Bennett sat opposite Sarah.
Nobody talked much.
Avery moved between them checking equipment.
Sarah wore the old black belt nowhere.
It remained in her bag at the facility.
This wasn't a demonstration.
Nobody needed symbols.
They inserted three miles south of the crash site.
Rain became sleet.
Visibility dropped.
The terrain slowed them immediately.
They found debris after forty minutes.
A section of wing.
Then a seat cushion.
Then blood.
Sarah crouched beside it.
"Movement north."
Bennett looked.
"How do you know?"
Sarah pointed.
Broken brush.
"Somebody walked."
They followed.
At 1640, they found the first survivor.
Pilot.
Broken leg.
Hypothermic.
Alive.
Price and two others stabilized him.
The pilot was barely conscious.
"Others..."
Sarah leaned close.
"Where?"
"Down..."
He pointed toward a ravine.
"Three."
The ravine was steep.
Darkness approached.
Avery assessed the slope.
"We need ropes."
Bennett looked toward the clouds.
"Weather closes in forty minutes."
Sarah studied the descent.
Someone had gone down.
Maybe fallen.
Maybe intentionally.
The team moved.
They found the second survivor halfway into the ravine.
Civilian engineer.
Conscious.
Arm fractured.
He kept repeating the same thing.
"Colonel went after her."
Sarah crouched.
"After who?"
"Lieutenant."
"What lieutenant?"
"Young woman."
The fourth passenger.
"She fell."
Avery looked down the ravine.
"How far?"
The engineer shook his head.
"Couldn't see."
Sarah's stomach tightened.
Split Road.
Objective.
Casualty.
Weather.
Time.
For one strange second, she heard her father's voice.
Every choice creates responsibility.
Avery divided the team.
Price stayed with the injured.
Sarah, Bennett, Marcus, and Avery continued.
They descended another four hundred feet.
Darkness came faster under the trees.
Then they heard shouting.
"Here!"
They moved.
Colonel Mitchell was lying beside a young lieutenant near the base of a rock shelf.
The lieutenant's leg was trapped beneath debris.
The colonel had blood across his forehead.
Sarah knelt.
"How long?"
"Forty minutes."
Avery checked the lieutenant.
Pulse fast.
Skin cold.
Bennett looked up.
"We need extraction."
Radio signal was weak.
Marcus moved higher.
The team began freeing the leg.
The rock wouldn't move.
Bennett positioned himself.
"I can lift."
Sarah looked at the angle.
"No."
"I've got it."
"You lift that, the debris above shifts."
He looked.
She was right.
They needed leverage.
Sarah moved through options.
Branches.
Rope.
Anchor.
Avery saw what she was doing.