Just as Jake leaned in closer, hoping to catch more details about the ominous “creature” and “Phase Two,” a sudden voice shattered the silence behind him.

“Hey, you! What are you doing there?”

Jake’s breath caught in his throat. A guard.

The masked soldier’s boots clanked against the metal floor as he took a step closer.

Jake didn’t wait to explain. He ran.

The guard immediately lunged after him, yelling for backup. Alarms hadn’t been triggered yet, but it was only a matter of time before security locked down the area.

Jake scrambled through the long corridor, his heart hammering against his ribs. Where do I go?

Doors blurred past him—**Lab A, Storage 5, Server Room—**nothing useful. Think, Jake. Think.

Behind him, the guard was closing in, his heavy footsteps gaining speed. Jake turned a sharp corner, nearly slipping on the smooth floor. His mind raced for a plan, but there was no time.

And then—he saw it.

A maintenance hatch built into the lower part of the wall, just wide enough for someone to crawl through.

Without hesitation, Jake lunged forward, yanking the hatch open and squeezing inside. He barely had time to pull the cover back in place before the guard stormed past, his gun sweeping the hallway.

Jake bit back a breath, staying completely still.

The guard hesitated.

For a terrifying moment, Jake swore the man was about to rip open the hatch and drag him out.

But then, after a long pause, the guard cursed under his breath and ran ahead, still searching.

Jake stayed frozen in the cramped space, his pulse pounding in his ears. He had narrowly escaped.

But now, deep inside the ship, hidden in an unknown passageway, he had no idea where this tunnel led—or if he had just trapped himself inside.

Jake crawled forward, his movements slow and careful. The tunnel walls were tight, lined with metal pipes that hummed faintly. He could barely see ahead, but as he reached the end, a narrow opening revealed a dimly lit chamber.

He cautiously peeked through the gap.

What he saw made his stomach drop.

Rows of metal bars stretched across the room—a prison. The air was thick with dampness and despair. The harsh fluorescent lights flickered, casting eerie shadows on the walls.

Behind the bars, prisoners sat slumped against the cold floor, their bodies frail, their faces hollow. Some whispered among themselves, while others sat in silent misery. Why was there a prison on a research vessel?

Jake’s breath hitched as his gaze landed on one particular prisoner.

Slumped in the farthest cell, barely recognizable through the bruises and dried blood, was Dr. Elias Kade.

Jake’s blood ran cold.

Dr. Kade had been one of the most brilliant marine biologists in the world—a legend in their field. But five years ago, he had vanished without a trace. Rumors spread that he had died in a lab fire, but his body was never found.

And now here he was.

Half-conscious, his head hung low, his lab coat torn and stained with blood.

Jake’s mind raced. What the hell was happening here? What could Synergy Biotech possibly want with Dr. Kade?

Before he could process it, Dr. Kade’s swollen eyes flickered open—and locked onto Jake.

A jolt of recognition passed between them.

Jake’s heart pounded. Kade knows me.

Then, the doctor’s cracked lips parted.

And in a voice barely above a whisper, he spoke four words that sent a chill down Jake’s spine.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Jake took a step closer, gripping the cold iron bars. He crouched down to meet Dr. Kade’s weary gaze, keeping his voice low.

“I need to know what’s going on,” Jake whispered urgently. “I came here because something didn’t feel right. The ship, the strange sounds, the secrecy—I had to find out what Synergy Biotech is really doing.”

Dr. Kade coughed, his body weak from what must have been weeks—if not months—of torture. His breathing was uneven, but his eyes were still sharp, still aware. He was a man who had seen too much.

Jake swallowed and softened his tone. “I mean you no harm, Dr. Kade. I just want the truth.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

For a moment, silence filled the cell. The other prisoners remained motionless, either too weak or too afraid to react.

Then, Kade finally spoke.

“You don’t know what you’ve walked into, kid,” he rasped, his voice barely above a whisper. “This place—it’s not just a lab. It’s a graveyard for anyone who gets in the way.”

Jake stiffened.

Kade exhaled shakily. “Synergy Biotech didn’t just go underground after the ban. They were never dismantled—they just went into hiding, evolving into something even worse.” He glanced around the prison, as if ensuring no one else was listening. “They’re experimenting on things that should never be disturbed.”

Jake’s mind raced. “Experimenting on what?”

Kade’s gaze darkened. “The Leviathan.”

A chill ran down Jake’s spine.

He had expected something illegal, something dangerous. But this?

“The Leviathan isn’t just a myth,” Kade continued, his voice hoarse. “It’s real. A creature so ancient, it predates recorded history. We’ve found fragments of it buried deep in the Mariana Trench, in places where no life should exist. And now, Synergy Biotech is trying to do the impossible.”

Jake’s throat went dry. “They’re… bringing it back?”

Kade let out a bitter laugh, wincing from the pain. “They already have.”

Jake’s breath caught.

“Their sonar technology?” Kade continued, his voice urgent now. “It’s not just for research—it’s a trigger. A frequency designed to wake the Leviathan from its slumber. That sound you heard earlier? That was it stirring.”

Jake clenched his fists. It was all connected—the sound, the ship, the classified files.

Kade wasn’t done.

“But they didn’t account for one thing,” he said, his expression grim. “They assumed they could control it. That their technology was advanced enough to manipulate something that has survived for millions of years. They thought they could leash a force of nature.”

Jake’s stomach twisted.

“And they were wrong,” Kade finished.

Jake’s heart pounded in his chest. He had stepped onto this ship out of curiosity, but now?

He was in the middle of something much, much bigger than himself.

Now it all made sense, the masked men, the secrecy, the meeting hall, the man calling the shots, the state of the art technology. This answer already took jake by surprise, he asked Kade who was behind this entire operation and who was calling the shots.

Kade’s voice weakened and he gasped for breath, he then breathed his last and his last words were- “He knows you are here, you shouldn’t have come back”. Silence falls, Dr Elias Kade was no more.

A distorted, raspy, rough voice echoed over the speakers.

Jake froze.

The voice.

It echoed through the cold steel walls of the prison, distorted but unmistakably laced with quiet menace.

“You should have stayed away,” it repeated, reverberating from unseen speakers. “But then again… I expected you would come back to me.”

Jake’s breath hitched. Come back? What did that mean? His hands trembled as he stepped back from Dr. Elias Kade’s lifeless body, the old professor’s final words still ringing in his ears.

“He knows you are here… You shouldn’t have come back.”

A creeping dread filled Jake’s stomach. Who was this “He”?

Suddenly, the overhead lights in the prison flickered. A deep mechanical clank resonated from above, followed by the screeching of metal doors unlocking—every single one of them.

Jake spun around. The prisoners, weak and battered, stirred at the sound. Some barely reacted, too broken to move. But others—those whose eyes still burned with desperation—slowly turned toward him.

Then came the footsteps.

Heavy. Measured. Getting closer.

Jake’s heart pounded as a reinforced steel door at the far end of the prison began to unlock, the electronic pad next to it beeping in sequence. Someone was coming.

And judging by the weight of those footsteps…

Someone who had been expecting him.

The steel door groaned as it slid open, the sound of grinding metal scraping against Jake’s nerves. The dim emergency lights above flickered, casting eerie shadows across the damp prison walls.

Jake’s breath came shallow and quick. The weight of Dr. Kade’s words still pressed against his mind like an iron vice.

“He knows you are here… You shouldn’t have come back.”

The footsteps stopped.

A dark figure emerged from the threshold, obscured by the flickering light. Jake’s eyes strained to see through the dim glow, and for a second, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him.

The silhouette was tall, broad-shouldered. A long coat draped over his form, and as he stepped forward, the dim red glow of a terminal screen reflected off a metallic mask that covered his face.

Then the voice came again.

Low. Rough. Raspy.

“You’ve grown, Jake.”

Jake’s stomach twisted.

That voice.

It wasn’t just familiar—it was burned into his memory. A voice from another time. Another life. A voice he never thought he would hear again.

Jake stumbled backward, his throat tightening. “No… No, you—”

The figure stepped fully into the light now, and Jake’s blood ran cold.

Dr Adrian Voss.

His old professor.

The man who had shaped his fascination with the deep. The mentor who had vanished in a fire five years ago.

A fire that was supposed to have killed him.

The metallic mask caught the dim light as Voss tilted his head slightly, as if amused by Jake’s reaction.

“Not the reunion you were expecting, I assume?”

Jake could barely find his voice. “You’re dead.”

Voss let out a slow, calculated chuckle. “Clearly, I’m not.”

Jake’s hands clenched into fists. His mind raced through everything—the secrecy, the masked men, the encrypted files, the prisoners, the classified Project L.

“You… you’re behind this,” Jake finally managed, his voice sharp with disbelief and anger.

Voss took another step closer. The air between them felt heavier, suffocating.

“You always were the curious one, Jake,” he said, his voice dripping with something between admiration and condescension. “You always had questions. You always wanted to know the truth.”

He gestured around them. “And now you have it. Or at least, the beginning of it.”

Jake’s pulse pounded in his ears. “What the hell is Project L?”

Voss tilted his head slightly, as if considering whether to answer. Then, with a slow, deliberate movement, he raised a gloved hand and tapped a nearby terminal.

The emergency lights flickered—and then, the entire wall behind Voss shifted.

Jake’s breath caught in his throat as the metal panels slid apart, revealing a massive screen that flickered to life. The sonar feed from earlier filled the display.

Dark water. Murky. Vast. Endless.

And then—movement.

Jake’s blood ran cold. Something huge stirred in the abyss below. The vague outline of something unnatural, something alive, rippled across the sonar.

A shape far too large to be a whale.

Its sheer scale was impossible to comprehend.

A deep, low-frequency rumble vibrated through the ship’s structure, barely audible—but felt.

A feeling of something ancient. Something waking.

Jake’s throat went dry. He didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to know.

But he had to.

“…What is that?”

Voss exhaled slowly, as if savoring the moment. Then he turned back to Jake, his masked face unreadable.

“That,” he said, voice laced with quiet reverence, “is Leviathan.”

Jake’s entire body went rigid.

No. It couldn’t be.

Voss took a step closer. “The myths were wrong. The stories diluted the truth.” His voice carried the weight of absolute conviction. “What slumbers beneath us is not just some ancient creature.”

He turned back to the sonar feed, watching as the massive form shifted once more in the deep.

“It is a god.”

This showed Jake that whatever Dr Kade told was true and if Synergy actually awakened the Leviathan, all hell will unfold.

Jake’s mind raced. He had to stop this. Whatever Synergy Biotech had done—**whatever Voss was planning—**it was about to go too far.