Chapter 14 - The Showdown on the Docks
""It’s over, Julian!"" Victoria’s voice cut through the damp salt air with thunderous authority. ""The Coast Guard interceptors are already in the channel. Every news agency on the eastern seaboard is receiving your manifest line by line. Your money is gone, your ships are impounded, and Elena Rivera’s name is being cleared across the world right now."" Julian backed away toward the gangway of the freighter, his eyes wild with desperation. He raised his weapon, leveling it directly at Victoria’s heart.
""You ruined everything for a gutter rat!"" Julian snarled, his face twisted in psychotic fury. ""Vance Global was built on power you never had the stomach to wield!"" He pulled the hammer back on his pistol. Before he could squeeze the trigger, a small figure darted from the shadows behind the flatbed trailer. Maya, holding a heavy steel cargo chain she had dragged across the asphalt, hurled it directly into the open blades of the flatbed generator cooling fan. The machine shrieked, exploding in a shower of sparks and metal shrapnel that caught Julian squarely across the chest.
Julian tumbled backward over the edge of the unguarded dock, his weapon firing harmlessly into the night sky before he plunged into the freezing, churning black water below the freighter's massive propellers. The remaining guards, seeing their employer vanish into the abyss and hearing the unmistakable roar of Coast Guard cutter sirens approaching the mouth of the bay, dropped their weapons and raised their hands in unconditional surrender. Victoria dropped the flare gun, running forward and collapsing onto her knees to pull Maya into a crushing, tear-filled embrace on the rain-slicked dock.
