Chapter Two: Ninety Seconds

Lin looked over the uneven grass. Yesterday he would have answered midfield. Now ninety seconds of Vega still haunted his nerves like a caged animal. “Wherever you're missing someone.” Baptiste tossed a faded yellow bib onto the pitch. “We're missing everything. Show me what you have left.” Outside the training-ground fence, the black van turned off its lights and settled quietly into the dusk.