Could someone wake me up from this bad dream?
A special task force came. They hauled us out of the Black Forest before I could breathe properly. One moment, I was still staring at the smoldering map on my tablet, chasing the last pulse of Richard's tracker, and the next thing I knew, an S-rank unit, Black Cross, rolled in like judgment.
They took one look at our flagged transmission, read the signs, and quietly told us the operation was over. Escort back to City A, immediate extraction.
[Mission: complete.]
There was no time to argue. No time to stitch together every loose clue that was beginning to look like a trail straight to him. Ash and Mira packed like trained automatons. Ryo moved with a rare, tight-faced urgency.
