Three hundred wealthy guests watched a maid stop Vanessa’s attack with one hand, never realizing the woman in the gray uniform had once been trained to dismantle dangerous threats. / Chapter 56 / 130

Chapter 56 - Sabotage in the Deep

"Operative 09," Kael’s voice purred through his helmet’s external speakers, metallic and distorted. "The obsolete relic. Still protecting the sheep."

Naomi didn't waste breath on words. She kicked a heavy oak chair directly into the path of Kael’s rifle barrel, knocking his aim upward as he fired another burst into the ceiling. In the same fraction of a second, she closed the distance, her combat knife flashing under the harsh fluorescent lights.

Kael swung a massive, hydraulically assisted fist. Naomi ducked beneath the strike, feeling the air displacement whip her hair. She drove her blade into the weak joint beneath his left armpit, but the titanium weave of his armor deflected the point with an ear-splitting screech.

Kael grabbed her by the vest and hurled her across the study. Naomi hit the mahogany bookshelf, bringing down dozens of heavy volumes, but rolled instantly to her feet, spitting blood from her split lip.

"Ethan! The terminal!" Naomi shouted, drawing her sidearm with her uninjured hand and firing three rapid rounds into Kael’s visor, cracking the reinforced polymer.

Ethan lunged for the shattered desk, pulling Clara with him. "Clara, the scanner! Press your hand on the central core!"

Kael turned, raising a grenade launcher mounted on his forearm toward the desk. "No bloodline commands this fleet today!"

Before he could pull the trigger, Captain Mercer, bleeding heavily from his torso, lunged from the doorway and tackled Kael's arm upward. The high-explosive round detonated against the reinforced bulkhead near the ceiling, ripping open a hydraulic conduit.

Superheated steam hissed violently into the room, obscuring everything in a blinding white fog.

Mercer screamed as Kael’s combat blade impaled him, but the old officer clung to the traitor’s arm with his dying strength. "Do it... now, Miss Whitmore!"

Naomi sprinted through the blinding steam, vaulting off the fallen desk. She wrapped her legs around Kael’s armored neck from behind, wrenching his helmet backward to expose the soft flesh of his throat.

"You're a product of a lab," Naomi hissed into his ear, her eyes blazing with cold fury. "I was forged in the fire."