I watched the whole thing unfold in slow motion. The bullet rocketed across the room and pelted Jack in the chest. It spun him around, and he went down.
With fury and rage, I squeezed the trigger multiple times, chewing up what was left of his brain. In full tactical gear, these guys were likely wearing vests. It was headshots only.
There was still one thug in the cockpit, but he didn't want any part of this. He hopped into the RHIB boat, cast off, and the two remaining thugs took off. The RHIB boat spat a trail of white water, disappearing into the void.
I rushed to Jack and knelt down beside him to give aid. My heart was in my throat.
48
Iput pressure on the wound as crimson blossomed Jack’s shirt.
JD groaned in agony, gnashing his teeth.
The bullet had hit the edge of the shoulder strap on his vest at an angle. It deflected into his deltoid and tore through soft tissue. It was like getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. It had knocked the air from his lungs and likely broken his collarbone.
“Hang in there,” I said, breathless. “Looks through and through.”
“That sure stings a little,” he said in an understated tone.
“Call the sheriff!” I shouted to Paige. “Tell him officer down.”
“I don’t have his number.”
I told her, and she dialed.
Cell service was spotty at this range.
She managed to get the sheriff on the line. After a brief exchange, she put it on speaker and brought the phone to me and held it close. I told him our approximate location.
“Hang tight,” Daniels said. “The cavalry is coming.”
He notified the Coast Guard.
Paige took over for me and kept pressure on Jack’s wound.
I moved into the galley, washed my hands of the blood in the sink, then fumbled through Squad Leader’s pockets for the drive.
To my surprise, the laptop on the table still functioned. The screen glitched from time to time, and a few key caps were missing from the keyboard.
It was worth a shot. I plugged the USB drive into the port. It recognized the device. I used the trackpad to maneuver to the folder and took a look at the video files. There were several. I double-clicked one of the files and prepared for the worst.
“You hanging in there, buddy?” I shouted to Jack.
“I’m hanging.”
The keypad was hot, and the battery had started to swell. This thing wasn’t going to last much longer.
I pressed play.
Rory had captured his perverse obsessions for posterity. A camera mounted on the wall with AI tracking focused on the subjects—Rory and a beautiful young girl.
It started as harmless adult fun, then devolved into something sadistic. Once Rory’s playthings were restrained, they becameunwilling participants in his wicked game. There were nosafe wordsin this torture chamber. He did despicable things with a blowtorch and a pair of pliers to the naked girl.
Her screams were silenced only when she passed out from the pain.
It was hard to stomach.
I’d seen a lot of messed-up things, but this twisted my gut and made me feel unsettled.
