Just as she got close to the elevator door, Chloe heard two people talking. She quickly crouched down and hid behind a rusty steel support beam. The entryway opened, and two maintenance technicians wearing orange uniforms and white hardhats strolled past her, engaging in small talk before disappearing round a bend.
Chloe continued to stay low as she slid inside the elevator and took a look at the control panel. Two of the top buttons were clearly marked CORPORATE SUITES, and she pushed the highest one, figuring that if Sandor was the boss, then he would have the topmost office.
The caged elevator sprang to life as the whine of the motors brought the lift up, past the rig’s main deck and into the side of one of the taller buildings. The elevator doors opened, revealing a solid steel door in front of her.
Placing a gloved hand on the doorknob, Chloe slowly twisted it open and peered through the slight aperture. The corridor up ahead was featureless, the floor made of white linoleum, with additional doors along the sides.
Chloe winced as she slid into the passageway, feeling doubly self-conscious under the high intensity lights blaring down at her. Maybe sneaking around in black wasn’t such a good idea, she thought. If anyone entered the passageway, they would surely spot her.
Gotta move fast, she thought, glancing quickly at the doors along the brightly lit, white painted corridor. Thankfully there were labels beside each door, and Chloe could see the names that had been assigned to each particular office as she continued on down the narrow passage.
After walking up a short flight of stairs and passing by a set of meeting rooms, Chloe rounded another bend and came upon a single door marked DIRECTOR. This has gotta be it, she thought.
Testing the knob, she found it unlocked. Chloe opened the door slightly and peeked inside. The spacious office suite beyond seemed to be unoccupied.
Squeezing in through the slightly ajar entryway, she slowly closed the door before scanning the room. The desk in front of her seemed standard, but the high-backed chair behind it was definitely made of quality leather. Looking at the nameplate situated at the front of the desk, Chloe nodded. It simply said: SANDOR.
There was an open laptop by the left side of the table, but Chloe could see that it had a coded screen lock on it. Making her way behind the desk, Chloe crouched down and began to open up a number of drawers. One particular drawer still had a key attached to its lock, and she quickly twisted it open before pulling it out.
A number of folders were inside. Chloe grabbed them all and laid them on the table before she began to flip through them. Most of the papers she found were printed spreadsheets for budgets and expense accounts. As she began to browse through the last set of folders, Chloe stood back and gasped.
The last folder was marked CLASSIFIED. Inside were the schematics for Typhon Base, and an artist’s rendition for an organism designed to be a biological weapon. The creature in question resembled a giant mantis shrimp, but with a flattened body and transparent armored skin.
Chloe could hardly believe her eyes as she read through the report. My god, they actually created this monster in order to sell it to the military. It’s got both gills and lungs for breathing and buoyancy. Multiple swimming limbs capable of astounding bursts of speed for short periods. Ampullae of Lorenzini—electroreceptors, like what sharks have for sensing prey. Its eyes are even more advanced than a human’s, able to see more colors than we can.
Unzipping the waterproof pouch she carried, Chloe took out her smartphone and switched it to camera mode before snapping multiple pictures while leafing through the pages of the report. So the conspiracy theories of Morgenstern creating bio monsters are all true. One of their creatures must have gotten loose in Lemuria, and now another is somewhere out here.
When she got to the schematics of Typhon, Chloe carefully studied the escape pod module that was built into the habitat section of the base. They deactivated it just before they evacuated the crew as the storm hit. I’ll just have to use the Sedna and attach a welding pod to pry it loose. All I need now is the code for Gordy’s locator device so I can be sure he’s down there.
Hearing a flush and the sound of another door opening up behind her, Chloe quickly realized she wasn’t alone. The lights in the office were on for a reason. It was occupied.
43
WHIRLING AROUND, CHLOE came face to face with Sandor, who had just exited his executive bathroom and was in the process of pulling his trousers up. For a few seconds neither of them moved as they mutely stared at each other in a mixture of shock and surprise.
Sandor’s thick black eyebrows nearly reached up into his receding hairline. “What, what are you doing here?”
Chloe finally reacted, dropping the smartphone onto the desk and reaching into her waterproof pouch, just as Sandor tried to sidestep away from her to pull the fire alarm on the wall. Taking out the stun gun, Chloe quickly activated it, hearing the sharp crackle of the electrodes just before jamming it into the side of corporate executive’s ribcage.
Sandor screamed as the painful, burning jolts of electricity coursed through his body. His muscles quickly spasmed, the currents canceling out his mind’s mental commands as he fell to the floor with a loud thud, twitching and convulsing while his limbs and extremities curled up in uncontrollable agony.
After deactivating the stun gun, Chloe knelt over the palsied corporate representative as she began to search his jacket and pants pockets. Taking Sandor’s smartphone, she tossed it back onto the desk after checking that he possessed nothing else of interest.
Sandor took several deep breaths before uttering a low groan.
Chloe stood over him while holding the stun gun close to his side. “You corporate sons of bitches. You made a monster that killed an awful lot of people, just so that you could sell it to the highest bidder in the defense industry. How could you even call yourselves human beings?”
“I… take my orders,” Sandor whispered, “from… a hi-higher source.”
“So you’re not responsible for anything, is that it? Well, I’m going to make sure you’ll be getting what you deserve.”
He didn’t answer.
“Your mad scientists created a sea monster that could destroy steel-hulled ships? How is that even possible?”
Sandor coughed for a bit before answering. “Very… simple. Alpheidae.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“We call it… the pistol shrimp,” Sandor said. “These little critters have something called a pistol claw. A… joint beneath the larger appendage allows the ‘hammer’ to move into a right-angled position. When it snaps back, it creates a very fast, very forceful cavitation bubble, powerful enough to stun or kill fish larger than itself. All we did was scale it up.”
She hissed in disgust. “You sound like you admire it.”
“It is the ultimate weapon… our company profits will be in the trillions.”
Chloe inched closer to him. “What’s the code for the GPS locator that you assigned for the diver teams?”
“It… it doesn’t matter. The divers… they’re dead.”
“Give me the code!”
“It… it’s on my phone.”
Chloe leaned back and reached for Sandor’s smartphone. “What’s your passkey to open this?”
“5849.”
Chloe inputted the code and began sorting through the contents of the device. “Where is it in here?”