Chapter 68 - The Bastard’s Retaliation
Tristan slowly turned toward Liam, then looked at me. The blind, arrogant rage in his eyes began to congeal into something far colder, far more lethal: pure, unadulterated vengeance.
"You think you’ve won, Katherine," Tristan whispered, backing slowly toward a narrow, reinforced service access hatch built into the rear of the command platform. "You think you can dismantle forty years of father's work with trust agreements and bank freezes."
"You have nowhere to go, Tristan," Alexander warned, raising his weapon. "Step away from the service hatch."
"This base was designed by Arthur Vance," Tristan said, a chilling smile spreading across his pale face. "Do you truly think he built an installation on the Scottish coast without an underwater escape tube?"
Before Alexander could pull the trigger, Tristan pulled a compact flash-grenade from his coat pocket and slammed it against the rebar floor.
A blinding sphere of white magnesium fire detonated with an ear-splitting crack.
"Mom!" Chloe screamed, throwing her arms around Leo.
Alexander lunged forward to shield the children with his massive frame, his eyes squeezed shut against the burning glare. I threw my arms out, pulling Liam and Maya against my chest, blinking through the tears and deafening ringing in my ears.
When the smoke cleared five seconds later, the service access hatch was open.
The heavy titanium hatch door slammed shut from the inside, the mechanical deadbolts sliding into place with a series of heavy, pneumatic thuds. An automated voice sounded from the auxiliary console: *SUB-SURFACE ESCAPE VESSEL LAUNCH ENGAGED.*
Through the reinforced floor grates, the deep rumble of an electric submersible turbine roared to life, churning the sea waters deep beneath the facility’s bedrock before rapidly fading into the depths of the North Sea.
"He's gone," Alexander cursed, coughing through the acrid smoke as he lowered his weapon. "He took the underwater egress tube. In these waters, a submersible can slip past naval radar within twenty minutes."
"Let him run," I said, my voice steady as I checked over each of my children. Chloe was trembling, but unhurt. Leo looked up at me, his small hand gripping my coat. Liam and Maya were standing tall, their eyes fierce with an indomitable spirit.
"Mom," Maya said, her voice trembling slightly as she looked down at the master console. "Tristan didn't just escape. Before he dropped the flash-bang, he uploaded an encrypted packet to an external server in Zurich."
I leaned over the console, staring at the outgoing transmission logs. "Where did he send it?"
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Maya's face paled. "To Eleanor's legal defense team in London... and to someone listed only as 'The Apex Directorate.'"
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