February 2005 Outskirts of Aramore Village
Levi pressed a finger against the earpiece in her ear.
“I’m in position.”
A calm voice answered through the comm.
“Proceed to the next phase.”
With her golden eyes, Levi surveyed the abandoned facility. It appeared deserted, but her keen hearing caught something hidden beneath the silence—faint sobs, desperate cries, and the sound of children suffering somewhere underground.
That wasn’t part of the mission.
Yet Levi couldn’t bring herself to ignore it.
She moved silently toward the basement entrance, her footsteps barely making a sound. The heavy steel door was secured with nothing more than a large padlock.
A fatal mistake.
With one hand, she crushed the lock as though it were made of glass.
The sight waiting beyond the door was exactly what she had feared.
Rows of children were strapped to metal beds, their bodies bruised and scarred by countless experiments. Some were barely conscious. Others looked as though they wouldn’t survive the night.
Levi quietly stepped back into the hallway and concealed herself as approaching footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Light.
Small.
A child.
Moments later, a young girl no older than nine cautiously approached the basement. She froze when she noticed the broken lock, then hurried inside after realizing the guards were gone.
From the shadows, Levi watched as the girl rushed from one child to another, unfastening restraints and desperately trying to wake them.
She was terrified.
Yet she never stopped helping.
Levi considered stepping in, but after a brief moment, she turned away.
The girl had already made her choice.
Levi still had a mission to finish.
Aleah gently patted her friends’ cheeks, trying to wake them.
A few slowly opened their eyes, but they were too weak to even speak.
She glanced nervously toward the doorway again and again, expecting the guards to return at any moment.
Then...
BOOM!
A deafening explosion shook the entire building.
Moments later, the fire alarm blared throughout the facility.
Aleah helped one of the children to their feet before turning to the others.
“We have to leave,” she said. “This place is going to burn.”