A Shape That Should Not Be There
By the next morning, more workers had gathered near the canal. News had started to spread quietly through the maintenance team, but Declan told everyone to keep their distance until officials arrived. The object was around fifteen meters long and made from riveted steel. Its surface was rusted and damaged, but it still looked surprisingly complete. The small windows along the side made the discovery even more confusing. How could a submarine end up in the middle of a narrow city canal? There was no record of a naval base nearby. No museum had reported a missing vessel. No construction company had filed paperwork about removing anything like it from the area. Declan had worked around waterways long enough to know that cities hide strange things underground. But this was different. This was not something someone could simply dump in the water overnight.
The first team to inspect the outside found old markings beneath the mud. They were faded, scratched, and difficult to read, but they looked official. That made the discovery even more serious. The city called in specialists to examine the vessel safely. Nobody wanted to open it too quickly. If it had been sealed for years, there could be dangerous air inside, unstable parts, or old equipment that needed careful handling. Declan stood back as the specialists worked around the hatch. He had expected a normal day of canal cleaning. Instead, he was watching people prepare to open something that had been hidden beneath the city for decades. When the hatch finally moved, everyone went silent.
