Chapter 92 - The Black Wake
The ascent capsule shot upward through the hollow core of the listing platform, rattling violently against warped guide rails before crashing into the storm-ravaged flight deck.
The gale outside was merciless. Thirty-foot waves tore at the steel girders of Citadel Alpha, sending sheets of freezing spray across the helipad. The rig was tilting at an alarming fifteen-degree angle, its support pillars groaning under catastrophic structural failure.
"Mom!" Lucas shouted, rushing out from the shelter of the secondary armored transport chopper, his face pale beneath the glare of the flashing amber emergency lights. Behind him, Liam was bent over a ruggedized tactical console, fingers flying across holographic screens while security operatives guarded the perimeter.
"Arthur is dead," I declared, my voice steady despite the adrenaline searing my veins. "Where is my daughter?"
Liam looked up, his jaw set in a line of cold, lethal focus that mirrored my own. "We lost visual when the submarine dived, but Leo managed to tag their hull with a smart-tracker before their catwalk team secured the hatch. It’s an altered Oscar-class vessel, running under cold-propulsion silent drive."
"Where are they heading?" I demanded, buckling into the co-pilot seat of the Sovereign gunship as the engines screamed to life, battling the ferocious wind shear.
"North-northeast," Leo reported through the audio feed from our airborne command bird. "Straight into the territorial waters off the coast of Rogaland, Norway. They’re heading toward a decommissioned naval redoubt known as the Devil’s Trench. If they reach the fjord shelf, their acoustic dampeners will make them completely invisible to satellite reconnaissance."
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I strapped my harness tight, feeling the icy resolve settle deep within my bones. Arthur had thought he could break me by taking Mia. He had forgotten who raised her.
"Spin up the turbines," I ordered the flight crew, looking back at my three sons. "Deploy the Sovereign interceptor squadron. They have taken my daughter. We take their lives."
