Around two in the morning, the decrypted files completed processing. However, Lila and Regan didn’t check them until the next morning. With a soft ping on Phoenix’s encrypted tablet, the notification conveyed the importance of what they had been searching for weeks. They could have hurried there right away, but they were delayed by something. It could be the brittle tranquillity of the night they had just spent together or the silent worry that whatever they discovered would ruin the little time they had set aside for themselves.
To clear their minds and brew coffee, they waited until dawn. The mountain sunlight poured through the windows in piercing golden beams that illuminated the dust particles floating between them as they sat at the kitchen island with Phoenix, bleary-eyed but focus
