Cross didn't have time to process who the woman was. The jungle roared with gunfire, branches snapping, smoke choking the air. He grabbed Reyes, hauling him up.
"Move!" he barked.
They stumbled deeper into the trees. Roots snagged their boots, vines clawed at their arms, but adrenaline drove them forward. Behind them, the masked soldiers gave chase, their rifles barking in deadly rhythm.
The woman followed—not against them, not with them, but alongside, weaving through the undergrowth like she knew every step before it happened.
Cross slid into a gully, pulling Reyes with him just as a burst of gunfire shredded the leaves above. He popped up, squeezed three rounds, and saw one pursuer drop. The others pressed on without hesitation.
"Who the hell are you?" Cross snarled at the woman when she landed beside him, barely winded.
"Elena," she said simply, ejecting a spent mag and slamming another into her pistol with practiced ease. "If you want to live, follow me."
Cross wanted to punch her as much as he wanted to shoot the men chasing them. But Reyes was bleeding badly, and instinct told him she wasn't wrong.
They broke from the gully and splashed into a river. Bullets hissed into the water around them. Elena fired back with calm precision, her shots buying them seconds.
A roar split the night—the sound of an engine. Cross glanced up to see a black helicopter sweeping over the treetops, its searchlight slicing through the canopy.
"Shit," he muttered. "They brought air support."
Elena's jaw tightened. "Kane doesn't like loose ends."
Cross froze. Kane. The name hit him like a hammer to the chest. Victor Kane. Arms trafficker. Ghost. A man Cross had crossed paths with years ago on a mission that went horribly wrong. A man who was supposed to be dead.
He shoved the thought aside. First survive, then ask questions.
The chopper banked low. A floodlight pinned them in white glare. Gunfire rained down from above, chewing up the riverbank.
"Now!" Elena shouted, grabbing his arm. She pulled him toward a narrow cave mouth half-hidden behind the waterfall. Bullets sparked against stone as they dove inside.
Darkness swallowed them. The roar of the waterfall drowned the world outside. Cross's lungs burned, his heart thundered, but for the first time in what felt like hours, they weren't under fire.
Reyes collapsed against the wall, clutching his leg. Cross knelt beside him, tearing fabric and wrapping a tourniquet.
Finally, he turned on Elena, eyes hard.
"You knew this was coming," he growled. "The ambush. The chopper. Kane."
Elena met his glare with a faint, almost amused smile.
"I knew," she said. "Because this isn't about your mission, Sergeant Cross."
Her voice dropped, almost a whisper.
"It's about you."