Chapter 3 - Shadows Over the Station
Twelve hours later.
Sarah’s shift had ended at 7:00 AM, but she wasn't in her small apartment across town. She sat in a secure briefing room on the third floor of Baycrest Federal Medical Center, facing Rear Admiral Daniel Mercer and two senior officers from Navy Environmental Health.
"Your file says you were a civilian field medic in Alaska for four years before transferring to Baycrest," Daniel said, laying a folder on the metal table. "It also says you published a paper six years ago on deep-sea biological anomalies near offshore drilling rigs."
"I grew up in a coastal fishing village, Admiral," Sarah replied evenly. "You learn to recognize what belongs in the water and what comes up from the dark."
She pushed a laboratory report across the table.
"The pathology lab confirmed the specimen," Sarah continued. "It’s a deep-trench organism. It lives at depths below six hundred feet. It shouldn't be anywhere near the surface pier at Harbor Point Station unless there was an unsanctioned dredging operation—or a pressurized chemical leak underwater."
The two senior officers exchanged an uneasy glance.
"That area of Harbor Point is currently under lease to Aether Maritime Solutions," Chief Warrant Officer Hayes said carefully. "They're constructing an automated underwater logistics facility."
"Aether Maritime is owned by Congressman Edward Sterling’s family foundation," Daniel added, his jaw tightening. "They claimed the construction was completely non-invasive to the local marine environment."
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Sarah leaned forward. "If that organism reached the surface water near the pier where children walk, then whatever barrier Aether put up on the seabed has ruptured. Nora was just the first victim. If those microscopic larvae enter the city's coastal water supply intake..."
Daniel pulled out his encrypted satellite phone. "We're going to Harbor Point."
