Chapter 88 - The Auction of Bloodlines
The bathysphere was dragged violently into the pressurized docking moonpool of the underwater citadel.
Water drained away with a hollow, rushing hiss, exposing the pod to dry air. Elena held her submachine gun tight, but she knew her ammunition was almost gone. She had three rounds left in the chamber. She checked Maya, wrapping her tightly in the tactical blanket, securing the baby firmly against her heart.
The exterior release mechanism hissed, and the pod's heavy hatch was wrenched open from the outside.
Elena raised her weapon instantly, but a cold, metal shock rod struck the barrel, tearing it from her grasp with an electric discharge that numbed her entire right arm. Powerful, gloved hands seized her by the shoulders, dragging her out of the pod and slamming her down onto the grated steel deck.
"Secure the mother! Extract the asset!" a voice barked.
"Don't touch her! Don't you dare touch my daughter!" Elena screamed like a wounded lioness, kicking violently with her combat boots, her teeth bared, clawing at the armored guards with her bare hands. She managed to gouge her nails across one operator's exposed neck, drawing blood, but another guard drove the butt of a rifle hard into her ribs, knocking the wind out of her lungs.
She collapsed to her knees, gasping for air, tears of rage blurring her vision.
They didn't take Maya immediately—because stepping into the moonpool chamber was a man who commanded absolute, terrified silence.
He wasn't Vance. Vance was dead or lost in the sinking ruin above.
This man was younger, immaculate, wearing a pristine grey three-piece suit that seemed absurd in an underwater facility twelve hundred meters beneath the Pacific. His face was sharp, aristocratic, and bore an uncanny, bone-chilling resemblance to Elena’s dead husband.
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"Arthur...?" Elena gasped, her voice trembling in absolute disbelief.
The man smiled, adjusting the platinum cufflinks on his wrists. "Arthur was my twin brother, Elena. A weak, sentimental boy who actually fell in love with a penniless wedding photographer. I am Lucian Montgomery. The son my mother kept in the dark to run our real family business."
