[Open ocean — Central zone — Day 30 — 3:47 AM]
Kira saw them coming before anyone else woke up.
Not three ships this time.
Nine.
The original three plus six that had been waiting on the northern horizon for two days — the reinforcements the captain had been calling for since he retreated from the first encounter.
Kira had watched them approach slowly over the last hour, all nine moving in coordinated formation, the original triangle expanding into a network that surrounded the team's boat from every possible angle.
There was no escape route.
"Everyone up," said Kira from the crow's nest. "Now."
---
The team was on deck in three minutes.
Alex with all three Fragments already on alert — F1 responding to the signatures of the nine ships before his eyes could see them clearly. F4 reading the ocean's spiritual plane and finding one hundred forty active signatures distributed among the nine hulls.
One hundred forty.
*Before there were eighty,* Alex thought.
Seraph beside him.
