Chapter 6 - Blood in the Water
Z
"SNIPER!" Marcus roared, leaping across the deck and tackling Caleb to the floor of the cabin just as a high-caliber round shattered the reinforced glass window, showering the interior with lethal shards.
Dominic screamed in pain as the force of Marcus’s dive jolted his bleeding side, but he instinctively reached out, wrapping his arm around Caleb on the floor.
"Get down!" Dominic growled, forcing his son beneath the heavy mahogany bench.
Outside, the interceptor boat rocked violently as heavy engine roars echoed across the dark water. Out of the ocean fog, three fast-attack black stealth craft surged forward, positioning themselves in a triangular ambush formation around our boat.
"They tracked our hull signature!" Marcus yelled, crawling toward the helm controls while bullets ripped through the fiberglass walls of the cabin. "The Sovereign set up a kill box at the mouth of the bay!"
I scrambled on my hands and knees across the glass-strewn floor, reaching Dominic’s side. He was coughing up blood, his face ghost-white, but his eyes were burning with an absolute, terrifying rage.
"Amelia..." Dominic gasped out, grabbing my vest, his grip miraculously tight despite his failing strength. "The red dot... it wasn't from a boat. It was from... a drone."
I looked up through the shattered ceiling hatch. High above in the rain-heavy clouds, a predator-class stealth drone was hovering silently, its optical targeting sensor locked down on our vessel.
"They aren't trying to capture me here," I realized, the horrifying truth dawning on me. "They're trying to force us to surrender by using Caleb as leverage!"
"We don't surrender," Dominic growled, struggling to push himself up. "Marcus! Hard port! Ram the lead vessel!"
"Boss, your stitches—"
"DO IT!" Dominic commanded.
Marcus jammed the throttles forward. The interceptor’s twin 1,000-horsepower engines screamed as the boat surged across the dark waves. We slammed directly into the side of the lead Sovereign stealth craft with a deafening crunch of metal and carbon fiber.
The impact launched two of the enemy operatives into the churning dark water. The lead boat capsized, going under the interceptor's hull in a shower of sparks and violent waves.
"Hold on!" Marcus shouted, spinning the wheel as the remaining two enemy boats opened fire with mounted heavy machine guns.
Tracer rounds chewed through our stern, tearing up the leather seating and sending fuel line warnings flashing red across the dashboard.
"We're losing starboard engine power!" Marcus reported, panic finally seeping into his military-honed voice. "Fuel tank breached! We have three minutes before the engines seize!"
"Amelia," Dominic called out, reaching into his pocket with trembling fingers. He pulled out a small, heavy silver key on a steel chain and jammed it into my hand. "Take it."
"What is this?" I asked, looking down at the cold metal key.
"Vault... at the Bank of New England... downtown Boston," Dominic whispered, his breathing growing dangerously shallow. "Account... 884. Everything... my father stole from yours... is in that vault. The original Lazarus source files... the real ones."
I stared at him in utter shock. "The real ones? You had them all along?"
"My father... kept them... as insurance against your father," Dominic admitted, tears of pain and blood welling in his eyes. "Elias doesn't have the real algorithm. He has... a corrupted mirror. If he runs it without the key in that bank... it won't just launch the protocol... it will wipe every military network in the Western Hemisphere."
"Including Mercer Global," I murmured. "Your father didn't just betray mine. They were playing a game of total mutual destruction."
"Yes," Dominic spat out, coughing violently. "Now... take Caleb. Marcus will get you to the docks. I’ll... hold them off."
"No!" I yelled, tears streaming down my face. "I am not leaving you here to die, Dominic! You fought for me! You bled for me! I am not abandoning you!"
"Amelia... look at me!" Dominic barked, his heavy hands grabbing both sides of my face, forcing me to look directly into his dark, storm-filled eyes. "I am a dying man in a sinking boat! Caleb is my life! If you love him... if you care about anything we've survived through... you take my son and you run!"
The raw, unfiltered emotion in his voice broke something inside me. It wasn't the cold, calculating billionaire talking anymore. It was a father who loved his child more than his own life—and a man who, despite everything, trusted me with his entire world.
"I won't let them take him," I promised, my voice raspy and fierce. "I swear it on my life."
Dominic pressed his forehead against mine for one brief, intense second, his warm breath smelling of copper and salt. "Good girl," he whispered softly.
"Marcus!" I turned, my fear instantly transforming into pure, cold determination. "Where is the nearest exit to the docks?"
"Two hundred yards ahead—the old fishing piers at South Boston!" Marcus shouted over the roar of gunfire. "I can run the boat aground on the mudflats! You and Caleb jump and hit the marsh! I'll stay with Mr. Mercer!"
"Negative, Marcus!" Dominic growled from the floor, reaching for an assault rifle lying on the floorboards. "You go with her! That's an order!"
"Boss, I am not leaving your side!" Marcus argued fiercely.
"I am giving you... a lawful direct command, Commander Kane!" Dominic roared, his voice carrying the terrifying authority that had commanded armies and corporations. "Protect my son! Protect Amelia! That is your primary mission!"
Marcus’s jaw worked silently as he struggled against his military training and his deep personal loyalty. Finally, with a painful nod, he grabbed a tactical duffel bag filled with ammunition and tossed it over his shoulder.
"Understood, Mr. Mercer," Marcus said softly.
The interceptor boat roared toward the dark silhouette of the South Boston piers. Behind us, the two remaining Sovereign stealth craft were closing in, their searchlights cutting through the driving rain.
"Brace for impact!" Marcus yelled, locking the throttles at full power.
The boat hit the shallow mudflats at forty miles an hour. The violent impact threw us forward as the hull shrieked against sand and concrete, grinding to a violent halt just twenty feet from the wooden pilings of the pier.
"GO! NOW!" Dominic yelled, pulling himself up against the console, bringing the assault rifle to his shoulder and firing through the shattered rear window at the approaching enemy boats.
I grabbed Caleb in my arms, clutching him tight against my chest. Marcus kicked open the side boarding door, leaping out into the knee-deep cold mud and turning to catch us.
I jumped into the freezing water, Marcus catching me securely. I didn't look back. I couldn't look back. Behind us, the roar of Dominic’s assault rifle rang out into the night, a lone warrior holding the line against the darkness.
"Run!" Marcus barked, dragging us up the slick, barnacle-encrusted ladder onto the rain-drenched wooden boardwalk of the piers.
We ran into the shadows of the abandoned fish packing warehouses, the cold Atlantic rain washing the salt and blood from our faces. Behind us, down on the mudflats, the sound of heavy gunfire suddenly stopped, replaced by a terrifying, echoing silence.
Caleb sobbed quietly against my shoulder, his small hands clutching my wet jacket. "Is Daddy coming?"
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I gripped him tighter, tears mixing with the rain on my cheeks as we vanished into the dark, labyrinthine streets of Boston.
"Your daddy is fighting for us, Caleb," I whispered into his ear, my heart breaking into a thousand pieces. "And we are going to finish this for him."
