Vanessa laughed, “Now we’re both unemployed,” after destroying my job offer—then the Meridian Dynamics CEO took the microphone and called my name. / Chapter 67 / 101

Chapter 67 - Boarding the Iron Citadel

Deck Twelve was a maze of high-pressure steam conduits, heavy hydraulic manifolds, and dimly lit service tunnels that smelled of ozone, burnt oil, and cold salt air. The scale of the *Leviathan-Zero* was dizzying; it was not merely an offshore operations vessel, but a self-sustaining industrial city designed to operate submerged for years without touching land.

Julian led the way, his sidearm raised, sweeping the intersecting corridors with practiced lethality. Vanessa moved in tight synchronization behind him, watching their six and monitoring the ship’s internal sensor telemetry through a tapped diagnostic port.

"Security detachment moving down from Deck Ten," Vanessa murmured into her collar mic. "Automated sentry units—bipedal frame models. David didn't crew this ship with mercenaries, Julian. He crewed it with Meridian’s prototype autonomous security frames."

"Good," Julian whispered coldly. "Machines don't improvise. They follow parameters."

At the end of the central manifold corridor, the heavy bulkheads hissed open. Two mechanized sentry frames stepped into the light. Their chassis were angular, coated in non-reflective black ceramic armor, equipped with integrated carbines and thermal optical arrays that glowed with predatory amber lenses.

The machines locked onto Julian’s heat signature instantly, their servos whining as their weapons came up.

Julian didn't duck for cover. Instead, he raised his left hand, flicking open the miniaturized high-frequency broadcast coil on his wrist unit.

"Override protocol: Chimera-Zero-Echo," Julian spoke clearly.

The lead sentry’s optics flashed erratically from amber to blinding white. Its targeting program hitched for a fraction of a second—a microsecond delay hardcoded into the Meridian prototype firmware by the Architect himself to prevent friendly fire against executive bloodlines.

That fraction of a second was all Julian needed.

He closed the distance in two explosive strides, diving beneath the sentry’s fire arc, and jammed his combat knife into the exposed cervical cabling beneath its optical cluster. With a savage twist, he severed the primary data bus. The machine spasmed, its rounds chewing uselessly into the steel deck plates, before collapsing into a dead heap of silicon and hydraulics.

Vanessa fired two high-penetration rounds into the second sentry's core processor, dropping it instantly before its targeting routine could re-engage.

Julian ripped the optical connector from the fallen machine’s head, plugging it directly into his wrist terminal. A schematic of the entire ship bloomed across his visor.

"He's in the primary data amphitheater on Deck Six," Julian said, looking up. "He isn't alone. He has thirty-two external uplinks active. The Frankfurt exchange just accepted the handshake. The London node is synchronizing right now."

"How much time do we have before the global lock is permanent?" Vanessa asked.