Chapter 101 - The Awakening of the Fifth Gate
"They aren't hitting the cities," I said, the horrific realization hitting me like a physical blow. "The three container ships... the snipers on my ridge... it was all a coordinated distraction to pull me offshore."
"They knew Vance couldn't break you," Rowe admitted, his eyes darkening with urgency. "The Iron Serpent used Vance as bait to draw you and your elite security detail out into the international zone, leaving your mainland territory vulnerable to a specialized strike unit."
"Harris! Get the chopper prepped now!" I barked, grabbing the data drive and turning toward the exit.
"Brian, wait," Harris said, staring at the telemetry on his tactical tablet with sudden dread. "Our helicopter's navigational suite just went haywire. There's a massive localized electronic warfare blackout sweeping over Massachusetts Bay. All civilian satellite communications are dropping offline. Cell towers, fiber links... it's a dead zone from Boston harbor all the way down to our private grounds."
I turned back toward the terminal, my hand gripping the signet ring so tightly the metal bit painfully into my skin.
"Rowe, can you scramble your stealth transports?" I demanded.
"My unit has two tilt-rotor jump-jets docked in the lower hangar bay," Rowe answered without hesitation. "We can hit Mach speeds and put boots on the ground at your estate in twenty-five minutes. But look at the radar return on the basin."
I stepped back to the central display.
Emerging from the depths of the ocean trench near Minot’s Ledge—right outside the waters I thought I had secured weeks ago—was a massive, black-hulled stealth submersible. It had breached the surface, deploying combat raiding craft directly toward the rocky shoreline behind my family’s estate.
Suddenly, the transponder around my neck—the one my mother had left in the titanium box—began to pulse with rapid, violent red light.
A high-frequency burst transmission cut directly through the room’s deadened speakers, breaking through the electronic warfare blackout.
It wasn't a military commander's voice.
It was a raspy, bitter, familiar laugh that sent an icy shockwave straight down my spine.
"Did you really think the grave could hold me, little brother?" Jason's voice sneered through the static, sounding manic, distorted, and dripping with unhinged malice. "You took my cars. You took my money. You took father's empire and paraded your perfect little wife and child in front of everyone like you were a god."
A sound of heavy boots echoing against reinforced concrete came over the channel, followed by the terrifying, distinct sound of a hydraulic cutting torch igniting against heavy titanium.
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"Father didn't die in that hospital, Brian," Jason whispered with a terrifying, venomous grin through the speaker. "He was placed where you could never touch him. And now, we're standing right outside your precious little safe room door. Tell Elena to open up... or we blow the nursery ceiling down on top of them both."
The transmission cut out into shrieking static, leaving the countdown timer on the main display flashing zero—just as the rig’s alarms announced incoming radar locks diving toward our platform from the clouds above.
