Chapter 15 - The Predator from the Deep
It wasn't a rescue helicopter.
The sound was the heavy, low-RPM idle of an offshore interceptor boat, cutting through the morning fog without navigation lights.
Naomi and Mateo scrambled to the opening of the canopy, peering out into the gray mist.
Emerging from the fog banks was a fifty-foot carbon-fiber speed vessel, painted matte black with no registration numbers visible on the bow. On the forward deck stood three men dressed in tactical gear, holding automatic rifles at the low-ready position.
Mateo's face went completely pale. ""That's not the Coast Guard.""
""Julian’s buyers,"" Naomi breathed, the horror returning in a sickening wave. ""The cartel syndicate he was laundering the bonds for. They weren't waiting in Saint Martin. They were tracking the yacht's transponder the whole time.""
The black boat pulled alongside the inflatable raft, its massive wake tossing the raft violently. A man in a dark windbreaker stepped to the gunwale, holding an encrypted radio.
He looked down at Naomi and Mateo, his gaze cold, professional, and merciless.
""Julian Vance failed to deliver the cargo at 0400 hours,"" the man said through a megaphone, his English clipped and accented. ""The contract states that if the principal fails to deliver, the cargo is recovered from the collateral.""
Two armed men tossed heavy grappling hooks into the raft’s rigging, dragging the rubber craft flush against the hull of the interceptor boat.
""Wait!"" Mateo shouted, reaching for the waterproof envelope. ""The bearer bonds are here! Take them!""
The man with the megaphone didn't even look at the envelope. He raised a hand, and the two gunmen leveled their rifles directly at Mateo’s chest.
""The bonds are worthless without the biometric keys registered to Julian Vance's private vault,"" the commander said calmly.
The commander stepped aside. From the cabin of the black interceptor boat, a man stepped out into the morning light, leaning heavily on a carbon-fiber cane, his face wrapped in bloody surgical gauze, his right arm strapped tightly across a freshly bandaged shoulder.
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Julian smiled through the bandages, his eyes burning with triumphant venom.
""Good morning, Naomi,"" Julian whispered through the boat's speaker system. ""You should have stayed in the water."""
