Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
Collectively the group flinched, and a couple of people even ducked and covered their heads. Adam ran across the beach to the docks, Steph right behind him. He called out, “Noah!”
The team boss turned from the center of the huddle, a look of relief on his face. “Adam!”
“Keep an eye out for drones!” He jumped up onto the dock, his boots knocking the wood boards with every step. “We ran into some on our way down. Almost didn’t make it.”
A smaller boat from the ship set off toward them.
The glare from the ocean forced him to squint.
Between the water, the bright blue sky, and the deep green of the island vegetation behind him, this looked like the perfect setting for a vacation resort.
Instead, it proved to him that an all-inclusive beach holiday was about the last thing he was interested in.
Adam wanted to be back at the castle. But leaving here wouldn’t stop Earthnet, and they needed a way to do that.
“That tender isn’t big enough to hold all of us over to the ship,” Ash said, his expression dark.
Far as Adam could see, that wasn’t their only problem. He mouthed, Kyle.
A tendon in Ash’s jaw flexed.
Adam glanced between the tender and the ship itself. The vessel out in the ocean looked like a bigger fishing boat than the one they’d come in, the kind better able to travel distances. It sat high in the water and was probably another twenty feet in length.
Sure, he didn’t want to ride on the thing all the way back to France. But crewed with locals who knew these waters and could get them away from here safely, it looked mighty fine to him. Kind of like the bedraggled woman behind him, the one he had found himself pretty close to in that cable car.
Talk about do not fret. That cable car had saved their lives, bringing them down the side of the volcano in minutes.
He didn’t think he’d have been able to run that whole way.
But then, not much that had to do with Steph had Adam thinking straight.
When he’d gone after her, he hadn’t even considered having to come back down to the dock.
The first half of the crowd got onto the boat, a few of the workers pushing others out of the way to scramble on. Adam didn’t blame them for being eager to escape this deathtrap island, but thankfully his people were here to bring order to the situation.
Jay and Kai assisted Dan onto the boat, where he sat against the side. He seemed semiconscious, at least.
Ash drifted through the group to stand near Adam. “Where’s Kyle?” he whispered.
“He ran off to take care of something. I figured it was about Vesper, but he wasn’t with her. Maybe he had other orders.” Adam didn’t have an answer for his friend aside from that. He turned and looked at the island behind them. “How many men did you guys take out?”
“All of the ones we encountered,” Noah said.
“Add to that the drones…” The ones that had tried to box them in that cable car, pinned down. Like trapping prey in a tight space to see what happened when your target was cornered.
Ash shook his head. “How are we still alive?”
Kai hopped back out of the boat just before it pulled away from the dock and came over.
“Are you guys having the ‘that was too easy’ conversation? Because I don’t agree.
I’m getting off this island, and neither of you is going to ruin it because you think it should’ve been harder.
None of us needs to be bleeding more than you already are. ”
Adam didn’t look at his vest. “I brought a sat phone in the backpack. And other necessities.”
Noah waved the phone at him. “Everyone I’d call, or who might be able to help, is on this dock. Or they’re way too far away to render assistance.”
“Call the last saved number.” Adam scanned the trees, and every inch of the shore he could see. Kai might’ve been making a point about not taking escape for granted, but it did sort of seem like this might’ve been too easy.
Noah put the phone to his ear. “It’s ringing.”
Adam saw movement to the west—Kyle running out of the trees, being chased by armed men in black fatigues. Kyle spotted them and raced across the sand from about half a mile away, grinning like he’d won that round despite the fact the enemy was in hot pursuit.
One of the gunmen clocked the small group on the dock and raised his arm, pointing a weapon at them.
“Everyone, get down!” Adam broke away from the group, ran to the end of the dock, and went down on one knee to present a smaller target. He fired at the gunmen chasing Kyle, giving them a steady stream to provide his friend cover fire.
His buddy tore up the sand until he was on the dock, running by Adam with a quick, “Thanks.”
“Now what?” Adam said between firing at the Earthnet guys headed for them.
Whatever Kyle had taken from them, they were pissed about it. But they probably weren’t interested in dying for their employer. Would they even listen?
The gunmen fanned out, taking cover to shoot back. One behind a tree, and the other two behind an overturned trunk on the beach.
Someone screamed. He heard a splash behind him, and then another. “Kai!” That was Marina.
Adam kept firing, feeling the whip of bullets moving by his face. He winced and ducked lower, finally hitting one of them.
“Let’s go!” Noah said. “Swim to the boat!”
Adam heard them take off behind him, the whole group splashing into the water.
“Adam!” That was Steph.
He yelled simply, “Go!”
Whether or not she paid attention, he didn’t turn back to check. Adam fired relentlessly at the two men behind the tree. One fell back and the other to the side.
Adam spun around, launching out of his crouch.
He ran to the end of the dock and dove into the water, his hands braced out straight in front of him.
With the gun, his boots, and all the gear—and his injuries—this wasn’t going to be good.
But he used the momentum of the running dive to get him going and kicked his legs.
When he broke the surface, he swam as hard as he could to the boat.
The others were climbing on board the tender, which had made it about two thirds of the way back to them. Another thing that had gone their way.
Adam got close enough that Noah and Kyle hauled him aboard. “Good to see you, buddy.” Kyle slapped his shoulder.
“Thanks for that.” Adam shouldered him out of the way.
Kyle chuckled. “We all have our assignments.” He glanced around. “Where’s Vesper?”
Across the small vessel, Steph sat on the side of the boat, looking out at the ship. Whether she’d heard the comment about her sister or not, she didn’t give him any indication.
“Vesper didn’t make it.” Adam glanced back at the shore and saw one man on the dock, watching them sail away. As they did, the man drew out a phone and made a call.
Adam couldn’t do anything about that, so he put it out of his mind. They were getting out of here, and that was all that mattered right now.
The tender motored up to the side of the bigger ship, and each of them had to climb the ladder to get on deck.
Kai waited at the top, giving Adam a hand to get over. “Still think this is too easy?”
Adam didn’t answer that. He hopped onto the deck, splashing down in half an inch of water. “Something is wrong.”
Noah came over. Everyone else milled around, spreading out. “What is it?”
“Where’s the crew? And the first boatload of people?” Adam pushed through the group, looking around at the empty deck.
He grabbed the rail and looked over the side at the tender, but the crew wasn’t acting strangely. That boat would have to be hoisted aboard this one before they set sail.
“Bro.”
Whoever said that, it got Adam’s attention. He turned back, his friends around him. His weapon in his hands. Whatever this was…
All of his instincts were flashing like lightning.
A door opened on the side of the central tower facing them, swinging out and hitting the metal wall beside the door. It sounded like the wood splintered, but Adam wasn’t so worried about the door when his mind registered who was exiting the cabin.
Adam lifted his gun and strode forward, staring hard at Colonel Alan Montrose. Moving without thinking about it. The guy wore his uniform like it gave him the right to do whatever he wanted. Dark-brown hair, thin and greasy. That smug look on his face, as if he ruled the world.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your face right now?” Adam stopped, not so close the guy could overpower him. Not so far it wouldn’t be a point-blank-range gunshot. Game over. Thank you and goodnight. “Tell me why you don’t bleed out on this deck, right here and right now.”
His friends gathered around him, closing ranks. Backing him up.
But this was personal, between him and Montrose.
“Congratulations yet again, Uncle Adam.” The Southern drawl of his voice was like an oil that snaked down your throat and choked you. “Wouldn’t want anything to happen to that sweet little family.”
Yeah, that’s why the guy looked so smug. Adam stared at him. Roxie is pregnant. “You touch one hair on my sister’s head—”
Men spilled out of every door, armed to the teeth. Guys in jeans and jackets, looking lethal. The kind of men you didn’t want to run into late at night, in dark alley, in Eastern Europe. All of them pointed guns at the group.
Montrose tsked, waving a hand at the crowd on the deck. “Seems to me like you have a lot to lose these days.”
Yeah, Adam wasn’t some grunt with hardly any family ties.
He wasn’t the guy who took orders without question, even when it didn’t seem right.
He wasn’t the victim. Not for a long time now.
Don’t fret was a command he needed now, like a safety net.
When things looked impossible, he needed something to fall back on. A firm foundation.
“Seems to me like you do, too.” Adam lifted his chin. “Hard to cover it up a second time, right? That’s a whole lot of people for you to kill.”
“I’ve moved on from research. These days I’m more inclined toward pet projects.
” The colonel looked around. “I like the idea of roaming the world on a ship and taking my time with my work. Earthnet just handed me enough subjects to last a lifetime—yours, of course.” He didn’t give Adam a chance to respond.
“Kill me and you’re all dead. Right here, right now. ”
Noah put his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “We do this together.”
Adam shook his head, so much in his mind to say. To them and to Montrose. But the words seemed to stick on his tongue, even while his mind screamed for him to turn and run to the edge of the deck. To jump off the side of the ship and swim. Keep swimming. Anywhere, nowhere.
To never stop. Never look back.
Get as far from Montrose as he could get.
Instead, he stood his ground, surrounded by his family. “You haven’t won. We won’t ever be at your mercy.”
Montrose looked amused, glancing over at one of the men. “Take their weapons. Lock them up belowdecks.” Then he looked back at Adam. “I suppose time will tell.”
Adam forced himself not to break Montrose’s stare down. He was going to stand his ground the way he had last time, no matter what this guy threw at him.
One of the men took his M4.
Adam moved. The others did as well, launching an attack at the same time. Hitting back at the mercenaries Earthnet had supplied Montrose with, all of it happening well ahead of Adam’s decision to come to the island.
A pistol slammed down on Adam’s forehead.
He dropped to his hands and knees, breathing hard as the truth dawned.
Earthnet had set this whole thing up. The AI—Polaris—had anticipated all of this and brought them here, thinking they were rescuing their friends. Instead, they were playing into its hands, and the whole thing had landed him back in Montrose’s clutches.
A gun went off. One of the workers fell to the deck with a hole in his forehead, blood seeping out to stain the deck.
Montrose yelled, “Enough!”
Adam lifted up and sat back on his heels, blood running down his temple.
“Any of you tries that again, and the two women die.”