Chapter 3 - The Ghost in the Machine
The tension in the holding room was thick enough to choke on. Julian stared at the tablet, his jaw ticking. He despised being wrong, but he despised being outmaneuvered even more.
"Release him," Julian ordered the guards, his voice devoid of emotion.
The cuffs clicked open. Finn rubbed his bruised wrists, glaring at the billionaire. "You were ready to throw my life away without a second thought."
"I calculate risks and manage liabilities, Finn. It’s what keeps this empire running," Julian said, turning his back. "If the hack came from an offshore rig, it means we have a mole in the organization. Which rig, Chloe?"
"Rig 42," Chloe said, her voice steadying. "The Vanguard. It's currently stationed over the Marianas Trench, conducting the deep-core drilling tests."
Julian’s facade finally cracked. A flicker of genuine panic flashed across his eyes. "The Vanguard. If they compromise the Vanguard's drill protocols... they could trigger a seismic event that would wipe out our entire coastal infrastructure."
"Who is 'they'?" Finn asked, stepping forward.
Julian sighed, suddenly looking his age. "Sterling Marine Tech. Arthur Sterling has been trying to hostile-takeover my company for a decade. He failed in the boardroom, so now he’s resorting to terrorism. He wants to bankrupt me by causing a catastrophic environmental disaster and blaming it on my equipment."
"We need to shut the Vanguard down remotely," Finn said, his mind already racing through the technical schematics of the rig.
"We can't," Chloe interrupted. "The hacker locked us out of the mainframe. The Vanguard is a ghost ship right now. The automated drills are descending, and the crew is completely deaf to our communications."
Julian looked at Finn, the sheer arrogance of the billionaire replaced by a desperate, calculating need. "You know the tertiary systems. You know the manual overrides."
"I'm a mechanic, remember?" Finn deadpanned.
"You are whatever I need you to be right now," Julian fired back. "I have a stealth helicopter on the roof. I need you to fly to the Vanguard, manually bypass the digital lockouts, and stop that drill before it hits the methane pockets. Do this, and I will make you a very wealthy man."
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Finn looked at Chloe. She gave him a subtle, pleading nod. He didn't care about Julian's money, but he cared about the hundreds of crew members on that rig who were about to be collateral damage in a billionaire's pissing contest.
"I'm not doing it for you," Finn said, walking past Julian. "Get the chopper ready."
