Chapter 75 - The Voice from the Depths
Down in the bunker, Evelyn settled the four children into the safe room, locking the interior reinforced door before joining Caleb at the tactical station. The radio crackled again, but this time it wasn't Marcus.
A high-frequency override tone screeched through the bunker speakers. The monitors blinked, re-establishing a live audio feed with the *Valkyrie*.
*"Caleb. Evelyn. Can you hear me?"*
The voice was no longer a recorded message. It was live. Eleanor Vance was on the line, her voice trembling slightly with the physical strain of deep-sea pressure sickness, yet sharp as a surgeon's blade.
"Mother," Caleb breathed into the microphone, his knuckles turning white around the base. "Where are you? What is your status?"
*"We are ascending, Caleb,"* Eleanor replied, the background noise filled with the deep, terrifying groans of submarine hull plates under immense stress. *"The consortium located our trench berth six hours ago. They deployed unmanned deep-sea demolition drones to breach our outer airlocks. Elizabeth fought them off at the sub-dock so the Valkyrie could decouple from the trench cradle. She... she flooded the bay to save the vessel. She died a hero, Caleb. Do you hear me? Never let those children forget who their mother was."*
Tears welled in Evelyn’s eyes as she leaned toward the mic. "We won't, Eleanor. The children are safe with us. We have the duffel bag. We have the keys."
*"You don't understand what you hold, Evelyn,"* Eleanor’s voice came back, firm and urgent. *"The Sovereign Accord is not just a ledger of wealth. It is a failsafe charter. Under maritime law established in 1974, whoever controls the four biometric rings and the gold beacon key possesses the authority to seize every commercial vessel flying under our flag—over four hundred container ships across seven oceans. The consortium's entire global shipping monopoly collapses if those rings are authenticated at the Harbor Tower."*
"They're landing on our beach right now, Mother," Caleb reported grimly. "Three tactical squads. They've blacked out the county."
*"Then you must make it to the Harbor Tower, Caleb,"* Eleanor commanded, her voice ringing with the indomitable authority of the Vance matriarch. *"The tower controls the sub-surface acoustic net. If you do not activate the beacon from the tower using the gold key, the automated coastal defense minefield will obliterate the Valkyrie as we breach the continental shelf. You have twenty-five minutes before we surface. If the beacon is not lit, my vessel will be destroyed by our own automated harbor defenses."*
The line severed with a crack of static.
May you like
Caleb and Evelyn looked at each other. The stakes were no longer just defending their home; it was a race to save Eleanor Vance before her rising vessel struck the automated kill-zone.
"Twenty-five minutes," Evelyn said, picking up a customized automatic rifle from the wall rack and checking the chamber with smooth, deadly efficiency. "Let's go light the beacon."
