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CHAPTER 848
"I don't need you to talk," Persis countered, leaning against the cold stone. "Tedmond already has the logs. Albert found the espresso machine relay. We know everything. I’m not here for information, Ruby. I’m here to figure out why.""Why?" Ruby stood, her hands balled into fists. "Because they were going to kill her! You have everything, Persis.” Her voice cracked as her gaze swept over her captor.“You have the name, the money, the husband who would burn the world for you. I had a mother with a failing heart in a war zone. What choice did I have?""You had us," Persis said, her voice dropping to a whisper deadlier than a scream. "You walked past me every day for three years. You saw how we protect our own.” Her expression hardened. “You could have come to Thomas. You could have come to me. Instead, you chose to give Katerina a window into my bedroom."Ruby flinched as if struck. "I didn't think... I didn't think you were real. I thought you were just another bored socialite.""T
CHAPTER 847
The descent in the life-launch was a quiet affair, a sharp contrast to the mechanical screaming of the Vasilisa just moments prior. As the pod hit the water with a heavy splash and detached from the magnetic davits, the vast, dark silhouette of the yacht shrank against the horizon.Tedmond sat at the helm of the escape craft. His hands, the same hands that had just dismantled an empire, moved with gentle precision as he set a course toward the mainland.*****Persis sat opposite him. Her emerald gown was ruined, salt-crusted and torn, yet she had never looked more like the mistress of the Washington estate. She watched the orange embers of the last Arisov deeds flicker out in the wake of their small boat."You’re remarkably calm for a man who just scuttled a multi-billion dollar syndicate," Persis said, her voice finally losing its tactical edge.Tedmond didn’t look away from the navigation screen, but the corner of a smile tugged at his lips. "I’m not calm, Persis. I’m exhausted
CHAPTER 846
Katerina didn't wait for the sixty seconds. Her face, usually a mask of aristocratic coldness, contorted into something primal. She no longer looked like a Sokolov; she looked like a cornered animal realizing the cage was shrinking."If I can't have the Arisov legacy," she shrieked, her thumb hovering over a recessed button on her encrypted phone, "then nobody leaves this tub!""Tedmond!" Persis shouted, sensing the shift in the air.Tedmond didn't hesitate. He seized a heavy brass fire extinguisher from the bridge bulkhead and hurled it with the force of a falling anvil. It didn't hit Katerina; it shattered the window behind her just as the Vasilisa groaned, banking another five degrees. The glass, already stressed by the Atlantic’s fury, spiderwebbed and gave way."Albert, now!" Tedmond roared.From a basement in Washington, Albert slammed his fist onto the Enter key. "Bridges burnt! Ventilation toggled!"In the lounge, the fire suppression system didn't spray water. It releas
CHAPTER 845
"It’s a gamble, Scalpel," Albert’s voice crackled, sounding as though he were running a marathon. "The encryption is old-school Russian military. If I trip the watchdog protocol, the scuttling charges might activate. Katerina doesn't play fair… she’d rather sink the Vasilisa with everyone on it than lose that data."Persis looked at the dark, churning water through the small reinforced porthole."She’s already planning to sink me, Albert. Let’s give her something real to worry about. Initiating sequence... now."She jammed the drive into the maintenance port. Immediately, the red emergency lights in the sub-deck began to strobe, casting long, distorted shadows against the steel ribs of the ship.*****The Observation Deck – 01:15 AMKaterina stood in the center of the darkened lounge, guards forming a defensive circle. The silence of the dead engines was more terrifying than any roar."Status!" Katerina screamed. "Why is the power cutting? Why isn't the bridge responding?""Interna
CHAPTER 844
"In the flesh," Tedmond replied. "Or rather, in the captain's chair. You wanted to see how we conduct business away from the prying eyes of the city? Well, the prying eyes are gone. It’s just us, the vipers, and a very, very deep ocean."Katerina turned to her remaining guards, her voice a shriek of desperation. "To the bridge! Break down the door! Kill him! And get the girl from the Imperial Suite, bring her to me now! If I'm going down, I'm taking his Diamond with me!"*****The Sub-Deck VaultPersis reached the biometric safe, a massive, black-steel cube welded directly into the hull. The Arisov deeds, the keys to the Sokolovs' remaining empire, were inside.Heavy boots thudded on the deck above. They were coming for her."Albert, I'm at the safe. It’s a retinal scanner and a physical key-turn," Persis said, fingers dancing over the cold metal. "I don't have Katerina's eyes, and I don't have the key.""You don't need them," Albert replied, his voice frantic over the sound of rap
CHAPTER 843
"Lights are primed, Boss," Albert whispered from the Washington basement, fingers flying across the keys. "Team is inside. Mother is secure. We’re pulling out now."Svetlana pushed open the bridge door, the wind whistling through the gap. She didn't lead with a smile this time."Captain," she called out, her voice straining over the engine’s roar. "My mother wants the secondary registry code. She says the logbook is out of sync."Tedmond slowly turned the wheel, steering the Vasilisa directly into a massive, eight-foot wall of water. He didn't turn to face her."The code is 7-0-9," Tedmond rumbled, using a number ten years out of date.Svetlana’s face contorted. "That’s the old code. Kelvin would know the update.""Then it's a good thing I'm not Kelvin," Tedmond said.He spun the wheel hard to the left just as the ship hit the wave. The Vasilisa lurched violently, slamming the two guards against the bulkhead. In the chaos of the impact, Tedmond spun around, the suppressed barrel of
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