They had always been here... and when they left it was with a warning. After the world-changing events of The Leviathan Protocol, humanity believed the worst was behind them. The truth is far more terrifying: the Altarions never left. They have been here all along—listening, watching, and waiting beneath the ocean's deepest trenches. Now, Earth's reckoning has come. When Dr. Tessa Ross and investigative journalist Ethan Cole receives a scrambled transmission from a deep-sea relay station thought to be decommissioned, he uncovers evidence of a second contact. But this isn't diplomacy—it's a harvest. The Altarions' dying homeworld has run dry. To survive, they need Earth's freshwater reserves. And they intend to take them. As oceans begin behaving erratically and weather patterns collapse, Cole reunites with Dr. Tessa Ross and the remnants of the secretive deep-sea research program that first discovered the aliens. But the old alliances have fractured. China has launched its own deep-ocean initiative, armed with stolen Altarion tech—and they're not planning to share. With global water reserves collapsing, superpowers race toward a final confrontation not only with each other—but with the beings rising from the depths. From flooded cities to submerged ruins, from classified Antarctic bunkers to the mythic trench-vaults of Atlantis, ' Thirst- They're Here for the Water ' is a pulse-pounding thriller that asks a harrowing question: what if survival for one species means extinction for another? As Cole dives deeper into the mystery, he discovers that the Altarion's are not saviors, nor conquerors—but stewards of a terrible truth. They once seeded Earth with water to preserve it for this very moment. Humanity was never the dominant species. We were the caretakers of a planet that was never ours to begin with. Now the countdown begins. One month until extraction. One chance to stop it. And one secret buried beneath the Pacific that could change everything we know about our history—and our future. Blending speculative science, real-world geopolitics, and heart-stopping suspense, 'Thirst' is a stunning sequel that expands the mythos of The Leviathan Protocol into a breathtaking global saga. For readers of Michael Crichton, James Rollins, and Andy Weir, Tom McAuliffe delivers an unrelenting tale of survival, sacrifice, and the question that haunts every contact: If they came to save us… why does it feel like they're here to end us?