The dawn light filtered into the cramped cabin of the submersible. Shadow sat hunched over the drive Jack had recovered – it glowed with a faint blue flicker. The gentle hum of the engine and the steady rush of water outside was a lullaby after the chaos.
Jack lay back against the hull, cradling his bruised side. Ingrid gently pressed iodine to a scratch on his arm. "You're lucky," she told him. Jack offered a weak smile. "I asked to be killed," he said quietly. "But thanks to you… I survived."
Shadow's jaw tightened. He stepped away and began pacing. Luna-blue monitors on the drive showed lines of encrypted code. Project Helix – it was more than names now, it was a blueprint for catastrophe.
Marcus hummed softly to himself, trying to shake off the adrenaline. "Eve was always calm under pressure," he murmured. "I still can't believe it was her."
Ingrid pressed her lips together. "She had us fooled," she said softly.
"No more room for mistakes," Jade added, resuming her vigil by the torpedo-like bow of the sub. Her eyes darted into the murky gloom beyond the porthole. "Mirage was real," she whispered, as though talking to herself.
Shadow returned, sliding into a metal seat. "Yeah," he admitted. "And so was the deception." He drew a quick line across his palm and watched droplets of blood bead against the hull's plexiglass. "Evelyn betrayed the team. We lost a friend."
Silence fell in the cramped space. Even the sub's slight creaks didn't break it.
Shadow finally said, "But we escaped with Helix. That's what matters. This intel is how we stop them."
"Is it enough?" Jack asked, voice heavy. His eyes flicked to the rotating globe on the drive.
Shadow considered the code. "With this," he tapped the drive, "we know the enemy's blueprint."
Jade shook her head. "They're out there watching us," she said softly. "Helix… it feels bigger than anything we've faced before."
Shadow swiped through the drive. Line after line of encrypted files scrolled past. One line caught his eye: PROJECT HELIX: SUB-PROGRAM 9. He let out a breath. "We still don't know what Sub-Program 9 is exactly. The message's encoded. That means Helix is part of something bigger."
Ingrid placed a steady hand on Shadow's shoulder. "We have a lead now. We can chase it."
"First," Shadow said quietly, almost to himself, "we deal with the fault lines in this team."
Jack sat up, looking at the blinking lights on the drive. "Fault lines?"
Shadow opened his palm, pointing at the thin cut. He let his gaze fall on the monitor's reflection. A single drive icon blinked next to a file labeled 'Hartman'.
Jade leaned against a console. "We need to know why Eve turned on us."
"Of course," Shadow said, voice low. "She must have been coerced or given false promises. She's been recording med files – we saw it on her pad. Hurt people, keep it secret."
Ingrid paled, remembering. "My contacts say they held something over her – threats to family, maybe worse."
Shadow clenched his fists. "We'll find out. But first… we need to get this to HQ. Then we move on this."
He took a breath and stood straighter. Through the porthole, a pale sun began to rise. Soon, the sub would break surface off the Norwegian coast.
Shadow keyed the encrypted radio. "Shadowstrike to base. Return to safehouse. We have Helix data." His voice was steady, betraying none of the turmoil inside.
"Copy that," came Pierce's response, crisp and businesslike. "Meet at Copenhagen. High priority."
Shadow nodded. He glanced at the team. "I'll be bringing casualties," he said.
"No one is safe until this ends," Pierce replied.
Shadow disconnected. He unbuckled his seatbelt. All four of them stood as the hatch twisted open, cold air pouring in.
Ingrid took the lead as they climbed into the inflatable raft. The Arctic wind bit at their bones, but it was fresh – a good sign of life.
The ride to shore was tense. Marcus peeled off his soaking wet jacket. "Next time I fight in the drink," he muttered through chattering teeth, "I want warm coffee on land."
Shadow gazed back at the sub slipping beneath the waves, carrying the Leviathan to its watery grave.
Two hours later, Shadow found himself at the Copenhagen safehouse table with Captain Pierce and other intelligence officers. Maria Sanchez, an MI6 liaison, tapped at a data console. A slide titled "Prometheus Directive" glowed on the wall behind them.
Shadow cleared his throat. "They tested biochem on humans," he reported, indicating the images of twisted experiments on the screen. "Helix is a genetic weapon code. Crew losses were minimal because they wanted data, not witnesses."
Pierce's brow furrowed. "The missing piece is Mirage's origin. Who was she before the serum?"
A faint beep came from the console. Sanchez pointed at a schematic. "Prometheus's head of research mentioned a classified project called 'Helix Expansion'. Could be this," she said. "Perhaps Mirage was a test subject in that phase."
Shadow's phone buzzed on the table – Eve's encrypted number again. He let it go to voicemail.
An officer announced, "Your extraction team is on standby."
Pierce looked at Shadow. "We'll analyze the data you retrieved. In the meantime, we have a bigger problem. We suspect copies of that serum are leaking out. Reports of odd behavior from contacts overseas."
Shadow's fists clenched under the table. "So this isn't over by a long shot."
He felt an icy burn in his gut – not just from the cold. Someone had betrayed them, their intel was piecemeal, and the world was in deeper trouble than he'd imagined.
He finally asked quietly, "What's our next move?"
Maria exchanged a look with Pierce. Then Sanchez sighed, dark eyes steady. "Project Helix isn't just a serum trial. It's an entire program for biological warfare. It's global. We may have just scratched the surface of a new war."
Shadow took in her words. Betrayal. Deception. And war. It was just beginning.
Outside, the city lights of Copenhagen twinkled in the early morning. A new day was dawning – either mankind's last hope or its deadliest dawn.