Morning came quietly, without urgency. The sun sat low on the horizon, a pale disc pressing gently against the sky, its light stretched thin across the pavement. The air was cool enough to make breath visible for a moment before...

Tony’s Wrangler idled at the curb like a patient animal, its engine rumbling low and steady in the early morning quiet. The Jeep was older and boxier than the new ones, black paint dulled by sun and a thin...

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