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"Exactly."

Carys studies the terrain.

"You're thinking like a firefighter."

"I am a firefighter."

"No."

She smiles faintly.

"You're thinking like an incident commander."

She's right. Every emergency scene begins the same way. Establish command. Identify hazards. Protect your people. Everything else comes later.

I tap my radio.

"Check."

Static answers. I try again. Nothing. Carys frowns as she looks at her phone.

"I just lost GPS."

Sayer holds up his own device.

"No signal."

"We're still over a mile away," Carys says.

"We shouldn't be losing service yet."

"We're not."

"It's taking it."

The realization settles over us. The interference isn't random anymore. It's expanding.

Testing its reach.

I remove a small handheld drone from my pack.

"If we can get an aerial view⁠—"

The drone powers on. Its propellers spin. For exactly three seconds. Then every light on the unit dies simultaneously. No warning. No error message. Just…

Dead.

Carys watches me.

"I guess that's our answer."

I pack it away.

"Technology got us this far."

I shoulder my pack again.

"It won't get us the rest of the way."