Chapter 5 - The Enemy of My Enemy
I slowly lowered my pistol to the metal floor, keeping my hands raised where the young sailor could clearly see them.
"You're making a terrible mistake, kid," I whispered calmly, trying not to spook him into pulling the trigger by accident.
He stepped around to face me, his eyes wide with fear and his hands trembling violently as he gripped the heavy gun.
"They told me you were a traitor, that you were trying to sabotage the ship," he stammered, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Does Kane seem like a man who tells the truth?" I asked, looking directly into his exhausted, bloodshot eyes.
He hesitated for a long second, remembering how Kane had callously watched him collapse from severe dehydration on the deck.
The heavy gun in his hands slowly lowered, pointing toward the floor as the reality of the situation finally sank in.
"They have my family, Agent Cole," he whispered, a single tear cutting through the dirt and grease on his cheek.
Kane had forced him to stand guard down here by threatening the lives of his parents back home in San Diego.
"If we get out of this alive, I personally promise you that your family will be protected by the federal government," I said.
He nodded slowly, kicking my dropped pistol back toward my boots before turning to face the massive corridor behind him.
"You need to see what they are hiding back here," he muttered, leading me deeper into the labyrinth of Deck Four.
We walked past rows of empty storage containers until we reached a heavily modified cargo bay illuminated by flickering fluorescent lights.
The air in the room was thick and foul, smelling strongly of unwashed bodies, fear, and human desperation.
Stacked in the center of the massive room were dozens of reinforced steel cages, previously used for transporting military working dogs.
Now, those cages were packed tightly with terrified men, women, and children clutching each other in the freezing darkness.
Kane wasn't just stealing Navy supplies to sell on the black market, he was running a massive human trafficking syndicate using military vessels.
I rushed forward to the nearest cage, grabbing the heavy padlock and frantically searching for a way to break it open.
Suddenly, a loud electronic siren began blaring throughout the deck, flashing bright red warning lights across the terrified faces of the prisoners.
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"Warning, sector purge initiated," a synthesized voice echoed through the ship's intercom system.
The massive steel blast doors behind us slammed shut with a deafening crash, locking us inside the cargo bay with the hostages.
