The Hearing Hall exploded into a flurry of gasps and whispered exchanges; the rats too were shocked. A Councilor slammed his hand on the table, his voice rising above the noise.

The hall became still. “Mr. Kelping,” the Councilor continued, “what did you see on this underwater ship? How advanced are they?”

“What I saw…” Louis took a shaky breath. “It’s beyond anything you could conceive. Machines that… that could change you. Fix you. Take what’s broken and make it whole again.”

The Councilor pressed on. “Did you see where more of their kind lived?”

A long pause followed. The seconds stretched painfully long until the Councilor’s patience frayed. “Well? Answer the question!” he barked, irritation creeping into his voice.

Louis finally responded, “No, I never left their ship. But there was… an altercation. And I fought back—alone.” 

Flynn tilted his head, one eyebrow raised in question at me. “You seem to know something,” he said. 

I paused, rubbing a paw along my chin as the vivid memories of that submarine flashed through my mind. The pieces weren’t fitting together.

“He’s not telling the truth,” I said at last.  

Flynn leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “Oh? And how do you figure that?”  

“Because I was there. On that submarine.”  

“Submarine?” he repeated.  

“Yes,” I affirmed. “That underwater ship—it’s called a submarine. That’s what Alan called it. And I’ve heard Jimmy talk about them before.”

The rats around us exchanged nervous glances before inching closer, their whiskers twitching, their dark eyes glinting with intrigue. “What did you see on the submarine?” one of them asked, almost whispering.

“Yes, tell us,” Flynn pressed. “The blob is tearing through my species, and things are worse than you realize and we’re running out of time. The Wise Keepers are meeting to decide what comes next—our survival depends on it. Anything you know, Page, anything at all, might help.”  

His words caught me off guard. “What kind of decision?” I asked.

“To leave the city. To risk everything on the slim hope of finding land elsewhere. So, tell us—what did you see on that submarine?”  

I took a moment, drawing a deep breath before answering. “Louis was right about one thing: the submarine was enormous, like nothing I’d ever seen before. But Louis's story doesn't add up to what I saw inside. There was an empty tank, and Quintin… Quintin was dead. His body was bare, covered in slime. And Louis? His hair and beard had grown out. He didn’t look like a prisoner at all. And he spoke to those sea humanoids. I don't know what he had told them, but they let us go.”

And then suddenly a realization slammed into me like a fist to the gut. It left me breathless. God, I felt sick. The feeling was worse than a stubborn hairball caught in my throat, worse than anything I’d ever felt before.

Louis… the truth was that he was the sea humanoids’ contact on the surface. He was with them.

But why? Did he betray his crew, lure them into a trap? What kind of bargain had he struck with those creatures? How long has this been going on? And how had he made contact in the first place?

Then, Dr. Willis’s story came back to me. He’d spoken of a decanter Louis had found on a scavenger hunt deep within a sea cave with an air pocket. The chamber had been filled with perfectly preserved pottery and silverware. Inside the decanter had been a viscous, slimy substance. Dr. Willis, ever the scientist, had examined it under a microscope and identified it as slime mold. It thrived on decay. Rotting logs, tree bark, soil. 

But it wasn’t the slime mold that stuck out to me—it was the realization that Louis hadn’t stumbled upon those treasures by chance. 

No, he’d been there. To their world. To the place where the sea humanoids lived. 

And likely, that was where he’d been all those years, while his crew was being tortured, while the humanoids experimented not just on them, but on the rats of Floating City as well.

I had to warn Alan and Francis. They needed to know Louis was the sea humanoids’ contact on the surface. But how? How do I tell them without risking everything? Without alerting Louis? Or had they already figured out the truth themselves? No, absolutely not. For all my love and respect for them, humans are as blind and stubborn as sea cucumbers when it comes to seeing what’s right in front of them.

“What are you thinking?” Flynn asked.

I didn’t have time to answer. a rat squeezed through the opening, his tiny frame shaking, his breath coming in short, panicked bursts. “The Warden!” he stammered, wide-eyed. “That damn guard called him. They’re doing a full sweep! They’ve already caught Rogers and Andy.”

Above us, footsteps thudded across the floor, each heavy step rattling the floorboards.

Then came a gruff voice. “You’re sure you saw the rats come in here?”

“The Warden!” a rat squeaked in panic. Flynn reacted instantly, clamping a hand over their mouth. 

“Quiet,” he whispered to them but also looking at me and the others too, quietly pleading for us to do the same.

We froze. Breathless, motionless, we prayed they wouldn’t notice the loose floorboard beneath the sofa.

“Yes, yes, many of them ran in here,” said another voice—it was the guard from earlier.

“What about the cat?”

“Cat? I haven’t seen it. I sent it up here to deal with the rats, but all I hear is scratching in the walls. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to trap them,” the Warden growled, “then have Dr. Starkey examine the lot.”

“Examine them? For what?”

“Infection,” the Warden replied. “Some of the rats have been carrying a parasite. They’ll need to be cleared before they’re sold to the vendors.”

One of the rats, jittery with nerves, darted toward the opening. There was a sharp metallic snap! And a panicked squeal.

“Got one!” the guard’s voice rang out.

“Where did it come from?” the Warden demanded.

“Right under that sofa over there.”

Above us, We heard the scrape of furniture as the sofa was dragged aside. The loose floorboard would be lifted any moment now. If I went first, I could buy Flynn and his rats a chance to escape. Suddenly, a pair of hands tore the floorboard free, light flooding our hideout. I yowled, slashing at the intruding hand with my claws.

“God dammit! Stupid cat!” the Warden roared, stumbling back, his wiry frame twisting as I lunged forward and drove my claws deep into his leg. His shiny, hairless head glistened with sweat as he cursed and tried to shake me off, but I didn’t let go. From the corner of my eye, I saw Flynn and the others come out through the opening.

But, of course, Flynn couldn’t just run and leave behind one of his kind. He skidded to a halt in front of the metal cage, where a rat was still trapped. His little hands worked the lock using a straightened wire coil to pop it open. 

The others swarmed the guard, running between his legs in circles. The guard growled. His frustration was boiling over as he swung his spear. At first, his strikes hit only the floor, each miss sounded with a dull thud again and again, until, with a sickening crunch, it finally struck flesh and bone. A rat’s anguished scream followed. 

But the tide turned. In a flash, another rat took its chance. It climbed the guard’s body with astonishing speed. It reached his chest in a heartbeat, and before he could react, sank its teeth into his nose with a savage bite. Blood sprayed, and the guard’s scream drowned out everything else. The spear clattered to the floor.

“Let’s go! Move!” Flynn yelled. At last, the cage door flew open and the rat inside hurried out. The others rushed forward scrambling for freedom out the door. I was right behind them, almost reaching the threshold when a sharp tug stopped me cold. Pain shot through my tail. I whirled around, hissing. The Warden had me.

I swiped at him, claws raking air, but he yanked me upward. I dangled there, upside down, my body thrashing. I clawed at his arm, hissed like a wild thing, but he didn’t let go. 

Then, a gray blur shot across the room. Flynn. He leapt onto the Warden’s arm and scrambled up to his face, gripping it like a vice. He bared his teeth and bit down hard on the Warden’s cheek. The man howled staggering back as Flynn held fast.  

The Warden’s grip slipped, and I dropped to the floor, landing awkwardly but steadying myself on all fours. Flynn sprang from the Warden’s shoulder and landed nimbly beside me.

“Don’t just sit there—run!” he said, already dashing toward the door.

I didn’t need to be told twice. I followed, my paws barely keeping up with his breakneck speed. But behind us came the crash of boots and furious shouts. They were closing in.

I sprinted down the hallway then turned a sharp corner. The stairs appeared ahead, and I flew down them, taking two steps at a time. At the bottom, I spotted them—Francis, Louis, Sam, and Alan. Sam’s face lit up the instant our eyes met.

“Page!” his voice rang with pure happiness.

Behind me, I felt the Warden’s fingers swipe at my tail, so close it made my fur bristle. I pushed off the final step with everything I had, springing into the air before landing safely in Sam’s waiting arms.