Chapter 48 - The Cold Atlantic
The third gunship wasn't attempting to board. It was coming in hot, its nose-mounted 30mm cannon locked directly onto the survival capsule.
"If I get in, they destroy the pod before we hit the water," Naomi said, looking Ethan directly in the eye.
"No!" Clara wept, reaching out toward her. "Naomi, please! Don't leave us!"
"Clara, look at me," Naomi said, her voice softening for just a fraction of a second, the cold operative melting away to reveal the protector beneath. "I never break a promise. I swore I would keep you safe."
Naomi reached out and slammed the heavy hatch shut, spinning the manual locking wheel until the seal hissed tight.
She turned instantly, severed the primary release cable with two heavy strikes of a maintenance axe, and sent the orange pod plunging thirty meters downward into the raging sea.
The capsule hit the Atlantic with a violent explosion of white spray, bobbing immediately to the surface like a cork before its automated sea-anchor deployed, pulling it rapidly away from the vortex of the collapsing rig.
Up on the catwalk, Naomi stood alone.
The 30mm rounds ripped through the crane boom where the capsule had hung moments before, tearing the steel girder to ribbons. Naomi sprinted across the buckling deck as the entire offshore platform groaned in its final agony.
The main deck split in two. A wall of seawater forty feet high surged upward through the fractured platform.
Naomi didn't look back. She sprinted to the highest point of the shattered helipad, took three powerful strides, and launched herself into the pitch-black void of the Atlantic Ocean.
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The cold hit her like a sledgehammer. The shock of the freezing saltwater drove the air from her lungs, but her conditioning instantly took over. Kicking hard, she fought through the churning, oil-thick surface currents, swimming against the violent down-suction of the sinking platform.
Behind her, the central core of the oil rig imploded. A deep, muffled roar shook the ocean floor, sending a massive shockwave through the water that hurled Naomi forward into the darkness.
