
“It’s fine. I slept enough in that fucking hospital. And the mission went well, except for the Gray Tower problem. You’ll have to keep me posted. I’m sorry I put you in a bad spot.”
“There were two soldiers in suits?”
“Yeah, plus the factory itself and a few guards.”
“Then you may have saved his life, Nathan,” she said and stepped closer. “Joel’s amazing, but those suits can do things even people like Joel can’t. This may have created a problem at work, but I don’t care. I’m happy you did it.”
“It was a situation I couldn’t avoid. If I hadn’t stopped him, he would have blown up in the factory explosion.”
She nodded, swallowing hard.
“Are you…okay? Are you hurt? I know you had your suit on, but…”
“I’m good. Just tired. It’s been a long twenty-four hours.”
“I probably shouldn’t keep you,” she said, feeling guilty.
She had demanded he come to see her when he should have been taking care of himself. Plus, he was still recovering from being at that facility. He needed rest.
“It’s okay. I wanted to come. You can’t understand how thankful I am that you called and told me about your guy. I don’t know what would have happened had I run into him without that information…” Nathan trailed off, shaking his head.
Joel would have ended up dead, and Nate would have killed an innocent man. He had probably killed good guys before. Sure, the Conglomerate had tricked him. However, he had worked for years for an evil organization. He had to live with that for the rest of his life, and she ached for him.
Alex took a step toward him and reached out to touch his arm.
However, she stopped herself and retracted her hand.
She couldn’t get close. She was starting to have feelings for him, and that couldn’t happen.
He was on the run. Nathan could be protected by Gray Tower, but he had to turn himself in.
Besides, he didn’t think of her like that, and even if he did, she had nothing to offer him but friendship.
“It’s okay,” she reassured him. “It’s done. It’s over. Now, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Sure.”
Nathan turned to leave but stopped before he walked out the door. He glanced behind him and smiled slightly.
“Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
And with that, he left, leaving Alex standing there, confused yet oddly content.
? ? ?
“You sent me to one giant clusterfuck,” Joel said, leaning back in his chair at the War Room’s conference table. “A little heads-up about the scary robot soldiers would have been nice.”
“Robot soldiers,” Jack chuckled under his breath.
“Not funny,” Joel retorted. “I could have died, but I doubt you care about the new guy. Or was this some initiation I was supposed to go through?”
Alex’s eyes darted between the men at the table, her chest tight.
Everyone looked exhausted. Her job was to take paper notes and take them over to Keira to limit the possibility of a leak.
The War Room had also been scanned for bugs at Miles’ insistence.
The irony was that she was the one leaking the information.
“I can assure you this was not an initiation,” Miles said. “Although we should have prepped you on the super soldiers. I figured the place was defunct and wouldn’t have a heavy guard. That was my error, and I am sorry, Mr. Keller.”
“I should have known anyhow,” Joel grumbled.
“These suits are on a need-to-know basis,” Miles explained. “At the time, you weren’t involved in any missions that required their knowledge.”
“Well, now I need to know, so enlighten me. I’m all ears.”
“And all mouth,” Jack said under his breath.
Like he was one to talk.
Miles spent the next twenty minutes catching Joel up on super suit information while Alex tried not to think about Nathan.
“So, the guy I ran into could have vaporized me before I knew he was there?” Joel asked, crossing his arms.
“Yes,” Miles said. “You were a sitting duck.”
Joel shook his head.
“But the guy didn’t kill me.”
“Yes,” Miles said. “I read your preliminary report, but I want to hear every detail you can remember.”
“The guy got the jump on me. The suit looked like a sci-fi robot. He told me to stop. I stopped.”
“You were in your full Grim Reaper gear?” Jack asked.
“Yes. Then, he was all cryptic like, ‘I am not your enemy.’ And I was like, ‘The fuck you’re not.’ And he was like, ‘Looks can be deceiving.’”
“He didn’t say anything else?” Miles asked.
“He said he couldn’t reveal his mission. Then he mentioned he put a bomb in the factory, and that I needed to get the hell out of there—but not before he alluded to what my mission was.”
Jack crossed his arms and frowned. “How specific was he with your mission details?”
“The guy knew I wasn’t supposed to be seen and was only there to check the place out.”
“Could have been a good guess?” Ryan suggested.
“Yeah, but then he named-dropped Gray Tower and Miles,” Joel said. “He said he was on our side. Claimed he destroyed two of those super suits.”
Miles, Ryan, Jack, and Logan glanced around the table, a heavy silence falling across the room.
“Could he be another defector like Nathan?” Logan asked, looking uncomfortable.
“Could he be Nathan?” Jack countered.
Alex stiffened, her chest tightening. They couldn’t find out about Nathan. Not yet at least.
Thankfully, Logan interjected, “No. He would have said something, like he did with you and Kat on the island. No way would he have screwed around while there was a bomb about to go off. Plus, how would he be getting this information from Gray Tower if he’s gone rogue? As far as we know, he’s been alone.”
“True,” Miles said. “The odds of Nathan finding support at that level are low. I’d bet it’s another player. A former super soldier, perhaps? Either way, he should be easy to take down with Kat’s programming involved.”
“We’re going to take him out?” Ryan asked, eyebrow raised. “Kill him? Or incapacitate him? Sounds like that would piss him off if it went south.”
Alex held her breath, feeling sick.
“Just as a way to bring him in,” Miles clarified.
“He says he’s not our enemy, but I’m not risking it.
Kat’s backdoor program is our best bet. In fact…
” He looked at Alex. “I want Kat to make a portable option for elite Gray Tower agents that will run her backdoor program. I don’t want my men caught off guard again by either this new player or an enemy. ”
“Okay,” Alex said softly.
Nathan’s suit was patched so it wouldn’t respond to Kat’s program. However, if one of the elite agents met back up with him, then they would know it was him.
“What if they found out about the patch?” Alex asked. Everyone turned to her, the room quiet. “The Conglomerate, I mean. There have been leaks. What if they updated the software in their suits?”
“Then we’re back to square one,” Miles said, sighing. “But we have to try. Kat says the programming is hard to hack after the patch was installed, but you can ask her to investigate that scenario as well.”
“Okay,” Alex nodded.
“Joel, stay behind, and we’ll finish your debrief,” Miles said. “Everyone else is dismissed. Alex, you’re included. Stop by Kat and then Keira, please.”
“Yes, sir.”