Crimson energy crackled along the dark-iron cannons of the lead mercenary frigate.
Behind the lead ship, two more eighty-meter Ouroboros warships steamed into the island channel. Their heavy bow waves churned the blue Aegean Sea into frothing white foam. Dark skull flags whipped in the offshore wind as their targeting arrays locked onto the crowded white sands of Island Eleven.
On the beach, Grandma Chen was flipping freshly grilled squid skewers over hot coconut charcoal.
Beside her, a young ICU nurse from Paris held a paper plate, laughing as she sprinkled sweet paprika onto the skewers. Little Guo’er sat on a woven beach mat nearby, chewing on a piece of lotus-honey candy while watching a tiny hermit crab crawl across the warm sand.
Dozens of white seagulls fluttered down to nibble on lotus breadcrumbs that Little Guo’er scattered with her small fingers.
None of the vacationing workers paid the slightest attention to the approaching warships.
“More garlic sauce, Grandma Chen!” a delivery rider from Chengdu called out from a shaded picnic table. “This squid is the freshest seafood I have ever tasted in my entire life!”
“Eat slowly, Xiao Zhang,” Grandma Chen scolded gently with a warm maternal smile. “There are three more buckets of giant tiger prawns cooling in the ice chest. Nobody leaves this beach on an empty stomach.”
