Visitors from the Deep in Six Hours

The scout pursued until the buoy destroyed itself in the abandoned range. Naval-exercise records swallowed the explosion. Only the third remained. Zero Tide’s servers wrote a false route to the public page. Three spirals extended toward a decommissioned desalination plant north of the city, whose underground pipes offered the perfect trap. Lin and Su arrived first. Han anchored outside its outlet while six dead survey boats formed a semicircle. “What are we salvaging?” Han asked around a cigarette. “A fish that bites.” “Worth money?” “Worth one city if we catch it.” Han crushed out his cigarette. “Then don’t let it escape.” At 6:12 p.m., the canal opened without a sound.