Chapter 68 - The Shattered Cryo-Core
Claire’s three hollow-point rounds punctured the pressurized aluminum valve of the main nitrogen conduit.
A deafening roar erupted as supercooled liquid nitrogen, pressurized at three thousand pounds per square inch, blasted out in a blinding white plume across the catwalk. The sub-zero vapor engulfed Julian and his mercenaries in an instant.
The mercenary on the left screamed as his weapon flashed-froze, the metal instantly bonding to his tactical gloves before the extreme thermal shock shattered the rifle’s polymer receiver. The second man lost his footing on the instantly iced steel grating, tumbling over the railing to land forty feet below with a sickening crunch.
Julian dropped the detonator as his right arm was sprayed with the cryogenic mist. He let out a shriek of inhuman agony as his coat sleeve froze solid, the fabric snapping like brittle glass as he stumbled backward toward the emergency terminal.
"Thorne, take the catwalk!" Ryan commanded, unholstering his weapon and laying down covering fire against the remaining guard.
Thorne surged up the metal stairs with fluid, terrifying speed, firing three precise shots that eliminated the last armed mercenary before the man could clear the frost from his visor.
Ryan sprinted up the stairs behind Thorne, leaving Eve and Claire below in the cover of the heavy steel bulkheads. As Ryan reached the upper platform, the supercooled fog was beginning to disperse, revealing Julian slumped against the master control console, shivering uncontrollably, his right hand blackened and paralyzed by frostbite.
Julian looked up at Ryan, his remaining eye filled with a desperate, animal terror.
"Ryan..." Julian wheezed, his voice barely a rattle in his throat. "Please. The stasis pod... pod seven. The bone marrow extract... it's the only thing that can reset my cellular line. You can't let your own brother die."
Ryan stood over him, the gun steady in his hand, his eyes cold as the nitrogen fog swirling around their boots.
"You stopped being my brother the day you built this room," Ryan said.
Ryan reached past Julian’s trembling shoulder and grasped the primary storage drive inserted into the master server console—the drive containing the entire encrypted database of Charles’s illegal experiments, the offshore escrow account logs, and the documented proof that exonerated Claire and proved Leo’s legitimate lineage.
With a sharp jerk, Ryan ripped the drive from the port.
The master console immediately began flashing red: **CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE - STASIS CONDUITS SEVERING IN 60 SECONDS.**
"No!" Julian screamed, clawing at Ryan’s trouser leg with his uninjured hand. "No! If you pull that drive, the cryogenic backup vents into the sea! Everything Father built... everything I sacrificed for—"
"It burns," Ryan said, stepping out of Julian’s grasp.
Below on the deck, Eve was already activating the manual release valves on the six active embryonic pods, safely transferring the genetic material into stabilized medical transport units to be handed over to federal authorities for ethical termination and forensic cataloging.
"Ryan, we have to move!" Thorne yelled from the catwalk landing. "The ship's automated scuttle protocol has engaged! The sea valves in the engine room are opening!"
A deep, groaning shudder echoed through the hull as thousands of gallons of icy Atlantic seawater began pouring into the lower bilges of the *St. Jude’s Ledger*. The deck tilted beneath their feet, listing three degrees to port.
"Get Claire and the baby to the gangway!" Ryan shouted, grabbing Thorne’s shoulder. "I'm right behind you!"
Julian lay on the freezing deck plates, weeping openly, his fingers scraping uselessly against the frosted steel as the automated alarms wailed through the listing vessel. He looked at Ryan, his face a hollow mask of despair.
"Leave me," Julian whispered, his head rolling back against the steel panel. "There’s nothing left for me out there anyway."
Ryan paused at the top of the stairs, looking at the man he had idolized as a boy, the brother whose shadow had darkened every year of his adult life.
"I'm not leaving you to be a martyr, Julian," Ryan said coldly.
May you like
Ryan reached down, gripped Julian by the collar of his ruined coat, and hauled him bodily across the listing deck toward the stairs. "You're going to stand trial. In a public courtroom. Before the people whose lives you tried to purchase."
***
