The monitor flickered—then fred to life, sshing through the darkness of the underwater station with a sickly green light.

  A piercing signal cut through the silence. Barely audible. Sharp enough to sting.

  Incoming transmission.

  On the cracked dispy, garbled lines began to crawl across the screen:

  ...Signal received... ??Integrity: CRITICAL ??Noise level: EXCEEDED

  Then— A voice. Human. Distorted. Strained. Clinging to the fraying edge of a connection dredged from the depths of the sea.

  “This is Ren ‘Compass’ Waynd…”

  His voice trembled, as if torn from a pce steeped in fear.

  “If anyone can hear this…”

  Digital static surged like a wave, swallowing the sound. The system struggled to filter the interference—but the noise was overwhelming.

  When the voice returned, it was worse. Cracked. Hollow.

  “MycoBrain… it’s not what we thought…”

  More static.

  “This pce… we were all wrong. Atntis… Atntis is just a veil. A deception…”

  The st words were dragged through the distortion, choking on the noise.

  And then— Nothing. A long, high-pitched whine of a broken signal.

  ...Signal lost... ??Message archived. ??Access level: RESTRICTED

  The screen went bck. The room colpsed back into heavy, viscous silence— As if nothing had ever happened.

  The system had received the message. But it didn’t send it onward. Not without direct authorization.

  **Directive: ACTIVE** **Command authority: SKYLAR MONTGOMERY**