Chapter 58: Chapter 58

Chen Wei distributed the explosives, small charges with remote detonators that could be placed quickly and triggered from distance, and everyone took three charges each because if they died at least one person might succeed in placing them.

"Remember the plan," she whispered as the Daedalus grew larger. "Board through the blind spot, place charges in engine room and fuel storage, extract recipients if possible, retreat to extraction point, detonate when we’re clear."

"And if we can’t extract the recipients?" Min-seo asked. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs noⅴelfire.net

"Then we blow the ship anyway and hope the explosion is fast enough that they don’t suffer," Chen Wei’s voice was cold. "This isn’t a rescue mission, it’s sabotage that might include rescue if we’re lucky."

The ship loomed now, massive this close with its hull rising like a steel cliff and the sound of generators humming through the water, and Yoo could see the sensor sweeps painting the darkness in invisible patterns that Akasha Archive mapped automatically.

"There," he pointed at the blind spot Chen Wei had identified. "Two-meter gap between sensor cones, right there where the hull curves."

"I see it," Min-seo adjusted their drift. "Thirty seconds."

They pulled on diving masks and checked breathing equipment even though they’d only be underwater for minutes, because drowning in sight of the target was the kind of stupid death that made the whole mission pointless.

"Ready?" Chen Wei asked.

Yoo nodded, Min-seo gave a thumbs up, Ji-yeon just looked terrified but determined.

They rolled over the side as one and the ocean swallowed them in cold silence that pressed against eardrums and made breathing through the regulator feel wrong, and Yoo kicked toward the hull with his broken fingers screaming but his legs strong enough to compensate.

The blind spot appeared exactly where Chen Wei said it would, a narrow channel between sensor sweeps where they could approach without triggering alarms, and they swam single file through the gap with Chen Wei leading because she had the sensor data memorized.

The hull was covered in barnacles that scraped skin when they got too close, and old paint flaked off in chips that drifted down into darkness below where the ocean floor waited kilometers beneath them, and somewhere above the sound of boots on metal deck transmitted through the water like distant thunder.

Chen Wei reached the hull and pulled out a magnetic climbing device, small handholds that clamped to metal and could be moved upward one at a time, and she began the slow ascent with Min-seo following and Yoo bringing up the rear.

Climbing was agony with broken fingers, each movement felt like his hand was being crushed and his shoulder wound reopened fully so blood clouded the water around him in thin ribbons, but he climbed anyway because stopping meant dying and he’d survived too much to die here.

They reached the waterline and Chen Wei signaled for them to wait, then she pulled herself up to peek over the railing and assess deck activity, and after thirty seconds she signaled all clear and hauled herself aboard in one smooth motion.

Yoo pulled himself up last and rolled over the railing to land on deck in a crouch with water streaming from his clothes and blood dripping from his shoulder, and Chen Wei was already pressing a cloth to the wound to stop the bleeding.

"You’re hurt," she whispered.

"I’m functional," he pushed her hand away. "Where’s the engine room?"

She pointed toward a hatch twenty meters away, no guards visible but that wouldn’t last long, and they moved across the deck in a crouch with weapons ready and every sense screaming that this was too easy.

The hatch opened with a soft creak and stairs descended into dimness lit by emergency lighting that cast everything in red shadows, and they went down with Chen Wei in front and weapons ready for contact that didn’t come.

The engine room was massive and hot with machinery that thrummed with contained power, diesel generators the size of cars and fuel lines running along the walls like arteries feeding a steel heart, and the smell of oil was so thick it coated the inside of the nose.

"Here," Chen Wei pointed at junction boxes where multiple fuel lines met. "Plant charges here, here, and here, simultaneous detonation will rupture the lines and ignite the fuel, explosion should reach the main tanks within seconds."

They worked quickly with practiced efficiency that came from desperation rather than training, magnetic charges placed on critical junctions with remote detonators set to the same frequency, and within three minutes the engine room was rigged to become a bomb.

"Now the recipients," Yoo said.

"We don’t have time—"

"We make time," his voice was hard. "Five people are down here waiting to die for a ritual they don’t understand, we don’t leave them."

Chen Wei looked at him for a long moment then nodded. "Lower hold, this way."

They descended another level and the temperature dropped as they moved below the waterline where condensation slicked the walls and the sound of generators was muted by insulation, and they passed storage rooms filled with equipment and supplies until they reached a corridor lined with reinforced doors.

Each door had a small window and Yoo looked through the first one to see a man lying on a bed, unconscious or sedated, with monitoring equipment attached to his chest, and Akasha Archive identified him as Subject 12 based on facial recognition from Damascus files.

"Locked," Chen Wei tried the handle. "Electronic, needs keycard or—"

Min-seo’s fist went dark and she punched the electronic panel, her Wrath-series power spiking as anger at Crucible manifested in physical force, and the panel exploded in sparks before dying completely.

They opened the door and Yoo checked the man’s vitals, alive but deeply sedated with IVs in both arms pumping something that kept him unconscious, and waking him would take time they didn’t have.

"We carry them," Yoo decided. "One each."

They moved through the corridor quickly now with urgency overriding caution, opening three more cells and finding two more unconscious men and one woman all sedated the same way, and Subject 19 was missing which meant Crucible had already moved her somewhere else.

Four recipients total that they could save.

"This is too heavy," Min-seo said as she slung one man over her shoulders. "We’re not getting them up those stairs quietly."

"Then we go loud," Chen Wei pulled out her communicator. "Ji-yeon, we need extraction at the blind spot, bring the boat alongside now."

Static, then Ji-yeon’s voice: "Coming, sixty seconds."

Yoo grabbed Subject 12 in a fireman’s carry that made his shoulder scream and his broken fingers go numb, but he ignored the pain because there was no time for pain right now, and they started back toward the stairs with Chen Wei and Min-seo carrying the others while the fourth man was left behind because three people couldn’t carry four bodies and desperate mathematics meant choosing who lived.

They reached the engine room level and footsteps echoed above them, crew members moving around on deck doing whatever pre-ritual preparations required, and the group paused in the shadows waiting for a gap in the foot traffic.

"Now," Chen Wei hissed.

They rushed the stairs in a clumsy sprint made awkward by unconscious bodies, boots pounding metal steps that rang like bells announcing their presence, and behind them someone shouted in alarm.

"Contact! Intruders in the lower hold!"

Sirens wailed and lights shifted from dim to bright as emergency protocols activated, and suddenly the ship was alive with movement as crew members mobilized to find the threat.

"Go go go!" Min-seo shouted.

They burst onto the deck and bullets cracked through the air as guards opened fire, rounds sparking off metal and one caught Yoo’s leg in a burning line of pain that nearly dropped him, but he kept moving because stopping meant dying.

The blind spot, Ji-yeon was there with the boat pressed against the hull and shadows spreading across the water to hide them from sensor sweeps, and Chen Wei threw her recipient over the railing first then helped Min-seo with the second.

Yoo reached the railing with Subject 12 still on his shoulders and more bullets whining past close enough to feel wind, and he dropped the unconscious man over the side where Ji-yeon caught him with shadows that cushioned the fall.

Then he pulled out the remote detonator and pressed the trigger.

The surroundings exploded.