{"id":18037,"date":"2025-11-11T12:32:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=18037"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:32:22","slug":"18037","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=18037","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

She reached the tent where Hale sat. The guards were two men she\u2019d seen laughing earlier; they were drunk on the power of having a captive. Grace slid a strip of cloth in the doorway and feigned a limp, collapsing in their path. She let the adrenaline carry her through the lie \u2014 the touch of their cocky hands. When their guard sagged, she struck: a knee to the groin, a palm to the throat. The first went down without noise; the second fought. He bit her hand. She tasted blood and used his momentary shock to bring him down with her elbow.<\/p>\n

Hale had watched the scene with a soldier\u2019s calculation; when the second guard thudded, the rope binding Hale\u2019s wrists had loosened \u2014 he\u2019d worked at it while playing the captive. He didn\u2019t stand. He didn\u2019t need to. His hand, once freed, went to his boot and slid a small, serrated knife into his palm and then, with the slowest smile Grace had ever seen, he nodded.<\/p>\n

\"They<\/p>\n

They moved with the ease of two people who had navigated fire together. Hale beat the last man with the butt of his own boot, the guard\u2019s face folding like paper. Grace checked the tent flap. Two men at a distance moved toward the comms tent, shouting about the blackout. The compound\u2019s tension hummed up like a wire.<\/p>\n

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She reached the tent where Hale sat. The guards were two men she\u2019d seen laughing earlier; they were drunk on the power of having a captive. Grace slid a strip of cloth in the doorway and feigned a limp, collapsing in their path. She let the adrenaline carry her through the lie \u2014 the touch…<\/p>\n

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