July 16, 2026 – Red Hook Port Container V-7 Time: 03:05
The sound of bullets hitting the container's metal walls echoed inside like I was inside a giant drum. Carter was outside, barking orders with his burnt face and thirst for revenge. Thomas Hale (Asher) hadn't just found me; he had trapped me inside my own past.
"Julian! Answer me!" Ivy yelled through the earpiece. Her voice was trembling. "The entrances and exits are sealed. There are two dozen men with Carter. I can't get there!"
"Ivy, listen to me," I said, shielding my chest with my father's bloodstained jacket. "Thomas must have infiltrated your intelligence channel to set this trap. Now shut down that channel and overload the port's main transformer. If you don't turn off those spotlights, only my body will come out of here."
"I tried, Michael... sorry, Julian, I tried! The passwords have been changed. Thomas protects the system better than I do."
I gritted my teeth. My uncle had built not just a physical fortress, but a digital one. But there was one thing he had forgotten inside that fortress: the ballistic calculations of fifteen years of rage.
Time: 03:15
Exit the Container – First Blood
I climbed up through the ventilation hole in the container's ceiling. Carter's men were focused on the door. On the roof, I blended into the smoke and darkness. The "silent steps" tactic my father taught me was now second nature.
I caught the first sniper at the base of the crane tower. When I approached him from behind and plunged the knife into his neck, the only sound the man made was the howl of the wind. I took his rifle. I lowered the night vision scope to my eye.
The world turned back to that poisonous green.
Carter was hiding behind a tank below, shouting through a megaphone. "Come out, Michael! Your uncle wants to play a game with you! If you surrender, we'll delete Elara and Natalia's addresses in Canada from the system!"
My heart nearly stopped. Cliffhanger 1: Could Cliffhanger 1 have found them? Or was Carter just bluffing?
"Touch them," I muttered through the scope, aiming at Carter's head, "and I'll bring the world down on you."
Time: 03:30
Explosion at the Heart of the Port
I pulled the trigger. But my target wasn't Carter. My target was the valve lock on the fuel tanker right next to the tank.
CLANG!
The bullet shattered the metal. Gas began to leak. Before Carter could figure out what was happening, I sent the second bullet right into the center of that gas cloud.
KABOOM!
A terrifying explosion lit up the port. As Carter and his men tried to escape the flying metal fragments, I slid down the crane's steel cable, into the heart of hell. I appeared like a ghost through the smoke, right in front of Carter.
Carter looked at me with his one good eye, his face burned. He tried to raise the gun in his hand, but I was faster. I knocked the weapon from his grasp and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him against the burning hull of the tank.
"Where's Elara?" I roared.
Carter laughed in pain, blood dripping from his mouth. "Don't you get it yet, Julian? Thomas doesn't want to kill you. He wants to... turn you into something. Ivy... Why do you think Ivy slipped in so easily?"
My hand trembled. Cliffhanger 2: Was Ivy Thomas's agent? Or was she just another pawn?
Just then, Ivy's minivan crashed through the port gate. Ivy, leaning out of the vehicle with a machine gun, was mowing down Carter's men. "Michael! Get in here! Now!"
I threw Carter to the ground. I started running toward Ivy. But as I approached the van, I saw the look on Ivy's face. It wasn't fear... It was guilt.
I jumped into the van. Ivy stepped on the gas. We left the burning port and the surviving Carter behind us.
"Ivy," I said, breathless. "What was Carter talking about? What's going on between you and Thomas?"
Ivy gripped the steering wheel tightly, her eyes fixed on the road. "Michael, sometimes to save someone you love, you have to betray them in the worst way."