Chapter 71 - Forty Fathoms Deep
Through the haze of suffocating pressure, my hand fumbled frantically across my tactical vest, searching for the dive knife sheathed along my ribcage. My fingers found the textured grip. I pulled it free, the stainless-steel blade flashing under the crimson glow of the burning salon.
With a primal scream, I drove the blade straight into Harlan’s shoulder.
He roared in agony, his grip on my throat breaking as he staggered backward, clutching his blood-soaked coat. I dropped to one knee, coughing violently, gasping for air as the world spun around me.
"David!" Marcus shouted from the boat below. "NOW! THE FUEL TANKS ARE BREECHED!"
I lunged forward, grabbed Emma by the waist, and tossed her over the railing into the waiting arms of Marcus on the pursuit boat’s bow. She landed safely, crying out as Marcus hauled her into the cabin.
"David, jump!" Marcus screamed.
I turned back to grab Evelyn. She was standing at the edge of the swim platform, frozen in shock, looking back at Harlan. The old man had pulled the knife from his shoulder, his teeth bared in a feral snarl as he raised a remote detonator in his left hand—the scuttling charge meant to sink the vessel and bury the evidence forever.
"Victor, don't..." Evelyn whispered, her voice barely audible over the roaring flames.
Harlan didn't hesitate. He smashed his thumb down on the red toggle.
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A deafening, bone-shattering explosion ripped through the hull beneath our feet, tearing the *Vanguard* in half with a titanic blast of orange fire and twisted steel. The force of the shockwave threw me high into the freezing air, ripping the breath from my lungs as the ocean rushed up to swallow me.
Down into the crushing, pitch-black abyss of the Atlantic I plunged, surrounded by falling debris, burning oil, and a maelstrom of sinking iron. As I fought through the freezing darkness, clawing toward the burning light on the surface, I saw a single small hand reaching down into the water toward me—just as a secondary explosion tore through the depths, dragging everything down into the crushing silence of the deep.
