Arthur Sterling did not build his estate on the coast of Maine to be near the sea; he built it to dominate it. The Sterling Manor was a sprawling fortress of glass, steel, and dark, polished mahogany, perched precariously on a jagged cliffside. Its centerpiece, however, was not the art gallery or the high-tech observatory; it was the Grand Aquarium—a multi-story, cylindrical marvel of reinforced glass that spanned three floors of the mansion. It was a private ocean, filled with sharks, rays, and bioluminescent creatures that cost more than most people earned in a decade.

The water was a chaotic vortex of debris and freezing currents. Finn’s lungs burned, begging for oxygen. He navigated purely by memory, grabbing onto submerged pipes and pulling himself upward toward the faint glow of the emergency lighting on the deck above.

He breached the surface, gasping violently, and hauled himself through the hatch, slamming it shut behind him just as the water surged upward. He collapsed on the floor of the second deck, coughing up seawater, his muscles completely spent.

Over the rig's PA system, Chloe’s voice suddenly crackled to life, static-laced but clear.

"All hands, this is Chloe Blackwood. Abandon ship. Repeat, abandon ship. Proceed to the lifeboats immediately."

Finn forced himself up. The rig was tilting precariously, the flooded lower decks throwing off the balance. He staggered through the corridors, making his way toward the port side lifeboats.

When he reached the exterior deck, the storm was still raging. The crew was panicked but orderly, piling into the enclosed, orange lifeboats under Chloe’s direction.

Chloe saw him and ran over, throwing her arms around his wet, freezing shoulders. "You did it! The drill stopped!"

"The rig is going to sink," Finn yelled over the wind. "The ballast is completely blown!"

"The crew is secure," Chloe said, pulling him toward the last remaining lifeboat. "Get in!"

They strapped themselves into the heavy plastic seats just as the rig gave a terrifying, metallic groan. The lifeboat launched, dropping fifty feet and smashing into the violent, swelling ocean below.

Inside the capsule, it was completely dark, save for a single emergency light. The boat pitched and rolled violently in the waves. Finn looked at Chloe. She was soaked, exhausted, but her eyes burned with a fierce, unmistakable resolve.

"We have the physical drive I pulled from the server," Chloe said, patting her jacket pocket. "It has the digital footprint of the worm. It leads directly back to Arthur Sterling."