Chapter 26 - Boarding the Vanguard
The night sky over Puget Sound was pitch-black, torn apart only by jagged flashes of distant lightning and the steady, blinding beam of our tactical helicopter’s searchlight. Below us, the massive hull of the Vanguard—a six-hundred-foot container ship—cut through the violent swells like a floating mountain of steel.
As our chopper hovered directly over the ship’s open helicopter deck, Miller and I hooked our tactical harnesses to the fast-rope cable.
"Remember," I shouted over the deafening roar of the twin turbine engines. "We need Viktor Kane alive!"
Without hesitation, I dropped over the side, sliding down the wet cable straight onto the slick steel deck of the ship. The wind whipped violently around us, driving cold spray into our faces. Miller and three veteran operatives hit the deck immediately behind me, weapons raised and sweeping the perimeter.
The alarm Klaxon on the Vanguard began to wail, a harsh, rhythmic howling that echoed across the open ocean.
We pushed through the heavy steel bulkhead doors into the vessel’s interior stairwell, clearing each landing with brutal, professional efficiency. Apex security guards scrambled out of the crew quarters, but they were entirely unprepared for a tactical assault led by a man who had spent years mastering the art of controlled aggression.
We reached the primary bridge deck in less than four minutes.
I kicked the reinforced glass door of the bridge inward, sending it shattering across the steel flooring.
A tall, silver-haired man in an expensive tailored suit stood near the primary navigation console, holding a satellite phone to his ear. Viktor Kane.
"Drop the phone, Viktor," I said, stepping across the threshold, my pistol leveled directly at his chest.
Kane slowly lowered the phone, his lips curving into a slow, mocking smile as he tossed the device onto the navigation table.
"Grant Mercer," Kane said smoothly, his voice carrying an unmistakable European accent. "They told me you were blind. They told me you were rotting in a dark mansion in New York."
"They lied," I replied, stepping closer until the muzzle of my gun was inches from his expensive silk tie. "And now, your ship is impounded, your cargo is seized, and your operation is finished."
Kane laughed, a cold, dry sound that matched the howling wind outside. "You think seizing a container ship stops what’s coming, Mercer? Look out the window."
May you like
I glanced past him toward the open ocean. Through the torrential rain, three heavy offshore patrol vessels bearing no national flags were rapidly converging on our position from the darkness.
"Apex doesn't lose assets, Grant," Kane whispered, his eyes gleaming with mad triumph. "They bury them."
