The team seemed different, now. Around the base, they’d been just a bunch of big, friendly guys, hugging their girlfriends and goofing off. But now they were soldiers, ultra-focused and alert, working together with smooth efficiency, and it was amazing to watch.

The hallway had doors on both sides and we had to stop before each one so that Bradan could peek through the window and check for guards. The rest of the team were quiet but he was like a ghost: I could see why Danny had put him up front.

We began to pass cells. Gabriel glanced at the metal bars and grimaced. I caught his eye and frowned, curious. Bad memories, he mouthed.

As we got deeper into the prison, we started to come across guards on patrol. Bradan would suddenly raise his fist in the air and we’d freeze, waiting for the guard to cross the junction. Sometimes, we’d have to wait for a minute or more, until the guard was out of earshot. Twice, we had to backtrack and take a different route because there was a guard in front of us. We couldn’t just tranquilize them all: someone would notice they were missing. But I could see Danny checking his watch: we couldn’t take too long, either, or the guards we had tranquilized would wake up.

We were passing a cell when I heard a rustle of fabric. I turned and—

A prisoner was sitting up in his bunk, staring right at me.

I stopped dead. Danny, feeling my hand lift from his back, stopped too, and then the rest of the team.

The prisoner and I stared at each other. It was hard to see his face, in the darkness, but he was small and looked young, only about the same age as me. In desperation, I put my finger to my lips, pleading with my eyes.

He stared at me silently for another few seconds…and then nodded. I guess he figured that whoever we were, we weren’t on the side of the guards and that was good enough for him. We all let out a silent breath of relief and Danny nodded to me: good job!

We crept on. Bradan pointed to the junction up ahead. Next one. We were almost at JD’s cell!

There were no guards nearby and some of the lights were broken here, leaving most of the hallway in deep shadow that would help to hide us. We picked up the pace a little, moving as fast as we could while staying quiet. We were only ten feet from the junction when there was a creak of metal from beside us. I felt Danny falter and try to stop but then something rammed into us, sending us stumbling.