Chapter 42 Mila
Mila
Location: Adriatic Coast — Forest Break / Extraction Route
We don’t win.
We survive.
And right now?
That’s enough.
“Move!” Jase shouts as another round slams into the side of the shelter.
The structure won’t hold.
It was never meant to.
“Back route!” Ronan calls. “I’ve got a path—twenty meters west!”
We don’t hesitate.
We break.
All of us moving at once—fast, controlled, covering each other as we push out through the rear of the shelter into dense brush.
Gunfire follows instantly.
“They’re on us!” Jonah shouts.
Of course they are.
“They won’t stop,” Lance says.
“No,” I reply, pushing forward despite the burn in my side. “They can’t.”
Because if we live—
Hayes loses control.
And he knows it.
Branches whip past as we force through the terrain, boots slipping on loose dirt and rock.
Through the trees—
The Adriatic flashes again.
Too open.
Still useless.
“Stay in cover!” Jase orders.
I glance at him.
He’s already scanning, already calculating—
Already protecting.
Even now.
Especially now.
“Two on our six!” Cal shouts.
Ronan’s rifle cracks from somewhere above—
Both threats drop.
“Clear,” he says calmly.
God, I love that man’s timing.
We keep moving.
Hard.
Fast.
Relentless.
Until—
“Hold!” Jase snaps.
We stop in a tight formation behind a cluster of rock and brush.
Silence crashes down around us.
No immediate pursuit.
No gunfire.
Just wind.
And breath.
And the realization—
We made it out.
Barely.
I lean slightly against the rock, forcing my breathing to steady.
Jase is in front of me instantly.
“Talk to me,” he says.
“I’m fine.”
He doesn’t buy it.
But this time?
He lets it go.
For now.
“Perimeter,” he orders.
The team spreads out again.
Watching.
Waiting.
But there’s a shift now.
We’re not running blind anymore.
We’ve seen how far Hayes is willing to go.
And that changes things.
Jase turns back to me.
“We know they will kill for what we have. They’ll kill us because we know what is on the flash drive. We have to figure out who we can trust,” he says.