Leon looks through the vent and sees two men with assault rifles guarding the door below.
"Hey, Raven, there's two scary-looking guys with guns down there. I'm just gonna assume I've got the wrong door," Leon whispers.
"Don't worry about that. I've had them in my sights for a while now," Raven replies calmly.
Back at the Squad Bastards base, Raven sits in front of her computer, cracking her knuckles and stretching before going to work. She begins typing at lightning speed, eyes locked on her screen.
"Now… first, overload the electrical panel connected to the camera. They won't even see it coming," she mutters.
***
In the fortress hallway, the two guards stand under two constantly turning cameras. Suddenly, the cameras begin spinning wildly in every direction.
"What the hell's going on with the cameras?" one guard asks, confused.
***
Back at the base, Raven continues typing, her tone sharp.
"Next, wear down the internal mechanisms with thousands of conflicting movement commands."
***
The cameras twitch violently—then drop from the ceiling, clattering toward the floor. Both guards raise their weapons in panic.
"And that's checkmate," Raven says, pressing Enter with a smirk.
As the cameras fall, the sprinklers overhead activate, drenching the hallway and flooding the floor. The guards realize too late what's happening.
"No!" they shout in unison.
The cameras hit the wet floor, sparks flying as exposed wires touch the water. A surge of 120 volts courses across the puddles, electrifying everything in its path.
"Ahhhhh!!!" the guards scream as their bodies seize from the current.
When the sparks fade, both men collapse—smoke curling from their skin.
"Leon, give it a minute before you drop down. You should have no obstacles now," Raven says through the earpiece.
Leon peers through the vent, staring at the dead guards below, stunned.
She's not even close to the base and did all that just by hacking? Wait… wait… can't think about it too much, he tells himself, shaking his head.
A minute later, Leon jumps down from the vent, landing hard—only to slip on the wet floor.
"Ouch!" he yelps, hitting his back.
He groans, gets up, and walks past the bodies, gun in hand, until he reaches the door.
"Remember, Leon," Raven's voice cuts in. "This is the only room in the building without any tech I can hack. The targets have to be in there. That doesn't mean it's safe. When you enter, find the wife and grandson immediately—and shoot. If you die after that, it won't be for nothing."
"Oh wow, thanks for the motivational speech. You never hold back, do you?" Leon says, wiping sweat from his forehead.
He notices a ring of keys on one of the guards' belts.
I'm gonna assume I'll need those to get in, he thinks.
Leon takes the keys, unlocks the door, and pauses.
"Okay, Leon… remember—you don't know them. Your family's more important. You can't avoid it. You won't lose your humanity over one kill… right?"
Sweat pours down his face as he grips his pistol tighter.
Fuck it! Fuck it! Just open the door and shoot. Don't think—just shoot! Unload the whole mag, one of the bullets has to hit!
Leon flings the door open and points his gun forward, finger tight on the trigger—but freezes.
The room before him isn't what he expected. It's a playroom—toy boxes stacked in corners, cartoon characters and alphabet letters painted on the walls, a soft carpet with colorful whales spread across the floor.
"What the hell is this?" Leon mutters, trembling.
A small, cheerful laugh echoes through the room. Leon looks down and sees a pale boy no older than four wearing blue overalls and a bucket hat, surrounded by toy cars and action figures.
"Spoosh! Boom! Boom!" the child yells, smashing the toys together.
Leon's hand shakes as the boy looks up, confused by the stranger pointing a gun at him.
"Tony Sparrow's grandson… is still a child?" Leon whispers, voice breaking as his mind scatters.