Chapter 11 - The Last Message From Pike
Calloway’s voice replaced Pike’s on the intercom.
“Launch immediately.”
Hannah looked toward the dock entrance.
Security doors were beginning to close.
Captain Cross ordered the moorings released.
The Talon slipped into the underwater exit channel with seconds to spare.
Behind them, the steel doors sealed.
Hannah demanded Pike’s status.
Calloway did not answer immediately.
Then he said, “He was attacked.”
“Alive?”
“Yes. Unconscious.”
“Who did it?”
“The military police officer assigned to control-room security.”
Hannah looked at the muscular officer standing aboard the submarine beside her.
He understood the suspicion.
“Not me.”
Calloway clarified.
“Another member of the unit. He escaped into the ventilation network.”
The organization had more people inside the base.
Possibly dozens.
Hannah’s evidence had not uncovered a single traitor.
It had exposed a network.
The Talon entered open water.
Captain Cross ordered silent running.
Hannah studied the fuel-depot charts.
The island’s official docks were abandoned.
But thermal satellite data showed recent generator activity beneath the eastern cliffs.
The Resolute survivors were likely inside old underground storage tunnels.
The countdown continued on an isolated display.
Twenty-one minutes.
Cross frowned.
“We cannot reach Oregon in twenty-one minutes.”
Hannah knew.
The timer was not for their arrival.
It was forcing a decision.
Sloane wanted Nightglass’s source key before the countdown ended.
Calloway still controlled the vault.
Hannah contacted him through a low-frequency burst.
“Do not open it.”
“If the prisoners are executed—”
“They’ll die even if you comply.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the key would make them unnecessary.”
Hannah studied the countdown signal.
It repeated through an offshore relay.
The relay was closer than Oregon.
She triangulated it with the Talon’s sensors.
A signal source moved thirty miles ahead of them.
A ship.
The prisoners were not yet at the island.
They were aboard a disguised cargo vessel heading north.
“We can intercept,” Cross said.
“Not without being detected.”
Hannah looked at the ocean-depth map.
A deep trench ran beneath the vessel’s route.
The Talon could approach below its sonar coverage.
The military police officer asked, “How do we board?”
“We don’t.”
Hannah pointed toward the cargo vessel’s propulsion system.
“We disable it silently and force them to request rescue.”
Cross studied her.
“That could take hours.”
Hannah looked at the timer.
“Then we make them believe the Navy already opened the vault.”
Calloway would transmit a controlled fragment of the source key.
Enough for Sloane to think Pike’s betrayal failed.
Not enough to activate Nightglass globally.
The admiral agreed.
The false transfer began.
The countdown stopped at nine minutes.
A new message appeared.
MERCER COMES ALONE.
Coordinates followed.
An exposed deck aboard the cargo vessel.
Hannah stared at them.
They knew she was on the submarine.
May you like
Someone aboard the Talon had transmitted her location.
👉 The enemy had an operative inside the submarine—and Hannah was now trapped beneath the ocean with them.
