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CHAPTER 14

THE OREGON’S BOW CUT THROUGH THE DARKENED waters of the Ionian Sea with ease Her revolutionary h four feet of pack ice just as effortlessly They were just west of Corinth, having rounded the Peloponnesian Peninsula, and were driving due east to get into position There was little maritime traffic around the ship What showed on the radarscope were a couple of coastal fishing boats, probably trawling for squid feeding near the surface at night

For thedouble duty Seated in his navigator’s station, he had control of the ship, but he had turned one of Mark Murphy’s co the UAV still circling over the Responsivist co the ship would demand his full concentration, he would turn the drone over to Goed Robinson

“Oregon, this is Gomez” Hali had put the helicopter’s coht”

“Roger, Go deceleration,” Max said from the captain’s chair “Five knots, if you please, Mr Stone”

Ericthrough the Oregon’s drive tubes until he could reverse the pumps and drop the ship down to the required speed They had towith the swells and co

Max spun his seat so he could see the da at his station at the back of the room “Fire teams ready?”

“In full gear, sir,” he said iers for the water cannons”

“Very good Hali, tell George we’re ready when he is” Max keyed the interco by “Julia, George is only a couple of minutes out”

A bullet had only grazed the pilot’s calf, but Max Hanley felt as guilty as if the entire team had been wiped out No matter how anyone tried to rationalize it, Juan and the others had put theer because of him And now the hly fallen apart So far, George’s flesh wound was the only injury, but Juan had dropped off the tactical net and Hali couldn’t raise him Linda had Linc, Eddie, and Kyle with her in the van, and they reported a heavily armed jeep in close pursuit

For the hundredth time since the Chairman was first ambushed, Max cursed their decision to use only nonlethal weapons No one had expected an aruards Hanley still hadn’t yet considered the implications of so many weapons at a cult’s co he’d heard and read since his ex had called him, the Responsivists weren’t violent In fact, they eschewed violence in all its forms

How this connected to the mass murder aboard the Golden Dawn, he didn’t know Were the Responsivists at ith soroup? And, if so, ere they? Another cult no one had heard of, a group willing to kill hundreds of people just because the Responsivists believed in population control?

To Max, none of it et roup like this He so wanted to believe that none of it was his fault A lesser person would have been able to convince himself of just that But Max knehere his responsibilities lay, and he had never shied away from them

For now, he co screen, where ahad opened with a cao hatch Lit only by the e flared the chopper over the stern railing S in dense waves that were twisted into a wreath by the whirling blades

This was another exae He’d flown the crippled chopper over twentyand land it in some farmer’s field Of course, that would have raised all sorts of questions with the Greek authorities And the Chairman’s plan C called for everyone to be on the boat and in international waters as quickly as possible