My Marine Brother Threw My Visitor Badge Into the Gravel and Mocked Me in Front of His Entire Unit / Chapter 29 / 53

Chapter 29 - Boarding the Leviathan

Dylan hit the slippery metal grating of the vehicle ramp with a hard roll, instantly coming up on both feet with his suppressed rifle raised. Two guards in gray urban camouflage came sprinting around the hydraulic bulkhead, shouting in Russian.

*Pfft-pfft!*

Dylan fired two controlled pairs. The rounds struck center mass, dropping both mercenaries to the deck before they could raise their Kalashnikovs. Mia landed lightly behind him an instant later, unclipping her ascender and kicking the guards' weapons into the dark ocean below.

"Clear," she whispered, her chest heaving. "Lower engineering deck is through that pressure hatch. Move."

They slipped through the heavy waterproof door into the deafening roar of the ship's engine room. Massive twelve-cylinder diesel engines shook the steel walls, filling the hot, humid air with the smell of scorched synthetic oil. Overhead steam pipes hissed continuously, masking the sound of their tactical boots against the diamond-plate deck.

Dylan moved with the predatory grace of an infantry Marine trained for urban clearing, sweeping every blind corner, every pipe junction. Ahead, three contractors were securing an industrial server rack lashed to the deck with heavy cargo straps.

"Hold," Mia whispered, signaling with two fingers. "Look at the terminal."

The server rack was blinking with high-speed fiber-optic transfers. A digital countdown was displayed on a mounted screen: **UPLINK TO SATCOM 4: 08 MINUTES 42 SECONDS.**

"He’s not waiting for international waters," Dylan realized, his eyes widening. "He’s initiating the broadcast now. If that data reaches the orbital network, he wipes every military database in North America and uploads fraudulent bank records showing we were paid millions by a foreign cartel."

"Not while I have breath left in my body," Mia said through clenched teeth.

She pulled a pair of magnetic C4 breaching charges from her rig, setting the timers for ninety seconds. She made a dash for the server rack, weaving through the labyrinth of pipes.

"Watch your six!" Dylan suddenly screamed, raising his rifle.

From the overhead catwalk, a burst of automatic fire stitched across the steel floor, throwing white-hot sparks directly between Mia and the servers. Dylan returned fire instantly, pinning the sniper against the bulkhead as Mia slid behind a massive auxiliary generator for cover.