Chapter 19 - Infiltrating the Leviathan
The storm over Lake Michigan raged with unrelenting fury,
churning forty-foot waves that slammed against the hull of The Sovereign Titan.
The three-hundred-foot luxury war-yacht loomed out of the black fog like a floating fortress of steel,
glass,
and heavy defense weaponry.
Sailing beneath the radar grid in a sleek,
stealth-coated carbon-fiber interceptor boat,
Gideon and Lucas approached the stern of the massive vessel.
The heavy sea spray soaked Gideon’s black tactical armor as he secured a pneumatic grappling launcher to his shoulder.
"Elena,"
Gideon whispered into his throat microphone,
"do you have the ship's internal security blueprints?"
From the island command vault,
Elena tapped into the yacht's satellite uplink.
"I’ve bypassed their outer firewall,"
Elena reported through the earpiece.
"Montgomery is on the top deck in the glass sky-lounge."
"He has twelve Vanguard Alpha guards protecting him,"
she warned,
"and Colonel Sterling is currently reinforcing the bridge."
"Understood,"
Gideon replied.
He fired the grappling line,
the titanium hook anchoring securely onto the yacht's rear helipad railing seventy feet above.
Gideon climbed the high-tension cable with practiced,
athletic strength,
disappearing into the dark shadows of the vessel's upper deck.
Lucas followed closely behind,
his silenced rifle strapped across his back.
They stepped onto the rain-slicked teak wood deck,
moving silently past the luxury swimming pool toward the central corridor.
Gideon breached the rear glass door of the officer quarters,
stepping into an interior lined with marble,
gold leaf,
and expensive artwork.
Two guards stepped around the corner,
their submachine guns raised,
but Gideon and Lucas eliminated them simultaneously with two soft snaps of their silenced sidearms.
They moved up the grand spiraling glass staircase,
clearing floor by floor,
room by room,
leaving no trace of their advance.
When they reached the heavy double oak doors leading into the glass sky-lounge,
Gideon signaled for Lucas to take the left flank.
Through the frosted glass paneling,
Gideon could see the silhouette of a man sitting in a high-backed leather chair,
sipping wine while looking out at the raging storm.
It was Lord Alexander Montgomery.
Gideon placed a small silent breaching charge on the door lock,
May you like
stepping back as he counted down on his fingers:
Three... two... one.
