Episode 20
The freezing ocean water was already up to Julian's knees, dragging at his boots as the cargo ship tilted further into the black abyss. The deck was a terrifying, slippery slide of marine oil and roaring waves. The massive steel crane had torn a gaping wound right down the center of the vessel, and the sea was rushing in like a waterfall.
Julian gripped the wet anchor chain, his knuckles white, his breath gasping in the freezing air. Through the thick haze of sea spray, his eyes swept the crumbling deck. Everything hung in a desperate, fragile balance.
On the far side of the fractured hull, Leo was trapped on a rapidly sinking platform. The military tablet had slid across the wet metal, its screen glowing a mocking red in the darkness: Global Network Deletion: 99%... PAUSED due to connection loss.
The man in the grey suit, battered and drenched, was crawling frantically toward the device. His fingers were inches from the screen. If he reached it, he could cancel the command, saving the Board’s global network and ensuring the nightmare would never truly end.
At the exact same time, two mercenaries from the rogue submarine faction scrambled over the flooded railing, their hands reaching out to grab Leo. Because of the multi-billion-dollar dark web bounty, they needed him alive and intact—but once they dragged him into the depths of their submarine, Julian would lose him forever.
"Juju!" Leo screamed, his voice cutting through the howling wind.
He wasn't reaching out for his own safety. He was pointing at the tablet. He was looking at Julian with an unyielding, fierce trust. He wanted his brother to finish the job they had bled for, to finally break the chains of the organization that had hunted them across the world.
But looking at the rising water and the closing mercenaries, Julian knew the math. The distance was too great. The ship was rolling over at a catastrophic angle, ready to slide into the deep ocean. He could only move in one direction.
He could dive for the tablet, smash it into pieces, and permanently erase the Board's empire from cyberspace—leaving Leo completely unprotected against the men closing in on him.
Or he could abandon the tablet, let the Board survive, and throw his body across the fracturing deck to shield his brother from the mercenaries, risking them both being dragged into the dark.
May you like
One choice saved the world from the monster. The other choice saved the only family he had left.
The deck groaned, a massive metal snap echoing from deep within the ship's hull. The next towering wave swelled over the bow, a blinding wall of freezing white water crashing down, swallowing the tablet, the suit, and the two brothers in a roaring, suffocating deluge.
