Episode 21
The roaring wall of white water slammed into Julian like a freight train, tearing his fingers away from the anchor chain. The icy depth swallowed him whole, spinning him in a dark, weightless vortex. For a terrifying moment, the world was nothing but freezing, crushing silence.
He fought his way upward, his lungs burning, breaking the surface just as the bow of the cargo ship rose into the air like a dying titan. Through the blinding sea spray, Julian wiped his eyes and looked across the fracturing deck.
The tablet was gone, washed away into the dark ocean. The man in the grey suit had vanished into the waves, his global network left frozen at 99% deletion—glitched, but not destroyed.
But Julian didn't care about the network. He only cared about the small, dark form clinging desperately to a rusted railing as the submarine mercenaries closed in.
With a primal shout, Julian threw himself into the churning water, swimming against the violent current. He reached the sinking platform just as a mercenary’s hand wrapped around Leo’s arm. Julian didn't hesitate. He grabbed the heavy iron wrench still tucked into his belt and slammed it down onto the mercenary's wrist. The man let out a muffled yell, losing his grip and slipping back into the sea.
Julian snatched Leo by the collar, pulling his brother into his arms. "I've got you! Hold on!"
"Juju, the tablet!" Leo gasped, coughing up saltwater. "The deletion stopped! They're going to rebuild it!"
"Let it burn," Julian growled, locking his arm around Leo's chest as a massive swell lifted them off the deck.
Beside them, a heavy orange survival capsule—one of the ship's emergency enclosed lifeboats—was automatically releasing from its pressurized rig as the ship sank. The door was hanging open, swinging wildly. From inside, Echo's hand reached out through the darkness, her face pale but determined. Sarah was behind her, holding onto the safety straps.
"Julian! Jump!" Echo screamed over the roar of the ocean.
Julian gathered every ounce of strength left in his freezing muscles. As the container ship took its final, catastrophic plunge into the abyss, he launched himself and Leo forward, tumbling into the small, reinforced capsule just as Echo slammed the heavy steel hatch shut.
BANG.
The world went pitch-black inside the capsule as it detached, bobbing violently like a cork as the massive suction of the sinking cargo ship dragged them downward. They spun in the darkness, the metal shell groaning under the immense water pressure. Julian held Leo in a suffocating embrace, shielding the boy's head with his arms, waiting for the hull to crush them.
Then, with a sudden, violent surge, the capsule shot upward, breaking the surface of the Atlantic.
Through the small, reinforced glass portal, Julian looked out. The sky above was empty; the fighter jets had vanished into the storm. The ocean was completely clear. The three warships, the mercenaries, the man in the suit, and the container ship had all been swallowed by the dark water, leaving nothing but a swirling vortex of oil and debris.
They had survived the night, but the war wasn't over.
Leo sat in the corner of the capsule, wrapped in a dry emergency blanket, his eyes fixed on a tiny, secondary handheld monitor connected to Echo's satellite backup. The screen was pulsing with a faint, steady signal.
"The 99% deletion glitched their entire system," Leo whispered, his voice quiet, steady, and chillingly sharp. "The Board is paralyzed. Their funds are frozen, their identities are exposed, but the core servers are still breathing. They are entering a forced reboot."
Julian walked over, kneeling beside his brother, placing a warm hand on Leo's shoulder. "Where are the core servers, Leo?"
Leo looked up at Julian, a map reflecting in his dark pupils. "A secure, underground bunker in the Swiss Alps. It’s their final sanctuary. In forty-eight hours, the system will automatically restart, and they will come for us again."
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Julian stood up, looking at Sarah and Echo, who were watching him in silence. The cheap burner phones, the corrupt judges, and the local foster homes were a lifetime away. They were in international waters, stripped of their past, but for the first time, they weren't running. They had a target.
"We aren't waiting for the restart," Julian said, his voice cold, hard, and final. "We're going to Switzerland. We're going to pull the plug ourselves."
