CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“I’m done,” said one man dropping his weapon. “No amount of money is worth facing them.”
“They’re just men,” screamed Hollis. “Flesh and blood. They will die just easily by a bullet.”
“You obviously know nothing about the security world, Mr. Burton. LEGACY is exactly that. A legacy of the most feared men who ever served in the armed forces special operations groups. I won’t die for that. Anyone else, we could handle. Not them.”
“You cowards!” he screamed. The men turned and walked to the lower decks, taking the small boat that had been moored behind them. The small remaining crew stared at him, the engineer covered in oil and grease.
“We can’t move forward, sir. Someone sabotaged the engine. We’re leaking oil everywhere and when we attempt to start, there’s a small fire. We’re stuck.”
“No,” he said shaking his head. “I don’t buy it. No!”
“Sir, we are dead in the water,” the engineer repeated.
Hollis sat back against the leather sofa, the bourbon in his hand sloshing over the lip of the glass, staining his trousers. He stared at the screens that were already claiming that Burton Drilling would declare bankruptcy the next day.
His own board members were on the screen, telling the world that Hollis Burton knew of all the issues with the platforms and still refused to shut them down. They publicly announced that he would be removed as CEO and they would cooperate with all agencies.
“Removed,” he whispered to himself. There was not one else to hear him. Everyone was gone. The lifeboats had been lowered and his crew was now headed toward the Coast Guard Cutter.
“You cannot remove me. I own this company. I built this company from the mess my father left me!” he howled. “Dorothy. That fucking bitch Dorothy and Voss. I’ll kill Dorothy all over again and I’ll make sure Voss is dead by my own hands.”
He opened the banking apps on his phone, one after another. FROZEN. FROZEN. FROZEN. FROZEN.
“This can’t be,” he said shaking his head. He was so distracted, so obsessed with his own ass, he didn’t hear the yacht being boarded by a dozen Coast Guard members, armed and ready to shoot.
He sat, ironically, frozen on the sofa. Luke, Cam, and Hex boarded with the others, helping to search for any discarded documents, although it didn’t really matter any longer. Hollis Burton was going to jail for a very long time.
“Hollis Burton, you are under arrest for fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, violations of the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act. Furthermore, you are charged with Rendering Safety Systems Inaccurate, tampering with evidence, falsifying evidence, False Statements to Federal authorities, securities fraud, wire fraud…” The voice of the federal agent continued to drone on with possible charges and the group just smirked.
Luke looked down at the dolphins and waved at them, thanking them for their assistance. He heard a sound in his head and laughed.
“Yes, Alvin. You can take the flamingo home.”
“I sure hope Miss Dorothy can rest easy now,” said Hex. “She deserves to know that what she did will bring justice for those poor families.”
“Let’s hope so,” said Luke. “How about we go home. We’ve done what we came to do.”