Chapter 10 - Beneath the Seawall
The fishing boat was forty feet long, old enough to groan with every wave, and far too small for the storm.
Naomi stood at the bow while rain struck her face like thrown gravel.
Blackwater Port appeared in the distance as a collection of dark warehouses and rusted cranes against the coastline. No navigation lights marked the harbor. No workers moved along the docks.
The entire facility looked abandoned.
Naomi knew better.
Hale steered from the enclosed cabin. Adrian sat beside Celia in the narrow lower berth, holding pressure against her wound. Vanessa worked beside him, following instructions from the medical manual with surprising steadiness.
Eleanor remained near the stern with a rifle.
Lucian was chained to a steel bench inside the cabin.
“Three minutes to the seawall,” Hale said over the radio.
Naomi studied the concrete barrier through night-vision binoculars.
Waves crashed against it.
The drainage opening remained invisible.
“Celia said low tide exposes the tunnel,” she replied.
“Low tide does not calm the ocean.”
A wave lifted the boat and dropped it violently.
Eleanor grabbed the railing but did not complain.
Naomi saw movement above the seawall.
Two guards.
“Security patrol.”
Hale changed course slightly.
“They won’t recognize the boat.”
“They don’t need to. Nothing is supposed to approach Blackwater.”
One guard raised binoculars.
Naomi crouched below the bow.
A spotlight swept across the waves.
Hale cut the engine.
The boat drifted.
“Why did we stop?” Vanessa asked through the radio.
“Because engines make noise,” Naomi said.
“So does drowning.”
“Stay below.”
The spotlight passed over the boat’s stern but did not settle.
The guards moved on.
Hale restarted the engine at minimal power.
They approached the seawall.
At first, Naomi saw only black water and concrete.
Then a wave receded.
A circular opening appeared near the base of the wall, half-covered by rusted bars.
The tunnel.
Hale aligned the boat beside a maintenance ladder.
“We cannot bring the vessel inside.”
Naomi secured a rope to the railing.
“We swim.”
Eleanor looked at the freezing water.
“I hate this plan.”
“It’s the only one.”
Adrian emerged carrying Celia wrapped in a waterproof emergency blanket.
“She can’t swim.”
“We’ll use the rescue stretcher.”
Vanessa lifted the inflatable stretcher from the equipment locker.
Together, they secured Celia to it.
Lucian watched through the cabin window.
“You are forgetting me.”
Naomi opened the door.
“No.”
“You intend to leave me chained to a boat during a storm?”
“I considered throwing you overboard.”
“Then who will stop the explosives?”
She grabbed his injured shoulder.
He winced.
“You said you moved them.”
“I said Daniel does not know I moved them.”
“Where are they?”
“Inside the underground fuel tunnels.”
Hale turned from the controls.
“The official demolition charges are in Warehouses One and Six.”
“Those are distractions.”
Lucian smiled thinly.
“The real charges will collapse the central server room and flood the lower levels.”
“Remote trigger?” Naomi asked.
“Yes.”
“Who has it?”
“Arthur Whitmore.”
Eleanor stiffened.
Lucian looked toward her.
“Your husband always loved dramatic endings.”
Eleanor opened the cabin door.
“He is not my husband.”
“Legally, he may still disagree.”
She pointed the rifle at him.
“Where will Arthur be?”
“Administration building. Executive bunker.”
Hale checked the seawall.
“We need to move now.”
They freed Lucian from the bench but kept his wrists secured in front. Adrian carried Celia down the ladder onto the stretcher.
The water was brutally cold.
Naomi entered first, gripping the rope attached to the boat. Waves slammed her against the wall.
Hale reached the drainage bars.
A heavy chain secured them.
Lucian shouted from the ladder.
“The lock is magnetic.”
Hale searched the metal.
“There’s no keypad.”
“Below the waterline.”
Naomi took a breath and submerged.
The darkness was absolute.
Her hands moved along the cold bars until she found a smooth metal panel. She pressed it.
Nothing.
She surfaced.
“Code?”
Lucian recited six numbers.
Naomi submerged again and entered them by touch.
A green light appeared beneath the water.
The lock released.
Hale and Adrian pulled the bars open.
They moved through the tunnel one by one, dragging Celia’s stretcher behind them. Eleanor entered next. Vanessa followed. Lucian came last, tied to Naomi by a rope around his waist.
The tunnel rose gradually.
After fifty yards, they reached dry concrete.
Naomi helped lift Celia from the water.
Her skin looked pale.
Adrian checked her pulse.
“Still alive.”
Hale activated a small flashlight.
The tunnel stretched ahead beneath rusted pipes.
A warning sign marked the wall.
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY—FUEL ACCESS.
Lucian looked around.
“This tunnel enters beneath Warehouse Four.”
“Where Daniel is being held,” Naomi said.
“He was there when the locator activated.”
“You think they moved him?”
“I would have.”
They advanced in silence.
Every few hundred feet, Hale stopped to check for sensors.
The third time, he found a thin red beam crossing the corridor.
“Motion alarm.”
Lucian stepped closer.
“Cut the blue wire.”
Hale exposed the control box.
“There are two blue wires.”
“The darker one.”
“They are the same shade.”
Lucian smiled.
“To you.”
Naomi pressed the pistol beneath his chin.
“Choose.”
Lucian pointed with his bound hands.
“That one.”
Hale cut it.
The red beam vanished.
They continued.
Vanessa walked beside Naomi.
“How did Daniel know we would all come?”
“He knows how people react under pressure.”
“Even me?”
“He probably did not plan for you.”
Vanessa almost smiled.
“That is reassuring.”
A faint sound echoed ahead.
Metal against concrete.
Naomi raised one fist.
Everyone stopped.
Footsteps approached.
Two people.
Hale pulled Adrian and the stretcher into a side recess.
Naomi pressed Lucian against the wall.
Two armed guards rounded the corner.
Naomi struck the first before he could raise his weapon. Hale caught the second from behind and lowered him silently.
They dragged both unconscious men into the recess.
Vanessa stared at Naomi.
“You make that look easy.”
“It isn’t.”
“It took three seconds.”
“Three seconds built on fifteen years.”
Vanessa looked at her hands.
“I have never built anything.”
Naomi glanced at her.
“Then start.”
They reached a ladder leading upward.
Hale climbed first and lifted the hatch slightly.
“Storage room.”
Naomi followed.
They entered Warehouse Four through a floor panel hidden behind stacked chemical barrels.
The warehouse was enormous, dark, and nearly empty.
No Daniel.
No guards.
Only rows of abandoned equipment.
A red light flashed on the far wall.
COUNTDOWN: 03:12:44.
Adrian looked at Hale.
“That is not sunrise.”
“No,” Hale said. “The schedule moved forward.”
Lucian looked genuinely surprised.
“Arthur activated emergency demolition.”
Naomi seized him.
“You said we had until six.”
“I said that was the approved schedule.”
“Can he detonate earlier?”
“Yes.”
“How early?”
Lucian looked at the countdown.
“Three hours, twelve minutes.”
A loudspeaker crackled overhead.
Then a man’s voice filled the warehouse.
“Welcome home, Eleanor.”
Eleanor went still.
She knew the voice.
Arthur Whitmore.
The husband she had mourned for twelve years.
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
“Grandfather?”
Arthur continued.
“I wondered how long it would take Marcus to lead you here.”
Hale’s face hardened.
“You planned this.”
“Of course.”
Lights came on across the warehouse.
Armed guards appeared on the upper walkways.
At least twenty.
Naomi pushed everyone behind the barrels as gunfire struck the floor around them.
The loudspeaker continued.
“Bring me the drive, Adrian. Bring me your mother and grandmother. The others are expendable.”
Adrian shouted, “Where is Daniel Reyes?”
Arthur laughed.
“With me.”
Naomi’s heart jumped.
A large screen flickered on above the warehouse floor.
Daniel appeared, seated in a metal chair inside a glass-walled room.
Blood stained his shirt.
But he was alive.
Naomi stepped from behind cover before Hale could stop her.
“Daniel!”
On the screen, her brother lifted his head.
His eyes widened.
“Nomi?”
The sound of his voice almost brought her to her knees.
Arthur entered the glass room behind him.
He was in his late seventies, tall and silver-haired, wearing a dark suit. He did not look like a dead man.
He looked powerful.
He placed a pistol against Daniel’s head.
“Adrian,” Arthur said, “you have ten minutes to choose your family.”
The screen split into two images.
One showed Daniel.
The other showed the unconscious guests still gathered inside Whitmore House.
Explosive devices had been placed throughout the ballroom.
Vanessa covered her mouth.
May you like
Arthur smiled into the camera.
“Bring me the drive, or I destroy both houses at once.”
