The game was in motion.
The pieces were moving.
And somewhere in the darkness ahead, a young woman loved so fiercely that it frightened even those who cared about her most.
— — — — — —
Seven Hours Across the Edge of the World
The helicopter cut through the night, its rotors carving steady patterns through the darkness as it carried its cargo across the Pacific. Miles below, black water stretched endlessly in every direction, broken only by occasional whitecaps that caught the moonlight.
Inside the cockpit, Zhou Yuxi sat motionless except for her hands. Red instrument lights illuminated her face in intervals as she scanned the gauges, fuel consumption, engine temperature, heading alignment, and altitude. Every few seconds, her fingers moved across the controls with mechanical precision. A slight adjustment to the collective. A minor correction to the cyclic. Her eyes never stopped moving, tracking information, processing data, making calculations that kept them alive.
