Chapter 12 - BRUNO IN THE BLACK WATER
Bruno had survived bullets, knives, and fire.
The Atlantic nearly took him in less than a minute.
His injured shoulder weakened every stroke. Waves rolled over his head. The yacht’s propellers churned the water ahead.
Jonah pushed the boat faster.
“Get beside him!”
“I’m trying!”
A security guard aimed from the yacht’s upper deck.
I fired first.
He dropped behind the railing.
Elena struggled in Gabriel’s arms.
“Bruno!”
The dog heard her.
His head rose higher.
He kept swimming.
The yacht turned toward open water, but Jonah crossed its path, forcing the captain to reduce speed or collide.
Tony threw a rope.
It landed near Bruno.
He ignored it.
He wanted Elena.
I climbed onto the bow.
“When we pass him, grab my belt.”
“That’s insane,” Rachel shouted.
“So was bringing a camera.”
Malik secured a line around my waist.
Jonah brought us within feet of Bruno.
I leaned over, caught the back of his harness, and nearly went into the water.
Tony and Malik pulled us onto the deck.
Bruno collapsed.
For two seconds, he did not move.
Then Elena screamed again.
He stood.
Water poured from his fur.
The dog looked half dead.
His eyes looked ready to kill.
The yacht’s rear platform lowered.
Four gunmen emerged.
Cole raised a stolen rifle.
“Federal agent! Drop your weapons!”
They fired.
His title meant nothing here.
We returned fire while Jonah rammed the yacht’s rear quarter.
Fiberglass shattered.
Tony, Bruno, and I crossed using the damaged platform.
Rachel and Malik followed despite my order to remain behind.
“They need to see this,” Rachel said.
“Then stay low enough to survive seeing it.”
The yacht’s lower deck contained medical equipment and locked cabins.
We found six children inside the first room.
All sedated.
Jonah’s daughter was not among them.
Carlo’s monitoring system sounded through Tony’s earpiece.
The server on the island had begun sending termination codes.
“We have twenty minutes,” Carlo warned from the fishing boat. “Maybe less.”
“Can Niko stop it?”
“Not without reaching the main system.”
We needed Elena and Rosa from the yacht.
Then we needed the island.
Gabriel’s guards retreated upward.
Bruno followed Elena’s scent through a dining room decorated with Saint Agnes awards.
Photographs showed Wynn holding children at charity events.
Some of those same children appeared in the ledger under new names.
We reached the observation lounge.
Gabriel stood behind Elena with a pistol at her side.
Rosa knelt nearby, restrained.
Up close, my uncle resembled my father more than I wanted to admit.
The same forehead.
The same dark eyes beneath white brows.
The same habit of tilting his head before delivering a threat.
He wore my father’s ring on his right hand.
“You brought the dog,” he said.
“He brought me.”
Gabriel studied Bruno.
“Animals are simple. Reward, repetition, attachment. Humans pretend to be different.”
“Elena isn’t your experiment.”
“She is extraordinary. She resisted enough sedative to retain memory. She hid evidence. She formed a survival strategy under pressure.”
“She is seven.”
“Exactly. Imagine what she could become under proper guidance.”
Elena glared at him.
“I don’t like you.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Resistance becomes loyalty when fear is redirected.”
Bruno growled.
Gabriel pressed the gun closer to Elena.
“Call him off.”
I placed my gun on the floor.
“Bruno. Down.”
The dog did not obey.
His eyes remained fixed on Elena.
“Down,” I repeated.
Slowly, he lowered his body.
Gabriel relaxed.
That was his mistake.
Bruno had not lowered himself in surrender.
He had prepared to jump.
Elena bit Gabriel’s hand.
The gun shifted.
Bruno crossed the room.
He struck Gabriel’s chest and drove him into the glass wall.
I grabbed Elena.
Tony freed Rosa.
Gabriel hit Bruno’s injured shoulder with the silver cane.
The dog released him with a cry.
Gabriel ran toward the upper deck.
I followed.
Rain swept across the open deck.
The yacht captain had abandoned the controls. The vessel drifted toward the cliffs.
Gabriel reached the emergency helicopter platform.
A small aircraft approached from the island.
Wynn’s escape pilot.
Gabriel pressed a remote control.
Explosions sounded from the lower deck.
He had planted charges.
“Your father made the same mistake,” he shouted over the rain. “He believed destroying buildings could destroy ideas.”
“My father’s mistake was letting you live.”
“He could not kill his brother.”
“I don’t have that weakness.”
He laughed.
“You have a greater one. You care what the child thinks of you.”
Elena had followed us onto the deck with Rosa.
She watched from behind Tony.
Gabriel saw her.
“You want to prove you are different from me,” he said. “So you cannot execute an unarmed old man in front of her.”
He threw his pistol into the sea.
He was right.
The old Dominic Russo would have killed him without hesitation.
But Elena had already seen enough adults treat death as a solution.
I left my gun on the deck.
Gabriel smiled and swung the cane.
A blade extended from its tip.
He lunged.
I caught his wrist.
We crashed against the railing.
The helicopter descended.
A gunman fired from its open side.
Tony returned fire.
The helicopter pulled away.
Gabriel drove the blade into my side.
Pain burned through me.
Bruno attacked from behind.
He caught Gabriel’s coat and dragged him away from the railing.
The old man fell.
His head struck the deck.
Bruno stood over him, jaws near his throat.
“Stop,” Elena cried.
Bruno froze.
Gabriel looked at the child.
She had saved his life.
Not because he deserved it.
Because she refused to become what he wanted.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Coast Guard vessels approached, alerted by Rachel’s live transmission.
Niko called.
“The termination countdown is still active. Eighteen minutes.”
We restrained Gabriel.
I pressed a cloth against my wound.
“Elena and Rosa go with the Coast Guard.”
Elena shook her head.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’ve been hurt before.”
“Bruno is hurt too.”
“He goes with you.”
Bruno looked toward the island.
Then at Elena.
He walked to her side.
For once, I was relieved he chose someone else.
We transferred the children and hostages to the Coast Guard.
Gabriel was placed in custody, but he continued smiling.
“You think the island server obeys me?” he said.
“Whom does it obey?”
“The Shepherd.”
“Name.”
He looked toward Assistant Director Cole.
Cole raised his weapon.
For one terrible second, I thought he would kill Gabriel.
Instead, he shot the handcuff chain.
Gabriel broke free and jumped onto the approaching helicopter’s landing rail.
The aircraft rose before anyone could stop it.
Cole stared at the broken cuffs.
“I didn’t do that.”
Tony grabbed him.
“You fired the gun.”
Cole looked at his own hand in horror.
A trigger command.
Gabriel had activated him just as he had activated Tony.
The helicopter turned toward the island.
Carlo’s voice came through the radio.
“Fourteen minutes.”
The network was preparing to kill every connected placement.
Including Tony.
Including Cole.
Possibly hundreds of others.
May you like
I looked at the burning yacht, the island compound, and the helicopter carrying Gabriel toward the cliffs.
“Jonah,” I said, “take us to the island.”
