Chapter 99 - Into the Iron Sea
"Get up," Claire commanded, turning around and grabbing Margaret by the collar of her blood-soaked coat with one hand, hauling the older woman to her feet like a rag doll.
"Kill me," Margaret hissed through gritted teeth, her face twisted with pure hatred, her uninjured hand clawing desperately at Claire’s armored gauntlets. "Kill me, Claire! You don't have the stomach to watch this plane hit the water! We die together!"
"Death is too clean for you, Margaret," Claire said coldly. "The world thinks you're a high-society victim who was manipulated by Arthur. They think you're sitting in a federal cell. But I am bringing you back in chains. Every senator you bought, every general you bribed, every family of the men I was sent to kill because of your greed—they are going to look at your face when you stand in front of the Senate."
Claire dragged Margaret down the spiral staircase into the howling wind of the open cargo hold. The ocean was rushing up at terrifying speed, massive black waves cresting with white foam mere hundreds of feet below.
In the distance, through the mist, the twin navigation lights of Commander Miller’s Osprey cut through the clouds, hovering precariously close to their descent path.
"Miller! Primary payload neutralized! I have the package!" Claire yelled into her comms.
"Claire! Your aircraft is entering ground effect! You have five seconds before impact!" Miller roared over the radio. "Deploy extraction cable!"
From the belly of the hovering Osprey, a high-tensile steel rescue hoist rocketed downward, its magnetic recovery collar dangling over the plunging stealth jet.
Claire clamped her arms around Margaret, locking a heavy nylon extraction carabiner around her mother’s waist, linking both of them together. With her free hand, she reached out toward the swinging cable.
"I won't let you parade me like a criminal!" Margaret screamed, thrashing violently against the harness, her manicured fingers scratching at Claire’s visor, trying to push them both off the ramp into the roaring jet exhaust below. "I am Margaret Montgomery! I built this country!"
"You're just another target that stayed in the open too long," Claire whispered.
May you like
Claire leaped.
Her hand caught the steel eyelet of the rescue hoist just as the Aurora’s wings struck the crest of a fifty-foot wave. The stealth jet exploded in a catastrophic fireball behind them, the concussion wave slamming into Claire's back as the Osprey’s winch engaged, ripping both mother and daughter straight up into the icy heavens away from the burning wreckage.
