Chapter 1 - Over the Edge
“YOU’RE DONE HERE.”
Colonel Victor Kane shoved Hannah Mercer Cole off the loading ramp of the USNS Resolute.
Cold Pacific water swallowed her.
Then Hannah surfaced, gasping.
No one jumped after her.
That told her the fall had not been an accident.
A dockhand threw a rescue line. Hannah grabbed it and looked back at the black hull.
She had boarded the Resolute because of one phrase buried in an inspection log:
DECK FOUR - RESTRICTED.
The ship officially had only three cargo decks.
Twenty minutes earlier, she had asked Kane what Deck Four was.
He had smiled.
Then he had thrown her into the ocean.
“Ma’am, hold still!” the dockhand yelled.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Hannah touched her temple and saw red on her fingers.
Kane stood above her on the ramp.
“Get her off the pier.”
Hannah climbed the ladder anyway.
Near the lower catwalk, she spotted fresh welding beneath old paint.
A hidden seam.
Something had been opened and sealed again.
Kane approached.
“You’re off the ship.”
“No.”
“Hannah.”
She pointed at the seam.
“Deck Four.”
The color left his face.
Then three slow knocks came from inside the steel hull.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Every worker nearby went silent.
Hannah stared at Kane.
“You heard that.”
He grabbed her arm.
“Walk away.”
She pulled free.
“Someone is in there.”
His voice dropped.
“If you open that wall, people will get hurt.”
Hannah looked at the fresh weld.
“People are already hurt.”
The knocking came again.
May you like
Faster.
And a worker whispered, “Colonel... that isn’t a pipe.”
