The Long Way Down

Zara Malik has come to Slovenia to make the documentary that could define her career. Thomas Reyes has been hired to keep her crew safe, and he is the only person on the production with the power to tell her no. He is infuriatingly calm, impossible to rush for a deadline, and very good at the job Zara needs him to do. Repeated descents into one of Europe’s deepest cave systems turn their arguments into reluctant trust, then into an attraction neither of them can afford to make simple. When a rockfall traps Zara underground with part of her crew, Thomas has to trust the woman he expected to spend the expedition overruling. Then the team finds an unmapped chamber. Reaching it before seasonal flooding closes the route could give Zara the footage of a lifetime, and the network is prepared to push hard for one last descent. Thomas thinks the risk has gone too far. The final decision could make Zara’s career, or force her to confront whether she loves chasing the impossible, or simply what the danger lets her avoid.