Chapter 7 - THE FLOOD
The sheer force of the incoming water hit the lower deck like a freight train.
Screams echoed off the steel walls as the freezing harbor water rapidly swallowed the floor of the cargo hold. The prisoners scrambled up the metal scaffolding, desperately trying to escape the rising tide.
From her perch on the catwalk, Mara watched in absolute shock. She hadn't triggered the flood.
Suddenly, a figure emerged from the stairwell on the far side of the hold. It was Captain Ward. He was limping, clutching a heavy iron wrench, his uniform soaked in blood and sweat. He had bypassed the mercenaries at his door and manually blown the secondary hatch.
"Ward, you fool!" Graves roared over the sound of rushing water. He raised his pistol, aiming right at the Captain.
"Hey!" Mara screamed.
She didn't think. She grabbed a heavy fire extinguisher from the wall and hurled it over the railing. The red cylinder plummeted thirty feet, crashing directly onto the steel platform inches from Graves.
The tank ruptured. A massive cloud of dense white chemical foam exploded outward, blinding everyone on the central platform.
Graves fired blindly into the foam, the gunshots deafening in the enclosed space.
Mara didn't hesitate. She vaulted over the railing, sliding down a thick industrial cargo chain. The metal burned her palms, but she ignored the pain, dropping onto the platform right in the middle of the blinding foam.
"Leo!" she yelled.
"Mara!" a small, terrified voice cried out.
She blindly followed the sound, her hands grasping through the thick chemical fog until she felt small shoulders. She grabbed Leo, fumbling for the zip-tie binding his wrist to the rail.
"Hold still," she commanded. She pulled a small pocket knife from her wetsuit—a gift from Elias—and sawed frantically at the thick plastic.
The water was rising fast. It was already lapping over the edges of the platform, freezing against her boots.
The plastic snapped. Leo fell into her arms.
Suddenly, a large hand clamped violently around Mara's throat from behind.
Graves emerged from the dissipating foam, his eyes red and tearing from the chemicals, but his face twisted in absolute rage. He lifted Mara entirely off her feet, his grip like a vise crushing her windpipe.
"You ruined everything," Graves hissed, pressing the barrel of his pistol directly against her temple.
Mara kicked and thrashed, gasping for air, but his grip was inhuman. Her vision began to tunnel, darkening at the edges. She could hear Leo screaming.
Through the fading light, she saw Ward charging across the flooded platform.
Graves didn't even look. He casually turned his pistol and fired once.
Bang.
Ward stumbled, a bloom of red exploding across his shoulder. He collapsed into the rising water.
"Dad!" Leo shrieked.
Graves turned the gun back to Mara. "Goodbye, Miss Voss."
CRACK.
A deafening sound echoed through the hold, but it wasn't a gunshot.
Graves’s eyes went wide. He gasped, dropping Mara to the deck.
Mara collapsed, coughing violently, sucking in desperate lungfuls of air. She looked up.
Behind Graves stood Elias.
The old fisherman was soaked to the bone, holding his heavy, rusted gaffing hook. He had driven the blunt iron handle viciously into the back of Graves's knee, shattering the joint.
Graves crumpled to the floor, screaming in agony.
"Told you to be careful, kid," Elias panted, tossing the hook aside.
"You... you followed me?" Mara gasped.
"Couldn't let you have all the fun," Elias grinned tightly. "Besides, I called the Coast Guard before I came aboard. The real ones this time. They're ten minutes out."
The water was now at their waists. The ship groaned, tilting dangerously to port as the ballast tanks flooded completely.
"We need to get the people out!" Mara yelled, grabbing Leo.
"The main cargo doors are jammed!" Ward choked out, leaning heavily against the railing, clutching his bleeding shoulder. "The lockdown protocol sealed them when I blew the hatch."
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Mara looked around the massive hold. The water was rising inches every second. There were over a hundred people trapped, and the exits were sealed tight.
"We don't need the doors," Mara said, her eyes locking onto a massive shipping container suspended from a crane above them. "Elias, can you hotwire that crane?"
