CHAPTER 7: THE RUSTED CAGE
The freezing ocean water surged over Sarah’s chin, pouring directly into her gasping mouth.
She clawed frantically at the heavy iron bars, tearing her fingernails down to the bleeding quick.
The rusted metal refused to budge even a single millimeter.
“Move out of the way,” Vance roared, his voice muffled by the swirling black water.
Sarah pressed her body against the slimy curved wall of the narrow pipe, shielding Lily from the surging current.
Vance squeezed his massive frame forward, ignoring the agonizing pain radiating from his gunshot wound.
He aimed his heavy black handgun directly at the thick iron padlock securing the rusted grate.
“Cover your ears and close your eyes,” Vance commanded fiercely.
Sarah shoved Lily’s face into her wet chest, clamping her freezing hands tightly over her daughter’s ears.
The deafening crack of the gunshot in the enclosed concrete pipe was catastrophic.
The bullet shattered the heavy padlock into a dozen jagged metal fragments, sending sparks flying through the pitch-black darkness.
Vance threw his body weight against the iron grate, kicking it outward with his expensive leather boots.
The heavy metal screeched loudly in protest before finally snapping off its ancient hinges.
“Swim out right now,” Vance shouted, grabbing Sarah by the back of her soaked waitress uniform.
He shoved her and the young girl out of the narrow pipe and into the crushing, open bay water.
The shock of the freezing ocean temperature hit Sarah like a physical punch directly to the heart.
She kicked her legs frantically, blinded by the dark, swirling saltwater and the heavy coastal fog.
Lily thrashed wildly beside her, fighting desperately against the underwater currents threatening to drag them under.
Sarah grabbed her daughter by the heavy collar of her shirt, pulling her forcefully toward the distant, shimmering moonlight above.
They broke the surface simultaneously, gasping for massive lungs full of the freezing, salty night air.
“Keep quiet,” Vance hissed, popping out of the dark water just inches away from Sarah’s face.
He instantly clamped his large, bloody hand directly over Sarah’s mouth to muffle her desperate coughing.
They were treading water beneath the rotting wooden pilings of an active, heavily guarded shipping pier.
Directly above their heads, the thudding footsteps of Victor’s armed mercenaries echoed loudly across the wooden planks.
“Do you see their bodies washing up yet?” a gruff, heavily accented voice shouted from the pier above.
“Nothing but trash and dead fish,” another mercenary replied, shining a blinding white flashlight directly onto the dark water.
The bright beam of light swept across the rolling waves, coming dangerously close to their hidden position.
Vance pushed Sarah and Lily forcefully back under the dark water, holding them submerged beneath the rotting dock.
Sarah held her breath until her lungs burned with pure fire, praying the bright light would pass over them.
If you had to hold your child underwater to save them from a firing squad, how long could you endure the panic?
The blinding light finally clicked off, plunging the freezing ocean back into darkness.
Vance pulled them back up to the surface, his face pale from the massive blood loss.
“We need to get out of this freezing water in three minutes, or hypothermia will kill us,” Vance whispered through chattering teeth.
“I cannot feel my legs anymore,” Lily whimpered, her lips turning a terrifying shade of bruised blue.
“Mark hid an escape boat near the eastern pilings,” Vance stated, scanning the thick fog for any signs of a vessel.
“How do you know that?” Sarah asked, her body shaking so hard she could barely keep her head above the water.
“Because he charged my criminal accounts fifty thousand dollars to buy it five years ago,” Vance replied grimly.
He paddled weakly through the freezing waves, leading them deeper into the maze of rotting wooden supports.
A sleek, black speedboat was heavily tethered to a rusted metal ring, concealed beneath a decaying tarp.
“Climb inside quickly,” Vance ordered, using his one good arm to push Sarah over the edge of the fiberglass hull.
Sarah collapsed onto the boat’s deck, reaching back over the side to pull her freezing daughter out of the water.
Lily tumbled into the boat like a lifeless doll, shivering as Sarah wrapped her in a heavy emergency blanket found on the seats.
Vance hoisted himself over the edge a second later, collapsing flat onto his back in total exhaustion.
The fresh blood from his shoulder wound immediately began pooling onto the pristine white fiberglass deck.
“The keys are not in the ignition,” Sarah panicked, frantically searching the dashboard of the expensive speed boat.
“It is a digital keypad lock,” Vance groaned, struggling weakly to sit upright against the leather captain’s chair.
Sarah stared helplessly at the glowing red numerical pad mounted next to the boat’s steering wheel.
“I do not know the passcode,” Sarah cried out, terrified that they had survived the drowning just to freeze to death.
Lily slowly pulled the soaked black leather journal from the waterproof pocket of her mother’s ruined apron.
“The passcode is written on the very last page,” Lily stated, her teeth clattering against each other.
“Read the numbers to me right now,” Sarah begged, her frozen fingers hovering nervously over the glowing red keypad.
“It is not numbers, Mom,” Lily explained, wiping the freezing ocean water from her pale, exhausted eyes.
“It is written in Russian,” the eleven-year-old prodigy revealed, staring intently at the smeared ink on the page.
Vance let out a dark, bitter laugh that morphed into a wet, agonizing cough.
“Your husband truly did not trust anyone in this world,” Vance muttered, spitting dark blood onto the deck.
“What does the Russian word mean, Lily?” Sarah demanded, ignoring the dying billionaire.
“It spells out the word ‘Betrayal,'” Lily answered softly, punching the corresponding numerical keys onto the glowing pad.
The boat’s massive twin engines roared to life instantly, vibrating powerfully against the freezing ocean waves.
“Drive us directly into the fog bank,” Vance commanded, his eyes rolling back slightly as he lost consciousness.
Sarah grabbed the heavy steering wheel, slamming the throttle forward and launching the black boat aggressively into the pitch-black night.
