"He Knocked a Waitress Unconscious in Front of Everyone—Then the Mafia Boss Stood Up and Locked the Doors / Chapter 44 / 60

Chapter 44 - Blood on the Harbor Ledger

The black waters of the North Atlantic were churning like liquid iron under the violent gale of the nor'easter. Waves rose fifteen feet into the howling dark, smashing against the reinforced bow of our semi-submersible tactical craft.

Through the periscope, the silhouette of the *Leviathan* rose like an unnatural mountain of rusted steel and radar towers out of the black sea. The dreadnought was monstrous—four hundred feet of armored hull, bristling with anti-air cannons and heavy caliber machine gun emplacements. Floodlights swept across the foaming crests of the waves, piercing the rain in blinding, sweeping arcs.

"Sonar shows four patrol ribs circling the perimeter," Silas reported, his hands steady on the ballast controls. "He’s got at least sixty Consortium mercenaries on deck, plus his personal guard. Old-school veterans from the Soviet collapse and ex-Blackwatch commandos."

"How do we breach?" I asked, adjusting the seals on my neoprene dive suit.

"The sea-chest intake," Silas pointed to a digital blueprint on the helm screen. "Submerged cooling grates on the port side. If I override the intake pumps from here, we have a ninety-second window to blow the maintenance hatch and enter through the auxiliary ballast tanks before the automated turbines cycle on and shred us."

"Ninety seconds," I nodded, checking the waterproof seals on my submachine gun. "Plenty of time."

Silas looked at me, a grim smirk cutting across his hardened features. "I created a monster, didn't I?"

"You didn't create anything, Silas. You just handed me the weapon to protect what’s mine."

We sealed our helmets. The submersible submerged beneath the violent waves, diving into the freezing, lightless depths. Outside the reinforced canopy, the ocean groaned against the pressure. We aligned beneath the hulking underbelly of the *Leviathan*.

Silas tapped the detonator key. A muffled *thud* vibrated through the water as the underwater shaped charges breached the intake grate.

Silas grabbed my harness, and we ejected into the pitch-black abyss. The water was biting, bone-chilling cold that tried to snatch the breath from my lungs. Using underwater thrusters, we propelled ourselves through the churning intake pipe, sliding into the flooded ballast corridor just as the digital counter hit zero.

Behind us, the massive bronze turbine blades roared to life, churning the sea into a white vortex of lethal foam.