Chapter 9 - Bring Northstar to the Water
The assault plan used a decommissioned rescue cutter with minimal electronic systems.
Nora approved.
The Meridian could manipulate modern identity networks and digital communications. An older vessel reduced the number of doors it could open remotely.
Voss insisted on joining.
Nora refused.
“This is not your redemption mission.”
“My son is on that ship.”
“And your rank makes you a target. They can issue orders in your name.”
“That is exactly why I should be there.”
Gabriel ended the argument. “Both of you are going, and neither of you is in command.”
They looked at him.
The old man pointed to Agent Shaw.
“She is.”
Shaw accepted without ceremony.
The team included eight naval special warfare operators, two medical officers, a signal technician, Gabriel, Voss, Nora, and Ryan.
Ryan’s presence almost broke the plan.
Nora objected first.
Shaw explained that Ryan’s voice and biometrics had been used in Meridian’s secondary access system. He could open internal doors.
“He is also a liability,” Nora said.
Ryan stood under guard at the far end of the dock, wearing body armor over detention clothing.
“I know the family protocols,” he said. “My mother taught me phrases. If she hears my voice, she may respond.”
Nora looked at him.
“You think helping now changes what you did.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Ryan glanced toward the black water.
“Because I spent my life pretending to be someone important. I would like to do one important thing before I find out who I actually am.”
Nora did not forgive him.
She allowed him aboard.
The storm reached them twenty miles offshore.
Waves struck the cutter with enough force to throw unsecured equipment across the deck. Radar became unreliable. Satellite contact vanished. Lightning exposed walls of water and then left the world completely dark.
Nora stood in the navigation cabin with paper charts, magnetic compass, and Gabriel’s radio log.
For the first time in twelve years, she felt the old concentration settle over her.
Fear became distance.
Memory became direction.
The cutter’s young navigator watched her mark currents by hand.
“How do you know the drift?” he asked.
“Listen to the hull.”
He looked uncertain.
Gabriel smiled. “Do it.”
The young man placed one hand against the bulkhead.
The vibration changed as the cutter climbed a wave.
Nora adjusted course three degrees.
Twenty minutes later, radar briefly returned.
The Meridian appeared exactly where she predicted.
A dark shape inside the storm.
No navigation lights.
No distress signals.
Only the white star-and-wave symbol near the stern.
Shaw divided the boarding teams.
Ryan would remain secured until needed.
Voss resisted and was physically pushed back by Gabriel when he tried to join the first boat.
The approach happened under cover of rain.
Nora boarded with Shaw’s group at a maintenance platform near the waterline. The metal deck was slick and empty. No alarms sounded.
Too easy.
Inside, the corridors were clean, brightly lit, and marked with arrows in multiple languages. Doors opened before they reached them.
The ship was inviting them inward.
A speaker activated.
June’s voice came through.
“Welcome home, Nora.”
Shaw signaled silence.
Nora studied the corridor.
Three cameras. Two visible. One reflected in polished steel.
She pointed.
An operator disabled all three.
The speaker continued. “You brought Ryan. That is sentimental.”
Nora answered, “You kept Simon. That is inefficient.”
A pause.
Then June laughed.
It sounded nothing like Nora.
The team reached the first laboratory.
Rows of empty surgical chairs faced mirrored walls. Cabinets contained contact lenses, dental molds, skin adhesives, voice implants, and photographs of people who had never known they were being studied.
Voss found Daniel’s watch on a tray.
No Daniel.
In the next room, they discovered six sedated captives, including one of the missing federal agents from Margaret’s house.
The second agent was dead.
Shaw ordered the living evacuated to the cutter.
The Meridian shifted violently.
Over the radio, the cutter reported engine failure.
Then its communications vanished.
“They took the ship,” Voss said.
“No,” Nora replied. “They took the network.”
The Meridian’s speaker activated again.
This time Margaret spoke.
“You always preferred old machines, Nora. That made your approach predictable.”
Bulkhead doors slammed shut behind the team.
Red lights flooded the corridor.
A countdown began on every wall display.
30:00.
Nora looked at the ship diagram.
The timer was not an explosive sequence.
It marked distance to the storm eye.
At midnight, the sea would briefly calm.
The transfer window.
“Move,” she ordered.
Shaw did not challenge the command.
They descended toward the central deck.
At a junction, Ryan’s guarded group appeared from another corridor.
His restraints were gone.
One guard was missing.
Ryan held a pistol.
Shaw aimed at him.
Nora raised her hand.
Ryan’s face was white.
“She has Daniel,” he said. “And Simon. But that isn’t the worst part.”
“What is?”
He pointed down the corridor.
A door opened.
Inside stood twelve men and women in naval uniforms.
May you like
Each wore the face of someone from Team North.
Among them was another Simon Rook.
