Chapter 117 - Steel Corridor Bloodshed
I knocked the contractor unconscious with the butt of the carbine and stripped his ammunition pouches, tossing two fresh magazines to Reyes.
"You hear that, Reyes?" I said, securing my sidearm. "The Lake Tahoe villa wasn't just a safehouse. It was the land-based relay station for an acoustic trigger."
"Jesus, Marcus," Reyes murmured, checking the chamber of his weapon. "A dual-point tectonic disruption. If they trigger the Mendocino Escarpment and the Tahoe fault line simultaneously, half of Northern California’s power grid and infrastructure collapses into the ocean."
Behind us, Arthur was clutching his chest, his face turning an ashen gray. "Marcus... my heart... I can't breathe..."
"You stay here with Clara," I said coldly, not even looking back at him. "If the water rises, you swim. If the contractors come back, you better pray they’re as merciful as you were when you stole my life savings."
"Marcus, don't leave us!" Clara sobbed, reaching out a trembling, manicured hand that was now covered in black industrial grease. "Please! I’m your sister!"
"You stopped being my sister the second you signed that forged deed," I said, stepping through the blast door into the main corridor.
The interior of the stealth corvette was narrow, utilitarian, and smelled of ozone, hydraulic fluid, and hot electronics. Cable bundles the thickness of my forearm ran along the ceiling, pulsing with high-voltage power. Every few seconds, the entire ship shuddered as thirty-foot waves battered the titanium-reinforced composite hull outside.
Reyes took point, moving in a low, predatory combat crouch. We cleared the first junction, bypassing the crew quarters, which were abandoned. The crew was at general quarters—stationed either on the bridge or in the automated magazine bays below.
"Two targets ahead," Reyes whispered, holding up two fingers. "Guarding the central lift."
I peered around the bulkhead corner. Two contractors with night-vision optics and tactical shotguns were positioned behind a barricade of ballistic shields outside the elevator that led directly to the command bridge.
"Flashbang?" Reyes whispered.
"No," I replied. "They're expecting conventional tactics. We use the ventilation trunk above the server rack."
I boosted Reyes up into the ceiling panel. He slid silently into the air duct like a ghost, his suppressed weapon held close to his chest. Ten seconds later, I heard the faint *thump* of a suppressed shot from above, followed immediately by a second.
Both contractors dropped without a sound.
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I rounded the corner, stepping over the fallen men, and hit the override switch for the lift. But instead of calling the elevator down, I pulled the emergency brake cable, locking the car between floors, and pried open the service ladder shaft beside it.
"We climb," I said. "Straight into the belly of the beast."
