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.

stop her, so he simply spoke into his walkie-talkie, asking the

binoculars, she searched for any blind spots that

on a cluster of trees in the distance, and without

finally saw the person sprawled among the branches, her heart

obscured by its girth and the leaves floating around, making him invisible from the air

someone cclose enough to take

above and then plunged into the water with a

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

steeled herself and yanked the object from his

was unconscious and his

onto the lifeboat and rowed towards the larger

helicopter swiftly landed, and a team rushed

had barely reached the hospital corridor when she passed

had passed, and she could

"So, has the island

covered it. The island was devastated by the blast. The explosives were buried there long ago, likely by

than twenty locals survived. We also

would have been reduced to ruins and sunk silently into the

the island gone, why not just trigger the self-destruct instead of going

trouble of detonating bombs?

we also found a peculiar underground chamber with a woman inside. Several groups tried to approach her

We wanted to bring her back, but she won't leave the chamber. She faces the wall, her eyes wrapped

bandages—probably blind, possibly

she leave the

an electric shock.

Beck could respond, he noticed

away and turned to

"Maja, you're awake."

"How's lan?"

"He's still under observation."

her, his eyes

emergency signal from

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