Morning came quietly. The sun sat low on the horizon, a pale disc pressing gently against the sky, its light stretched thin across the pavement. Tony drove. Michael rode shotgun. Hutch sat in the back with a cooler pressed against one...

Tony’s Jeep idled at the curb in the grey wash before sunrise, engine rumbling low. The Wrangler was older, black paint dulled by the desert sun and highway grit, but Tony trusted it the way he trusted his rifle. The...

Heat pressed down on the desert training complex like a physical weight. By early afternoon, the Arizona sky had bleached itself into a hard, colorless blue. The air shimmered above sand and concrete, bending distance and softening edges until the...