PART 4
The room exploded into chaos.
Engineers began talking over one another.
Security officers rushed toward communication stations.
Analysts started reviewing transmission logs.
Everyone focused on the same question.
Who had been leaking Leviathan’s secrets?
And more importantly—
Who was still doing it?
Evelyn Blackthorne stood motionless.
The founder of Leviathan Global Systems had survived recessions, hostile takeovers, cyberattacks, political sabotage, and two assassination attempts.
She had learned a valuable lesson decades ago.
When everyone else panics…
stop moving.
Think.
Watch.
Listen.
The guilty often reveal themselves.
—
Kael stepped closer.
“The transmission logs cover nearly three years.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Too long.”
“Agreed.”
He handed her another tablet.
“The messages were heavily encrypted.”
“Military grade?”
“Worse.”
That caught her attention.
Kael rarely exaggerated.
“How much worse?”
“Someone inside Site Seven had access to encryption protocols that don’t officially exist.”
Several nearby executives exchanged worried glances.
Nathan Cole frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
Kael looked at him.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“It’s not.”
The room became silent again.
Because everyone understood what that meant.
The spy wasn’t simply stealing information.
The spy had access to systems above their security clearance.
Someone high enough to bypass safeguards.
Someone trusted.
Very trusted.
—
At that same moment, two levels above Deep Research Command, a man named Eric Lawson quietly deleted a file.
Then another.
Then another.
His hands moved steadily across the keyboard.
No shaking.
No panic.
No visible fear.
That was what made him dangerous.
For eleven years, Eric had worked as a systems architect.
Invisible.
Forgettable.
The kind of employee nobody noticed.
Exactly as planned.
His office sat near the center of Site Seven.
No windows.
No decorations.
No family photos.
Nothing personal.
Because Eric Lawson wasn’t his real name.
And Site Seven wasn’t his real mission.
A warning message suddenly appeared on his monitor.
NETWORK ACCESS REVOKED.
His eyes narrowed.
Interesting.
Things were moving faster than expected.
—
Back in Deep Research Command, Evelyn studied the transmission map projected across a wall-sized display.
Thousands of encrypted data exchanges.
Countless digital footprints.
A spider web stretching through the facility.
Then she noticed something.
A pattern.
Tiny.
Subtle.
Almost invisible.
But it was there.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Zoom in.”
The analyst obeyed immediately.
The web expanded.
More connections appeared.
More routes.
More data paths.
Again.
“Closer.”
The display zoomed further.
The room watched silently.
Then Evelyn saw it.
A single node.
Hidden.
Buried beneath layers of false traffic.
Her expression changed.
Nathan noticed immediately.
“What is it?”
Evelyn pointed.
“There.”
Several analysts leaned forward.
One of them gasped.
Another cursed.
Because they finally saw it too.
Every transmission.
Every leak.
Every stolen document.
Every compromised design.
Eventually passed through one location.
One workstation.
One employee account.
The room froze.
Then a name appeared.
ERIC LAWSON.
—
Nathan stared.
“No.”
The disbelief sounded genuine.
“He’s been here forever.”
Kael didn’t even look surprised.
“That’s usually how it works.”
Nathan shook his head.
“He helped design half our security infrastructure.”
Evelyn quietly replied:
“Exactly.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Uncomfortable.
Because the realization hit everyone simultaneously.
The person protecting the vault had also been robbing it.
—
“Find him.”
Kael didn’t shout.
He didn’t need to.
Within seconds, tactical teams mobilized.
Security cameras switched feeds.
Access logs updated.
Elevator controls locked.
A digital manhunt began.
But when they reached Eric’s office…
it was empty.
The chair still spinning.
Computer active.
Coffee still warm.
The room became tense.
Kael touched his earpiece.
“Status?”
A voice responded immediately.
“No visual.”
Another voice:
“North corridor clear.”
Another:
“Nothing on B-Level.”
Kael’s expression darkened.
“He knew.”
Evelyn nodded.
Of course he knew.
Someone that skilled would have prepared contingencies.
—
Then another alarm sounded.
Different from before.
Louder.
Urgent.
Red warning lights flashed throughout Site Seven.
ENGINEERING ACCESS OVERRIDE DETECTED.
The message repeated.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Nathan’s face went white.
“Oh no.”
Evelyn turned toward him.
“What?”
He was already moving toward a console.
Fingers flying across the keyboard.
The display appeared.
And everyone in the room immediately understood the danger.
Someone had remotely accessed Leviathan itself.
—
The massive submarine remained inside its construction chamber beneath Site Seven.
Nearly complete.
Worth billions.
Containing decades of research.
The crown jewel of the company.
And now someone was inside its systems.
Nathan looked horrified.
“They’ve activated the launch sequence.”
The room exploded.
“What?!”
“How?”
“That’s impossible!”
Nathan ignored them.
His eyes remained locked on the screen.
“Emergency ballast systems are online.”
Another warning appeared.
DOCK RELEASE PROTOCOL INITIATED.
Kael swore under his breath.
For the first time all day.
Evelyn’s voice remained calm.
“Can they actually launch it?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Not completely.”
A pause.
“Unless…”
Nobody liked that word.
“Unless what?”
Nathan looked up.
“If someone physically accesses the command core.”
The room went silent.
Because everyone immediately understood.
The cyberattack was only half the plan.
The spy was still inside the facility.
And heading somewhere.
—
A security camera suddenly appeared on the main display.
Corridor B12.
Low light.
Emergency illumination.
A lone figure moving quickly.
Wearing a maintenance uniform.
Head lowered.
Face partially hidden.
But not hidden enough.
Eric Lawson.
Or whoever he really was.
The entire room watched him run.
Then watched him disappear through a reinforced blast door.
Nathan’s blood ran cold.
“No.”
Evelyn immediately noticed.
“What is that section?”
Nathan looked terrified.
“The Leviathan Core.”
Kael turned.
“The what?”
“The command chamber.”
Nathan pointed toward the blueprint.
“Every navigation system.”
“Every propulsion system.”
“Every classified deep-ocean mapping database.”
Everything.
All of it.
Stored in one place.
And the spy was heading directly there.
—
Kael was already moving.
“Tactical team with me.”
Within seconds, six armed operators followed him toward the elevators.
But before the doors closed, Evelyn spoke.
“Kael.”
He stopped.
“What?”
For a moment she said nothing.
Then:
“Bring him back alive.”
The former special operator studied her face.
“You think he’s working for someone.”
“I know he is.”
The elevator doors closed.
—
Deep beneath Site Seven, Eric Lawson reached the final checkpoint.
A massive blast door blocked his path.
Beyond it waited the heart of Project Leviathan.
The culmination of billions of dollars.
Decades of research.
And one secret far more valuable than any submarine.
Eric entered a code.
The system beeped.
Denied.
He smiled.
Then removed a small device from his pocket.
Not military.
Not commercial.
Something custom built.
Something designed specifically for this moment.
The device connected to the control panel.
The lights flickered.
A second later, the blast door began opening.
Slowly.
Mechanically.
Like the mouth of some enormous machine.
Eric stepped forward.
For the first time in years, genuine excitement appeared on his face.
Because he wasn’t here to steal Leviathan.
He wasn’t here to destroy it.
He wasn’t even here for the submarine.
He was here for something hidden beneath it.
Something buried so deeply that even most executives didn’t know it existed.
A secret project.
A secret discovery.
A secret Evelyn Blackthorne had spent twenty years protecting.
And if Eric succeeded…
the future of deep-ocean exploration would belong to someone else.
The blast door finished opening.
Darkness waited beyond.
Then Eric disappeared inside.
Moments later, on the monitoring screens above, a classified file suddenly unlocked itself.
PROJECT ABYSSUS
STATUS: ACTIVE
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And for the first time all day…
even Evelyn Blackthorne looked worried.
