Maja's heart skipped a beat as she sat motionless on the wooden bench of the boat, her eyes staring blankly into the distance.

When Beck boarded the vessel, the first thing he noticed was her faraway gaze.

He immediately walked over and gave her shoulder a gentle pat.

"The sea's chilly, and dawn's breaking soon. You should change out of those wet clothes," he said with a touch of concern.

Maja almost shook her head in refusal, but the first light of dawn was already spreading across the horizon, followed by a shout

that jolted everyone to attention.

"Over here!"

She quickly stood up and made her way towards the commotion.

It wasn't so much that they had found lan, but rather his jacket, aimlessly drifting on the water's surface.

From her vantage point, Maja could see the island's sky, where smoke slowly ascended, hinting at the horrific battle that had raged

the night before.

She withdrew her gaze, ready to plunge into the sea, but Beck stopped her.

"There are plenty of people searching down there. If lan's in the water, he'll be found."

Without a word, Maja grabbed a pair of binoculars and began scouring the sea.

Helicopters buzzed overhead as part of the massive search effort. With such a large-scale operation, even if lan had drifted far, he

should have been found by now.

Maja's brow furrowed as she peered into the deep, vast ocean. Could he have sunk to the bottom?

Ignoring Beck's protests, she insisted on launching a lifeboat to search for lan herself.

her, so he simply spoke into his walkie-talkie, asking the chopper pilots to keep

area with her binoculars, she searched

of trees in the distance, and without hesitation, she rowed towards

saw the person sprawled among the branches, her

tree, obscured by its girth and the leaves

cclose enough to take a

signaled to the helicopter above and then plunged into

arm was caught on something, blood diluting in the seawater, the wound sickeningly pale

terribly as she steeled herself and yanked

and his

difficulty, Maja dragged him onto the lifeboat

swiftly landed, and a team rushed

reached the hospital corridor

and she could hear Beck speaking

"So, has the island been

was devastated by the blast. The explosives

everyone. Less than twenty locals survived. We also discovered a self-destruct

activated, the island would have been reduced to ruins and sunk silently into the

raised an eyebrow. If someone wanted the island gone, why not just trigger the self-destruct instead of

trouble of detonating bombs?

a peculiar underground chamber with a woman

back, but she won't leave the chamber.

possibly

can't she leave the

electric shock.

Beck could respond, he noticed

waved the informant away and turned

"Maja, you're awake."

"How's lan?"

"He's still under observation."

approached her, his eyes and brow etched

was worn out, especially since receiving lan's emergency signal from the island. Beck had felt overwhelmed

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