Page 74 of Rupture

He slowed, his gloved hands bracing against the walls to halt his momentum. The proximity alert in his HUD was now a relentless stutter. His wristwatch flashed on the edge of his vision as he silenced the alert.

20:00.

He retrieved his precision multi-tool from his dive belt, then secured his position against the narrow duct walls with one foot braced behind him, angling his body to keep the device in full view. With a twist, he loosened the screws on the outer housing and carefully slid the cover free, exposing the inner workings.

Simple design. But its purpose was clear. Devastation. The explosives packed into the casing weren’t just enough to take out the Io—they’d obliterate the cave system, too.

He adjusted the flashlight on his forearm, the beam catching a tangle of wires. Blue, yellow, red, black—standard color coding, but he knew better than to trust that. Thea wasn’t an amateur, and any of these wires could be hot. He activated his signal analyzer, clipping it to the device to scan for tripwires, fail-safes, or secondary triggers. A faintbeep confirmed what he suspected: the red wire wasn’t just a decoy—it was rigged to detonate on removal.

His pulse thudded in his ears as he pulled his snips from his belt. He eased the tool beneath the blue wire, keeping it clear of the adjacent connections. If Thea followed typical protocol, blue would disable the timer.

If she didn’t?

Here goes nothing.

He cut the wire.

Silence.

A shaky breath burst from him as the timer winked out, leaving only the soft yellow halo of his flashlight. Sweat slicked his forehead despite the cold as adrenaline surged and ebbed through his body.

Still fucking alive.Never gets old.

He disengaged the magnetic clamp and slid the disarmed device into the kit bag tethered to his side. With a controlled motion, he pushed himself backward, sculling out of the intake valve’s suffocating confines and back into the open water.

The sense of endless space was almost dizzying after the duct’s claustrophobia. He flexed his shoulders, freeing his rigid muscles. He glanced at his wrist display.

15:00.

“First device disarmed. Moving to the second,” he reported.

“Copy that,” Ethan replied. “MARV’s mapped all six locations. Keep moving.”

Finn swallowed hard, his gaze flicking to the faint red dot on his HUD. “I’m not stopping.”

“First device secure,” Liev said, his voice clinical. “Heading for the second with MARV. Let’s make sure there’s enough of us left for a round of drinks after.”

“Copy that,” Ethan acknowledged. “Starting on my second device.”

Finn kicked forward, the kit bag trailing behind him like a shadow in the black water. His flashlight cut a pale cone through the water, where faint particles spun in the current like stardust in freezing space. A school of tiny golden fish darted through the beam, his light piercing their semi-translucent bodies, before they vanished into the dark.

The water felt heavier here, colder, as if the entire cave was holding its breath. The proximity alert in his HUD flashed in the corner of his vision—the second device was close. He pushed on, his senses sharpening with every kick, hyperaware of the emptiness hungry to crush him.

10:00

Come on. Show yourself.

He slowed, scanning the hull for the source of the signal. His HUD pinged insistently, drawing his attention to another vent, larger and positioned lower along the Io’s sleek body. This one wasn’t an intake—it had to be part of the thermal regulation system used to discharge heated water or waste gases. The size of the vent was imposing, surrounded by a protective shroud but when he swam closer and directed his flashlight inside, the vent promised another confined space to navigate.

Of course.Another narrow fucking vent.

He swore under his breath. “Entering vent to disarm second device.”

He swung inside, flicking his fins to scud forward.

The passage was a little roomier than the first, but its metal walls were furred with organic growth. Silt and decaying matter eddied as he propelled forward, searching with his fingertips and turning the beam of his light into a diffused glow.

He forced his breathing to slow, trying to minimize the damage from his air bubbles. The murk was absolute, forcing him to navigate by touch alone. His gloved fingers traced the vent walls, probing through the soft rot for hard edges.

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