Chapter 14 - Storming the Black Vault of Lake Michigan
Dock 42 was a sprawling industrial labyrinth of rusted steel shipping containers,
towering gantry cranes,
and slick,
grease-covered concrete piers.
Moored alongside the main pier was The Iron Sovereign,
a massive two-hundred-foot panamax cargo vessel flying a foreign flag of convenience.
Floodlights beamed down from the ship's superstructure,
illuminating fifteen heavily armed Obsidian Vanguard mercenaries patrolling the gangways.
Gideon moved through the shadows of the stacked shipping containers,
silent as a predatory ghost.
He reached the base of the secondary loading crane,
climbing the wet iron ladder until he reached the high catwalk overlooking the ship's main deck.
Below him,
near the primary cargo hold,
stood Dominic Antonio and three of his lieutenants.
Dominic was holding a silver encrypted hard drive,
nervously arguing with a tall man in a tailored dark suit—Senator Jonathan Croft himself.
"Where is my money,
Senator?"
Dominic demanded anxiously,
wiping cold rain from his eyes.
"I handed over my father's territory,"
"I brought you Vance's private research files,"
"now pay me!"
Senator Croft looked at Dominic with absolute disdain,
adjusting his gold cuff links.
"You are a traitor to your own blood,
Dominic,"
Croft said softly.
"And I do not do business with traitors."
Croft made a subtle hand gesture to the mercenary standing behind Dominic.
Before Dominic could react,
the mercenary drew a silenced pistol and fired two shots into the back of Dominic’s head.
Dominic collapsed onto the wooden deck planks without making a sound,
his gold-plated rifle falling into the dark water below.
Croft took the silver hard drive from Dominic's dead hands,
turning toward the cabin door.
"Prepare the vessel for immediate departure,"
Croft ordered the ship's captain.
"We sail for international waters in five minutes."
From his position on the crane catwalk sixty feet above,
Gideon unpinned a fragmentation grenade.
"Departure canceled,"
Gideon shouted into the night air.
He dropped the grenade directly into the center of the main deck.
The explosion tore through the wooden deck planks with a deafening roar,
sending fire,
shrapnel,
and shattered steel flying across the ship.
Two mercenaries were thrown overboard by the blast wave,
disappearing into the churning black waters of the lake.
Gideon leaped from the catwalk,
landing heavily on the roof of a cargo container on the deck,
rolling to absorb the shock before coming up with his assault rifle firing.
He sprayed a devastating hail of bullets across the mercenary line,
dropping three soldiers before they could even locate his position.
The ship erupted into utter bedlam as alarms blared across the harbor.
Mercenaries fired back blindly into the smoke,
their heavy armor-piercing rounds tearing through the steel cargo containers.
Gideon ducked behind a stack of wooden crates,
reloading his rifle with fluid,
deadly precision.
He spotted Senator Croft sprinting toward the heavily fortified wheelhouse at the top of the vessel's superstructure.
"Lucas!"
Gideon called into his radio,
firing a burst to suppress two approaching guards.
"I’m onboard The Iron Sovereign!"
"Trigger the harbor blockades now!"
Far across the harbor,
Lucas,
who had managed to reach the port authority control building,
slammed his hand onto the emergency harbor lockdown button.
Massive steel anti-smuggling barriers rose out of the lake channel water,
sealing off the harbor entrance and trapping the cargo ship against the pier.
Gideon pushed forward through the smoke and flames,
eliminating the remaining mercenaries step by step,
room by room.
He stepped over the fallen bodies of the Obsidian Vanguard,
May you like
climbing the bloody stairs toward the wheelhouse.
There was only one man left to deal with.
