Chapter 141

Chapter 141

The moment the email was sent, the only sound left in the control room was the ticking of the countdown.

Tick. Tick.

23:59:59.

Lucy watched the numbers drop, feeling her own heartbeat speed up along with them.

She knew that once Ronan saw this email, the real war would begin.

"Jack, we need to move." Alex said from beside her. "Flying to Egypt and then taking ground transport into the Sinai desert — that's at least ten hours. We don't have much time to spare."

"Is the plane ready?" Jack asked.

"Ready, sitting in the hangar." Alex nodded. "It's a modified private jet, fitted with military-grade radar jamming and infrared flares. As long as we fly low enough, White Tower Foundation's air defense network won't pick us up."

"Let's go."

Jack grabbed the tactical backpack off the floor. It was packed with weapons, ammo, and survival gear he'd been putting together over the past few days.

Lucy slung on a smaller bag — a change of clothes and a few portable laptops.

She'd gotten used to this kind of life, always ready to run at a moment's notice. The softness she once had was gone. What was left was steady and calm.

The three of them walked through the metal corridor and out onto the tarmac.

The black jet already had its engines running, propellers humming low and heavy.

They boarded. The cabin door slowly shut.

A hard surge of acceleration, and the plane shot out of the hangar built into the mountainside, swallowed up by the dark night sky.

The cabin was quiet, just the steady vibration of the engines.

Jack sat by the window, staring out at the black sea of clouds, his mind drifting back.

That base, buried deep in the Sinai desert — it used to be the Black Hawk unit's secret post.

They trained there under brutal conditions. They ran missions where the odds were never in their favor.

They thought they were fighting for something real.

In the end, they were just pieces on Ronan's board, disposable, erasable.

"What are you thinking about?" Lucy came over and sat down next to him.

"Nothing." Jack turned to look at her. "Just that some things — you can't run from them. What's coming will come."

Lucy leaned back in her seat, looking at the tiredness in Jack's face. "I know this is hard for you. Those teammates you lost — they meant a lot to you, didn't they."

"They were my family." Jack closed his eyes, his voice quieter now. "We crawled through the mud together. We ran through gunfire together."

"I'm only alive because they put their bodies in the way of the bullets meant for me. I didn't survive just to get by. I survived to make it mean something."

Lucy reached out and gently took his hand — rough with calluses.

Jack opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Thank you, Lucy."

"We're allies, aren't we?" She gave a small smile, something warm in it. "And if it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead back at that estate. This time, it's my turn to stay by your side until the end."

Jack felt the warmth of her palm. That anger he'd been holding down for so long seemed to ease, just a little.

He turned his hand and held hers back. Gentle, but steady.

Alex glanced over from where he was sitting, rolled his eyes, and turned back to the tablet in front of him.

"Hey, you two — I really hate to interrupt, but I just got something." He tapped the screen. "Henry's been safely moved to one of our safehouses in New York. But when my people pulled out, they noticed a few black SUVs tailing them."

Jack's eyes went cold. "War Dogs?"

"Most likely." Alex said. "Ronan's paranoid. He got your email, but he's still not letting Henry go. He wants to use Henry to confirm you're actually heading to that desert base."

"Tell your people to abandon the safehouse right now and get Henry somewhere crowded." Jack said without hesitation. "Ronan's men won't risk making a move out in the open in New York City. If we can get through the next twenty-four hours, Ronan won't have the bandwidth to worry about Henry anymore."

"Already on it."

Alex's fingers moved fast across the screen.

Jack took a slow breath, stood up, and walked to the equipment bay at the back of the cabin.

He pulled out an M4A1, and started breaking it down with the ease of someone who'd done it a thousand times — cleaning it, putting it back together. No wasted movements.

He needed to stay sharp.

Because he knew what was waiting for him out there wasn't just Ronan. It was Ronan's most elite force — the War Dogs, the unit Jack himself had trained.

This was going to be a real fight.

Ten hours later.

The plane touched down on a private farm near the border, inside Egypt.

The air was dry and scorching. Wind whipped the sand hard enough to sting.

Jack changed into local robes, a folding-stock rifle hidden underneath.

Lucy put on a veil, only her eyes showing.

Alex stayed on the plane — their mobile command post and communications hub.

"Jack, Lucy — this is as far as I can take you." Alex looked at them, concern in his face. "Signal out there is rough. I can only give you limited satellite positioning. If things go sideways, there's not much I'll be able to do."

"That's enough." Jack put a hand on his shoulder. "Keep an eye on Ronan's movements. The second you spot his helicopters or any ground forces closing in, let me know."

"I'll have eyes on that desert the whole time." Alex said.