Chapter 6
The sub-basement elevator descended far below the ocean level, the air growing damp, cold, and heavy with salt.
The walls of the shaft transitioned from polished concrete to raw granite bedrock carved out decades ago.
Marcus stood beside me, holding a tactical flashlight that cut through the darkness of the elevator cab.
“If Senator Sterling sent a private tactical unit, Amelia, they have federal clearance,” Marcus warned softly.
“Federal clearance doesn't mean anything inside a private facility registered under maritime sovereign rights,” I replied.
The elevator chimed once, the heavy iron doors sliding open into a subterranean concrete tunnel.
The tunnel stretched two hundred yards beneath the ocean floor, lit only by dim yellow emergency strips along the ground.
At the end of the tunnel stood a massive circular steel blast door—Vault 9.
The heavy steel door was covered in salt corrosion, but the electronic keypad in the center was glowing bright blue.
I walked up to the keypad, inserting the silver flash drive into the secondary port.
The screen flashed red: BIOMETRIC VERIFICATION REQUIRED.
I placed my right thumb against the glass scanner.
The system beeped twice, the mechanical locks deep within the door disengaging with a series of heavy metallic thuds.
The six-ton steel door swung inward, releasing a wave of freezing, nitrogen-chilled air into the tunnel.
Inside the vault sat three wooden shipping crates stamped with stencil letters in black ink:
PROPERTY OF STERLING DEFENSE CONTRACTS - CLASSIFIED.
I stepped inside the room, my boots echoing against the concrete floor as I approached the center crate.
Using a crowbar resting against the wall, I pried open the top pine board of the largest container.
Inside lay stacks of leather-bound operational ledgers dated from 1994 to the present day.
I pulled out the top ledger, opening the cover under my flashlight beam.
The first page bore my late father’s signature alongside Senator Thomas Sterling’s.
My entire life had been a carefully orchestrated lie.
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My resort hadn't been built as a luxury getaway for the world’s elite.
It had been built as a safe house for a twenty-year shadow intelligence network.
