Chapter 18 - The Queen's Gambit
The smoke inside the lower engine room settled slowly, revealing twenty heavily armed mercenaries in red-accented tactical gear, their rifles pinned on Richard, Olivia, Lucas, and Marcus.
Baroness Beatrix walked forward, her red leather heels clicking sharply on the steel grating floor. Her face was age-defyingly smooth, her silver hair styled in an immaculate crown, and her smile was as sharp as a razor blade.
"So this is the famous Carrington family," Beatrix said, her voice dripping with aristocratic disdain and a thick Austro-German accent. "Thirty years of headache caused by a dockyard mechanic and a naive girl."
Richard slowly rose to his feet, keeping his hands visible while shielding Olivia behind his back. "Beatrix von Hagen. The puppet master who hid behind Victor."
Beatrix laughed, a melodic yet utterly merciless sound. "Victor was an ambitious fool who thought he was a partner. He was merely an administrator. It was I who funded the research. It was I who organized the distribution network that crippled European industrial competitors."
She pointed her pearl-handled revolver directly at Richard’s chest. "And now, you have destroyed my entire network in Blackwood Bay. You cost me eight billion Euros in seized assets in less than a month."
"You poisoned my mother," Olivia said, stepping out from behind her father, her eyes burning with pure, unadulterated hatred. "You ordered Victor to kill her."
Beatrix looked at Olivia, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Your mother was a fool who thought ethics had a place in global commerce. She found our European balance sheets and threatened to expose us to the UN Security Council. She deserved her fate. And you... you should have died in that mansion six months ago."
"I survived," Olivia said, taking a step closer to the gun barrel, showing zero fear. "And I just transmitted your exact GPS coordinates, your private bank encryption keys, and your full voice recognition profile to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and NATO Intelligence."
Beatrix’s smile flickered for a fraction of a second, but she quickly regained her composure. "It doesn't matter, child. In three minutes, this ship will be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. By the time the Coast Guard arrives, there will be no evidence, no survivors, and no 'Red Queen' to arrest. I have a stealth VTOL aircraft waiting on the top pad."
"You forgot one thing, Baroness," Lucas suddenly spoke up from the back near the engine control panel.
Beatrix turned her eyes toward Lucas. "And what is that, little accountant?"
"You forgot that this ship was designed by Grandmaster Chen," Lucas said with a cold smile, slamming his palm down onto a red emergency lever on the main wall. "And Chen built a manual override into the engine cooling system."
Instantly, massive jets of high-pressure superheated steam erupted from the wall pipes right into the middle of Beatrix’s mercenary team!
Screams of pain erupted through the engine room as thick white steam blinded the mercenaries.
"Move!" Richard roared!
In the chaos, Marcus lunged forward, tackling two guards into the steam, while Richard disarmed Beatrix with a brutal strike to her wrist. The pearl-handled revolver flew from her hand, landing on the steel grating.
Beatrix shrieked in rage, drawing a concealed ceramic dagger from her sleeve and slashing at Richard’s face. Richard ducked, grabbed her arm, and slammed her against the hot steel engine block.
"Your reign is over, Beatrix!" Richard growled, snapping heavy plastic cuffs onto her wrists.
Outside the ship, the thunderous roar of military jet engines shook the entire vessel as four US Navy F-35 fighters streaked through the night sky, dropping blinding illumination flares over *The Emperor's Grace*.
"Hostile craft, this is the United States Navy!" a booming voice echoed from a hovering naval helicopter outside. "Stand down and prepare to be boarded immediately!"
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Beatrix looked out through the engine room viewport at the arriving fleet of warships and attack helicopters, her face twisting into an expression of total, irredeemable defeat.
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