Chapter 90 - The Price of the Crown
"NO!" Arthur Vance roared, his aristocratic composure shattering into a feral snarl as he lunged across the table to seize Liam's wrist.
*BANG!*
My shot tore through Arthur’s left shoulder, spinning him violently backward into the terminal console, blood splattering across the glowing green displays.
Simultaneously, the entire twenty-thousand-ton Citadel shuddered with a deafening, metallic screech that sounded like the screams of a thousand dying beasts.
The silver key flared red, sending an automated electrical surge directly into the cooling core. Overhead, the high-voltage lights flickered and died, plunging the underwater vault into the eerie, churning blue glow of the exterior deep-sea floodlights.
*"Emergency Alert,"* an automated female voice droned over the speakers, cold and mechanical. *"Platform stability gyroscopes offline. Primary ballast tanks venting. Structural failure imminent in nine minutes. Evacuate immediately."*
The floor tilted sharply beneath our feet. Unsecured equipment, champagne bottles, and brass document cases slid violently across the polished floor, crashing against the acrylic sea-wall.
Outside the glass, under the immense pressure of thirty-foot waves and failing ballast, the acrylic pane groaned. A hairline fracture—white and jagged like lightning—appeared in the center of the transparent wall.
Arthur Vance hauled himself up against the console, clutching his bleeding shoulder, his white suit stained crimson. His eyes were wide with a terrifying, unhinged fury.
"You fool!" Arthur screamed, blood frothing at the corner of his lips. "You haven't won anything! You've doomed us all! The extraction chopper on the upper deck has already been launched!"
"Then we will drown together, Arthur," I said, stepping forward, racking the slide of my weapon to chamber another round. "Because my children will never live under your shadow."
Just then, my tactical earpiece erupted with static.
"Mom! MOM!"
It was Mia’s voice. She was screaming from the zodiac boat three decks above.
"Mia! Report!" I screamed into the mic, my heart dropping into a bottomless pit of ice.
"The boat... they hit us!" Mia sobbed, gunfire and explosions tearing through the audio feed. "A submarine, Mommy! A black submarine just surfaced beside the rig! They boarded the catwalk! They're taking me! MOMMY!"
The line cut out with the sickening sound of shattering glass and an agonized grunt from one of our security operators.
Across the listing, trembling vault floor, Arthur Vance began to laugh. A horrific, bloody, triumphant laugh that echoed through the groaning steel chamber.
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"Did you truly think Citadel Alpha was my only stronghold, Katherine?" Arthur wheezed, his fingers pressing into a hidden panel beneath the desk. "The Iron Wolves have your daughter. And as this platform sinks to the bottom of the North Sea... you have exactly eight minutes to decide: do you kill me and drown with your sons, or do you chase the ghost who has your baby girl?"
The hairline crack in the acrylic wall behind him suddenly snapped with a gunshot-like *CRACK*, and a jet of freezing, pressurized sea water burst violently into the room.
