Chapter 62 - Beneath the Black Glaciers
The service conduit was narrow, cold, and smelled of sulfur and machine oil. Mercer took the lead, his tactical flashlight cutting through the dimness, sweeping for motion sensors. In his left arm, he cradled four-year-old Leo, who had finally stirred awake, his small hands clutching Mercer’s tactical harness.
"Mommy?" Leo’s voice was small, bewildered by the deafening sirens vibrating through the rock.
"I’m right here, sweetheart," Elena whispered, stepping up beside Mercer and pressing a kiss against the boy's cold forehead. Her hand was steady, but her pulse raced violently. She turned to Alexander, whose jaw was set in rigid stone. "Alexander. How is he alive?"
"I signed the cremation release myself," Alexander said, his voice dropping into a register of cold, vibrating fury. "Three years ago, the doctors at St. Jude’s Sovereign Ward told me his heart had ruptured. Julianna brought the death certificate. The lawyers had the sealed directives. It was all a theatrical production."
"The $150 million," Elena breathed, the horrifying reality clicking into place like the tumbler of a vault lock. "The divorce settlement. He made you pay it to me."
"He didn't just make me pay it," Alexander muttered, staring down at the glowing drive in his hand. "He used my guilt to force the liquidity transfer into your offshore trust. And your trust was the only one linked to your mother's ancestral bloodline account in Zurich. He couldn't bypass the sovereign firewall without my signature on the divorce and your signature on the flower shop acquisition deed. He used our broken marriage to bypass international banking treaties."
"We need to move," Mercer interrupted, checking his tactical wrist-monitor. "The Leviathan submarine in the sub-glacial pen just engaged its auxiliary engines. Richard Vance has remote control of the vessel’s automated helm. If it submerges and scuttles the pen, millions of gallons of seawater will flood these lower access tunnels."
They hurried along the rusted catwalk. Beneath their feet, the deafening roar of opening sea-doors rumbled through the bedrock. Freezing Arctic air blasted into the tunnel, bringing the salty spray of the Arctic Ocean.
They reached the secondary hangar overlook. Below them, in the subterranean cavern, the massive black hull of the submarine was slowly backing out into the open sea, its bridge completely sealed.
"The secondary sub is gone," Mercer observed grimly. "He locked the docks. But he didn't count on the auxiliary freight lift."
Mercer pointed across the bay to a heavy-duty industrial cable elevator designed to lift deep-core drilling equipment to the surface plateau.
"Can you hotwire the manual drive?" Alexander asked.
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Mercer cracked a grim, blood-stained grin. "Kid, before I worked for your father's private security, I blew up mining stations for the French Foreign Legion. Grab the boy. We have four minutes before this cavern becomes an artificial reef."
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