Chapter 48 - The Secret in the Submarine Pens
Two hundred feet beneath the burning estate lay a cavernous, subterranean labyrinth carved out of the sea cliffs during the height of the Cold War.
Emergency battery lights cast an eerie green glow over a subterranean seawater canal that cut fifty yards into the rock from the raging Atlantic outside. Massive, rust-streaked blast doors held back the surging tide, but seawater sloshed over the concrete walkways, rising to Elena’s shins.
Tied to the concrete slip was a sixty-foot, carbon-black offshore interceptor craft—a stealth boat equipped with triple four-hundred-horsepower Mercury outboards.
"Grandfather built this pen in 1962," Christian wheezed, his face grey as ash, his arm draped over Elena’s shoulders as she dragged him toward the boat. "He ran arms to South America. Smuggled bearer bonds out of Europe. It's off the grid. No radar footprint."
Elena laid Scarlett down gently inside a waterproof equipment locker on the boat’s aft deck, kissing her forehead. The baby was crying softly now, shivering from the damp chill, but her vital signs were strong.
Elena turned back to help Christian onto the stern platform, but as she reached for his hand, her foot kicked an open metal dispatch case sitting on the pier’s worktable.
Dozens of dossiers spilled across the wet concrete.
Elena looked down. The beam of Christian’s flashlight illuminated the documents.
They weren't business contracts. They were operational ledgers, dating back forty years.
*1984: Montgomery, Arthur. Drowned off Martha's Vineyard. Cause: Scuba regulator sabotage. Asset recovery: $120M.*
*1999: Montgomery, Charles. Plane crash, Swiss Alps. Cause: Altimeter tampering. Asset recovery: $450M.*
*2018: Vance, Julianna (First Wife of Julian Montgomery). Overboard off Monaco. Cause: Blunt force trauma prior to submersion. Settled out of court.*
Elena’s heart stopped.
Julianna.
Julian’s "tragically drowned" high-school sweetheart. The woman Victoria had always described as "too fragile for our world."
"She wasn't the first," Elena whispered, her voice trembling with horror as she flipped through the rain-soaked pages. "I wasn't the first bride he pushed overboard."
"No," a voice echoed through the vast concrete cavern. "You were simply the first one stubborn enough to crawl back out."
Elena spun around.
Julian stepped out from the shadows of the machinery control tower at the end of the slipway.
He was unrecognizable. The left side of his face was a shredded, bloody ruin, his cheek ripped open to expose the white enamel of his jawbone. In his hands, he carried a tactical 12-gauge Benelli shotgun.
Behind him, limping with the aid of an ivory cane, her wounded foot wrapped in a bloody towel, was Victoria. She held a heavy Colt Commander in her steady, manicured hand.
"A family tradition, Elena," Victoria said, her voice echoing off the damp concrete walls like venom. "The Montgomery fortune does not dilute through marriage. Husbands, wives, brothers... anyone who isn't pure, compliant blood is pruned from the tree. You were chosen because you were an orphan. No family to ask questions. No powerful father to hire private investigators."
Victoria stopped ten paces away, raising her weapon.
May you like
"Julianna gave us nothing. She died barren in the Mediterranean. But you... you delivered the vessel." Victoria smiled, her teeth flashing in the dim green light. "Now, give us Scarlett, Elena. And I promise, your death will be much faster than Julianna's."
***
