Orbital surveillance had tagged the building as one of many in the city from which a significant degree of radioactivity could be detected. It was an abandoned hospital, neglected and partially in ruins, overgrown with blue-green vegetation. The cement blocks it was built from were well on their way to crumbling into dust. Whether that meant they were old or simply that Jerrassian cement wasn’t very good, Lieutenant Johnson didn’t know.

The team had been carefully sneaking closer and closer to the entrance for twenty minutes, doing what they could to avoid detection. As he neared the corner of the building they were hiding behind, Johnson could hear activity outside the old hospital. There were shouts, orders being given, and feet running over the uneven ground. Someone was definitely there. Lieutenant Johnson checked the readiness of his hand gaser once again.

Special Agent Oliveira was just about to give the order to proceed with the assault when the Committee for Jerrassian Security liaison officer, Captain Montval Rek, broke cover and walked over to the two Sunguard men with quick strides.

“I’m sorry, sirs,” he said apologetically. “I’m afraid we’re in the wrong place. We should move on.”

“And why is that?” Special Agent Oliveira demanded, his voice laced with anger.

“This is not the place we’re looking for,” Captain Montval replied. “I’ve just been informed that this is the site of an active Crimson Legion operation in the city. There is, of course, no way the JLF could have hidden their bomb here with the Legion present.”

Not trusting the Jerrassian, Oliveira pushed forward anyway. Lieutenant Johnson didn’t blame him. They had to see with their own eyes that this was not the site of the dirty bomb they were looking for.

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The scene that met them outside the hospital entrance shocked Johnson to his core.

Lined up against the wall were about twenty Jerrassians—a mixed group of men, women, and children. They appeared to be in bad shape, ill or hungry. Some were coughing, and all were afraid. Their clothes were old and ragged. On their chests, they all wore symbols of a coin, stitched into their clothing. And all of them were wearing blindfolds.

On the opposite side of the front yard, a squad of Crimson Legion soldiers stood in line, their rifles pointing directly at the assembled prisoners.

It was too much for Lieutenant Johnson. This was not the mission he had signed up for. He was here to locate the Jerrassian Liberation Front’s dirty bomb, not to be complicit in the atrocities committed by the United Jerr army. With decisive steps, he walked in front of the rifles, betting his life on the assumption that the soldiers wouldn’t open fire on the aliens helping them.

Johnson was just about to demand the Jerrassian soldiers lower their weapons when he felt Special Agent Oliveira’s hand on his shoulder. The Lieutenant turned and looked into his superior’s sad eyes.

“No,” the Special Agent said softly in English. “No. We can’t. Believe me, I wish we could, but the stakes are just too high.” There was pain in his voice when he spoke, a knowledge that he was condemning the prisoners to death.

Despite wanting nothing more than to help the civilians about to be executed, Lieutenant Johnson knew Special Agent Oliveira was right. If the Sunguard mission to locate the bomb failed because they violated their agreement to cooperate with United Jerr, the Jerrassian Liberation Front would probably detonate the bomb. And if the bomb went off, these prisoners would likely die as well.

Carrying the heaviest burden a soldier could shoulder, Lieutenant Johnson had to accept that the prisoners were dead, no matter what he did. With steps heavy from guilt, he followed Special Agent Oliveira into the dark corridors of the abandoned hospital, leaving the atrocious scene behind.

As they entered the catacombs beneath the building, the sounds of gunshots rang from the world outside. And in the end, it turned out that the radioactivity they had detected had not come from the bomb, but only from cesium that hospital personnel had disposed of years earlier.