Page 49 of Misunderstood Hacker

21

Brock

The team wason the corporate jet on our way to Jessica’s location. I looked down at my watch for the hundredth time. It had been eighteen hours since Jessica went missing.How much would she have to endure?

“Looking at your watch will only add to your stress.” Mia sat in the chair next to me. She’d been chatting with the team for the last half hour.

Neal looked up from his laptop. “We’re all stressed. She’s like my sister, and I feel like I failed her.”

Eric leaned back into his seat. “Over the past few months, Jessica has become dear to all of us.I’m having a hard time not imagining the torment she could be going through.”

It wasn’t hard to imagine what she might go through. We’d all seen the photos of her last capture. That thought sent a shiver deep down to my bones.

“We will find her,” John muttered under his breath.

Antonio aimed his glare at Mia. “We need to understand that everyone is stressedinstead of telling each other not to be.Sam should have killed this man when he got to Shialia.”

Blaming other people would not fix the problem. We needed to band together. Going over the plan again would help keep us distracted.

“Let’s go over this again.”

Mia perked up beside me. “Once we land, I’ve arranged for a helicopter.”

I reached over and grabbed the blueprints to the location where Jessica was being held. I pointed to the north corner of the building.“This is where Sophie said Jessica is being held. I would feel better if we could find out who Sophie’s source is and that we aren’t flying in blind.”

“Sophie would double-check her source. I think you should land the helicopter here.” Neal pointed to a clearing on the map. “Then hike up to the compound. I repositioned some of the satellites so I can watch you guys.” Neal was going to stay back. He wasn’t trained in the field.

I had cracked the code into the network where Jessica was being held. I was holding off on going in full force in case they noticed someone messing around.“Here is the IP and network information to get into the network.”I handed Neal everything he needed. “Wait until we get close before going in just in case they have network sniffers and find us looking around.”

The pilot notified us we were landing.It was time to get my woman back.

* * *

Jessica

It felt like he had been using the whip on me for days. I could no longer hold my head up because of the pain, and I was fading in and out of consciousness. Finally, I felt someone remove the shackles from my wrists. My body immediately went limp. They dragged me to the other side of the room and dropped me on the floor.

I could feel the blood running down my back.I wasn’t sure how many lashes I had taken.I lost count after ten.The pain was so strong all I could see was darkness.

The whip had torn my clothes to shreds, and they were lying on the side of the room.One of the men that took me down had left. The other man sat on the chair outside of my cell door.He was concentrating on his phone.

A loud bang rang through the room.I was still lying on the floor when a shudder of vibrations ran through the cement.At first, I thought I was shaking from shock and cold, but then another loud bang shook the floor.

The guard in the room was no longer sitting on the chair.He ran to the main door to look down the hall.On the third boom, my cell door flew open. If I was going to get out of here alive, I needed to help myself. The pain faded a little bit, and I used all the adrenaline I had. Putting one hand under the other, I pushed myself up. I had to work through the pain. Walking as quietly as I could, I came up behind the guard and grabbed his gun from its holster.

He spun around. I didn’t have time to think about what I was doing. I closed my eyes and shot. I heard a loud thump and groan. When I opened my eyes, the guard was down. I slid his body back into the room. I hid behind the door when I heard footsteps running down the hall. I needed to think of something to help keep the pain at bay. On an average day, ninety-three Americans were killed by guns. I wondered if mercenary kills were part of the national statistics.

The footsteps bypassed the room, so I searched the man for another gun.I wanted more than anything to put clothes on but was worried about how much the fabric would hurt against my back.

I opened the door as quietly as possible. Gunfire was echoing through the building. Another stream of bullets, followed by shouts.

Disorder rang through the building.A feeling of hope sparked in my heart.Maybe it was Brock and his team.

Turning off the safety on the new gun,I held it out in front of me and turned the corner. I saw Eric across the room. Elated, I started toward him.

Pain erupted on my left side. A scream tore from my mouth. The pain made me stumble for a second and lose my footing. When I went down, an enemy approached. He had his gun leveled at me, but before he could take a shot, Eric fired from the other side. A red circle spread across his chest as the man collapsed on the floor.

Eric rushed over and pulled me behind a couch.I could see the worry in his eyes.“We need to get you to the hospital.”

---