Chapter 18 - The Sinking Ship
The victory was incredibly short-lived.
As Grace deleted the final lines of code, a deep, mechanical groaning sound echoed from the bowels of the oil rig.
Carlo let out a weak, hysterical laugh from the bloody floor of the catwalk.
"Did you really think I would not have a fail-safe, Julian?" he coughed, blood spilling from his lips.
He revealed that the failed transfer had automatically triggered the rig's scuttling charges.
Heavy explosives attached to the underwater support pillars were detonating, intentionally sinking the platform to bury the evidence.
The entire massive structure lurched violently to the side, throwing me off balance and sending loose equipment crashing into the ocean.
"Grace, we have to evacuate right now! The rig is going down!" I screamed into my earpiece.
I grabbed Carlo by the collar of his tactical vest and hoisted him to his feet.
I could have easily left him there to drown in the freezing depths, but death was far too easy a punishment for what he had done to my family.
I wanted him to spend the rest of his miserable life rotting in a supermax prison alongside Seraphina.
I dragged the injured traitor up the stairs toward the helipad, meeting Grace halfway down the corridor.
The metal floors were tilting at a terrifying forty-five-degree angle, forcing us to grab onto exposed pipes just to keep moving forward.
Freezing ocean water began flooding the lower decks, shorting out the electrical panels in showers of bright blue sparks.
We finally reached the edge of the lower platform where we had secured our stealth boat.
To my absolute horror, a massive falling steel beam had crushed the back half of our vessel, sinking it completely.
We were stranded on a sinking island of steel in the middle of a violent storm.
"The emergency life rafts are on the upper deck!" Grace shouted, pointing upward through the heavy rain.
I shoved Carlo forward, forcing him to climb the slippery metal stairs at gunpoint.
The rig groaned again, dropping another ten feet into the churning black water.
We reached the upper deck just as the ocean began to swallow the main control room beneath us.
I deployed the heavy rubber life raft, pulling the ripcord to inflate it instantly.
Grace jumped in first, immediately grabbing the emergency oars.
I threw Carlo roughly into the bottom of the raft and jumped in right behind him, cutting the mooring line with my combat knife.
Just as we pushed away from the structure, the central pillar of the oil rig finally gave way with a deafening metallic shriek.
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The massive steel behemoth collapsed into the raging ocean, completely swallowed by the dark, unforgiving waves.
We sat in the freezing rain, tossing violently in the swell, watching the last remnants of the Volkov cartel disappear forever.
