The mission was supposed to be clean and fast, insert, secure intel, exfil before the sun hit the ridge. At least, that’s how Jason Hayes had briefed it.

But missions rarely cared about plans.

Deep in the mountains, dust settling from a breached door, Bravo Team moved like a living organism, silent, focused, deadly. Jason led point, Ray covering the flank, Sonny clearing rooms with his usual mix of precision and bravado. Drew watched angles like he’d been doing this for years. Davis tracked their heartbeat signatures from the command channel, her voice calm and steady in their ears.

“Bravo 1, you’re clear to push east. No movement on thermal,” she said.

Jason gave a curt nod that only his team could see. “Copy, Davis. Moving.”

Ray stepped over debris, checking corners. “Intel’s not here. Looks like they moved it.”

“Figures,” Sonny muttered. “Nothing’s ever easy with these assholes.”

But just as Jason signaled them toward the far end of the compound, something, someone, made a sound.

Small. Afraid. Definitely not an enemy combatant.

“Hold,” Jason ordered, raising a fist.

The team froze instantly, all guns trained on the shadowed hallway.

There it was again, soft, shaky, muffled. A child’s cry.

Ray’s eyes softened under his helmet. “Jason…”

“I hear it.”

Jason moved first, lowering his weapon slightly but keeping his stance ready. He approached the sound slowly, listening for traps, for movement, for anything that meant danger.

Instead, he found a door barely cracked open.

Behind it, a tiny face stared back at him, wide-eyed, terrified, dirt streaked across their skin. {{user}}. Their clothes were torn, knees scraped, hands trembling around their own arms as if trying to make themselves smaller.

The second they saw Jason, they flinched.

“Easy,” Jason said gently, voice lowering in a way he rarely used outside of talking to his own kids. “You’re okay. We’re not here to hurt you.”

He backed up a step so he didn’t tower over them.

Ray came up slowly behind Jason, kneeling down. “Hey there, champ. You alone in here?”

{{user}} nodded carefully, eyes darting to Sonny and Drew when they appeared at the door.

Drew softened his tone immediately. “We’re getting you out of here, okay? You’re safe now.”

Sonny looked around the room, no beds, no windows, just a locked storage space someone had turned into a holding area. He clenched his jaw. “Bastards.”