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.

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

binoculars, she searched for any blind spots

of trees in the distance, and without

saw the person sprawled among the branches, her heart felt as though it

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

enough to take a careful

helicopter above and then plunged into the water

his arm was caught on something, blood diluting in the

heart ached terribly as she steeled herself and yanked

and his body was

great difficulty, Maja dragged him onto the lifeboat and rowed

landed, and a team rushed lan to a

hospital corridor

days had passed, and she could hear Beck speaking

someone, "So, has the island been thoroughly

two days, we've covered it. The island was devastated by the blast.

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

the island would have been reduced to

why not just trigger the self-destruct instead of going through

trouble of detonating bombs?

chamber with a woman inside. Several groups

wanted to bring her back, but she won't leave

bandages—probably blind, possibly

can't she

hit by an electric shock. We need the chamber's blueprints to

Beck could respond, he noticed Maja waking

informant away

"Maja, you're awake."

"How's lan?"

"He's still under observation."

approached her, his eyes and brow

especially since receiving lan's emergency signal from the island. Beck had felt

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