Chapter 8 - The Crimson Tide
The black zodiac boat cut through the raging waves of the Mediterranean like a razor. The storm was at its peak, black clouds smothering the moon, leaving the towering limestone cliffs of San Giorgio shrouded in pitch-black shadow.
Dante killed the outboard motor three hundred yards out. The roar of the surf against the jagged sea caves echoed like distant artillery.
"Masks on," Dante ordered, pulling a dive mask over his face and checking the regulator.
Grace adjusted her small dive vest. Her pale face was devoid of color in the freezing spray, but her hands were rock steady. Dante reached out, his thick, scarred fingers gently brushing the side of her cheek.
"If anything happens to me in there," Dante whispered, "you take your sister and you run. Do not look back. Do not avenge me."
"You won't die, Father," Grace replied, her green eyes shimmering faintly in the dark. "The house of Dante doesn't fall to cowards."
They rolled backward off the pontoons into the freezing black abyss.
The pressure pressed hard against Dante’s eardrums as they dove beneath the breaker line, swimming straight toward the submerged mouth of the cave. Elena led the way, a green chemical glowstick trailing behind her fin. Grace swam directly beneath Dante, moving with the effortless grace of a creature born to the deep.
They breached the surface inside a cavernous underground chamber. Stalactites hung like fangs from the ceiling. Above them, iron catwalks were bolted into the rock, patrolled by two Covenant guards armed with flashlights and rifles.
"Thermal grid is active," Elena hissed under her breath, pointing to a faint red wire strung along the waterline. "Grace, the bypass box is sixty feet above, behind the exhaust turbine."
Grace slipped out of the water like a phantom. She didn't use the rusted iron ladder; instead, she wedged herself between the natural fissures of the rock wall, climbing silently into the shadows.
Dante and Elena waited, submerged to their chins in the icy water, counting the seconds.
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Suddenly, the red laser grid flickered and died. A muffled thud sounded from the catwalk above, followed by a body plunging silently into the dark water beside them. Dante drew his suppressed pistol—only to realize the corpse floating past was already dead, a ceramic blade embedded in its ear canal.
Above them, on the narrow steel beam, a small shadow signaled downward.
