The Shadow Sovereign: Level Up from the Dirt

The Iron Trap

The red lights inside the locked vault flashed in total silence while Chairman Femi’s cold laughter echoed through the small monitor speaker.

On the Island, trapped rats in the lower decks were usually left to drown when a luxury warship cut its main drive. The elite families designed these floating fortresses with sealed compartments specifically so they could flood a single section with ocean water whenever a worker strike or a slave revolt broke out. They did not waste time sending guards down into a locked room when water could do the job cheaper.

"Zane, hand me the small screwdriver from Tariq's belt," Kemi said, her voice completely calm despite the heavy steel doors locking us in. She did not look at Femi’s face on the screen. She stepped past our unconscious mother, her pale fingers already prying open the metal casing of the vault’s main climate control box. "He cut the main engines, which means the ship is running on emergency battery reserves. That is his biggest mistake."

"How is that a mistake?" Tariq asked, leaning his shoulder against the sealed door to listen for movement in the corridor. "We are stuck under three feet of solid steel, three miles away from the coast."

"Emergency battery power operates on a single master circuit," Kemi explained, pulling two bright blue wires out of the box's circuit board. "Femi thinks he has us cornered, so he isn't watching the secondary voltage lines. He is waiting for us to panic and beg for our lives on this camera."

She looked up at the wall monitor where Femi sat sipping his wine. Her red eyes burned with a clear, sharp intent to destroy him.

"Femi," Kemi spoke up, stepping directly in front of the lens. "You took my core, you turned my mother into a battery, and you killed our father for a copper deed. You think this ship is your floating palace, but you forgot who designed the emergency drainage valves for the lower hulls six years ago."

Femi’s smile faded slightly on the screen. He set his wine glass down on his mahogany desk. "My engineers built this vessel, little girl. You were eight years old when the blueprints were drawn."

"My father drew them," Kemi corrected him instantly. Her voice was flat, carrying no fear at all. "And he put a design flaw in every single ship built during his contract. He knew your family would try to kill us eventually."

She jammed the two live blue wires straight into the vault's high-voltage emergency discharge port.

A sudden, blinding blue spark shot out of the panel, followed by a loud electrical pop.

The screen showing Femi’s face flickered violently and went completely black. Above our heads, the thick iron ventilation pipes groaned as the automated water pumps suddenly reversed their rotation. Instead of filling our room with water, the secondary pipes began pulling hundreds of gallons of sea water straight into the main engine room next door.

"The ship is tilting!" Tariq noted, holding onto a steel support beam as the floor beneath our feet sloped downward at a sharp angle.

"The water weight in the engine bay is tripping the automatic emergency release," Kemi said, wiping a streak of black grease off her forehead. "The blast doors will open for ten seconds so the crew can evacuate the lower level. Get ready to run."

A deep mechanical horn sounded through the walls. The massive steel doors blocking the hallway suddenly groaned and slid upward, exposing the foggy corridor outside.

"Grab Mom," I told Tariq.

Tariq lifted our mother onto his back, securing her weak arms over his broad shoulders. I drew my gun with my left hand while calling two shadow soldiers to form a defensive shield in front of us.

We sprinted out of the vault into the corridor. The ship was leaning heavily to the left now, its emergency alarms blaring in rapid, high-pitched bursts. Panicked crew members in blue coveralls were running toward the upper deck stairs, completely ignoring us as they tried to reach the lifeboats.

We pushed through the crowd, staying close to the outer wall until we reached the secondary maintenance deck near the stern. Outside the glass port windows, the dark ocean waves were crashing against the side of the vessel.

"There!" Kemi pointed to a small emergency escape pod bolted to the wall. "That pod runs on a manual mechanical launch. It doesn't need the ship's main computer."

Tariq rushed forward and loaded our mother into the padded seat inside the round metal pod. Kemi climbed in right behind her, taking the control stick to prime the pressure seals.

"Zane, get in!" Tariq shouted, holding the small hatch open.

I turned around to step inside, but a sudden flash of yellow energy blasted through the wall panel three feet away from my head. The heavy impact threw me backward onto the steel floor.

Through the thick smoke rising from the burst panel, four heavy footsteps echoed against the iron deck.

A tall figure stepped out of the haze. It was not a regular guard. He wore black armor reinforced with glowing red energy strips, and he carried a heavy double-barreled plasma cannon. The crest on his chest belonged to the highest rank of hunters on the Island, the Chairman's personal execution squad.

Beside him stood Ifunanya, her long hair tied back, a cruel smile spreading across her face as she held a heavy silver pulse pistol pointed directly at my chest.

"Did you really think it would be that easy, little boy?" Ifunanya asked, her voice calm and full of dark amusement. "The Chairman knew your sister would try to sabotage the power lines. He sent us down here to collect your heads before the ship sinks."

She raised her pistol and pulled the trigger.