Cap didn’t respond. He didn’t need to.
We reached the rear entrance. The door was metal, cheap lock, poorly maintained. Brutus tested it once, then twice.
I shook my head.
He smiled grimly.
The door came off its hinges with a muffled crack as he shouldered it inward, catching it before it slammed.
We flowed inside.
The building was smaller than it looked from the outside. One open space divided by makeshift walls. Extension cords snaked across the floor. A single bulb hung overhead, swaying slightly.
The pacing guard didn’t have time to turn.
Brutus hit him like a freight train, hand clamping down over his face as my knife flashed. He dropped without a sound.
The second guard was seated near a table littered with phones and paperwork, head down, headphones on.
I took him down from behind. Quick. Clean.
The silence that followed was heavier than the noise.
I scanned the room.
Then I saw it.
A door at the far end. Heavier. Reinforced. Newer than everything else in the building.
I held my breath.
Cap came up beside me. “That’ll be it.”
I nodded once.
We didn’t rush it.
Brutus checked the frame. Solid. No lock visible from this side.
Ranger moved in, Smoke tense at his heel. The dog whined softly, tail stiff, eyes fixed on the door.
I took a slow breath and let it out through my nose.
The door didn’t match the rest of the building. Everything else in here was temporary. Patched walls, exposed wiring, locks meant to be replaced or ripped out when they moved on. This door was different. Reinforced steel. New bolts. Fresh welds still bright at the seams.
Someone had decided what was behind it was worth slowing us down for.
Smoke let out a low, uneasy sound in his chest. Not a bark. Not a growl. A warning.
Alive, my instincts said. But not untouched.
I shifted my stance, rolling my shoulders once, grounding myself in the familiar weight of my gear. I’d kicked in doors before. Plenty of them. But this one carried a different kind of risk. The kind where you don’t get to unsee what’s on the other side.
Cap glanced at me, reading the hesitation I didn’t bother hiding.
“You good?” he asked quietly.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
