Page 13

13

Dim light wavered on the edge of Finn’s vision. He blinked, unsure if it was a mistake, a glitch brought on by stress. No. This was it. The Io habitat.

The Io materialized out of the inky depths like a mirage, its form slowly taking shape. At first, it was nothing more than a faint glow in the distance, a ghostly shimmer that could have been a trick of the light, an artifact of the bioluminescent creatures inhabiting these depths. But as he drew closer, the azure glow resolved into a series of luminous lines, tracing the contours of the habitat with an otherworldly precision.

He checked his air. Six percent. The land slip and Harris’s death had cost them precious time and air and he was already on his second tank.

Poor fucker . He dug deep, channeling his frustration into each kick of his fins.

He reached out and touched Rose’s wrist. She was at his side on a shortened leash. He was no longer comfortable having her out of his sight. Too much had gone wrong already and Harris’s death was a bitter taste in his mouth .

MARV swam close by, its elongated eyes carving a path through the midnight water. Occasionally, its head turned in his direction, making the hairs on his scalp tingle.

He knew it was only a machine but hell, the damn thing was looking right at him.

“Io habitat in sight.” Luca’s voice crackled on the comms. “Thank fuck. Oxygen at six percent.”

“I see it.” Ethan’s deep voice rumbled through Finn’s earpiece.

Against the backdrop of the water’s midnight depths, the Io habitat looked for all the world like some enormous, unearthly jellyfish. As Finn drew closer, a shiver cramped down his spine, a primal response to the sheer scale of the structure. It was massive, easily the size of a football field, its curved walls looming out of the darkness like the ribcage of some long-dead leviathan. Pressure-resistant windows reflected the beams of their flashlights in the darkness, giving nothing away.

What the hell had gone wrong in there?

Luca swore under his breath. “Not at all fucking creepy looking.”

Finn grimaced, silently agreeing. He glanced over at Rose, checking her safety line once more. His cheeks puffed with relief. Still within reach.

“Taking us low to the access hatches.” Liev folded his body and tilted downward, propelling himself deeper.

Finn followed suit, his muscles burning with the effort of the descent. As they cruised along the underbelly of the habitat, he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

His jaw clenched. Maybe I’m getting too old for this shit.

Tens of feet of the underbelly slipped past as he swam, its surface sleek and unmarked. Finn trailed his fingertips along the surface, searching for joints, screw points, but there was nothing.The engineering was impressive.

“Access hatch up ahead.” Relief tinged Liev’s voice. He powered forward, his body arrowed like a blade before curling to a stop beneath the Io.

A neutral woman’s voice spoke in Finn’s ear, cutting through the rasp of his breathing. “Warning: oxygen five percent.” The words scrolled across the top of his dive mask in glaring red.

Five percent. This is cutting it damn close.

A squeeze on his arm. He turned. The light in Rose’s face mask had also shifted from blue to urgent red as her tanks ran low, the digital display blinking above her eyes.

He covered her hand with his. “We’re going to be fine.”

Her eyes darted nervously behind her mask.

Definitely time to hustle. He turned his attention back to Liev. “Liev. Let’s get inside.”

“On it.” Liev typed on the keypad of the security lock flush with the Io’s hull. He pressed his hand to a silver pad. The lock flashed red and remained stubbornly locked.

Come on.

A flicker of movement caught his eye. Ethan and Luca swam into view, followed by Duke, Harris drifting silently behind him. Duke secured Harris to the underbelly of the habitat with a set of powerful neodymium magnets.

Fuck. Finn positioned himself between Duke and Rose, blocking her view.She didn’t need to be reminded of what had already gone wrong, didn’t need to see the grisly reality of securing Harris’s body.

“Okay, it’s playing funny fuckers. Enough of that.” Liev typed, pressed his hand flat again. The lights flashed red once more, mocking him.

“Shit.” Liev pushed back from the flashing panel, frustration tinging his voice even over the comms. “This makes no sense.”

“Let me see.” Luca sculled forward, his long body stretched out behind him. His hands flew over the keypad. Light flashed. Red again. “Something’s wrong with the system. We’re being actively blocked.”

“Blocked?” Rose’s voice was breathy in the comms. “How can we be blocked? Can you override it?”

“I’m fucking trying,” Luca snapped. “But every time I find a bypass, something works actively against me.” He cursed under his breath. “Where’s Bambi when you fucking need him?”

A hard knot formed in Finn’s stomach. To his right, Triton’s logo stood out in sharp relief against the habitat’s exterior wall.

Making the world a safer place.

Yeah. But for who?

Rose pushed away from Finn. She eased between Luca and Liev, her frame slight between them.

“You understand it?” Ethan asked.

Her gaze never left the panel. “Systems like these are logically unbreakable, using a combination of hardware and software encryption that adapt to potential threats in real-time.”

She paused, her brow furrowing behind her mask. “But there’s always a backdoor. Every system has a weakness, a flaw in its design that can be exploited if you know where to look. I might know where to find it. Does anyone have a screwdriver?”

The tremor Finn had noticed in her voice earlier was gone, replaced by calm assurance.

Luca handed her a small tool, its tip glowing white. “Be my guest. ”

“Okay, let’s see what we can do here. Put in the code for me.” Rose turned back and popped the lock panel, her eyes scanning the complex circuitry that lay beneath the sleek exterior.

Luca tapped in the code and palmed the sensor, but the panel flashed red once more.

Rose gave a soft grunt. “The system learns from each failed attempt, adapting its algorithms to prevent future breaches. It’s not just a simple matter of inputting the correct code—we need to bypass the system entirely.” She held the tip of the screwdriver over the circuitry like a surgeon’s scalpel. “If we can disrupt the flow of electricity to the panel, even for a fraction of a second, it might give us a window to override the lock.”

“Oxygen levels at four percent,” the woman in Finn’s helmet intoned.

His breath fogged his faceplate, the air increasingly stifling, his lungs straining to extract precious oxygen from the dwindling supply. All while MARV swam slow circles around them, observing their struggle with dispassionate detachment. Goosebumps pricked the back of his neck and sweat dampened his spine.

We’re running out of time.