Chapter 28
Roman
The cargo port reeked of diesel, rust, and black-market business.
Essentially, it was the perfect place to steal something that wasn’t mine to help me steal back someone that was.
“Target in sight,” Lev murmured, crouching beside me behind a wall of rust-streaked cargo crates. His tone was calm, but his knuckles were white around the grip of his weapon.
Beyond the maze of shipping containers, a boat bobbed in its slip. It was long, narrow, matte-black, twin outboards, probably military in nature. Fast, sleek, built for speed and maneuverability, not luxury. It wasn’t a yacht by any means. Actually, it was exactly what we needed.
Two men were stationed on deck, smoking, rifles slung carelessly over their shoulders. Sloppy. Complete amateurs.
“Only two guards,” I said quietly.
“Two against us?” Lev smirked. “Almost seems unfair.”
“Try to leave one breathing,” I muttered. “We’ll need a pilot if the controls aren’t standard.”
“Always so optimistic.”
Before I could reply, he was moving. He vaulted over the side rail of the dock with barely a sound, landing like a cat on the deck. I followed half a breath later, drawing my silenced pistol as I hit the wood beside him.
The first guard turned, mouth opening. I put a bullet through it before he could make a sound.
The second’s cigarette hit the deck as Lev’s knife flashed. One smooth slice across the throat and blood sprayed out, dark against the black hull. He caught the body, lowered it silently.
We both froze, listening.
No alarm.
I glanced at him. “You’ve gotten quieter.”
He wiped his blade on the man’s sleeve. “You’ve gotten slower.”
For a moment, all was quiet. Then I grinned, noticing several weapons mounted on the sleek vessel, one of them being a grenade launcher mounted on the back of the boat.
“This is going to be fun,” I exclaimed.
A faint noise below deck, movement of some kind.
“Inside,” I said.
Lev slipped the lines holding the boat free and then we descended the short metal ladder heading below deck.
The interior was cramped and utilitarian with a navigation console, fuel gauges, and several different storage compartments.
I saw a man sitting hunched over the controls, headphones on, completely oblivious to the two of us descending into his domain.
Lev tapped my shoulder. I surged forward with a shout.
The man spun in his chair, eyes wide, hands lifting. “Wait—”
Lev’s gun was already at his forehead. “You wait.”
I stepped closer, studying him. He was in his early thirties, sunburned, tattoos snaking up his neck, mercenary type. “You know how to handle this boat?”
He nodded rapidly.
“Good,” I said, then slammed the butt of my gun into his temple. He crumpled. “Now we don’t need him.”
Lev chuckled. “You said you wanted a pilot, dumbass.”
“I changed my mind.”
We hauled the unconscious man up and dumped him on the dock. I checked the fuel gauge and noted that it was full.
Lev settled into the copilot seat and started flipping switches, power humming to life. The twin engines rumbled, vibrating through the hull. Lights along the console blinked to green.
Behind us, voices shouted. At first, they were distant, then closer. Someone had found the bodies.
“Time to go,” Lev said.
“Do it.”
The engines roared. The boat leapt forward, cutting through the black water like a blade. The harbor lights blurred behind us as we tore through the narrow channel, wake exploding behind us in white foam.
Gunfire cracked from the dock. Bullets sparked off the hull and I growled in annoyance. I climbed up the ladder, drew my pistol, and fired twice toward the muzzle flashes. One went dark.
“Keep her steady!” I barked.
“Always do.”
The bow slammed over a wave, spraying salt water across my face. The port fell away behind us. Ahead, open water stretched, endless and black, the stars reflecting off the surface like broken glass.
“Dmitri’s going to kill us,” Lev muttered, throttling forward.
“Dmitri’s not here,” I said. He’d stayed behind back at their compound to keep an eye on Viktor and Katya. We’d had a long, heated argument among the three of us, but in the end, he’d relented, knowing time was of the essence for Kara’s rescue, which left me and Lev to get shit done.
Lev’s jaw flexed. “You think Viktor and Katya are treating him well?”
“I’m sure that he’ll be fine,” I replied flatly.
Two blips showed up on the radar. They were coming up fast, maybe even gaining on us.
“An active pursuit,” Lev said. “Looks like ARCHEON’s patrol drones. Surface interceptors.”
I adjusted the throttle and grinned. “Then let’s give them a show.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Define show.”
I raced up to the main deck and reached for the grenade launcher. “The loud kind,” I yelled down to him.
I swung the launcher out toward the water. Over the rumble of engines and crashing waves, I could just make out the distant whine of the enemy drones closing in, and then I spotted the lights of the drones off in the distance. They were fast but fragile and I was going to take them down.
I fired.
The grenade screamed through the dark and struck the first drone dead center. A bloom of orange light erupted, painting the night in fire.
The shockwave rolled over us, rocking the boat.
“Jesus,” Lev shouted. “You trying to sink us too?”
“Collateral damage,” I yelled back, smirking. “ARCHEON started it.”
The second drone veered closer, its mounted turret swiveling toward us. I heard the hiss of rounds cutting the air and hitting the water.
“Hold her steady!” I shouted again.
Lev growled, muscles straining as he fought the current. “Do it fast!”
I sighted, exhaled, fired again.
The second drone exploded, fragments raining down in molten arcs that hissed as they hit the sea. The smell of burnt metal filled the air.
Silence.
Then there were only the engine’s growl and the sound of the sea remaining. I headed back down below deck once things were clear.
Lev glanced up at me, eyes wild. “You know,” he remarked, “for someone who swears he’s not reckless, you’re terrible at proving it.”
“Hey. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do,” I retorted.
The engines screamed louder as we pushed the throttle to its limit. The boat tore across the water, twin streaks of firelight dying behind us.
We were coming for Kara.
And this time, nothing—not ARCHEON, not Revenant, not even God himself—was going to stop us.