Chapter 50 - The Leviathan's Wake
A sound like the tearing of tectonic plates vibrated through the rock under their boots.
Five hundred feet below the cliffside, the boiling ocean surface parted. Rising out of the froth was not a standard submarine, but a monolithic, black-hulled leviathan—a dreadnought measuring nearly seven hundred feet in length, devoid of any bridge tower or human markings. It was the flagship of the Second Fleet, drawn directly to the cliff by the biological frequency pulsing from Leo’s wrist.
The massive vessel’s automated defense arrays deployed within seconds. A high-intensity tracking laser swept up the cliff face, locking directly onto the hovering extraction helicopter.
"Look out!" Claire screamed.
An automated CIWS rotary cannon mounted on the submarine’s forward deck opened fire. A stream of tungsten rounds slashed through the air like a laser beam. The helicopter’s tail rotor was severed instantly, exploding into a shower of burning metal.
"Mayday! Mayday! We're hit—" the pilot’s voice cut out as the helicopter spun violently out of control, banking away from the cliff and plunging toward the sea.
The winch cable snapped.
The armored evacuation pod containing baby Leo plummeted through the stormy sky, hurtling toward the jagged rocks and the churning, black ocean below.
"LEO!" Claire’s shriek pierced the howl of the storm as she threw herself toward the edge of the cliff, ready to leap into the abyss.
Dante grabbed her by the combat harness with both hands, digging his boots into the crumbling edge of the basalt rock, pulling her back with superhuman effort. "Claire, no!"
"HE'S FALLING, DANTE! HE'S FALLING!" Claire fought against him like an enraged tigress, tears mixing with the lashing rain on her face.
Before the pod could strike the rocks, the forward deck of the massive black submarine split open. A massive, pneumatic recovery net deployed from the hull, catching the falling pod in mid-air and retracting it into the belly of the leviathan. The armored hatch slammed shut with a heavy, magnetic seal.
On the cliff edge, Dante and Claire fell to their knees, rain drenching their bodies as they stared down at the black metal monster below.
The submarine’s external acoustic speakers hummed to life, projecting an automated, synthesized voice across the roaring waves:
*BEACON SECURED. HEIR CLASS ALPHA ONBOARD. INITIATING PHASE TWO: GLOBAL TARGET ACQUISITION. THIRTY MINUTES TO FULL SYSTEM DEPLOYMENT.*
The leviathan began to submerge, its black hull sinking beneath the churning white foam of the Atlantic.
Beside Dante, Claire slowly rose to her feet. The despair in her eyes vanished, burned away by a cold, absolute, and terrifying rage that Dante had never seen in any human being before. She wiped the blood from her cheek and looked down into the swirling whirlpool where their son had just disappeared.
"Dante," she whispered, her voice colder than the ocean wind.
Dante stood beside her, his hand sliding down to the empty holster at his hip, his knuckles cracking as his fists clenched into iron. "I see it."
A hundred yards out in the bay, cutting through the waves at flank speed, the black conning tower of Claire’s attack submarine, the *Vanguard*, broke the surface, its torpedo tubes already venting water in preparation for combat.
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"We aren't going to negotiate," Claire said, looking at Dante. "We aren't going to hack it. We are boarding that monster... and we are going to tear it apart from the inside out."
Dante looked down at the dark, bottomless sea, his jaw set in stone. "Get ready to dive."
