Chapter 6 - Last Crossing
They had eighteen minutes before the Aurora reached the fuel corridor.
Elena Turner contacted the Coast Guard.
Mercer's people contacted them first.
A fabricated security warning claimed armed extremists had seized portions of Grayhaven Harbor.
That bought Mercer confusion.
Maybe ten minutes.
Maybe less.
Nora didn't wait.
She ran toward the lower dock.
Adrian followed.
"Where are you going?"
"After the ship."
"With what?"
Nora pointed.
A forty-foot harbor response boat sat tied beside the processing plant.
Mack stared.
"That's been sitting there three years."
Nora jumped aboard.
"Then it'll appreciate the exercise."
She checked fuel.
Battery.
Engine.
"Keys?"
Mack reached beneath a loose section of console and produced them.
Nora stared.
"What?"
He shrugged.
"Your father taught me things."
Adrian climbed aboard.
Charles tried to follow.
Adrian stopped him.
"No."
"Adrian—"
"You've been shot."
"I've had worse."
"That's not the argument you think it is."
Charles looked at Nora.
"Mercer will expect you."
"Mercer's expected me to die three times today."
She started the engine.
"He's having a disappointing week."
Grant climbed aboard carrying weapons and emergency equipment.
Mack remained with Charles to continue transmitting evidence.
The boat pulled away.
Rain slashed across Nora's face.
The Aurora was already moving.
Its deck lights glowed through fog.
A ship that size did not look fast.
That was deceptive.
It was moving nearly fourteen knots and increasing.
Nora pushed harder.
Adrian stood beside her.
"You ever board a moving cargo vessel?"
"No."
"Good."
"Why is that good?"
"I didn't want to be the least qualified person here."
Nora glanced at him.
Despite everything, she laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Then a shot struck the windshield.
Grant ducked.
"Security boat!"
A smaller vessel approached from starboard.
Two men aboard.
Armed.
Nora turned sharply.
The response boat leaned.
Adrian fired warning shots.
The other boat kept coming.
Nora saw a line of abandoned marker buoys ahead.
She aimed directly toward them.
Adrian looked at her.
"Plan?"
"They don't know this harbor."
"You keep saying that."
"They keep proving me right."
At the last second, Nora cut left through a narrow gap.
The pursuing boat followed.
Its propeller caught an old commercial net line.
The engine screamed.
Stopped.
The boat spun.
"One," Nora said.
Adrian looked at her.
"Please never become angry with me."
"No promises."
They reached the Aurora.
A pilot ladder hung near the stern.
Too convenient.
Grant frowned.
"Trap."
Adrian nodded.
"Definitely."
Nora grabbed the ladder.
"Still useful."
They climbed.
The deck was nearly empty.
Containers towered on both sides.
Rain formed rivers along the steel.
Grant checked his weapon.
"Bridge is forward."
Adrian shook his head.
"Engine control first."
Nora looked around.
"You think Mercer actually wired explosives?"
"I think Mercer wants everyone to believe the fuel pipeline is the target."
Nora understood.
"Another diversion."
"Maybe."
They entered a service corridor.
The ship vibrated around them.
Grant opened a control room.
Empty.
Then they found the first body.
A crew member.
Alive.
Unconscious.
Drugged.
Another lay near the stairwell.
Mercer had incapacitated the crew.
Nora checked the man's pulse.
"Alive."
Adrian found an emergency radio.
"Bridge is locked out."
Grant examined the system.
"Engine controls too."
Footsteps.
They turned.
Victor Cole stood at the end of the corridor.
Adrian raised his gun.
"Uncle."
Victor lifted both hands.
He was soaked.
Bleeding from the forehead.
"Before you shoot me, you should know I just killed two of Mercer's men."
Adrian didn't lower the weapon.
"Tempting speech."
Victor looked toward Nora.
"You must be Bennett."
"Don't sound pleased."
"I'm not."
He gave a tired laugh.
"Your father was the beginning of the end for all of us."
Nora stepped closer.
"You helped kill him."
Victor looked at the floor.
"Yes."
Adrian's gun lifted.
Victor did not move.
"I ordered Mercer to frighten him. When David refused, Mercer decided fear wasn't enough."
Nora stared.
"And you let him."
"Yes."
No excuses.
That made it worse.
Victor looked at Adrian.
"Mercer started as our fixer. Then he collected evidence against everyone. Charles. Me. Judges. Regulators. Politicians."
"He owned you."
"He owned half the people who thought they owned Grayhaven."
Victor wiped blood from his eye.
"Tonight I refused him."
Adrian's voice was hard.
"Congratulations."
"Save your applause. I'm not asking for forgiveness."
Victor pointed toward the bow.
"I'm asking you to stop him."
"What is he doing?"
"The explosives are real."
Nora's stomach dropped.
"But they're not for the pipeline."
Victor pointed downward.
"They're placed around the ship's own fuel and electrical systems."
Grant understood.
"He'll scuttle it."
"In the channel," Victor said. "Block the harbor for months. Destroy physical evidence. Create enough chaos to disappear."
Adrian looked toward the bridge.
"Where is he?"
"Main control."
"How long?"
"Eleven minutes."
They ran.
Victor knew the ship.
He led them through maintenance corridors.
At one junction, armed men opened fire.
Grant returned fire.
Nora crawled beneath a pipe and reached an emergency valve.
She opened it.
High-pressure steam blasted the corridor.
Mercer's men retreated.
They reached main control.
Locked.
Adrian tried the access panel.
Denied.
Victor entered a code.
Denied.
"Mercer changed permissions."
Nora examined the door.
Then the wall.
"This is a ship."
Adrian looked at her.
"Yes."
"Everything mechanical has a manual bypass."
She found it behind a safety panel.
Her father had taught her that electrical systems were designed by people who trusted buttons.
Mechanical systems were designed by people who knew buttons eventually failed.
Nora turned the release.
The door unlocked.
Inside, Mercer waited.
He held a pistol.
A laptop sat beside him.
Countdown:
08:42.
Mercer smiled.
"Persistent family."
Adrian aimed at him.
"End it."
"It ended twelve years ago."
Mercer looked at Nora.
"Your father had a chance to walk away."
"So do you."
"No."
He smiled.
"I learned from his mistake."
He pressed a key.
The countdown accelerated.
04:00.
Victor cursed.
"What did you do?"
"Removed the delay."
Mercer fired.
Victor shoved Nora aside.
The bullet struck him in the chest.
Adrian fired back.
Mercer disappeared behind the console.
Grant moved left.
Nora crawled toward the laptop.
Three minutes.
Fifty seconds.
She reached the keyboard.
Password prompt.
"No."
Adrian shouted.
"Can you stop it?"
"Not from here."
Victor, bleeding heavily, pointed toward the deck plans.
"Manual detonator relay."
"Where?"
"Lower engine room."
Nora looked at the diagram.
Two decks below.
Adrian grabbed her.
"I'll go."
"You don't know ship systems."
"I know explosives."
"And you're injured."
"So are you."
"I'm angry. Different condition."
She ran.
Adrian followed anyway.
They reached the engine level.
Water sprayed from ruptured lines.
The timer on an emergency panel showed two minutes.
Nora found the relay.
Three armored switches.
Adrian examined wiring.
"Mercer booby-trapped it."
"Can you disarm it?"
"Maybe."
"That's not confidence."
"Nora."
He looked at her.
"If this goes wrong—"
"Don't."
"What?"
"Don't say whatever dramatic billionaire thing you're about to say."
He almost smiled.
"I was going to say run."
"I'm not leaving."
"You've known me less than a day."
"You ruined my front door."
"Technically my father's men."
"Still counts."
One minute.
Adrian cut one wire.
Nothing happened.
Forty-five seconds.
He cut another.
Timer jumped.
00:20.
"Wrong one," Nora said.
"Helpful."
Nora saw the manual coolant lever.
An idea.
"Move."
She pulled it.
A wall of seawater emergency coolant flooded the electrical housing.
Sparks exploded.
Adrian dragged her backward.
The timer reached:
00:03.
00:02.
00:01.
Black.
Everything stopped.
For one second, silence.
Then the ship's emergency generators came alive.
No explosion.
Nora laughed.
Adrian pulled her against him.
"You completely insane woman."
"You climbed after me."
Then the ship turned.
Hard.
Nora slammed into the wall.
Adrian caught her.
"Who's steering?"
Mercer.
They ran upward.
The Aurora was heading directly toward the breakwater.
Mercer had abandoned the bridge controls and was running toward a waiting speedboat.
Nora reached the outer deck.
"Mercer!"
He turned.
Adrian emerged behind her.
Mercer fired.
Nora ducked.
Adrian tackled him.
Both men crashed against the railing.
Mercer struck Adrian's wound.
Adrian went down.
Mercer raised the gun.
Nora charged.
She hit him from the side.
All three slammed into the rail.
The gun fell into the water.
Mercer grabbed Nora.
"Your father died because he couldn't let go."
Nora drove her knee into his stomach.
"He died because men like you think fear makes you powerful."
Mercer stumbled.
Adrian pulled Nora backward.
Grant reached the deck.
Mercer smiled.
Then he jumped.
Not into the sea.
Onto the speedboat below.
It accelerated into darkness.
Nora stared.
"He's getting away."
Adrian looked toward the bridge.
"We have a bigger problem."
The Aurora was still heading for the breakwater.
Nora ran toward the bridge.
The helm responded sluggishly.
Too much momentum.
Too little distance.
She turned with everything available.
The bow moved.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
"Nora!" Adrian shouted.
The ship struck the outer rocks.
Metal screamed.
The deck tilted violently.
A container broke loose.
It slid toward them.
Adrian pushed Nora away.
The container smashed through the railing.
The deck beneath Nora disappeared.
For one second, she saw Adrian reaching.
"Nora!"
Then she fell into the black water.
The ship moved above her.
May you like
The current dragged her beneath its massive hull.
Adrian reached the railing just in time to see her vanish under twenty-seven thousand tons of steel.
