Chapter 142
Chapter 142
Jack and Lucy got off the plane and climbed into a beat-up Toyota SUV.
Jack started the engine, hit the gas, and the car roared forward into a world of blowing sand and dust.
The SUV bounced and lurched across the uneven dunes. Nothing around them but yellow sand in every direction.
The emptiness and silence pressed down on you without warning, like something heavy sitting on your chest.
Lucy gripped the overhead handle and stared out at the same unchanging view stretching endlessly outside the window.
"Jack, what exactly is this base we're heading to?"
Jack kept his hands steady on the wheel. "It's an underground facility built inside a mountain. Originally a secret radar station some country put up during the Cold War. White Tower Foundation bought it later and turned it into our training base."
"The terrain is brutal — easy to defend, almost impossible to storm. There's only one way in underground. When we pulled out, I cut the power and water myself. By now it's probably just a ruin."
"Then why would Ronan choose that place for a showdown?"
"Because he knows it." Jack's voice was flat. "He ran us through training there for five years. He knows how every one of us fights — what we're good at, what we're not. He figures on his home turf he can control everything."
"What he forgot is that I spent five years there too."
They drove through the desert for about four hours.
Ahead, a massive rocky mountain came slowly into view — battered and worn down by years of wind and sand.
That was the Black Hawk base on the Sinai Peninsula.
Jack didn't drive straight toward it. About a kilometer from the base of the mountain, he pulled the car behind a sand dune and cut the engine.
"We walk from here."
He grabbed his pack, swung open the door, and stepped out.
Lucy followed right behind him.
Using the dunes and rocks as cover, they moved carefully toward the mountain.
The wind was fierce, snapping their robes like flags.
Jack led the way, pausing every few steps to scan the surroundings.
He kept the rifle in his hands the whole time, safety off, ready to fire.
Before long, they reached the base of the mountain.
A dark opening appeared in a crack between the rocks.
Around the entrance, rusty barbed wire and abandoned oil drums lay half-buried in the sand. The whole place looked broken and forgotten.
Jack stood at the entrance, staring into the darkness that seemed to go on forever. For a moment, he just stood there, lost in thought.
Five years ago, he had burst out of this same opening with a badly wounded teammate on his back.
Now, five years later, he had come back on his own.
"Jack, you okay?" Lucy stepped up beside him and asked quietly.
Jack snapped back to the present and shook his head. "I'm fine. Let's go in."
He switched on the tactical flashlight mounted on his pistol, and a bright beam lit up the entrance.
Inside was a downward-sloping tunnel. The floor was thick with dust and rubble, and the walls on both sides were pocked with bullet holes and dark stains of long-dried blood.
The air smelled of mold and death.
Lucy pressed her hand over her nose and stayed close behind Jack.
They followed the tunnel down, their footsteps echoing through the empty passage with each step.
About five minutes in, a heavy blast door came into view ahead.
It was half open, covered in rust.
Jack pushed it aside and walked through.
The flashlight swept across the space inside.
It was a vast underground hall. Broken equipment and overturned tables and chairs were scattered all around. In the center of the hall, a Black Hawk squad flag still hung from the ceiling, torn and falling apart.
Looking at that flag, Jack's breathing grew heavier without him meaning it to.
"This is the place."
He clicked off the flashlight, and the entire hall dropped into total darkness.
Only the cold wind coming in from the entrance made any sound — a low, hollow moan moving through the dark, like a quiet farewell song for the dead.
Jack and Lucy stood still in the darkness. Neither of them said a word.
After a few minutes, Jack turned the flashlight back on — dimmed this time, just enough to light the ground at their feet.
"Ronan's people will come loaded with high-end gear," Jack said quietly. "Thermal imaging, night vision, probably micro drones. If we go head-to-head with them, we lose."
"So what do we do?" Lucy asked.
"Use the layout against them. Play dirty." Jack pulled several black metal boxes and a roll of thin steel wire from his pack.
Claymore mines and tripwires, sourced from Alex.
"Ronan's guys are well-trained, but they lean too hard on their equipment. This place is almost completely sealed underground. If we cut all the signals, half their gear turns into junk."
As he spoke, Jack walked to the blast door at the hall entrance.
He crouched down and carefully fixed a Claymore to the inside of the door frame, then ran a thin wire from it and tied it to the door handle.
Anyone who pushed that door open would trigger the mine instantly.
"Lucy, I need your help." Jack handed her several high-powered flashlights and a roll of clear tape. "Mount these on the pillars along both sides of the hall, roughly at eye level. Don't turn them on yet."
Lucy took the supplies, nodded, and got to work right away.
She didn't know exactly what Jack was planning, but she trusted him without question.
Jack moved on to set traps at each tunnel entrance around the hall.
Using scrap rebar, broken glass, and strips of old wire, he put together several carefully hidden physical traps.
None of them needed power. None of them generated heat. Even the most advanced thermal imager in the world wouldn't pick them up.
Half an hour later, they met back in the center of the hall.
"All done." Lucy wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"Good."
Jack nodded and pulled a black box from his bag, setting it on an old abandoned desk.
It was the transmitter they were using to send the data.
The countdown on the screen showed eleven hours remaining.
"Ronan should have the word by now. He's on his way." Jack stared at the transmitter. "He'll show up about two hours before the countdown hits zero. That's the window he'll see as his safest shot."
"What do we do until then?"
"Wait." Jack grabbed two chairs and handed one to Lucy. "And rest up while we can."
They both sat down. The darkness and quiet closed back in around them.
Lucy leaned back in her chair and looked over at Jack.
She couldn't make out his face, but she could feel it — the stillness coming off him right now was something else. Not coldness. More like the calm of a man who had already made his peace with whatever came next.
"Jack, will you tell me about your past?" Lucy asked softly.
Sitting in this silent underground ruin, she found herself wanting to know who this man really was.