Elena swam hard toward the Meridian. Her arms were burning. Her legs felt like lead
inside the heavy suit. But she didn't stop. She couldn't stop, honestly.
David appeared beside her, matching her pace effortlessly. His transformed body moved through the water like he was born to it. Maybe he was now.
"Stop," he said. His voice came through the water, somehow reaching her ears despite
the helmet. "You'll die, Elena. There are too many."
"Get out of my way," she growled.
"I'm trying to save you." David grabbed her arm. His webbed fingers were cold through the suit's canvas. "The Queen wants to meet you. She's curious about the keeper who came down here alone. If you talk to her, maybe she'll let
the ship go."
Elena yanked her arm free. "The Queen is killing those people right now. I don't
want to negotiate with any queen or king."
"But.., but there's a difference.., I.." David's face showed something like pain.
"The Drowned Ones are dying, Elena. The ocean is changing. Getting warmer.
Their food sources are disappearing. They need to expand their territory or starve."
"Not my problem," Elena said. She was close to the ship now. Fifty feet. Forty.
The Drowned Ones swarming the Meridian noticed her approach. Dozens of pale faces
turned toward her light. Abruptly, they began moving in her direction, forming a living wall between her and the ship.
David swam in front of her, blocking her path. "Please. Just listen. Five minutes with the Queen. That's all I'm asking. She's not what you think.
She's—"
Elena completely ignored him and triggered both shock pipes at once.
The twin electrical discharges caught David square in the chest. He convulsed, his
eyes going wide with shock and pain. For a moment, he looked exactly like the
old David—the human David—surprised and hurt.
Then he tumbled backward into the darkness.
Elena felt sick. But she kept rushing forward.
The wall of Drowned Ones surged toward her. Twenty of them. More behind those.
She couldn't fight them all. The shock pipes had maybe eighteen charges left. Not
nearly enough.
So she did something crazy.
Elena unclipped the crystal lantern from her chest harness and held it up over her
head with both hands. The barrier expanded, pushing outward in all directions.
The blue light blazed brighter, hotter.
The Drowned Ones screamed.
The ones closest to her recoiled, their skin smoking where the intensified light
touched them. They scattered like cockroaches fleeing a turned-on bulb.
But Elena knew this trick had a cost. Holding the lantern above her head created a
blind spot below. And the effort of expanding the barrier was draining the crystal's charge faster. She could feel it weakening already.
Shehad maybe two minutes before the light failed completely.
Two minutes to reach the Meridian and figure out how to save seventeen people.
Elena pushed through the scattered Drowned Ones, swimming hard for the ship's hull.
She could see faces now in the emergency lighting—terrified passengers pressed
against windows, watching her approach with desperate hope.
The ship's hull was torn open in three places. Water rushed in through jaggedholes. The Drowned Ones had been efficient in their destruction.
Elena reached the largest breach and looked inside. The cargo hold was flooding fast. The water was already chest-deep, and rising. But she could see people—six or
seven of them—trapped on the upper catwalk, cut off from the exits by the
rising water.
A woman held a small child. Maybe five years old. The child was crying.
Elena made a decision.
She couldn't save everyone. But she could save some.
She lowered the lantern back to chest level and clipped it to her harness. The barrier returned to normal size. Immediately, the Drowned Ones began closing in again, but more cautiously now. They'd learned to respect the light.
Elena pulled herself through the breach and into the cargo hold.
The water inside was calmer than the ocean outside. The ship's hull blocked the
current. But it was dark. The emergency lights were failing, flickering on and
off.
The people on the catwalk saw her. They started shouting, waving their arms.
"Help us! Please! The stairs are underwater! We can't get down!"
Elena looked at the rising water. It was coming up fast. Maybe ten minutes before it reached the catwalk. Maybe less.
She swam to the base of the catwalk's support structure and looked up. The people
were twenty feet above her. She'd need to get them down somehow.
Then she noticed the cargo nets. Heavy rope nets used to secure shipping containers. One was still hanging from a crane hook near the catwalk.
Elena had an idea. A terrible, risky idea. But it might work.
She swam to the crane controls, mounted on the wall. The ship still had emergency power. The controls were underwater but sealed in waterproof housing. She pressed the button marked "Lower."
The crane groaned to life. The hook began to descend, bringing the cargo net down
toward the people on the catwalk.
"Grab the net!" Elena shouted. Her voice echoed strangely in the helmet, but they seemed to understand.
The woman with the child went first, climbing onto the net with her daughter
clinging to her back. Then two men. An older couple. A teenage girl.
Seven people total.
Elena waited until they were all secure on the net, then hit the button marked
"Raise."
The crane groaned again. The net began to lift.
That's when the Drowned Ones attacked in force.
They poured through the breach in the hull like water through a broken dam. Dozens
of them. Maybe a hundred. They filled the cargo hold, swimming in frenzied
circles, drawn by the trapped humans.
Elena positioned herself between the net and the swarm. She raised her shock pipes.
"Come on then," she muttered.
The first wave hit her barrier and recoiled. The second wave was smarter. They
spread out, testing different angles, looking for weak points.
Elena triggered the right shock pipe. Caught one in the throat. It spasmed and sank.
Triggered the left. Hit another in the chest.
But they kept coming.
She was down to fourteen charges now. Twelve. Ten.
The net was rising slowly. Too slowly. The people on it screamed as Drowned Ones
swam beneath them, reaching up with clawed hands.
Elena triggered both pipes together, creating a massive discharge that lit up the
entire cargo hold. Half a dozen Drowned Ones convulsed and fell.
Six charges left.
The net reached the breach in the hull. The people began climbing through, heading
for the deck above. Elena could hear them shouting instructions to each other.
But she was surrounded now. The Drowned Ones had her boxed in. Dozens of pale faces
pressed against her barrier, testing it, pushing.
Four
charges. Three. Two.
The last person—the woman with the child—pulled herself through the breach. They
were out. Safe. For now.
Elena had done it. Seven people saved.
Ten still trapped somewhere else on the ship. And she had two shock pipe charges left.
The Drowned Ones knew it too. She could see it in their black eyes. They were waiting. Watching. The moment her weapons ran dry, they'd rush her all at once.
Elena looked at her watch. She'd been underwater for forty-two minutes. Three minutes before her father's deadline. Before her air ran out.
She had to get out. Now.
But the Drowned Ones blocked every exit.
Then the cargo hold shuddered. A deep, resonant vibration that Elena felt in her
bones.
The Drowned Ones stopped moving. Their heads all turned in the same direction.
Toward the breach in the hull. Toward the open ocean beyond.
Somethingwas coming.
Something big.
The water outside the hull darkened. Not from night falling, but from something
massive moving past, blocking what little light filtered down from the surface.
Elena felt pressure in her ears. Felt the lantern's crystal pulse with sudden urgency.
ThenQueen had arrived.