The mountains looked like they'd been cut out of time.
Jagged. Dry. Silent.
Zaid and Lina crossed the border in the back of a livestock truck—heat, stench, and tension thick between them. Their bodies were close. Their minds, farther than ever.
Lina hadn't spoken since the kiss.
Not because she regretted it.
Because it had changed something neither of them were ready to face.
The truck finally stopped near the ridge. Zaid helped her down, his hand grazing hers—she didn't pull away. He handed her binoculars and pointed toward the hills.
"There," he said.
A clearing. Barely visible. Camouflaged tents, a radio tower, armed guards disguised as shepherds.
Karim's ghost camp.
It looked like nothing.
But Lina had been a journalist too long to believe in nothing.
Zaid crouched beside her, scanning with his own lens. "This is where he's building his next strike. And if Salim is helping fund it..."
"He's not just rogue anymore," Lina said. "He's a threat."
"To more than just us."
They waited until nightfall. Moved under darkness, slipping between rocks and silence. Zaid's old instincts took over—he knew the guard rotations, the dead zones, the weaknesses in the patrol.
It wasn't his first time here.
And Lina noticed.
"You've been here before," she whispered.
He hesitated. "Yes."
"Before or after you told me you left Karim's network?"
He didn't answer. Just kept walking.
Something sharp curled in her chest.
Inside the outer edge of the camp, they reached an old barracks. Zaid led them through a hidden side entry. No guards. No noise.
They crept through dim corridors until they reached the archive room.
Intel. Maps. Drives. Everything Karim wouldn't dare put online.
Zaid pulled out a flash drive and started downloading files. "We have ten minutes max."
Lina wandered the room, her flashlight hitting a shelf of old photographs.
And there—frozen in dust and time—was one that stopped her breath.
Zaid. Karim. And a third man.
Salim Asfar.
In military uniforms.
Laughing.
She stared at it. "You lied to me."
Zaid looked up. "Lina—"
"You said you were out. That you left."
"I did. Years ago."
"Years ago? That photo is dated sixteen months ago."
Zaid looked like the floor had dropped out from under him. "I didn't know that photo existed."
"That's your defense?"
"I left the moment I realized what Karim and Salim were building. I was their ghost, Lina. I sabotaged them from inside. That's why I came to you. Why I risked everything."
She stepped back, fire in her chest.
"You risked everything? Or you used me?"
He moved closer. "I saved you."
"You broke me."
The room suddenly lit red. Sirens. The file transfer stopped.
Too late.
Zaid grabbed her hand. "Run!"
But before they could escape—
The door slammed shut.
From the shadows stepped a tall figure.
Karim.
Gun drawn. Eyes locked on his sister.
"Hello, Lina."