The Drums Beneath the Channel
Chapter 10 - The Drums Beneath the Channel
Rain erased the shoreline.
Nathan steered by Mara’s tide calculations while Elias monitored the engine. The old boat rose and fell between dark waves.
Ahead, Rescue Boat Three stopped near the eastern channel.
Paul lowered a drilling rig into the water.
Grant stood at the stern holding the authorization ledger’s duplicate drive.
Nathan used the loudspeaker.
“Shut down the rig.”
Grant answered over the radio.
“You cannot save this harbor. The contamination already exists.”
“You buried it.”
“I contained it.”
“You built towers over poison and called it progress.”
Paul started the drill.
Mara opened an emergency frequency connected to the public marine channel.
Every boat in Grayhaven heard Grant’s response.
“The city needed investment. People accept risk when they never have to see it.”
Grant realized the channel was open.
He ordered Paul to ram Nathan’s boat.
Paul hesitated.
Nathan had been a child when Paul first joined the Mercer family. For years, Paul had told himself he protected Grant’s son.
Now Grant expected him to sink Nathan too.
Paul shut down the engine.
Grant struck him and seized the controls.
Boat Three turned sharply.
Elias fired an orange tow line across the gap. The hook caught Boat Three’s rail and pulled the vessels together.
Mara crossed first.
Grant raised a steel tool.
Nathan blocked him.
The two men struggled on the wet deck.
A wave struck both boats.
Grant fell against the drilling controls.
The rig descended and punctured one drum.
A thin chemical sheen reached the surface.
Mara hit the emergency seal.
Elias and Paul hauled the rig upward.
Nathan restrained Grant until Coast Guard units arrived.
The leak was contained within a floating barrier, but samples proved Mara’s original report accurate.
Grant’s development permits collapsed before sunrise.
As officers placed him in custody, Grant looked at Nathan.
“I gave you everything.”
Nathan removed his harbor badge.
“You gave me a life built to keep me from asking where it came from.”
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He handed the badge to Officer Ortiz.
Then he helped Elias secure the damaged boat.
