2026-03-29 21:11:13
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Chapter 185
Jackson immediately froze, his legs burning with lactic acid, his breath catching in his throat.The Goubet II drifted forward on its own momentum, gliding silently through the freezing black water like a drowned whale, slipping directly beneath the wide, dark shadow of the drill ship's twin hulls.The bright sweep of an underwater searchlight passed directly over their tiny glass port. For three terrifying seconds, the interior of their iron tube was illuminated with blinding, crystal-clear white light.Jackson held his breath, expecting the deafening CLANG of an automated torpedo launch at any instant.The light moved on.The sensors saw only an old piece of round iron drifting forty feet down on the natural tidal current."We are directly beneath the central moon pool," Derick whispered, looking straight up through the glass port at an open, illuminated square of water inside the belly of the ship.A heavy steel acces
Chapter 184
Jackson swallowed hard. The image of Kendi’s face—dusty, bleeding, smiling through her tears in the Nairobi signal hut—flashed through his mind with searing clarity. He remembered her hands, raw and greased, holding the wooden T-bar of the rail trolley. She hadn't quit when the helicopter flew over the grass. She hadn't dropped the key when the drone opened fire on the roof. Jackson took a deep breath of the freezing French air, pulled his waterproof pack tight around his shoulders, and stepped forward into the mud. "Show me where the crank is," Jackson said. Ten minutes later, the round, heavy bronze hatch of the Goubet II slammed shut with a muffled, hollow CLANK. The interior of the iron vessel was tiny, narrow, and freezing cold. There were no seats—only two narrow wooden benches bolted to the curved iron ribs of the hull. Derick sat on the forward bench, his massive shoulders barely fitting between the c
Chapter 183
Samuel climbed next, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Kendi followed right on his heels, her boots kicking free of the warm, sulfuric water just as a violent tremor tore through the subterranean vault.CRACK-BOOM!The massive concrete intake wall behind them—the sixty-year-old monument that had survived decades of floods—split down the middle with the sound of a shattering mountain. A torrent of scalding mud and hissing steam geysered twenty feet into the air, slamming against the curved ceiling of the pipe.Kendi reached up, grabbed the edge of the surface hatch with both hands, and hauled herself out into the dusty wooden railway shed just as the concrete shaft beneath her collapsed into a churning vortex of boiling mud.They tumbled out onto the wooden floorboards of the shed.Above them, the night sky over the African scrubland was no longer dark. It was glowing with an eerie, sickly violet light—the sky filled with piezoelectric ch
Chapter 182
The freezing Polish wind blew through the skeletal pines, carrying the smell of crushed limestone and burning electrical insulation. Behind them, the entrance to the Silesian bunker was nothing more than a smoking pile of cracked concrete slabs and twisted iron rebar. In front of them, the cracked screen of Jackson’s field terminal cast a cold, red glow over their faces. [MESSAGE: THE FAULT LINES ARE OPEN. IF YOUR VESSEL APPROACHES WITHIN FIVE MILES OF MY COORDINATES, I WILL TRIGGER THE NAIROBI AQUIFER SEISMIC VALVE IMMEDIATELY. KENDI AND HER TEAM WILL BE BURIED ALIVE SIX FEET UNDER THE DIRT.] Jackson’s hands shook so badly that he nearly dropped the terminal into the gravel. His teeth were chattering—not just from the bitter night cold, but from the raw terror that had seized his chest. "Derick," Jackson stammered, his breath coming in short, panicked gasps. "He has the coordinates. He knows the exact depth of the Tana drainage tunnel. If he triggers a geothermal pulse under that
Chapter 181
"It went through, Kendi," Jackson’s voice came back, sounding exhausted but triumphant. "The entire global grid just switched to open-source protocols. Westbrook is dead, Ironclad’s software controls are void, and no corporate entity can ever hold those valves shut again."In the Silesian bunker, the celebration lasted less than five seconds.BOOM!The cherry-red steel doors of the server hall finally gave way. The weakened iron hinges shattered under a massive kick, and the heavy doors crashed inward onto the concrete floor, sending a thick cloud of white smoke and burning thermite sparks flying into the room.Through the doorway lunged four Ironclad tactical operators dressed in full black ballistic armor, their automatic rifles raised, their helmet-mounted tactical lights blindingly bright in the dim hall."STAY ON THE FLOOR! DON'T MOVE!" the lead contractor roared, his rifle barrel sweeping directly toward Jackson and Maya.D
Chapter 180
Kendi did not jump away from the drone. She jumped straight into the dark shadow beneath the roof line, tucking her knees tightly into her chest as her body fell through the cool night air. RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! A blinding spray of automatic gunfire chewed through the wooden edge of the roof right where her feet had been a split second before. Sharp splinters of dry pine and clouds of red roof dust exploded into the air, showering over her hair as she hit the steep gravel embankment below. She landed hard on her side, her hip driving into the sharp rocks. Pain shot up her spine, but her fingers remained locked like iron clamps around the cold, heavy handle of the second key. She rolled down the rough dirt slope, her boots sliding through the loose gravel, and tumbled straight through the open iron grate into the dark concrete drainage pipe. "Kendi!" Samuel screamed from the bottom of the ladder, his face pale
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