Chapter 176 - Escape to the Surface
Inside the cramped steel cylinder of the auxiliary airlock, the two men collided with savage fury.
Caldwell fought not like an aging politician, but like a man who had spent his youth in the elite naval strike teams—fast, brutal, and lethal. He drove a vicious elbow into Vincent’s injured shoulder, tearing open the fresh wound and forcing a ragged cry of pain from Vincent’s throat. Vincent stumbled back against the hatch, and Caldwell lunged, his thumbs driving toward Vincent’s eyes.
Vincent twisted his head, catching Caldwell’s wrist, and drove a crushing knee into the Governor’s ribs. The crack of breaking bone echoed in the tight chamber. Caldwell gasped, stumbling backward, his polished facade completely shattered.
"You think you've won?" Caldwell wheezed, his mouth bloody as he reached for a concealed detonator in his inner pocket. "I set the scuttle timer for ninety seconds. The entire hull is going to collapse! Even if you kill me, you drown in this tomb!"
Vincent lunged forward, grabbing Caldwell’s wrist and twisting the detonator free, kicking it out the open hatch where it skittered across the gantry.
"I'm not dying here," Vincent growled, smashing Caldwell’s head against the steel wall until the Governor slumped unconscious to the deck.
Vincent dragged Caldwell’s limp body out of the airlock, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Emma rushed to his side, her face pale as sirens wailed with terrifying urgency. The water in the lower reactor deck was already waist-deep and rising with dizzying speed.
"Vincent! The main ballast is flooding! We have less than a minute!" Emma cried, pulling his arm over her shoulder to bear his weight.
"The escape bell," Vincent choked out, pointing to the secondary survival pod mounted above the airlock. "It's rated for rapid ascent. It has room for three."
"What about Helena?" Emma asked, looking toward the far corner of the catwalk where the old matriarch lay shivering against the flooding deck.
Vincent hesitated, the weight of decades of hatred, murder, and betrayal hanging in the balance. But Emma didn't wait. Splashing through the rising, icy water, she reached Helena, hauling the broken matriarch to her feet.
"You... you would save me?" Helena whispered, her eyes clouded with shock and fading consciousness. "After everything?"
"I'm not saving you for mercy, Helena," Emma said coldly, dragging her toward the pod. "I'm saving you so you can stand trial before the world."
With the last of their strength, Vincent and Emma shoved Caldwell’s unconscious form and Helena into the capsule. Emma climbed inside, pulling Vincent in after her. Vincent hit the emergency release lever.
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The heavy hydraulic hatch slammed shut, sealing them into the darkness of the spherical pod just as the catastrophic explosion ripped through the *Tartarus* below.
A deafening roar consumed the world as the submarine’s keel snapped in half under the immense pressure. Compressed air fired with violent force, launching the survival capsule upward through the icy black depths of Lake Michigan like a missile.
