Stellar sat at the head of the table, the dimly lit room filled with her dedicated team. Their last mission to rescue a young commodity had been surprisingly successful, almost too easy. She knew they couldn’t let their guard down, not in this perilous world where danger lurked around every corner.
She cleared her throat and addressed her team, gratitude and pride evident in her voice. “I want to thank each and every one of you for your hard work on our last mission. We operated like a well-oiled machine, and because of that, the boy is now safe at the Safehouse.”
Nods of agreement and appreciation rippled through the room. Their team was a tightly knit group, bound by a shared mission to rescue children from the clutches of the child commodity program.
Stellar continued, her expression growing more serious. “But let’s not forget that our success came at a high price. We can’t afford to become complacent. The Retriever is relentless, and we’re always one step away from disaster.”
She couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease about the ease with which they had accomplished their last mission. It was as if the stars had aligned in their favor, but she knew that such luck was rare in their line of work.
The boy they had rescued was now in the Safehouse, where his tracker device would be removed, and he would be given an education until he was old enough to enter society without worry. It was a bittersweet victory, knowing that they had saved one child but countless others remained trapped.
Stellar’s thoughts turned to the parents of the boy, or rather, what remained of them. One was dead, and the other languished in the state penitentiary. In a cruel twist of fate, those without assets, such as children, often ended up in debtors’ prisons, a grim reminder of the unforgiving system they lived in.
As the team discussed their next steps, Stellar couldn’t shake the feeling that their work was far from over. The shadows of success loomed large, a reminder that in this world, victory came at a steep cost, and the fight to save these children was a battle that never truly ended.