The Mystery of the Midnight Tide
Episode 2: The Low Water Mark
Parking his research van behind a dense thicket of pine trees, Alistair crept toward the corrugated steel warehouse perched on the rocky cliff overlooking Raven’s Cove. The massive double doors were sealed with electronic keypads, but a side service door stood slightly ajar, venting the hum of heavy industrial generators. Slipping inside, Alistair found himself in a vast, dimly lit industrial hangar filled with high-capacity hydraulic pumps, massive water filtration tanks, and banks of computer servers monitoring seismic activity. On a central monitoring desk lay an open operations log detailing the artificial manipulation of tidal currents using acoustic resonance cannons installed on the seabed. The syndicate was intentionally draining the bay twice a week to excavate a sunken experimental submarine from the Cold War era. Suddenly, heavy footsteps approached from the office above, accompanied by the cold click of a security radio. Alistair slipped behind a towering stack of plastic water drums just as two armed guards entered the hangar, shining their tactical flashlights across the concrete floor.
The Dockside Tracks
Alistair remained frozen behind the water drums until the guards passed his hiding spot, heading toward the rear exit doors. He hurried over to the central monitoring console, plugging his portable decryption drive into the master server port to download the excavation coordinates. The download progress bar crept agonizingly slowly across the screen while the computer flashed warning alerts indicating an unauthorized data transfer. Grabbing the flash drive just as the progress reached one hundred percent, Alistair bolted toward the side service door. As he burst out into the daylight, an alarm klaxon began to wail inside the warehouse behind him. He sprinted down the cliffside dirt track toward his van, hearing shouting voices and the revving of an all-terrain vehicle pursuing him from the compound. Throwing himself into the driver’s seat, Alistair slammed the gear into reverse, tires spinning on the gravel as he tore down the coastal road just as a volley of warning shots pinged off his rear bumper.