Marine Action · Environmental Thriller
A Lucy Callahan Novel, Book One — by Guy Lane
The oil industry is ruining everything in Lucy Callahan's world, and to prevail she must grow, and fast!
Aiming to disable the Expedient Energy oil rig before it destroys her life's work, Callahan finds problems closer to home as her love-sick partner, Sam, runs interference.
Balancing high emotions and high explosives, Callahan's only path to victory is a rapid ascent.
Marine scientist Lucy Callahan built the world's most advanced ocean research facility from nothing. Now a ruthless oil company wants to turn it into a drilling platform.
At 38, Lucy Callahan — the "Sealioness of Aquaria Bay" — has spent twenty years proving humans and marine ecosystems can coexist. Her cutting-edge aquarium represents irreplaceable science, millions in funding, and a lifetime of work.
Then Expedient Energy parks an oil rig at her doorstep.
What starts as corporate pressure escalates into total warfare. The oil giant has infiltrated her board, stolen her infrastructure plans, and begun sabotaging her facility. With allies vanishing and enemies multiplying, Lucy discovers the company intends to dismantle everything she's built and repurpose it for offshore drilling.
Fighting back means going deeper than she's ever gone — into corporate espionage, financial warfare, and dangerous waters both literal and metaphorical. As the stakes climb and violence erupts, Lucy must risk everything: her career, her safety, and the fragile bay she's sworn to protect.
In a battle between Big Oil and one brilliant scientist, the only way out is up. Fast.
Perfect for readers who love fierce protagonists, environmental thrillers, and high-stakes David vs. Goliath battles.
The Song
A companion track written for the novel — press play to hear it.
Silver bay under a moonlit sky
Salt on my hands and a question why
Twenty years building something real
Now an orange flame is all I feel
An oily smudge in a plastic pail
Chemical proof of a broken trail
They say start again, find another shore
But I have bled for this bay before
Marine science against the machine
Rabbit in the headlights on the drilling beam
Can't outrun what's coming in the dark
But I won't leave 'til they take my heart
Rapid ascent through the deep cold sea
Lungs burning, bones aching, still believing
The rig is burning but so am I
Sea-lion-ess of Aquaria doesn't stop, she doesn't die
No rest, no rest — just the current pulling me
Rapid ascent, just to breathe, just to be free
Sam sang shanties and didn't know the words
He loved me steady but I loved the birds
The seahorse and the shark and the open tide
There are things I carry I can't set aside
They shot me, they drowned me, they tried to break the deal
But you can't stop the woman with the bay to heal
I cursed the man on his knees on the deck
And I swam back to shore through the burning wreck
Marine science against the machine
Rabbit in the headlights on the drilling beam
Can't outrun what's coming in the dark
But I won't leave 'til they take my heart
Rapid ascent through the deep cold sea
Lungs burning, bones aching, still believing
The rig is burning but so am I
Sea-lion-ess of Aquaria doesn't stop, she doesn't die
No rest, no rest — just the current pulling me
Rapid ascent, just to breathe, just to be free
Sam had a dried seahorse in his palm
Untangled from my hair
I closed his cold hand around it slow
And left him on the burning rig
Seahorses born a thousand times tonight
Into the tank like snow
Some lives are taken, some lives remain
Some things we'll never know
Rapid ascent through the deep cold sea
Lungs burning, bones aching, still believing
The rig is burning but so am I
Sea-lion-ess of Aquaria doesn't stop, she doesn't die
No rest, no rest — just the current pulling me
Rapid ascent, just to breathe
Rapid ascent, I am free
Hot water moves out to sea
The bay breathes again
Seahorse rocks on a piece of kelp
And the morning finds me in the dunes
In the dunes
Curled up in the dunes