Episode 16
Julian didn’t look at the soldier. He jammed the barrel of the pistol between his crossed wrists and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
The muzzle flash scorched his skin, but the heavy round snapped the thick plastic zip-tie, freeing his hands. He didn't waste a microsecond. As the soldier pulled his backup sidearm from his holster, Julian spun and fired twice into the mercenary’s ballistic vest. The heavy impact threw the man backward, out of the open fuselage, disappearing instantly into the blinding fog below.
Julian dropped the gun, turning to Leo. The cabin was screaming, the wind tearing at their hair, and the altimeter on the shattered bulkhead dashboard was spinning violently downward. 3,000 feet... 2,500 feet...
The helicopter was in a terminal tailspin. Through the open door, the black, churning waves of the ocean were suddenly visible, rushing up to meet them like a solid concrete wall.
"Juju!" Leo screamed, clutching Julian’s waist.
Julian scrambled toward the cockpit, kicking open the door. The main pilot was slumped over the controls, dead from shrapnel. Julian grabbed the cyclic control stick, pulling back with all his remaining strength, desperate to level the aircraft out before impact. The metal cables groaned, fighting him, but the nose of the helicopter slowly pitched up, converting a deadly vertical plunge into a violent, skipping skid across the surface of the water.
CRASH.
The impact was deafening. The belly of the helicopter tore open as it skipped across the freezing waves, spinning wildly like a thrown stone before flipping onto its side. The cabin instantly filled with surging, icy seawater, plunging them into darkness.
Julian fought through the freezing, churning foam, his lungs screaming for air. He grabbed Leo by the collar of his jacket, using his legs to kick through the shattered window of the cockpit. They broke the surface of the ocean, gasping, coughing up salt water into the freezing night air.
Behind them, the wreckage of the helicopter hissed, the hot engine block bubbling before sinking into the crushing depths, leaving nothing but a slick of burning oil on the water's surface.
Julian held Leo close, treaded water, and looked up. The thick fog above them was glowing with a dull, orange light. The fighter jets were circling somewhere high in the clouds, their engines roaring like distant thunder, unable to see the crash site through the heavy mist.
They were alive, but they were miles out in international waters, freezing, with no life vests and no raft.
"Juju... look," Leo whispered, coughing, pointing a trembling finger through the fog.
A massive, silent silhouette was slowly materializing out of the mist, cutting through the waves just fifty yards away. It wasn't a military vessel. It was a massive, blacked-out container ship, traveling with no navigation lights, completely invisible to the radar of the jets above.
As the towering steel bow of the ship drifted past them, a heavy nylon ladder was suddenly dropped over the side, splashing into the water just a few feet from Julian’s reach.
At the top of the railing, standing under a dim, shielded deck light, was a man in a dark trench coat, staring down into the water. Beside him stood Echo, her face grim.
Julian grabbed the ladder with one hand, securing Leo tightly against his chest with the other. He looked up at the nameless ship, realizing that their rescue wasn't a coincidence. They hadn't escaped the chessboard; they had just been moved to a new square.
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The man at the railing leaned forward, his voice cutting through the damp fog with chilling clarity. "Welcome to the real world, boys. Your father sends his regards. Now climb, before the jets realize we're here."
Julian sipped a ragged breath, his fingers freezing against the wet rope of the ladder. He looked at Leo, then up at the dark, looming vessel. They had survived the fall, but as they began to climb out of the ocean, Julian knew they were stepping onto the deck of an entirely new nightmare.
