Chapter 28 - Storm over the Leviathan
*BOOM!*
The shaped explosive charge inside the music box detonated with surgical, terrifying precision. It wasn't designed to sink the yacht—it was designed to clear the room.
A wall of concussive force ripped through the grand ballroom. The massive mahogany table shattered into flying splinters, throwing the Ouroboros board members across the room like ragdolls. The blast blew out the thick plate-glass windows lining the starboard deck, sending a torrential deluge of seawater and freezing rain pouring into the burning ballroom.
Thomas was hurled backward against the bulkhead, his face lacerated by flying glass, his ears ringing with deafening tinnitus.
Through the shattered windows, emerging from the heart of the hurricane, roared a sixty-foot black stealth interceptor boat. Mounted on its bow was a twin-barrel Browning .50-caliber machine gun.
*THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD.*
Heavy armor-piercing rounds tore through the yacht’s outer skin, shredding Thomas’s mercenaries who were scrambling to reach the deck railing.
Rappelling lines shot across the churning gap between the two vessels, biting deep into the yacht’s superstructure with pneumatic grappling hooks.
Through the smoke and water, three figures swung through the shattered ballroom windows. Leading them was Maria.
She wasn't wearing a nanny’s sweater or a wedding dress. She was clad in black maritime assault gear, an Italian Beretta ARX-160 assault rifle tucked tight into her shoulder. Behind her were two grizzled, scarred Sicilian veterans, moving with the brutal, fluid economy of men who had spent forty years killing in the Mediterranean shadows.
“Clear right!” Maria shouted in Italian, double-tapping a wounded mercenary who was reaching for his sidearm.
She spun on her heel, her rifle tracking across the ballroom until she saw Ethan chained to the central pillar.
“Ethan!”
She dashed across the slippery deck, dropping to her knees beside him. From her tactical vest, she pulled a pair of heavy bolt-cutters, snapping the master chain link with a brutal jerk of her arms.
Ethan collapsed into her, his legs numb, his hands covered in blood. But the moment his feet touched the deck, his eyes cleared. He grabbed Maria’s shoulder, pulling her close against the roar of the wind and rain.
“Where is Sophie?” Ethan rasped, his voice raw.
“Safe,” Maria yelled back, her eyes burning with fierce determination. “She’s aboard an offshore Coast Guard cutter two miles out. Evelyn made the call. The federal agents are escorting her to a military airfield in Rhode Island right now.”
Ethan closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, letting out a breath that felt like it had been trapped in his lungs for ten years.
“Now,” Maria said, pressing a loaded Sig Sauer P226 into his palm, “let’s finish this family reunion.”
Across the burning ballroom, Thomas dragged himself to his feet. Blood was streaming from his scalp, covering half his face in a grotesque crimson mask. He held his gold-plated Desert Eagle in both hands, his eyes wild with the manic fury of a cornered beast.
“You think you’ve won, Ethan?!” Thomas screamed over the howling storm. “You think you can take her from me?!”
Thomas turned and sprinted toward the yacht’s private bridge elevator, slamming the override key.
May you like
Ethan shoved himself up from the deck, his grip tightening around the grip of the pistol.
“He’s going to scuttle the ship,” Ethan said, his voice flat and lethal. “Stay with the extraction team, Maria. This is between brothers.”
