Chapter 12 - The Iron Tomb
The freezing salt spray stung Julian’s face as he gunned the zodiac’s outboard engine, slicing through the three-foot swells toward the flashing red lights of the barge. The vessel was massive, a derelict bulk carrier stripped of its insignia, groaning under the relentless battering of the sea.
Julian pulled the inflatable craft alongside the rusty emergency ladder hanging over the barge's low starboard side. He lashed the boat to the rungs, checked his soaked weapon, and climbed up into the storm-drenched deck.
The air on the barge smelled of diesel, decaying rust, and burning magnesium. The demolition timer was wired directly to the main bulkhead. A digital readout glowed through the rain: 04:18... 04:17...
"Elena!" Julian yelled, his voice swallowed by the howling wind.
He kicked open the heavy iron hatch leading down into the ship's hold. The interior was a maze of narrow, rusted metal corridors lit by flickering emergency bulbs. Water was already sloshing around his ankles—the lower compartments had already been breached to hasten the sinking.
"Julian...?" a faint, rasping voice drifted from behind a reinforced steel door at the end of the gangway.
Julian rushed forward. Through the small reinforced glass window in the door, he saw her. Her hair was longer, streaked with silver at the temples, her face pale and hollowed by five years of captivity, but those eyes—the same striking hazel eyes as Lily’s—were unmistakably Elena’s.
"Elena, back away from the door!" Julian yelled.
He aimed his pistol at the heavy padlock securing the latch and fired twice. Sparks flew, and the lock shattered. Julian kicked the door open and caught Elena in his arms just as her knees gave out.
"Lily..." she sobbed into his soaked shoulder, her fragile hands clutching his back. "Julian, where is our baby?"
"She's safe, Elena. She found me," Julian whispered, lifting her off her feet. "Now we're getting out of here."
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A deep, metallic groan shuddered through the entire ship. The floor tilted sharply beneath their feet as the first explosion tore through the lower ballast tanks.
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