Chapter 18 - Scorched Earth
Briggs burst into the server room, his weapon sweeping the corners before lowering it at the sight of Kane’s motionless body.
"Hostiles on the upper deck are dropping their weapons," Briggs reported, panting. "Coast Guard tactical cutters and Navy SEAL strike craft are boxing this ship in from every vector. We have total control."
"Not yet," Rosalie said, leaping to her feet.
She rushed to the main terminal where the transfer bar read **98% COMPLETE**.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard with astonishing speed. "Kane didn't just wire the money. He had a master backdoor protocol to wipe the database clean, including the sealed list of every politician, judge, and corrupt general who took Catherine’s bribes."
"Can you stop it?" I asked, pushing myself up from the floor, leaning on the console for support.
"Stopping it isn't enough," Rosalie said, her eyes flashing with diamond-hard resolve. "If I just stop it, the Department of Justice will seal these files under classified national security red tape for fifty years. They’ll bury it to protect their friends."
"What are you going to do?" Briggs asked, watching her with a mixture of shock and awe.
"I’m broadcasting it," Rosalie declared. "To every major news network, every independent investigative bureau, and the International Criminal Court simultaneously. My mother spent my entire life telling me that power is about secrets and silence. Let’s show the world what the truth looks like."
With one final, decisive keystroke, Rosalie slammed the enter key.
**TRANSFER ABORTED.**
**GLOBAL DATA BURST INITIATED.**
**RECORDS RELEASED: 142,890 UNREDACTED FILES.**
Across three continents, servers began lighting up. The entire sordid empire of Catherine Vance, Victor Kane, and the Obsidian Trust was stripped naked before the entire world. The names of senators, foreign oligarchs, and black-budget contractors flashed into the public domain where no amount of money could ever bury them again.
The yacht let out a sudden, groaning shudder.
"Charges!" Briggs yelled, checking his tactical radar. "Kane had scuttling charges wired to the bilge pump before we breached! The hull is breached! This vessel is going down!"
"Move! To the helipad!" I ordered, grabbing Rosalie’s hand.
We raced up the winding staircases as seawater began roaring into the lower compartments. Alarms screamed in piercing harmony with the howling Atlantic gale. We burst out onto the top deck just as the massive yacht began to list sharply to its starboard side.
Hovering twenty feet above the wet helipad was a Black Hawk helicopter bearing the proud emblem of the United States Navy.
A rescue winch dropped through the mist.
"Go! Rosalie, first!" I shouted against the deafening roar of the rotors and the churning ocean below.
May you like
She clipped the harness onto her chest, looked at me, and said over the storm: "Together, Sinclair! We jump together!"
I clipped my carabiner directly to hers, wrapping my arms around her waist, and signaled the crew chief above. The cable went taut, snatching us off the deck just as the *Aegis Sovereign* rolled onto its side, slipping into the dark, unforgiving abyss of the sea, taking Kane, Catherine’s legacy, and a decade of lies down to the ocean floor forever.
