Midnight.
Pearl Villa was quiet.
Most of the lights had already been turned off, and the sea breeze moved gently through the open balcony doors.
Inside the bedroom, Chloe slept peacefully beneath the blanket.
Miles stood outside on the balcony with his phone in one hand.
His expression had changed the moment Adam started speaking.
"There is a dying pattern?"
Adam's voice came through the call.
"Yes."
He sounded tired, but there was something else underneath it.
Excitement.
The kind that came when an investigator finally found the missing piece.
"I've been analyzing the records for almost two weeks."
Adam continued.
"Tonight, I finally got a breakthrough."
Miles rested one hand against the railing.
"What exactly is the pattern?"
Adam paused.
"Roughly every seventy-five days..."
"...a soldier dies."
Miles frowned.
"What?"
"Sometimes it's an accident."
"Sometimes a border clash."
"Sometimes illness."
"A heart attack."
"A vehicle incident."
