Coast Guard officers measured large-scale disturbances in the waters, and sonar reports kept coming in. Only something extremely heavy dropping down into the ocean could cause this, and Captain Izzy Barkley’s team was tasked with investigating the tremors. The buoy that detected the most tremors was about 20 miles from shore. When Izzy and her team arrived at the scene, they got straight to work. Izzy, also the main researcher, customarily dived down first. She descended and saw their target after just a couple of minutes—there was a massive shipping container at the bottom of the ocean.
It was obvious that Izzy couldn’t lift the metal object out of the water with her bare hands, so when she resurfaced, she quickly ordered the ship’s diving robot to take over.
“Let’s get it onto our boat,” she demanded.
Luckily, they hadn’t just left their research facility with any vessel; their ship was equipped with high-end gear that Izzy was qualified to use. With Izzy’s orders in place, her colleagues prepared the drone to delve down deep. But no one was prepared for the bizarre discovery they were about to make.
As the drone was lowered into the water, Izzy took control, and the exciting part of the mission commenced. The water was calm and clear, making it easy to navigate toward the container at the bottom. But reaching the object would not turn out to be the tricky part. Once the vessel was reached, it was time for the machine to start lifting. It attached its extending claws around the container’s sides, and from that point, the ship simply had to pull in the robot. But this turned out to be more difficult than expected.
The container was unexpectedly heavy. The ship’s crane, capable of lifting massive objects, strained to hoist the simple shipping container. The entire boat rocked back and forth and even took on some water as they tried to lift the metal box out of the ocean.
“What the hell is in there?” Izzy asked, straining.
With much effort and a few nervous faces, they eventually managed to lift the mysterious container out of the water. With a loud bang, it landed on the deck of their ship, and the entire crew immediately rushed to inspect the find.
What was it? Why was it here? And what was inside?
Izzy’s co-workers were excited, but Izzy was the most intrigued. She noticed something her colleagues hadn’t: a shipping container wasn’t usually watertight. When lifted from the ocean floor, water should have been leaking out of every hole. But somehow, that wasn’t the case here. This plain-looking shipping container was insulated, as if it had been designed to keep every drop of water out. But why?
The team’s deck workers, the muscle of the crew, had already started pulling on the door handle with a large bolt cutter. The main lock on the container was cut off, and afterward, the door handles were pulled aside. Slowly but surely, the container doors swung open. Izzy took a step back to look at the container as a whole and shook her head. She was absolutely speechless.
The inside of the container was fully furnished. There was a bed, a couch, a closet, and a table with chairs—everything any regular household might have.
“Has any of you ever seen anything like this?” Izzy asked her colleagues.
But everyone in the group shared the same disbelief and confusion. There were many questions: Where did this come from? Who would live like this? And why?
The group quickly began investigating. Izzy was surprised, not only by the fact that the container was fully furnished, but also by how everything was still somewhat in place. They quickly discovered that everything was nailed to the floor. However, some loose items were scattered around, and they found photos of a man and his family.
Did he or they live in the container? Who were they? And what happened?
They searched every inch of the container but didn’t find anything that brought them closer to the truth. Izzy let out a frustrated sigh and was about to give up when one of her colleagues suddenly let out an excited yell. When she turned around, she saw him holding up a plastic Ziploc bag. What sparked his excitement was what was inside—some sort of recorder.
This was a promising lead. Izzy pressed play with high hopes. A male voice, probably belonging to the man in the pictures, began to speak. The recording was difficult to understand in the middle of the ocean, so the group quickly moved inside. At first, they only heard background noise, but then the voice became clear.
“I need to record this before they notice we are here and capture us,” the voice said.
There was a short silence, then the man cleared his throat and introduced himself as Ahmed Osman.
“I hope someone will find the container and this recording and will be able to help. We are in desperate need of assistance. We are on the Ever Cargo Voyager, but I don’t know for how long. Please, save us.”
The tone of the man became more desperate, then the recorder stopped. Izzy tried to get it to work again, but her efforts were futile. It was broken. The room fell silent as they realized something terrible had happened to the people the container belonged to. But what exactly? And could they help them?
Izzy remembered something—The Ever Cargo Voyager had been sighted multiple times but only seemed to dock for short periods each time. It only refueled and moved minimal cargo, even though it was filled with containers. Izzy reviewed the log database again, hoping to find more information about the vessel.
She exclaimed when she noticed its last known location. “It’s close!”
The strange reports in the log database and the ominous recording were enough for Izzy to try to track down the ship. The vessel’s last known location wasn’t too far away, so they could be there soon. If they interpreted the man’s recording correctly, time was of the essence. Izzy ensured that everyone aboard was on the same page, and she was happy to see everyone share her concern about the situation. She gave the captain the coordinates of the ship’s last known location.
Once they arrived, they were surprised to see the vessel floating 20 kilometers from the coast. It was just lying there. Although Izzy and her colleagues were curious to find out what was happening, they were also anxious to get too close. The recording had sounded menacing, and they agreed that this wasn’t just a job for them—they needed help.
“I’ll signal the Coast Guard and police,” Izzy said resolutely.
She ensured that when the Coast Guard arrived with the police, they were out of the cargo ship’s line of sight. Once the officers boarded, she quickly explained the situation and told them what they had heard on the recording. She was relieved that the police believed her and took the matter very seriously. Meanwhile, the captain gave orders to his workers, and there was a lot of activity on the ship. They had been waiting for half an hour when they got their response. The workers on the ship let down a ladder so Izzy and two officers could climb aboard. The captain greeted them gruffly when they finally reached the deck.
“You have one hour,” he said, then ordered everyone back to work.
Izzy smiled and tried her best to act as if she were simply making recordings. She and the officers walked over the ship, trying to discover what was going on while acting as inconspicuously as possible. But there was nothing to indicate anything was wrong. They probably used the last half hour to conceal any evidence. Out of desperation, Izzy started to whisper the man’s name.
“Ahmed Osman, are you here?” she repeated several times as the trio walked between multiple containers.
Then, suddenly, one of the containers beside them opened, and they were pulled inside. The door closed behind them. The trio was surprised to find that the container was filled with people. But the container wasn’t only filled with people—this one was furnished like the container they had pulled out of the ocean.
“Who are you?” a man demanded.
Izzy immediately recognized him from the pictures and the recording. She stepped forward and explained who they were and that they had found his recording.
Ahmed’s expression immediately cleared up. “I can’t believe it… I mean, I hoped it would get found, but I didn’t actually think it would be,” the man rambled. He shook their hands excitedly and let out a sigh of relief.
“This is our chance to get off this horrible ship,” he said to the others.
Ahmed explained that he and the others had been looking for passage to a safe country. He heard rumors about a ship taking people aboard and doing just that. But once he was on board, things changed.
“In return for the journey, I had to work on the ship for one year, but they kept extending that period, never letting me get ashore,” Ahmed explained. “I’ve been here for two years, but some of these people have been here much longer.”
Everyone lived inside containers like this, and the captain and crew exploited them. The conditions were horrible, and the endless labor caused Ahmed to rebel. But the crew quickly found out he was behind the uprising and took drastic measures to stop it. Ahmed sighed as he explained that they threw his container overboard, destroying his home in the process. But before they could, he had hidden a message inside, hoping someone would find it.
The ship was filled with families who were exploited and falsely imprisoned. They had to do something about it, and fast. Now that the police knew what was going on, they took action. They asked Ahmed how many crew members the ship had and if they could put up much of a fight. Backup was called once they had a complete picture, and a surprise raid was planned. It worked to perfection—due to the surprise attack, the ship
‘s crew was quickly arrested. With the criminals in custody, the Coast Guard took control of the ship. Meanwhile, Izzy helped Ahmed free all the families.
Not much later, the boat docked at the nearest city, where an emergency shelter was set up to care for the victims. It didn’t take long for the media to pick up the story. It became a nationwide headline, and Izzy followed it closely as she returned home after the city took control of the support efforts. She was glad the situation had a good outcome and was incredibly happy to have played a part in it.
