Chapter 10 - The Weapon Beneath the Cliffs
The facility housed Project Trident.
A prototype electromagnetic naval weapon designed to disable ships without conventional explosives.
Vance Maritime lost the official contract five years earlier.
Arthur continued developing it in secret.
If its containment system failed, the stored energy could ignite fuel lines throughout the underground complex.
The blast would destroy the club, marina, and nearby residential coast.
“How many people know?” I asked.
Arthur answered quietly.
“Eleanor. Vale. Audrey. A small engineering team.”
Audrey shook her head.
“I knew about the facility. Not the weapon.”
Arthur dismissed her with a glance.
Admiral Thorne ordered the gala evacuated.
Commander Ellis objected.
“If Eleanor has observers outside, a mass movement could trigger the hostages’ execution.”
I agreed.
“We evacuate through the service tunnels in small groups while a tactical team enters from the ocean.”
Thorne studied me.
“You know the facility?”
“I designed part of its emergency flooding system before I joined the Navy.”
Arthur looked almost proud.
That angered me more than contempt.
“You always were brilliant,” he said.
“You spent years calling me broken.”
“I needed you away from this.”
“You needed me silent.”
The operation began.
Guests were moved discreetly into reinforced lower rooms.
Navy divers approached the sea tunnel.
I insisted on joining the tactical command team.
Thorne refused.
“You are the target.”
“I know the system, Eleanor, and the facility.”
“You are not medically cleared for combat.”
I opened the cloak enough to show the scars.
“I survived the last mission your people failed to stop.”
He held my gaze.
Then nodded.
“You stay behind the entry team.”
Audrey grabbed my arm.
“Don’t trust Father inside.”
Arthur overheard.
“I am the only one who knows the manual shutdown.”
“Then tell us now,” I said.
“It requires two biometric confirmations.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“And?”
His eyes moved toward the dark screen where Eleanor’s face had appeared.
“Your mother’s.”
Eleanor had built the weapon so only she and Arthur could disable it.
But Arthur was hiding something.
I saw it in the way he touched his cuff link.
A second authentication device.
Audrey saw it too.
Before anyone could stop him, Arthur pressed it.
An alarm sounded beneath the ballroom.
May you like
Project Trident began charging.
📖 Arthur claimed he activated the weapon to force Eleanor into the open, but the countdown gave everyone only eighteen minutes to prevent catastrophe. 👇
