Chapter 4 A Cold Way down
September the 30st 2015
8:34 pm
My name is Special Operative Phil Lenient.
I've been serving in the military for about five years now.
From the start, I was always highly skilled—sharp, fast, efficient. I rose through the ranks quicker than most. Too quick, maybe. Because somewhere along the way, I must've caught the attention of the wrong kind of people.
I remember the day clearly.
A few men in crisp formal suits government-looking, but not the usual brass showed up at our unit. No names. No small talk. Just a job that needed someone like me.
Now, I won't lie.
I'm not exactly the cleanest soldier in the field. I've done things. And I had a feeling this job wouldn't be any different. Maybe dirtier.
But when they slid that check across the table?
God damn.
Even you would've smiled at it—hell, maybe even kissed the guy who handed it over.
So we suited up—me and a few others from my level.
High-grade military tech, experimental armor, top-tier weapons... the kind of gear they don't give to just anyone.
At that point, we didn't care what the mission was.
Whether it was hunting down terrorists, or tracking some poor idiot who pissed off the wrong billionaire and now had a bounty on their head—we were ready.
Or...
At least, we thought we were.
Phil
"Yeah... I don't think I can do this."
My voice cracked slightly through the comms. I could hear the hesitation in it no, the fear.
Langster
"Calm down. Everyone's in position. The targets haven't noticed us. Everything's under control."
Phil
"Sir with all due respect Fuck that. Those are kids, Langster They look barely 10 years old."
I only gritted my teeth, my breath catching in my throat. "They look no older than ten, maybe eleven. Don't you have a kid in fifth grade? About that age?"
He paused, his voice lowered now. "Why are twelve men in high-grade gear about to ambush children, Langster? This isn't right."
Langster
"Enough."
There was steel in his voice now, but also something else...weariness. "I feel no better about this than you do, but we have our orders. Plus..." He exhaled hard. "If we end them quick, maybe they won't have to suffer under whatever the hell these people are doing to them."
"Now keep quiet before our location gets compromised."
Phil
"Oh, so you want me to think of this like euthanizing a sick dog?"
I hissed, anger boiling. "Do you even hear yourse—"
POP.
A balloon burst. From one of the kids had been playing with it blue and shiny, now shredded in the sterile floor. The sound cut My rant short.
And forcing me to catch my breath again and look towards the cause of this commotion.
It was the skinny little girl with short dirty blonde hair who jumped back startled, almost cat-like. She moved with reflexes no child should have. Her body twisted and flipped like a trained gymnast.
But it wasn't just that. It was how she looked at the balloon afterward, like she'd never seen It popped before. Like she didn't know what a balloon even was.
I managed to crouched lower in the giant playhouse, heart pounding. This place keeps getting more and more weird.
None of the kids were acting normal.
One boy fiddled with a radio like he had no idea how to work it or anything about music.
Another taps the ground and walls constantly and sniffed everything and the air, the food and candles, and even the party ordinance, like he was part animal.
And...
His eyes were hollow. Clouded. No light in them at all.
Blind? I thought.
Yet that boy was closest to us. He should have heard the heated whispering between Me and Langster, but he didn't even flinch. Not a single head tilt.
Like he was deaf too.
If that's the case, what a horrible fate he was dealt not only being put into this place, but with Helen Keller's attributes.
These weren't just odd behaviors. These kids were off. Unnatural.
But the strangest of them all... was the red-haired girl.
She stood still, quietly watching everything unfold.
Not playing.
Not moving.
Just watching and thinking in her own little head with gaze no child should have.
She had rich ginger hair, a single bright green eye, and the other... greenish, maybe hazel. Her face was dusted with light freckles.
She looked European,Irish, maybe Scottish.
But her demeanor… it didn't match the others.
She didn't mimic. She didn't stumble.
She observed.
And the way she did it was terrifying. Like she was learning, in real-time, from the others' mistakes.
Not even attempting to try to interact with everything in this room, despite seeming interested.
But what chilled Me to his bones was her eyes that green steer there's nothing there.
It was dead.
Not vacant.
Dead.
Not dead in the same way as the blind kid's eyes.
And not the kind of emptiness you see in a cloudy minded child. It was deeper. There was no soul behind that stare just... Thoughts. A brain operating a body.
Nothing more nothing less.
Then She looked up.
Right at Phil.
Langster, not too far from him, at the left.
Cici, six meters away, at the bottom right.
Davie, stationed at the highest altitude on top of the eight meter hiding in the dark on a broken pillar.
I had to cover my mouth and, hopefully, prevent myself from hyperventilating.
I knew my unit was well-hidden cloaked Camouflaged. Practically invisible.
But her gaze shifted.
To me.
Then to another operative.
Then another.
Her head turned, slow and steady, locking on each of their positions like she knew. Like she could see through the ornaments and walls and shadows.
Langster
Damn "...That kid's creepy. The one with the red hair."
His voice, though hushed, trembled slightly.
I didn't answer.
I couldn't.
But for once This is something me and Lancaster can agree on even if I can't admitted to him
My hands were too shaky.
And I I'm definitely too overwhelmed to think rationally.
Langster let out a tired sigh, his voice low but steady over the comms.
Langster
"None of these kids are normal... Hell, once you've been in the game long enough, twisted shit stops surprising you. But missions like this?"
He paused. There was a bitter edge in his throat. "They're meant to remind us old-timers that we can still be caught off guard."
I crouched lower behind the ruined brick wall, eyes locked on the children. His jaw clenched.
Langster
"I don't know what's going to happen to them. If we don't do this none of us do.
And every part of me wants to shoot the damn cameras, kick down the doors, and get them out of here."
"...But that's not what's going to happen."
He swallowed hard.
Langster (cont.): "Because this isn't some heroic fantasy, Phil. This is our reality now. Our orders are clear: wait until every kid is seated at that table... and when they are"
"...the lights go out, and we open fire."
(heart pounded against my ribs.)
Phil
"...So you knew about this shit the whole time?"
Langster
"Save me the moral outrage, soldier."
He sounded colder now, like he'd already started putting walls up.
"They gave us a job. Paid us enough that we could live the rest of our lives without needing anything from anyone. You knew, the same as I did, that this job wasn't gonna be clean. You could tell just from the cash alone."
I looked back at the red-haired girl. She was sitting now, quietly, staring at the table she'd never eaten from one before by the way she's sitting and looking at the chicken. I wanted to save something but my voice cracked.
Phil
" I signed up to eliminate people who made terrible choices in life... not kids who probably don't even understand what a choice is."
I looked down at My gloved hands.
How the hell am I supposed to live... knowing I gunned down a child Knowing I have one of my own?
Langster didn't respond right away.
Langster
"...In luxury. With millions of dollars at your feet to hide the pain."
He exhaled through his nose. "Look realistically, one of us could handle this entire room alone. These kids may be... strange, but they're unarmed, untrained. Just sit this one out."
"Cover your ears. Cover your eyes. Cover your heart. And when it's over... pretend it didn't happen."
Phil didn't say anything.
A beat passed.
Then...
Phil
(quietly): "...Yes, sir."
Suddenly, Davie's voice shot through the comms, sharp and mechanical.
Davie
"All targets in position. The lights will die... and then we move in."
A chilling silence followed.
A chilling silence followed.
Davie
"In..."
"Three."
"Two."
"One..."
lights go out.
Langster: "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"