My brother’s wedding was supposed to be one of the happiest nights of our lives / Chapter 54 / 70

Chapter 54 - The Edinburgh Summons

The screen went black. The silence in the dispatch office felt heavier than the river fog outside. Alistair gave a curt bow, collected the satellite monitor, and retreated into the corridor with his guards, leaving two armed sentries posted right outside our heavy oak doors.

"They've boxed us in," David said, crossing the room to the heavy gun safe hidden behind the framed portrait of our father. He spun the dial with practiced fury, pulling out two concealed tactical handguns and several spare magazines. "We take the service elevator down to the maintenance tunnels. We link up with Miller, blow the gate, and take back Pier Four by force."

"No, David, think!" I grabbed his wrists, forcing him to meet my gaze. "That's exactly what Lord William wants. If we fire a single round at those international contractors, it becomes an armed domestic terror incident. The Maritime Court will issue an immediate emergency forfeiture order, and Vance Logistics will be handed to the Sterling estate before lunchtime."

"Then what do we do, Sarah? Sit here and watch them roll four hundred tons of contraband through our private rail lines?"

"We fight them with their own weapon: the law they're misrepresenting." I pulled out my phone, typing rapidly into an encrypted messaging channel. "Miller is locked out of the docks, but he still has federal inter-agency authority. I need thirty minutes with Judge Harrison at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Harrison’s father clerked for the Admiralty bench back in the fifties. If anyone knows how to pierce a British sovereign lien, it's him."

Suddenly, the lights throughout the dispatch center flickered violently and died. The emergency red halogen lamps hummed to life, bathing the entire room in crimson shadow.

From the ceiling vents, a sharp mechanical hiss echoed.

"They're not waiting for midnight," David yelled, slamming the safe shut and shoving a sidearm into my hands. "They're cutting our power grid right now. They're overriding the dispatch relays manually!"

Through the plate-glass window, we watched as the first massive black container was hoisted into the air by Crane Three. But as the container cleared the ship's gunwale, the heavy steel cables suddenly shrieked in protest. A spotlight from the ground caught the side of the container—and what was painted beneath the Sterling crest made the blood freeze in my veins.