The snow wasn't falling anymore. It was just grit in the air, little bits of ice that sandblasted your face if you looked the wrong way. Elena pulled the hood of her parka tighter. The fur around the edge was stiff with frozen breath. She lifted the night-vision monocular to her eye. The world went green and black.The facility wasn't much to look at. From two kilometers out, it was just lumps under the snow. Like someone had buried a few buses and forgot about them. One security camera dome, black glass, turning slow. That was it. No fence. No towers. Just white, and wind, and that one stupid eye watching nothing.But she knew. The stolen schematics were printed on the back of her eyelids. Sub-level one: where the guards slept and ate. Sub-level two: labs. Sub-level three: storage. Sub-level four: the Nursery. That word sat in her gut like a cold stone.She lowered the monocular. Her fingers were numb blocks inside her gloves. Her mother’s notes, the broken data, the whispers from th

The server vault door hissed shut behind us, cutting off the sounds of the firefight. The sudden quiet was worse. It was the quiet of a tomb.We were in a tight huddle – me, Kenji, Caiman. Elena stood a few feet apart, the gray emitter box still on her back like a weird camping gear. Her three defectors were against the far wall. Mikal, the jumpy one. Liv, with the burned face. And the kid, Kael, who looked like he was trying not to pee himself.The room was small, all blinking lights and the low hum of machines. One way in. No way out. We were all holding guns, and nobody was pointing them at the floor.The silence stretched. Too long.“So,” I said. My voice sounded too loud. “You’re the help.”Mikal’s eyes darted from my face to Kenji’s to Caiman’s. He saw the blood, the busted knuckles, the look in our eyes that said we were about three seconds from solving this problem the old way. “We got you the data,” he said, his voice tight. “We got you in.”“You got us trapped,” Kenji correc

The cabin was a gift we didn’t earn.Somebody’s dead grandfather’s hunting lodge. Tucked in a fold of the Norwegian mountains where the satellites don’t bother looking. Liv knew about it. Old resistance safe house from before the project went completely dark. She said it hadn’t been used in years.She wasn’t lying.The place smelled like dust and mice. Mouse shit in all the corners. A wood stove that probably hadn’t been lit since the 90s. Three small rooms. One toilet that groaned like a dying animal every time you pulled the chain.It was the best place I’d ever slept.We got the kids inside first. The portable cradles were heavy and awkward. Caiman carried two at once. Kenji carried the third like it was made of glass and he was scared he’d drop it.We set them up in the biggest room. Pushed the moldy couch against the wall. Laid the cradles in a row on the floor. Elena checked their vitals, adjusted the sedative drips. Her hands were steady but her face was gray and hollow.“They

The safe house was an old farmhouse about forty klicks south of the cabin. Sat low in a valley where the snow didn’t hit as hard. Resistance had fixed it up years back. Stocked it. Left it ready in case someone needed to disappear fast.Mikal chose it. Said it was good enough for the kids. Liv agreed. Kael didn’t argue. Just started hauling supplies inside.Plan was simple. Drop them off. Make sure they had heat, food, someone steady. Then we leave. Back to the Marlin. Back to the fight.That was the plan.Then the kids started talking.Maja still didn’t say much. Mostly watched. But it wasn’t fear. It was focus. Like she was studying the world. Taking notes.Lars stayed close to Borealis. Didn’t speak unless spoken to. But when he did, it was always a question. He wanted things to make sense.And the youngest. Brother. He followed Kenji without saying why. Didn’t need to. Just needed to be close.Then, for whatever reason, the three of them came looking for me.Late afternoon. I was

The farmhouse was quiet when we got back.Should've been the first sign.We'd been gone four days. Hit a small relay station up in the mountains, knocked out their transmitter, made it look like an avalanche. Nothing special. The kind of job we could do in our sleep by now.Coming back though. Something felt off.The Marlin dropped us on the shore at dawn. We hiked in through the trees, same path as always. Fresh snow covered our old tracks. Everything looked normal.Too normal.Kenji stopped first. Held up his fist. We all froze.He pointed at the treeline ahead. At the birds. Or the lack of them. No movement. No sound. Just dead quiet.I signaled Caiman. He went left, disappeared into the pines. Borealis went right, slow and careful. Kenji and I took the middle.We moved up on the farmhouse slowly. Real slow.The door was open.Not broken. Just open. Like someone walked out and forgot to close it behind them.Kenji had his knife out. I had my rifle up. We came to the porch from both