Chapter 7 - Secrets of the Levant
The assault craft slammed against the reinforced fiberglass hull of the Zephyr.
Hannah leaped onto the swim platform before the vessel had even finished rebounding off the fenders. Moving with fluid, lethal economy, she cleared the low transom, firing two precise shots that dropped a mercenary armed with an automatic shotgun.
"Team One, secure the engine room!" Hannah commanded as the SEALs flooded up the companionway. "Team Two, with me to the bridge!"
The yacht’s interior was an obscene display of opulence—gold leafing, marble countertops, and velvet couches stained with spilled champagne. But beneath the luxury was the distinct stench of desperation.
Alarms wailed through the corridors. Hannah breached the mahogany double doors leading into the master stateroom.
A mercenary lunged from behind a structural pillar, swinging a heavy combat knife. Hannah sidestepped the blade, grabbed his wrist with a joint-locking torque, drove her knee hard into his sternum, and slammed his head into the bulkhead. He collapsed instantly, unconscious.
She kicked open the final security door leading to the wheelhouse.
Standing behind the computerized helm was Vance Sterling.
In his fifties, dressed in an expensive cashmere sweater now drenched in panic-sweat, the billionaire CEO held a rugged military detonator in his trembling right hand. A heavy steel laptop on the navigation console was running a countdown timer: 03:14... 03:13...
"Don't take another step!" Sterling screamed, his eyes wild with terror. "I press this switch, and the command relay transmits the detonation code to Tanker Alpha! Fifty thousand tons of ammonium nitrate and black-market ordnance will level every shipyard in this state!"
Hannah lowered her rifle slightly, keeping it aimed directly between his eyes. She took one slow, deliberate step forward.
"Hello, Vance," she said calmly.
Sterling’s eyes narrowed, his breath catching. "Who... who are you?"
"You don't recognize me?" Hannah asked, a ghost of a smile appearing on her lips. "Three years ago, you authorized a fifty-thousand-dollar payment to an insurgent cell in Amman to wipe out an Army tactical language team. You told your board it was an unfortunate combat casualty caused by friendly fire."
Recognition struck Sterling like a physical blow. His face contorted in disbelief. "Captain Cole... You're dead. The report said you burned inside the command transport."
"I crawled out, Vance," Hannah said, her voice dropping into a register that sent chills through the cabin. "I spent two years learning how to put IV lines into sick children while you bought yachts with the blood money of my soldiers."
"Stay back!" Sterling shrieked, his thumb hovering fractions of a millimeter over the red actuator. "I'll do it! I swear to God I'll blow the harbor to hell!"
"You won't," Hannah said smoothly.
"Why won't I?"
"Because your cypher relay is already dead," Hannah said.
She reached into her tactical vest with her left hand and tossed a small black thumb drive onto the console.
"I didn't just crack Price's satellite phone on the Benton, Vance. I injected a root-level logic bomb into your private network forty minutes ago. Your detonator isn't transmitting to Tanker Alpha. It's transmitting directly to a naval jamming beacon sitting on Admiral Whitaker’s desk."
Sterling glanced down at the laptop screen in sudden, overwhelming doubt. The countdown timer on the screen suddenly corrupted, replaced by the digital crest of the United States Navy and the words: ACCESS TERMINATED.
In that half-second of hesitation, Hannah surged forward.
She clamped her hand around Sterling’s wrist, twisting it violently downward until the plastic detonator clattered to the deck. She hooked his lead leg, driving him face-first into the hardwood floor, and drove her combat boot firmly into the small of his back.
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With a swift, practiced motion, she pulled heavy zip-ties from her belt and bound his wrists behind him until his shoulders groaned.
"Vance Sterling," Hannah whispered in his ear as he groaned in agony. "You are under arrest for high treason, conspiracy to commit mass murder, and the unlawful deaths of seven United States service members."
