Chapter 46 - The Stolen Flagship
We marched Richard down the jagged cliff path at gunpoint.
At the private mooring cove on the southern tip of the island, anchored just beyond the breakers, sat Richard’s prize: not a humble charter boat, but a sleek, eighty-foot stealth cruiser bearing the flag of the Cayman Islands. It was the *Zephyr*, one of the flagship assets he had secretly stripped from my father’s commercial fleet during the fraudulent bankruptcy in Boston.
"You brought my father's boat here," I said, a bitter smile touching my lips as I saw the polished teak deck and the brass eagle on the prow.
"It belongs to the holding company," Richard muttered, his arms zip-tied behind his back by Julian.
"The holding company whose shares were declared void by the High Court in Venice three days ago," Julian countered, shoving him up the boarding ramp. "Which makes this vessel stolen property. And tonight, Captain, we are reclaiming it."
Julian swept the cabin, securing the bridge and cutting the satellite transponder that linked the boat to Helena Cassian’s private network. Inside the master stateroom, open briefcases of bearer bonds, forged maritime manifests, and encrypted hard drives were strewn across the mahogany desk. Richard hadn't just come to Delos to kill us; he had been preparing to cut ties with Helena as well, stealing the master deed to blackmail both sides of the Mediterranean corridor.
"He was going to run to South America," Julian called out from the helm, studying the navigation plotters. "He had a rendezvous scheduled off the coast of Crete in six hours."
I stood before Richard, who was slumped in the leather armchair of the main salon. I tossed the waterproof neoprene sleeve onto the table between us. I unzipped it, revealing the pristine parchment of the Mediterranean Maritime Free Trade Corridor, bearing the sovereign embossed seals of seven nations and my father’s bold, elegant signature.
"You tried to erase him," I said quietly. "You spent five years whispering in my ear that he was paranoid, that his safe houses were delusions, that his legacy was nothing but debts and madness."
Richard looked at the deed, his jaw trembling with suppressed rage. "Because he treated me like an outsider! I built Vance Maritime into a global enterprise, Emily! He kept all the sovereign trusts locked away in trusts you had to inherit! He never trusted me!"
May you like
"And he was right," I replied, my voice dropping to a whisper that cut through the humming twin diesel engines. "He saw what you were long before I did."
***
