Jake’s breath came in sharp gasps as he pressed himself against the cold steel wall of the narrow staircase. His heart hammered so violently he swore it would give him away. Above him, the thundering boots of Synergy Biotech guards echoed through the dimly lit corridors. The alarms continued to wail, their shrill cries drilling into his skull.

Think. Think.

Everything he had just witnessed—Voss, Project L, the sonar feed—it didn’t make sense. How could something like this stay hidden? How had Synergy Biotech managed to operate under the radar for so long?

And the worst part—Voss let him escape.

That meant only one thing.

Voss didn’t see him as a threat.

Jake’s stomach twisted. Was this all part of some elaborate game? A sick, calculated move?

The image of the massive shape in the deep flashed in his mind again. That low, bone-rattling rumble. The pressure in his chest. The weight of something awakening.

Leviathan.

If Voss was right—if this was not just a creature but something beyond human comprehension—

Jake clenched his teeth.

He had to stop this.

But how?

The guards were closing in. He could hear them barking orders—“Find him! He couldn’t have gone far!”—and his mind reeled with options.

The staircase led downward.

Deeper into the ship.

It was a gamble. Stay and fight? No chance. He was unarmed. Try to escape? The ship was in the middle of the ocean, and security was crawling everywhere.

His only option?

Find something he could use against them.

He took a breath and descended.

The lower decks of the ship were eerily quiet compared to the chaos above. The only sound was the dull hum of machinery, the rhythmic pulsing of power surging through the vessel.

Jake kept low, his pulse still racing. The hallway was different here—no security, no personnel. Just heavy metal doors with biohazard warnings stamped across them.

This is it. The heart of the operation.

He approached one of the terminals and found it unlocked. Someone had left in a hurry. Perfect.

His fingers flew over the keyboard, navigating through encrypted files until he found something.

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A video feed. Live.

He clicked it open.

And what he saw made his blood turn to ice.

The screen flickered, revealing an underwater research station hundreds of meters below the ship. Bright floodlights illuminated the inky darkness of the deep.

And then—movement.

The camera panned over a massive containment unit, its reinforced metal walls trembling under some unseen force. Inside, the shadows shifted, and then—

A massive eye snapped open.

Jake recoiled. The camera’s feed began glitching. The deep, guttural rumble from before returned, only this time, it was louder. Angrier.

A warning flashed across the screen.

CONTAINMENT BREACH IMMINENT.

Jake’s heart stopped.

He scrambled back from the console just as the ship lurched violently. The lights overhead flickered. A deep, earth-shattering boom resonated from beneath them, followed by the distant sound of metal twisting, breaking.

Something was rising.

Something impossibly large.

Leviathan was waking up.

Jake clenched his fists. The coast guard wouldn’t stand a chance. The military wouldn’t make it in time. And if Synergy Biotech managed to fully awaken whatever was lurking in the deep, the consequences would be unimaginable.

This ship. This research. This entire operation—had to be erased.

His only option? Sabotage the control room.

But there was one problem.

The ship was on high alert.

Guards patrolled every corridor. Security checkpoints were locked down. Every step he took would be a step closer to death.

He swallowed hard. No turning back now.

Jake kept low, weaving between supply crates and machinery, staying out of sight. He had spent enough time sneaking around—he knew the ship’s layout now. The control room was located three decks above, near the ship’s command center.

The problem? It was heavily guarded.

Jake’s mind raced. He needed a distraction. Something big.

Then—a thought hit him.

The engine room.

If he could trigger an overload, the entire ship would be thrown into chaos. Security would be forced to divert their attention, giving him the perfect opening to strike.

Risky. But worth it.

Jake moved quickly, his adrenaline surging as he entered the massive, dimly lit engine bay. The rhythmic thrum of the ship’s power core vibrated through the floor beneath his feet.

This was it.

The engine control panel was complex, but he didn’t need to understand it completely—just enough to break it.

His hands flew over the controls, navigating past the locked security layers until he found what he needed.

Reactor coolant levels.

He disabled the failsafe.

Immediately, an alarm blared across the ship. Flashing red lights bathed the room in a warning glow.

“WARNING: CORE TEMPERATURE RISING

COOLANT SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT”

Jake didn’t wait. He bolted out of the engine room as the entire ship shuddered.

As expected, the moment the alarms blared, the guards scrambled.

Jake sprinted toward the upper decks, dodging confused and panicked personnel. Smoke and steam hissed from ruptured pipes. The air grew hot. The ship was destabilizing.

He reached the control room’s main doors. Locked. Of course.

Jake glanced around. He needed another way in.

Then—he saw it.

A ventilation shaft.

It was a tight fit, but he had no choice. He climbed in, crawling through the metal ducts as the heat inside the ship intensified.

Then—voices.

He peered through the grate.

Inside, several high-ranking Synergy Biotech officers were desperately trying to stabilize the situation. Screens flashed warnings. One of them barked orders into a radio.

“Reactor breach imminent! Shut down all—”

Jake didn’t let him finish.

He kicked the vent cover open and dropped down into the room.

Before the officers could react, he grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and smashed it across the head of the nearest man.

The others lunged at him. Jake ducked, grabbed a chair, and swung hard. One officer collapsed. The remaining man fumbled for a weapon, but Jake tackled him, sending them both crashing into a console.

Alarms wailed. Sparks flew from overloaded circuits.

Jake staggered to his feet, his breathing ragged. No time.

He turned to the main console and saw what he needed—

The ship’s self-destruct sequence.

No going back now.

Jake slammed the emergency override.

“WARNING: SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED

T-MINUS 10 MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION”

The ship trembled violently. He had done it.

Now, he had ten minutes to escape.