“Enlighten us.”
He gestured toward the sub. “Those drives? They’re redundant. Halcyon was never one facility. It’s a network—embedded in defense, intelligence, and commerce. You think arresting me stops any of it?”
Julia kept her aim steady. “It stops you.”
He studied her for a moment, then shifted his gaze to me. “You’ll never keep her safe, Jensen. Not from what’s next.”
Before I could move, he twisted something on his wrist—a ring, no bigger than a coin. The air filled with a high-pitched whine.
“Grenade!” I shouted, pulling Julia down behind a crate. The explosion ripped through the chamber, concussive heat flattening the air. The sub rocked violently, alarms blaring. When the smoke cleared, Reese was gone—dived into the water, a dark streak vanishing beneath the waves.
“Son of a—” Hawk slammed a fist into the deck.
Julia pushed herself up, coughing. “We can still catch him. The sub’s damaged—he won’t get far.”
Aaron’s voice crackled through static. “Status?”
“Reese escaped,” I said, already scanning the control panel. “He’s underwater with copies of the data.”
“Then finish it,” Aaron ordered. “You have authorization.”
Hawk looked at me, rainwater dripping from his hair, jaw tight with the choice. “If we hit him now, there’s no bringing him in alive.”
“After what he’s done?” I said softly. “He made that call.”
He hesitated, searching my face. Then he nodded once and turned the controls. The submersible’s tracking beacon blinked across the sonar. He armed the charge.
The explosion was dull and deep, swallowed by the river. When the shockwave reached us, it was a long, low thrum that rattled through the hull, then went quiet.
Hawk lowered his head, breathing hard. “It’s done.”
But even as the echo faded, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Reese hadn’t intended to survive—he’d planned to disappear.
And somewhere in the darkness below, a new light flickered—small, distant, alive.
21
Hawk
The city was waking when we surfaced. Sirens echoed faintly from downtown; a smear of dawn light bled across the Potomac, soft and indifferent to what we’d just done.
Aaron’s team met us at the docks—grim faces, gear soaked, everyone moving on muscle memory. No celebration. Just procedure.
“Charges verified,” Boone reported, voice rough. “The sub’s wreckage is sitting in forty feet of water. Nothing moving.”
Aaron gave a curt nod. “Then Halcyon’s done.”
But he didn’t sound convinced. None of us did.
I pulled off my gloves, flexed my hands, and stared at the river. “Bodies?”
“None yet,” Miles said quietly. “But we’re still scanning.”
Julia stood a few yards away, arms wrapped around herself, the wind lifting strands of her hair. She looked smaller in that moment, like the fight had finally caught up to her. When she turned, her eyes met mine—tired, searching, still burning underneath.
Aaron clapped my shoulder. “You two should stand down for a few hours. I’ll handle debrief.”
I nodded. “You sure?”
