The Approach
The King Industries transport jet dropped Maya at a small, rarely used landing strip on the far side of San Cristobal Island as the sun began to rise. The air was thick with humidity and the scent of salt and volcanic rock.
She was met not by uniformed guards but by two figures stepping out from the dense foliage: a woman named Zara and a man named Garrick. They were Adrian's deep-cover agents and looked more like experienced field researchers than bodyguards. They wore light hiking gear, moving fluidly and silently.
"Ms. Reyes," Zara greeted, her voice low and deep, her eyes scanning the area. "Mr. King's last message was received. The main target, Vance, is on the island. The mission has shifted from observation to **extraction and evasion.
"Understood," Maya replied, her voice steady. The exhaustion from the flight and the corporate rush was a dull ache, overshadowed by sharp fear and adrenaline. She glanced at the overgrown trail leading into the forest. "What's the status of the Aethel research station?"
Garrick pointed toward a distant, jagged peak. "Five kilometers inland. Heavily overgrown, but the old access roads are still walkable. Our satellite intel shows a single power source still running and a recently parked vehicle."
"Vance's vehicle," Maya confirmed. "He's waiting for me. We won't walk into a direct assault. We need to act like the auditors we claim to be, but be ready for trouble."
Maya quickly outlined her plan: Zara and Garrick would maintain deep cover, circling the station, monitoring Vance's movements. Maya, dressed in a simple field jacket and carrying a King Industries clipboard, would make the direct approach. Her camouflage was her credibility.
"If I don't confirm my safety via the cuff every fifteen minutes after I enter, you assume compromise and trigger the EMP response," Maya instructed, touching the silver cuff on her wrist. "You extract me *after* the pulse is activated, prioritizing my safety over the logs."
The two operatives nodded. They understood the high stakes. This wasn't business; it was black ops.
The Old Research Station
The hike was tough, full of steep hills and tangled vines. When Maya finally broke through the tree line, the Aethel station came into view. It was a low, prefabricated building, half-consumed by the jungle. It looked deserted, but a faint humming indicated the generator was still on.
Maya forced herself to look professional, adjusting her bag. She walked up to the main door and found it unlocked.
Inside, the space was dusty and smelled of mildew and decay. Cables sprawled across the floor, connecting old computer terminals to the humming generator. In the center of the main lab was a large wooden desk, and sitting calmly behind it, waiting, was Sterling Vance.
He was impeccably dressed, despite the surroundings, and looked refreshed and utterly dangerous. His collapse in London clearly had been a calculated getaway.
"Welcome, Ms. Reyes," Vance drawled, a cruel smile stretching across his face. "I expected you sooner. King is predictable. He sends his little bird right to the worm."
Maya walked toward the desk, placing her clipboard down with a deliberate *thwack*. She adopted the bored, dismissive tone of a corporate auditor.
"I'm here to finalize the operational asset valuation for the merger, Mr. Vance," she said coolly. "Your failure to produce the original San Cristobal station logbooks is a serious contractual liability. I suggest you produce them immediately."
Vance laughed, a short, harsh sound. "The performance is charming, Maya. But Adrian already knows why you're here. You're not looking for assets; you're searching for Mommy's diary. I admit, I was worried you'd send your army. But this is much better. Just the two of us."
He rose slowly, his eyes locking onto the silver cuff on her wrist. "That's a nice accessory. Does King have a tracker on it? Or is it a remote detonator?"
The Revelation
Maya ignored the taunt, her hand instinctively hovering near the AD engraving. "Where are the logbooks, Vance? The ones detailing the Scylla Unit?"
Vance sighed dramatically. "The Scylla Unit. Your little friend's mother was obsessed with it. She thought it was a secret weapon. It wasn't. It was colossal, beautiful, and terrifying."
He walked over to a rusted filing cabinet and pulled out a stack of mildewed logbooks, tossing them onto the desk one by one.
"Here are your logs, Maya. They cover twenty years of research, twenty years we spent trying to replicate something Elara King found right here, in the deep water."
Maya approached the desk, her fingers brushing the brittle pages of the top logbook, dated 1999. She flipped it open. The pages were filled with detailed handwritten notes, chemical formulas, and biological drawings.
"What is the Scylla Unit?" Maya demanded.
Vance leaned against the desk, lowering his voice. "Your future stepmother found a naturally occurring, deep-sea **bioluminescent organism a plankton species containing a chemical compound unlike anything on Earth. It had two properties: first, it generated a powerful, naturally occurring EMP pulse when stimulated. Second, it could drastically alter brain chemistry."
He paused, letting the information set in. "We weren't making weapons, Maya. We were creating mind control. A perfectly tailored, untraceable compound that could induce euphoria, compliance, or severe paranoia in a target."
Maya's mind raced. Adrian's mother hadn't been battling a mining company; she'd been fighting a rogue bioweapons operation disguised as environmental work.
"And Adrian's mother?" Maya asked, her voice tight.
Vance's expression turned cold. "She took a sample. She tried to expose us. We didn't kill her, Maya. We gave her a choice: disappear, or we introduce the compliant agent to young Adrian and turn him into a useful puppet. She chose to leave to save her son's mind."
The Final Sample
"But she didn't destroy all the files," Maya realized, looking back at the desk. "She kept a physical sample."
"Bingo," Vance smiled, pulling a tiny, cryogenically sealed vial from his pocket. It contained a cloudy, faintly glowing liquid. "This is the last, pure culture of the Scylla Agent. The 'Scylla Unit.' I came back for it. I was going to use it to secure my leverage against King, but now..."
Vance suddenly moved, his hand darting out to grab Maya's wrist, the one without the cuff. He was much stronger than he appeared.
"Now, I use it on his catalyst," Vance sneered, his finger reaching for the vial's seal. "Adrian will watch his beloved asset dissolve into madness. He will hand over the company to me, and he will never find his mother."
Maya reacted instantly. She couldn't reach the EMP switch with her captured hand. With fierce force, she brought her knee up, hitting Vance squarely in the groin.
Vance gasped, his grip loosening for a moment. Maya tore her wrist free and stumbled back, her hand flying to the silver cuff.
"You won't get away!" Vance shouted, recovering quickly, his hand grabbing a heavy metal crowbar leaning against the wall.
Maya pressed the AD engraving for one second. She saw Vance raising the crowbar above his head, ready to strike. She pressed for two seconds. He lunged at her.
As her finger found the three-second mark, completing the EMP trigger, a new sound shattered the jungle's silence: the sharp crack of a high-powered rifle.
Vance grunted, his course instantly changing. The crowbar fell with a deafening clang as he stumbled back, clutching his shoulder. A crimson stain spread quickly on his field jacket.
"This is Zara," a cool, synthesized voice whispered into Maya's earpiece. "Evasion confirmed. Now run, Ms. Reyes! He's not alone!"
Maya didn't hesitate. She grabbed the cryo-vial and the top logbook. As she turned to flee, she heard another generator whirring to life from a level beneath the station—a sound that Vance, slumped against the wall, confirmed with a final, desperate whisper.
"The unit is still down there! The pulse... don't let it out!"
What is the 'pulse' Vance is talking about, how will Maya escape Vance's additional security, and what devastating secret will she uncover in the logbook about the real nature of the Scylla Unit?