Chapter 79: The Truth Inside the Hard Drive

When dawn broke, Cole got up and made his way to the bow of the ship, standing on the deck and gazing out at the sea.

Just then, Marcus came out of the cabin, holding a steaming cup of coffee.

"What are you staring at? You look lost in thought. Something on your mind?"

"I'm fine."

"When you say you're fine, you usually aren't."

Cole didn't respond. He just kept looking quietly at the sea.

Marcus followed his gaze and looked out at the water too, then spoke again. "You know, before Old Eric died, he asked me to pass something along to you."

Cole turned his head right away. "What did he want to say?"

"Just one thing. Old Eric said don't blame yourself." Marcus said calmly. "He said you'd put the deaths of everyone on your own shoulders. He wanted me to tell you that those people dying wasn't your fault. They fought and died for their families, for the wolf clan, for what they believed in. Their deaths meant something. They mattered."

"You're the Alpha. You feel like you have to carry everyone's life on your back. But when someone falls, you don't have to blame yourself. That's what Old Eric wanted you to know."

A warm sea breeze drifted past, brushing against Cole's face. Something deep inside him stirred, and for a moment, his expression softened.

But he pulled himself together quickly and changed the subject.

"What's Heinrich up to right now?"

"Still in the communications room. Been up all night. His eyes are so dark it looks like someone punched him. He said he's got something to show you and told me not to bother him."

"I'll go check on him then."

Cole turned and walked toward the cabin.

He didn't push the door open. He wanted to let her sleep a little longer.

The communications room was at the end of the cabin hallway, originally used as a storage closet.

Heinrich had cleared everything out and brought in two folding tables and three laptops.

Now he sat in front of the screens, the blue glow lighting up his face and making the dark circles under his eyes look even worse.

Cole walked in and stood behind him. "You should sleep."

Heinrich turned around. His eyes were red and his voice was rough.

"I tried. I can't. And this can't wait."

"What is it?" Cole sat down and asked.

"There are huge secrets buried in Odin's server data. I pulled it out of the Raven's Nest on a hard drive. It had three layers of encryption. I spent two full days and nights brute-forcing it, and at three this morning, I cracked the first layer."

Heinrich typed a few keys and pulled up a folder. He clicked into one of them, and an org chart appeared on the screen.

"Looking at The Volchatnik's structure, Odin wasn't the only one in charge."

Cole studied the chart.

At the very top was a circle with the words "Council of Nine" written inside it. Nine lines branched down from the circle, each connecting to a box. The other eight boxes had different code names and regions listed.

Asia. Africa. The Americas...

"Nine people?" Cole frowned.

"Nine people." Heinrich nodded firmly. "Odin was only the third seat. He handled Northern Europe and the god-making rituals. The other eight each run their own territories and operations. This is a global organization."

"This isn't some splinter faction from Northern Europe. It's not one madman running a cult in the Arctic. It's nine madmen, spread across the entire world, and they've been at this for at least thirty years."

Cole stared hard at the screen. Then he remembered what Odin had said just before he died.

At the time, he'd written it off as the ramblings of a madman. But now he understood. It wasn't just one man losing his mind. It was a whole group of them.

"Who are the other eight?" Cole asked.

"No idea. The hard drive has no personal information at all. Just code names and assigned roles. The rest of the data is still encrypted." Heinrich paused, then his eyes lit up. "But I found this."

He opened another folder. Inside was a world map marked with twelve red dots scattered across every continent.

A few of the locations were places Cole recognized. Giza in Egypt. Mount Olympus in Greece. The Indus Valley. The rainforests of Central America.

Cole leaned in, curious. "What is this?"

"Ancient power seals." Heinrich explained as he clicked on one of the red dots, pulling up a detailed file.

The title was a string of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The translation read: Seal of Anubis.

Cole scrolled down and found more files. Each one was detailed and thorough.

Heinrich explained. "Odin spent thirty years tracking down all twelve seals. He synced every piece of data to the Council of Nine, and right before he died, he hit send."

Cole's brow furrowed. "So Odin was just a piece on the board. There's a much bigger operation behind him."

"Exactly. And his failure won't stop the plan." Heinrich pulled up an encrypted communication log. "This is from the Council of Nine's internal channel, sent after his death."

"I've already cracked this message. It says: Odin is dead. Ragnarok proceeds as planned."

"Ragnarok?" Cole's frown deepened.

Heinrich's voice grew heavy. "In legend, it's the end of the world in Norse mythology. It's also the code name for the Council of Nine's final plan. They want to break all twelve seals at the same time, use the ancient power to blanket the entire earth, and turn every living thing into a vessel for chaotic energy."

Cole was quiet for a moment, then asked. "How much time do we have?"

"Unknown." Heinrich shook his head. "There's no specific timeline in the hard drive. But based on how often they're communicating, they're speeding things up. Odin's death put pressure on them. They know you're going to keep coming."

"Then we keep the pressure on." Cole's voice turned firm. He laid out his plan. "Sync all the data to every one of the twenty-three wolf clan branches worldwide. Tell them that starting now, every base goes to combat readiness. Weapons loaded. Wounded moved out. Civilians evacuated. Anyone spotted wearing a Volchatnik mark gets fired on immediately. No need to check in first."

Heinrich nodded and started typing fast, sending the order out to wolf clan branches around the world.

After laying out the plan, Cole left the communications room and stood in the hallway, turning over everything he'd just learned.

The Council of Nine. Twelve seals. Ragnarok.

He was still thinking as he reached the door of the medical room.

Inside, Sophia was still resting in bed, but Ingrid was gone.

"Cole, you look terrible." Sophia glanced up as he came in, her voice carrying a hint of concern.

"So do you."

"But I'm the patient."

"Then so am I."