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.

Naomi dropped from the container directly onto the metal catwalk of the freighter, landing without a sound ten paces behind Bravo.

"You're late, Naomi," Bravo said without turning around. Her fingers continued dancing across the keys. "The transmission is at ninety percent. Even if you shoot me, the uplink cannot be halted from this terminal."

"Then I'll destroy the satellite," Naomi said, leveling her weapon at the dish overhead.

Bravo spun, hurling a combat knife with blinding speed. The blade shattered the barrel of Naomi's submachine gun, forcing her to discard the ruined weapon.

Bravo closed the distance instantly. Despite her injured wrist, she fought with demonic ferocity, utilizing brutal close-quarters techniques designed to fracture bones and rupture organs. Naomi met her blow for blow, the clash of their forearms sounding like hammer blows against anvils.

They spun across the rain-slicked deck. Bravo threw a roundhouse kick; Naomi ducked and countered with a liver strike. Bravo absorbed the impact, catching Naomi’s gray collar and pulling her into a violent headbutt.

Both women staggered back, blood running down their foreheads, their identical eyes locked in lethal determination.

"Why do you protect them?!" Bravo screamed, her voice cracking above the roar of the river. "They used us! They raised us in subterranean tanks, branded our spines, turned us into servants and butchers for their sick amusements! Why do you fight for their right to drink champagne while we scrub their floors?!"

Naomi wiped the blood from her brow, her breathing deep and controlled.

"Because the Whitmores, the Sterlings... they are weak, corrupt, and arrogant," Naomi said quietly. "But the world we would build on their corpses would be an endless slaughterhouse run by machines like us. I spent three years setting tables, Bravo. I learned what it feels like to live without killing."