Chapter 1The hum of the deep-sea observatory was a constant, low thrum in Sloane’s bones. Outside the main viewport, the eternal black of the abyss was punctuated only by the occasional, spectral flicker of a bioluminescent jellyfish. Inside Lab 3, the light was sterile and bright, gleaming off stainless steel and the thick, tempered glass of the containment cylinder. Her focus was split. In one world, her eye was pressed...