Chapter 19
The vein on Adrian Kestrel’s forehead protruded and throbbed as his blood pressure launched into the stratosphere.
Yet his voice was cold and low. He had Jonah Pike on the line.
The next time he saw the special forces fucker, he’d have him killed.
“How dare you take action without my approval? I wasn’t ready to get rid of her. ”
“We felt it was necessary. She knows too much.”
“She isn’t the liability. You are. Marta is.”
There was silence on the line, and Adrian knew Pike’s asshole was clenched tight.
The son of a bitch had caused severe damage to his plans.
He wasn’t ignorant of computer systems or people.
He had secondary assets on the tower feeding him information from the platform.
He knew what Pike had done. He knew his specialist had been complicit in helping the fucker.
“What are you going to do now?”
“We’ll get rid of her and tell the platform she quit and requested immediate evacuation. They’ll believe me. She’s been acting weird since the attempt. They’ll believe she broke and wanted off the platform.” Pike’s self-assured pomp was bile in Adrian’s throat.
“Make it go away. Now.”
“On it.”
Adrian disconnected then walked into his bathroom adjacent to his office, turned on the water, and dialed his secondary asset’s number with his burner phone. Callum answered immediately. “Sir?”
“Start a rumor that she’s cracking up. Tell them she lost it, and you witnessed it.”
“They won’t believe me. They’re questioning everything right now.”
“Fix it, or you know what’ll happen,” Adrian hung up the phone.
He had everything lined up. Ms. Brooks was the least of his concerns.
Pike would finish her. But Pike and Marta had overstepped.
They’d die for that. Nothing was going to get in the way of him brokering information to the world. Nothing.
* * *
Reece woke before Maggie.
The room was still dark, with just the faint glow of emergency lighting along the baseboards casting shadows across the walls. He lay still for a moment, listening to the platform's constant hum, the vibration that never stopped.
Maggie was curled against him, her head on his chest, one hand resting over his heart. Her breathing was slow and even. Peaceful in a way she hadn't been since the attempt on her life at the maintenance bay.
He watched her sleep and knew this moment was temporary.
Everything was temporary on Darkwater.
But he didn't regret it.
He would do it again.
The comms activated quietly in his ear.
"Reece," Max said. "You awake?"
Reece tapped once against his ear. Acknowledged.
"Good. Don't wake her. Just listen."
Reece stayed perfectly still, his hand resting gently on Maggie's back.
"Pike and Voss are escalating," Max continued. "They’ve been probing internal systems, trying to confirm Maggie's location. I’ve also found information that proves that Pike is the one who killed Dex’s friend, Ron Slater. The executives are using the same computer specialist to run these checks as Adrian Kestrel does. His name is Virgil Bradley. I’ve seen his footprint before.
He’s good, but damn is he a sloppy bastard.
My partner is leading him on a merry chase right now so I can work unbothered by his interference. "
Reece's jaw tightened. Max had mentioned a partner before. Thank God he had one.
“This is good in a way. By searching for her, Bradley has revealed that Pike and Voss have worked with him before, and while he’s chasing my partner’s red herring, I’ve been searching his systems. So much information," Max explained. "But back to today. They assume she's still alone, and they don’t know anyone else is watching. They’re wrong on both counts. They do know she isn’t in her room.
They had a security team do a welfare check.
I had to switch the cameras out to show them going into the room, or they’d know she has help. "
Reece tapped once.
"I've been mirroring every search he made. Capturing timestamps, queries, and access patterns. This and everything else we’ve helped Maggie to collect and document turns our proof into an impenetrable case." A pause. "But there's more, and it’s better than I could have hoped for."
Reece waited.
"The platform is fracturing, not structurally, but socially. Everyone knows Maggie and respects her. They know she wouldn't lie. Security is asking hard questions now. The few who are loyal to the executive level are trying to keep the people at bay, but it isn’t working. Everyone is asking real questions, and some are threatening to go public with what happened to Maggie. People are reviewing footage, checking credentials, and trying to figure out how she was lured down there. The AI used to parse all the conversations recorded on the platform together has indicated a huge upswing in suspicion, and it’s all directed to the executive level. Everyone is looking for answers."
Good, Reece thought. Let them dig.
"Programmers are starting to look deeper into system access," Max continued.
"Admin is questioning client information protocols.
The people of Darkwater are acting like a community instead of an isolated workforce.
That's not what the executives wanted. They designed this place to keep people in their lanes.
But Maggie's incident broke that model."
Reece felt a grim satisfaction settle in his chest.
"I've been monitoring private communications between Adrian Kestrel, Pike, and Voss," Max said, tone sharpening. "Got into that private channel about an hour ago. The CEO is furious. He's blaming them for fucking things up because they ordered the hit on Maggie. I have the name of the man who pushed her, a maintenance worker. I ran the guy, and he’s in a financial hole he’ll never get himself out of. There was money deposited in his account right before Maggie was pushed over. I’ve spliced the camera footage, and I can put him in the area at the time it happened. Kestrel didn't authorize this hit, but he ordered the one on Ron Slater. I have all that documentation. Kestrel keeps a mirror file on his computer. He deletes the messages and transcriptions of phone calls from the main system, but he’s keeping a copy of everything. I guess it’s his insurance policy, but it’s sealed his fate as well as Pike and Voss’.
Oh, and Callum’s, too. He’s a mole for Kestrel.
Kestrel thought I couldn’t tap into a call leaving his office from a burner phone.
Idiot. Anyway, Callum’s job is to make everyone believe Maggie has cracked, and she wanted to leave the tower and go home. "
Reece's hand tightened slightly on Maggie's back.
"Kestrel agreed with Pike and wants her dumped in the water immediately. He’s incensed that Pike and Voss forced him into this position prematurely—Yeah, I said prematurely.
The fuckwad was going to get rid of her eventually," Max said flatly. "And big surprise, they haven’t told Kestrel that they’re losing control of the platform. They’ll have to soon, though."
Rage flooded through Reece's chest, hot and immediate. He wanted to shut down the fuckers who’d dared to hurt his woman.
Max continued. "Voss and Pike are scrambling, and Virgil, their computer specialist, is making mistakes. But I’m keeping a record.
Maggie and Dex will need to testify as to what they saw and found, but the attempt on Maggie’s life while she was working with us gave us the leverage we needed to lead the investigation instead of waiting for Maggie to finish her search for evidence.
The Justice Department has approved our involvement, and I’ve copied everything.
The fact that the facility is in international waters is giving everyone heart palpitations.
Everyone except Guardian. We’re gearing up. "
Reece tapped once. Understood.
"Stay where you are," Max ordered. "Both of you.
Don't leave that room until I know Guardian's plan of action.
Your father's been briefed. Leadership is aligning legal, intelligence, and operational branches and briefing POTUS.
This is no longer reconnaissance. This is preparation for D Day.
Tonight is the window. The weather is going to compromise any mission past that time. "
Reece tapped once.
"I'll update you when I know more. Keep her safe."
The line went quiet.
Reece lay in the darkness, Maggie still sleeping peacefully against him, and processed everything he'd just heard.
The platform was fracturing. The CEO was losing control. And Guardian was about to step in.
* * *
Dawn came slowly on the platform.
There were no windows in this room. No natural light. Just the gradual shift from emergency lighting to full illumination as the platform's systems cycled through their morning routine.
Reece felt Maggie stir against him. Her breathing changed.
Her fingers curled slightly against his chest. He waited, giving her time to surface slowly.
Her eyes opened. Unfocused at first, then sharpening as awareness returned.
She looked up at him. No panic. No confusion.
Just recognition and maybe something deeper.
"Morning," he said quietly.
"Morning." Her voice was rough with sleep. She shifted slightly, wincing as her bandaged hands pressed against the mattress.
"Careful," Reece said, catching her wrist gently.
"I'm okay." She sat up slowly, the sheet falling away. "How long have you been awake?"
"A while."
She studied his face. "Something happened." It wasn’t a question or an observation; it was a statement of fact.
"Yeah," Reece said. "My computer specialist checked in."
Maggie's expression sharpened immediately, and she narrowed her eyes. “How?"
He pointed to his ear. “Comms.”
Maggie literally pushed on top of him and scaled his body. She pulled his ear so she could see. “With that? Oh, is that your comms? It’s tiny. You’ve been talking to them the entire time?”
“Yes.” He wouldn’t lie to her.