Chapter 36 - The Breach at Abyssal Gate
"Because you didn't raise a coward, Dad," I said, stepping into the room, my eyes locking onto Evelyn with a ferocity that made her escort instinctively take half a step back.
Evelyn set her teacup down on the saucer with a soft, deliberate *clink*.
"He didn't raise you at all, my dear," Evelyn said, her voice smooth, cultured, entirely devoid of the warmth one would expect from a grandmother. "He abandoned you. He scrubbed your name from the naval records. He let the entire world believe you were an ungrateful, incompetent daughter who couldn't even stand beside him on the day of his retirement."
She stood up, walking slowly around the table, her hands clasped behind her back in the posture of a flag officer inspecting a recruit.
"He did that to save me from you," I spat.
"To save you?" Evelyn laughed—a dry, brittle sound that echoed through the vast chamber. "He did it because he is weak. Like his grandfather before him, Thomas suffered from the delusion that the surface world is worth saving. Look out there, Maya."
She gestured toward the massive acrylic panoramic viewport that dominated the aft wall of the chamber.
Through the thick glass, thirty-two nuclear-capable submarines could be seen hovering in formation around the perimeter of the trench, their launch tubes glowing with the faint, green telemetry of armed weapons systems.
"The nations of the surface are tearing themselves apart," Evelyn said, her voice rising with fanatical conviction. "Corrupt politicians. Proxy wars. Financial systems built on paper and lies. For eighty years, the Sovereign Fleet has watched them poison the land and the sky. We are the guardians of the deep. We hold the choke points of global trade, global communication, and global energy. We don't answer to Congress. We don't answer to the Kremlin. We don't answer to Beijing."
She stopped directly in front of me, her cold, gray eyes boring into mine.
"Your mother understood that," Evelyn whispered. "Clara designed the propulsion that freed us from the surface. And you... you have her tactical mind. Join me, Maya. Take your seat at this table. Claim your birthright as Commander-in-Chief of the Sovereign Fleet. And together, we will give humanity the silence it so desperately needs."
"And if I refuse?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
Evelyn glanced down at my father.
She drew a sleek, silver-plated sidearm from her belt holster and pressed the cold muzzle directly against the back of Thomas Brooks’ head.
"Then your father dies for the treason he committed against this family," Evelyn said without a flicker of emotion. "And you will watch from the brig as I launch the final strike that reduces the eastern seaboard of the United States to a pre-industrial wasteland."
"Maya..." Thomas gasped, blood dripping from his split lip onto the floor. "Don't listen to her. Look at the tactical board... look at the... the Meridian override."
Evelyn struck him with the butt of the weapon, snapping his head sideways. "Silence!"
"You want me to take the chair?" I said, raising both hands slowly, stepping toward the table. "You want the bloodline to lead the fleet?"
"It is the only way the automated network will recognize a new sovereign," Evelyn said, her eyes gleaming with triumphant hunger. "Touch the command console. Input your retinal ID. End this childish rebellion."
I took another step forward. My eyes darted to Grant, who stood four paces to my left, his muscles coiled like a spring.
"I have a counter-offer, Grandmother," I said.
May you like
In one fluid, explosive motion, I reached into my tactical vest, pulled the secondary detonator I had stripped from the mercenary in Washington, and slammed it onto the mahogany table.
"Grant! Blow the airlock!" I roared.
