The team was still on the boat when it happened.
Emily needed the full morning to recover from F2's transfer, and the morning had stretched to noon and noon to early afternoon while the team finished preparing, while Jessica completed the last page of notes from the previous chapter, while Raven reviewed the distribution of the one hundred thirty‑four skeletons for the third time.
At 2:47 in the afternoon, Threshold Port's ground trembled.
Not violently — the kind of tremor that arrives before the sound, that the body feels in the feet before the ears can confirm it. One second of that tremor, and then the sound came from the north, from the Eastern Island's interior mountains.
Max grabbed the helm by instinct.
Viktor put down his coffee.
The team was on deck in thirty seconds.
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Kira from the crow's nest with Predator's Sense at maximum intensity:
