Chapter 9 - The Hostage Fortress
Inside the rusted, steel-reinforced hull of The Leviathan, the smell of stagnant sea water, diesel fuel, and industrial grease was suffocating.
Nora was tied to a heavy iron stanchion on the upper cargo deck, her emerald dress torn, her lip split from Marco’s backhand.
A few feet away, little Lily was locked inside an iron dog cage, her tiny hands gripping the cold bars as tears streamed down her dirty cheeks.
"Mommy...
I want Daddy...
I want to go home," Lily whimpered softly, shivering in the freezing ocean draft that whistled through the open cargo bay.
"Shh, my brave baby girl," Nora whispered through her cracked lips, trying desperately to stretch her fingers toward the cage.
"Daddy is coming.
Daddy is the strongest man in the world, and he will never let anyone hurt you."
Marco stepped out from the bridge catwalk, holding a heavy tactical shotgun, a cigar burning between his teeth.
He blew a thick cloud of blue smoke into Nora’s face, laughing with a bitter, unhinged madness.
"You really think Vincent is coming for you, Nora?" Marco sneered, tapping the shotgun barrel against the iron cage.
"Vincent is a calculating mob boss.
He cares about territory, money, and power.
He isn't going to risk his entire empire and eighty million dollars in port assets to save a broken housekeeper and a bastard child."
"You don't know him at all, Marco," Nora spat, looking up at him with unyielding defiance.
"You think being ruthless makes you strong, but Vincent loved his family more than his own life.
That is why you will always be a cowardly dog begging for scraps."
Marco’s face twisted in blind rage, and he raised his hand to strike her again.
Before his palm could land, the deep, thunderous roar of three twin-turbine helicopter engines shook the steel walls of the cargo freighter!
WHIRR-WHIRR-WHIRR!
Blinding fifty-thousand-lumen searchlights illuminated the cargo bay through the shattered skylights, turning the midnight darkness into blazing daylight!
A voice amplified through a tactical military loudspeaker boomed from the sky, shaking the very foundation of the harbor:
May you like
"Marco Bellini! You have breached the bloodline of the Castiglione family!
Lay down your weapons and surrender the child, or this vessel will become your mass grave!"
