Chapter 11 - The Stand on the Catwalk
"Vincent! Look out above!" Nora screamed, pointing toward the towering crane gantry suspended eighty feet over the churning black harbor waters.
Marco stood on the narrow metal platform, holding a remote detonator in his left hand and a semi-automatic rifle in his right.
"How touching! The great Don Vincent playing family man!" Marco’s voice echoed through the ship's public address speakers, unhinged and manic.
"Look around you, Vincent! The entire lower hull is rigged with four hundred pounds of commercial C4 demolition blocks!"
"One click of this button, and The Leviathan splits in half, dragging all of us into the bottom of the Atlantic!"
Vincent handed Lily to Leo, who immediately shielded the little girl behind a reinforced titanium ballistic shield.
"Get them to the extraction helicopter now, Leo," Vincent ordered, his voice dropping into a register of icy, absolute resolve.
"Boss, you can't go up there alone—the platform is compromised!" Leo urged.
"That is an order, Captain.
Protect my family."
Without another word, Vincent sprinted up the exterior iron staircase, climbing through the smoke and sparks toward the gantry crane.
Bullets pinged against the rusted steel steps as Marco fired downward in desperate bursts.
Vincent moved with the agility of a trained shadow, using the massive steel support girders for cover, closing the eighty-foot distance in seconds.
As Vincent reached the top platform, a direct round clipped his left shoulder, tearing through his tactical vest and drawing a streak of crimson.
Vincent didn't even flinch; the adrenaline coursing through his veins drowned out all physical sensation of pain.
He kicked the rifle from Marco’s hands, sending the weapon spinning off the catwalk into the dark ocean below.
The two men collided with brutal force on the narrow metal grating, trading ferocious blows in the howling coastal gale.
Marco swung a heavy iron spud wrench, catching Vincent across the ribs, but Vincent drove forward, tackling Marco against the safety railing.
"I should have burned you in that California cabin four years ago, Vincent!" Marco snarled, blood spraying from his broken teeth as they wrestled for the detonator.
"You were always weak! You let a woman and a child make you soft!"
Vincent grabbed Marco’s wrist, twisting the joint until the bones shattered with a sickening crunch.
"You were wrong about one thing, Marco," Vincent whispered, his eyes boring into the traitor's soul with absolute finality.
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"Love didn't make me soft.
It made me invincible."
