Page 322 of Rangers Mountain Rescue

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A beat.

Then—

“You don’t have the backup.”

There it is.

The real offer.

I study him.

Long.

Hard.

Trying to read past the surface.

Trying to decide—

If this is help…

Or control.

“Why?” I ask.

His brow furrows.

“Why what?”

“Why help me?”

Silence.

Then—

“Because they’ve gone off the rails,” he says. “And if we don’t stop them now… we won’t get another chance.”

That sounds real.

Too real.

Which makes it dangerous.

Briggs leans closer.

“Smells like a setup,” he mutters.

Yeah.

It does.

But this?

This is bigger than us now.

Bigger than the team.

Bigger than the town.

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