Page 59 of Rangers Last Promise

Wolf drops beside him.

“What happened?”

Trigger blinks up at us.

“He hit me with the case.”

“Where is he?” Tate asks.

“Gone. Back exit.”

A deputy checks the far door.

“It opens behind the abandoned church. He could’ve reached the county road.”

“Did you see his face?” Mara asks.

“No. Mask stayed on.”

“What about the case?”

Trigger looks toward the floor.

The black metal box lies open ten feet away.

I cross the room and pick it up.

The mission reports remain inside, along with old maps and photographs.

Only one item is missing.

The bloodstained paper Grant placed in my vest before we entered the valley.

The coordinates.

“What did he take?” Mara asks.

“The location Grant wanted us to find.”

Wolf helps Trigger to his feet.

“Do you remember the numbers?”

“I remember the first two.”

“That isn’t enough.”

“What were they?”

I recite them.

“Thirty-four point six one. Negative sixty-eight point⁠—”

The rest disappears into fifteen years of memories.

I saw those coordinates almost every day after Grant died. I traced them on maps. I entered them into searches. I even traveled to the nearest military installation before discovering the location had been wiped from the official mission records.

But eventually, I forced myself to stop looking.