Cinque and Conrad manage to sober Wayne up overnight. A quiet day out at sea with Alan and Megan lasts until another boat, Alder’s Pride, impacts one of the resort’s proximity buoys and explodes. Twice. Through the smoke, Wayne sees a heavily cybered individual searching, who jumps overboard when spotted. Also, there are sharks. With frickin’ lasers.
After the survivors are rescued, Agent Donald Gettys arrives on scene to take credit charge. He leads them north to an island he knows has a medical facility. The Thuldans working there are the friendly sort, so only fire one warning missile at the approaching grav-cruisers.
The team apparently arrive at a bad time, as a kill squad show up shortly after to purge all evidence of the illicit experiments taking place there. Dr Artemus Vych is at a loss to explain what could have triggered a security breach. Jeremy Garond and his team make a valiant stand in Vych Manor against the Thuldan warlions, allowing the others to run away evacuate the non-combatants.
Things are not a whole lot better down below in Nereid Outpost, where Thuldan saboteurs have killed all the techs and are preparing demolition charges. Fortunately, the cyber-mariner from Alder’s Pride has already killed several of them. Unfortunately, he seems to want to kill all the Thuldans, including the evacuees, which the team politely object to. Gus hangs back a few moments to “tie her shoelaces” next to the mainframe in the research lab.
One cyborg kill-switch EMP later, everyone flees aboard the mini-sub kindly provided by the Thuldan saboteurs. (There may also have been something about Conrad exploding a satchel charge in the elevator shaft behind two approaching warlions.) The outpost explodes as the sub exits the undersea tunnel. A small group of deepfallen approach, communicate briefly with Megan, then swim onward into the tunnel, looking for “one who was lost”. The surface-dwellers head back to the resort.