The Kevlar net thrummed with struggling tuna. Daisy's combat knife flashed through the murk, her dive computer casting eery green light on synchronized maneuvers. We moved like SEALs breaching a submarine - flanking patterns perfected through three days of drilling tides.
Emma's Rolex chronometer vibrated against my wrist.
Daisy responded with
I breached surface just as Jack's prison tattooed forearm clamped around Kate's throat. "Motherf—" Saltwater choked my curse.
"David!" Kate's scream dissolved into gurgles as Jack dragged her toward palm groves. My dive knife found purchase in the sand as I abandoned the net.
Thermal imaging showed their heat signatures merging then separating. Night vision revealed Jack's signature move - baiting with human shields. The bastard had left Kate unconscious by the smoldering raft debris, firelight glinting off her Van Cleef necklace.
"Overwatch!" I barked into the comms bead. Daisy's suppressed SCAR-H round impacted the palm trunk above Jack's head.
The chase became Close Quarters Battle simulation. Jack used Kate's Gucci scarf to trip me, his aircraft glass shiv scraping my ballistic vest. "Should've taken my deal, Boy Scout!"
When his knee connected with my fractured rib, the world dissolved into white noise. Jack's CQC training showed in every pressure point strike. "This how they teach at Annapolis?" He ground my face into coral grit.
The KA-BAR's edge kissed my jugular. "Beg."
"Eat a magazine." I spat blood on his prison tattoos.
The rifle butt came from darkness. Jack's skull cracked against petrified wood. Daisy stood silhouetted by lightning, her NVGs casting cyclops glow.
"Stand down!" My command froze her follow-up strike.
Jack's laughter bubbled with madness. "She's gone soft, Carter." His fingers danced near my dropped sidearm. "Mercy's a bullet to the—"
My combat boot shattered his wrist. "Rules of Engagement." The KA-BAR carved scarlet filigree across his buttocks - Navy interrogation technique 12-B. "Next cut severs femoral."
Kate's moan saved his life. I dragged her through monsoon rains, Daisy providing rear guard with alternating infrared scans.
The cargo hold's steel door sealed with hollow finality. Emma's "Oh my God!" rang false as Oscar acceptance speech.
"Where's your tracker?" I pressed the blood-slick knife to her Cartier bracelet.
Her Margiela trench gaped revealing Jack's handprint bruise. "He...he said you'd abandoned us."
Daisy's forensic light revealed the truth - Kate's emergency beacon hidden in Jack's raft. The Coast Guard frequency blinked its countdown: 36:00:00...35:59:59...