Chapter 47 - Storm Over the North Atlantic
The fall was thirty-two seconds of pure, terrifying terminal velocity.
Falling through clouds of razor-sharp ice crystals at one hundred and twenty miles per hour, Claire watched her HUD altimeter scroll down rapidly: *15,000... 10,000... 5,000... 2,500.*
"Rip cords on three, two, one—pull!"
With a concussive snap that jerked her spine, the steerable black tactical parachute deployed. Through the driving snow, the monstrous silhouette of the *Leviathan* emerged from the boiling sea like a leviathan forged from black iron and spite.
The vessel was massive—nearly eight hundred feet long, a converted ice-breaking heavy helicopter carrier retrofitted with radar-absorbent stealth armor, automated CIWS rotary cannons, and an enclosed flight deck holding heavy attack gunships.
"Target acquired," Claire commed, pulling her steering toggles hard left to counteract a forty-knot crosswind. "Touchdown on the aft helipad in ten seconds. Discard chutes immediately upon impact!"
Claire hit the wet, steel non-skid surface of the stern flight deck with a combat roll, instantly popping the quick-release buckles of her parachute harness. Before the black fabric could even slide into the raging ocean, she was already up, weapon raised, her red-dot optic locked onto the catwalk above.
Two patrol contractors in arctic camo broke cover, their weapons swinging toward the drop zone.
Claire didn't hesitate. She squeezed the trigger twice. Two suppressed 6.8mm rounds punched clean through their thermal visors, dropping both men to the iron deck without a sound over the howling gale.
Jax, Marcus, and the other four operators landed within seconds behind her, cutting their chutes and forming a tight 360-degree defensive perimeter.
"Perimeter clear!" Jax signaled with closed-fist hand gestures.
"Marcus, take Alpha team and head down to the lower engineering deck to plant the thermite charges on the rudder shafts and backup generators," Claire ordered, her breath pluming in white clouds against the arctic chill. "Jax, you're with me. We breach Sub-Level Two—the private intelligence laboratory."
"And the bridge?" Marcus asked, checking his sidearm.
"The bridge stays alive until I find out who gave the final order to silence my brother," Claire said, her eyes flashing cold fire through the dark. "Move out!"
May you like
They breached the heavy watertight blast hatch using a line of localized shaped-charge foam. The explosion blew the heavy steel hinges inward, and Claire plunged through the smoking threshold into the belly of the beast.
***
