Chapter 10 - The Steel Fortress
The heavy .50-caliber rounds ripped through the fiberglass hull of the interceptor, tearing metal sheets and shattering the forward navigation array. Alarms blared inside the wheelhouse as the captain desperately turned the wheel, throwing the vessel into a hard zigzag pattern across the violent swells.
“Sniper nest on the lower crane!” Briggs shouted, steadying himself against the cabin wall and raising a high-precision semi-automatic rifle through the shattered bridge window. He fired three rapid rounds through the spray. The searchlight high above exploded in a shower of sparks, and the machine-gun fire ceased as the gunner fell backwards into the foaming sea below.
“Bring us under the maintenance pylon!” Alexander ordered, striding toward the stern deck where grappling lines with pneumatic launchers were prepped.
The interceptor slammed against the rusted steel pylons of Platform Nine, the fenders groaning under the brutal pressure of the waves. Alexander fired the pneumatic launcher; the magnetic titanium hook caught the catwalk forty feet above with a sharp clank.
“Take Victor,” Alexander commanded Briggs. “He doesn't die until that countdown is terminated.”
With remarkable agility that defied his age, Alexander hauled himself up the tactical rope, using the steel ladder rungs welded to the pylon. Briggs followed closely behind, dragging a terrified, one-handed Victor Kane by a reinforced harness.
They reached the lower maintenance deck just as the countdown on Victor’s wrist flashed amber: 00:04:18. Four minutes.
Footsteps clattered against the iron grating above. Two mercenaries in yellow rain slickers rounded the corner with shotguns drawn. Alexander didn't wait. He drew his Kimber, ducked beneath the handrail, and put two rounds into the chest of the first guard. Briggs dropped the second with a swift strike from his rifle stock, pitching the unconscious man over the guardrail into the churning sea.
“Where is the vault access?” Alexander demanded, shoving Victor against a rusted air duct.
“The... the center elevator shaft,” Victor gasped, his face blue from hypothermia. “Keycard override is... in my coat pocket!”
Alexander reached into Victor’s soaked jacket, ripping out a heavy magnetic keycard. They sprinted down the narrow, slippery metal gantry toward the platform's central core. The rusted iron elevator cage was locked at the top of the shaft. Alexander swiped the card; the light flashed green, and the hydraulic cables squealed as the elevator opened.
They piled inside. Alexander slammed the manual descent lever down. The cage plunged into the dark belly of the derrick, descending past the water line into the freezing silence of the submerged submarine vault.
As the elevator slowed to a shuddering halt fifty feet below the ocean surface, the countdown reached 00:00:45.
May you like
Through the reinforced glass of the elevator door, Alexander saw a circular steel chamber surrounded by water pipes. In the center, suspended by chains inside an iron cage, hung a severely emaciated figure. Water was already pouring into the chamber from four high-pressure overhead valves, rising up to the prisoner's waist.
The timer read: 00:00:20.
