Chapter 24 - Divided Waters
The Bennett Maritime Operations Control Center was a glass-walled fortress perched atop the South Terminal, overlooking the burning harbor.
Inside, red emergency strobe lights spun against the ceiling, bathing the banks of computer monitors in a frantic crimson glow. Half a dozen night-shift dispatchers were shouting into radio headsets, their voices trembling with panic.
"The automated floodgates are frozen!" an operator yelled into his microphone. " Harbor Fire Engine 3 is blocked at the channel gate! The *Arthur B.* is listing twelve degrees to port! If she hits twenty, she goes over!"
The glass security doors hissed open as Mateo, Vanessa, and I strode into the command room.
The harbor master, an old sea veteran named Captain Harris who had served Dad for twenty-five years, whirled around, his face pale with sweat.
"Miss Bennett! Thank God," Harris breathed. "Someone hacked the master override terminal ten minutes ago. The root server is encrypted with a private Moreau Syndicate signature. We can't vent the ballast tanks, and we can't open the harbor locks for the fire tugs!"
I marched directly to the primary console, stripping off my wet jacket. "Is the secondary hardwired bridge intact?"
"Arthur installed an analog pneumatic bypass in the lower pump room beneath Pier 12," Harris said grimly. "But the system requires two physical biometric authorizations from direct Bennett blood relatives. Arthur designed it so no rogue board member could scuttle a ship without his and Eleanor's simultaneous physical consent."
I turned my head slowly toward Vanessa.
Vanessa stood shivering in the doorway, her mascara running down her pale cheeks, clutching her arms around herself. When she saw all the dispatchers and harbor officers staring at her, she shrank back.
"No," Vanessa whimpered, shaking her head. "No, Claire. Pier 12 is right next to the burning slip. The heat... the fumes... I can't go down there! I’m not built for that! You’re the tough one, Claire! You fix it!"
I walked across the room until I was standing inches from my half-sister.
"Listen to me very carefully, Vanessa," I whispered, my voice dripping with icy venom. "Thirty years you spent living off my father’s sweat while Eleanor told you you were a queen. Two weeks ago, you snatched my luggage out of the master suite in Cabo and told me I was nothing more than the family bookkeeper."
Vanessa swallowed hard, tears leaking from her eyes.
"Right now, that ship is carrying the pensions of every dockworker in this city. It's carrying our father’s name. And if it sinks, Julian Moreau doesn't just win—he wipes your entire existence off the map. You won't have a penthouse. You won't have designer bags. You won't even have a surname that banks will touch."
May you like
I grabbed her wrist, dragging her toward the elevator doors.
"You wanted to share the inheritance, Vanessa? You’re going to share the work. Move your feet, or I swear to God I’ll throw you into the harbor myself."
