Chapter 174 - The Sinking Titan
"The hull integrity is failing," Vincent said, pulling himself up despite the agony in his shoulder. He checked the tactical display on his wrist unit. "Caldwell didn't just come to capture you. His strike team planted scuttling charges along the primary ballast tanks. He intends to sink the *Tartarus* back into the trench, taking everyone on board with it, while he escapes via the boarding submersible."
"He wants the Sovereign archives erased," Emma realized, her eyes widening as she adjusted her grip on the drive she had pulled from the main console. "Helena said the broadcast was triggered, but without the secondary authorization code from this drive, the data is just fragmented noise. If this drive sinks to the bottom of Lake Michigan, Caldwell’s name is never exposed, and he retains absolute control over Illinois."
"Then we make sure he never leaves this water," Vincent declared, cocking his pistol.
They moved quickly down the maintenance catacombs, descending toward the lower torpedo room and the auxiliary diving airlock. Around them, the submarine was dying. Water poured from fractured overhead pipes in cascading waterfalls, turning the metal walkways slick and perilous. Every few seconds, the deep, mournful groan of metal under crushing pressure shook the air.
As they reached the secondary gangway overlooking the central reactor compartment, they looked down and froze.
Below them, on the metal catwalk surrounding the glowing containment chamber, Governor Caldwell stood with three surviving black ops operators. They were securing a waterproof extraction pod tethered to an auxiliary airlock hatch. Beside them, thrown haphazardly over a crate, was the limp form of Helena Sterling. She was barely conscious, her silver hair matted with blood, yet Caldwell was binding her wrists with heavy zip-ties.
"You're a monster, Thomas," Helena weakly slurred, coughing violently. "I built you. I funded your campaigns... I put you in the Governor’s mansion..."
Caldwell leaned down, his smile predatory and pitiless. "And like any tool that has outlived its usefulness, Helena, you are being decommissioned. You and Moretti will become the tragic casualties of an illegal underwater arms ring. And I will be the hero who exposed you both."
"Not while I'm still drawing breath," a voice echoed across the catwalks.
May you like
Caldwell spun around, raising his weapon toward the upper gantry.
Standing above him on the catwalk, bathed in the eerie blue light of the reactor, stood Emma Ward, holding the Sovereign drive high above the open drop of the reactor pool.
