Chapter 98 - The Ghost of the Abyss
We rocketed upward through the black water like an arrow shot toward the stars. Noah screamed against my chest, his cries muffled by the roar of ballast tanks expelling water. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying to whatever deity watched over mothers and orphans in the darkest corners of the earth.
Through the viewport, the underwater nightmare played out in terrifying silence. Below us, the *Nadir* was engulfed in a silent bloom of underwater fire as secondary explosions ripped through its reactor core. Then, out of the deep blue abyss, two fast-attack submersibles painted in midnight camo swept past our pod, firing defensive countermeasures against incoming Directorate torpedoes. Arthur's network was engaging the enemy beneath the waves.
The pod breached the surface with an explosive splash, bobbing violently on towering oceanic swells. Daylight burst through the viewport—harsh, blinding, and vast.
We were in the middle of nowhere. Endless grey waves rolled under an overcast, storm-heavy sky. In the distance, several miles away, the massive black stealth destroyer was already turning its bow, its primary cannons swiveling toward our coordinates. They had detected our surface signature.
"Come on," I muttered, hands shaking as I checked Noah's breathing. He was pale, but his chest moved steadily, his eyes blinking open to look at me with wide, dark pupils. "Stay with me, baby. Mama's here."
Suddenly, the encrypted beacon on the pod's console beeped with an urgent, rhythmic pulse. The screen flickered to life, displaying a direct video transmission.
I expected a faceless commander or another cold Directorate operative. Instead, the screen revealed the bridge of an approaching vessel—and at the helm stood a woman with sharp green eyes and a familiar, haunting smirk.
May you like
It was Julian’s twin sister, Sarah Vance—the one member of the Vance family who had vanished five years ago after publicly renouncing their empire.
"Hold on tight, Clara," Sarah's voice came through the speaker, crisp and defiant. "The cavalry has arrived."
