The silence inside the helicopter was heavy like a wet cloth, wrapping us and isolating us from the world we were leaving behind.
No one dared break it, as if sounds had stopped for fear of unleashing the truth we carried with us.
Finally, MAYNO's voice pierced that invisible wall, asking,
"So… do we have a plan?"
SHOUTNA smiled and began to explain the mission details precisely.
"What… that's it?" GHAZLANE whispered in amazement. "It sounds way too simple to be real!"
ZARYOUH lost his patience and growled, "All you have to do is watch and be silent!"
SHOUTNA tried to calm things down. "Let's just finish this quickly."
The wind passed through the helicopter; the clear sky carried the taste of adventure and danger at once.
The silence was weighted with expectations and tension.
********************************
At the training institute,
LOUVNA sat in the front seat, holding her notebook in her hands, but her eyes never left the clock.
It was late, yet MOHITO had not appeared.
She began to feel the place around her—the scratch of pen on paper, the students' whispers—but nothing filled his absence.
"Where is he today?" she whispered to herself, as if speaking might pull the answer out of the dark.
She glanced at ODEL, sitting in the back seat, calm as ever; he raised an eyebrow when their eyes met.
"He didn't come?" she finally said in a low voice.
"It seems so…" ODEL replied, trying to keep his tone even, though a trace of worry showed through.
"He must be fine. We're talking about MOHITO after all," MONA said, attempting to reassure LOUVNA.
"Maybe… he's fine," she whispered to herself, trying to calm her heart. But the word wasn't enough.
Her heart knew one thing:
MOHITO's absence was not an ordinary act.
It was a silence that carried something larger, something heavy that made each passing second feel like an eternity.
"Isn't that MOHITO's friend over there?" ODEL said, pointing.
LOUVNA stood quickly and approached him.
"Hello, SOLIMON."
SOLIMON pretended not to know, though he knew why she greeted him. "Hello. How can I help you?"
"Sorry, I must have surprised you… I just wanted to ask why MOHITO is absent," LOUVNA said shyly.
SOLIMON answered kindly, trying to reassure her,
"MOHITO? He has a light cold, so don't worry. He contacted me this morning and told me he wouldn't come today."
LOUVNA bowed a little in respect. "Okay, thank you."
She returned to her seat, telling ODEL and MONA sadly, "It seems he has a cold."
Elsewhere, MESNAS—who had been waiting for SOLIMON in the corridor—asked,
"So, did she believe you?"
SOLIMON replied, "It seems so."
"These bastards went off on a mission without letting us know!" MESNAS growled.
"There must be a reason… let's wait for their return to understand," SOLIMON answered calmly.
The only thing SOLIMON didn't know then was that someone was watching from behind.
He might have managed to deceive LOUVNA, but ODEL was more alert.
He never lets his feelings overpower him and always thinks rationally.
*************************
When classes ended, the group headed outside.
"I'm furious," AYOUB said.
"Kids shouldn't get angry… I know why they didn't want to take you, but why not tell the rest?" MESNAS mocked.
"Whaaaat… what did you say?" AYOUB looked at MESNAS angrily.
"Calm down. Maybe it's a special mission… and the five of them are the most in sync
They've worked together longer than the rest of us," ZAKI said, trying to soothe the mood.
"What bothers me more is that person following us from behind," TAHARA whispered.
"Isn't that—" OBASO began.
"ODEL, he's one of the people who study with MOHITO," SOLIMON replied.
SOLIMON suddenly stopped and looked at ODEL: "Do you need anything from us?"
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to follow you… I just wanted to deliver the notes to MOHITO," ODEL answered with a sly smile.
"Sorry, but MOHITO isn't the type to share his personal information," SOLIMON replied with a smile as well.
"I just wanted to give him the notes." ODEL maintained his smile.
"Do it, I'll give them to him," SOLIMON said, looking at the notebook.
"But there's something I need to explain to him," ODEL said in a tone of suspicion.
"Sorry, with all due respect, I can't tell you… ask him directly next time," SOLIMON said, trying to end the conversation.
"Okay, I understand… sorry for asking. Take these notes," ODEL said, smiling before leaving.
"Is he a threat?" AYOUB asked.
SOLIMON fell silent, hiding his concern.
"Let's go," he said finally.
**********************************
Meanwhile, the helicopter landed at one of the intelligence bases in the south.
"We'll take this goods truck to approach the Front's fortress," MAYNO told everyone before all went in.
Inside the dark cargo hold, there were only steady breaths and dim lights reflecting on the equipment.
MOHITO sat in a corner, wiping his sword with a white cloth in a mechanical motion.
Every movement was economical, precise, like a sacred ritual.
Beside him, ZARYOUH twirled his knives between his fingers.
GHAZLANE looked at the group in the truck and whispered to MAYNO,
"They're really calm."
"Yes," MAYNO replied attentively.
"This is the most we can reach," the truck driver pointed to the road ahead.
MAYNO pulled out a digital binocular and glanced, then handed it to SHOUTNA:
"That fortress there is our target."
"All right, everyone, time to move," SHOUTNA said, pointing to the group.
ADEL opened his black bag.
"SIGMA, BETA, camouflage mode."
Two palm-sized drones launched from the bag and vanished instantly, blending with the background.
GHAZLANE and MAYNO were astonished.
"They didn't disappear, they just merged with the background," ADEL explained with a slight smile.
ADEL displayed radiographic images of the fortress on his laptop screen.
"Well, what do we have here?" SHOUTNA said as he inspected the images.
"Thirty guards, machine guns, two rocket launchers, and five tanks," ADEL answered.
"In the targeted building, there are eight guards distributed across the floors, and AMMAR is alone in the room," he continued.
"ZERO, ZEROTWO, you know what to do," SHOUTNA addressed MOHITO and ZARYOUH, and both nodded at the same time.
************************************
Two hundred meters from the fortress, MOHITO and ZARYOUH moved like shadows.
At the back door, they met the spy SHOUTNA had promised them.
He opened the door for them, then left.
"We're in," MOHITO whispered over the radio.
SHOUTNA pulled an AWM sniper rifle from his bag—black, adorned with yellow accents, powered by a directed nano-cell.
He lay down on the truck's roof and whispered, "LAXIS activate."
The rifle's muzzle opened.
"Power boost (10 from 50)," SHOUTNA murmured.
Then SHOUTNA's eyes turned red.
"There are two guards directly in front of them," ADEL informed SHOUTNA.
"Yes, I see them well… aiming position," SHOUTNA said with focus.
"Would you aim from this distance?" GHAZLANE asked in astonishment.
SHOUTNA did not answer.
His breath became steady, slow. He pressed the trigger twice in succession.
Two faint sounds.
"The targets fell," ADEL's cold voice reported. "Proceed."
"Th-th-this…" GHAZLANE was in shock.
"There are three guards ahead of you, so be ready," ADEL informed the two.
ZARYOUH pulled out his knives—one with a red edge and the other blue—both made of nano-material.
"Power boost (25 from 85)," ZARYOUH whispered.
He moved like lightning. The knives drew lines in the dark. Three guards fell before they realized what had happened.
"Someone is coming from the…," before ADEL finished his sentence.
MOHITO, with cold eyes, stabbed the person approaching from behind directly in the heart.
"There are two guards left on the upper floor," ADEL told them.
ZARYOUH approached them from behind unnoticed and dealt with them.
"AMMAR is right behind the door you're standing before," ADEL said, watching the screen.
ZARYOUH opened the door silently.
AMMAR was sitting at his desk, reading his documents. He felt their presence and lifted his head.
But it was already too late.
The sword was faster than sight.
AMMAR's head fell to the ground before his eyes reached his killer's face.
MOHITO stood there, his sword stained with blood.
His breathing was calm, as if he had done nothing at all.
MAYNO and GHAZLANE said nothing
They knew a mission like this would at least require an elite group of soldiers and years of planning, and would likely result in significant losses.
Yet it ended this simply at the hands of five people without a single injury on their side.
MAYNO's single thought surfaced: "Can these people be confronted???"
***********************************
When they returned to the truck, MAYNO and GHAZLANE found it hard to hide their shock.
"Routine operation," ZARYOUH said with a haughty smile while playing with his knife.
SHOUTNA looked at MAYNO and GHAZLANE. "Are you both okay?"
"Uh… yes," GHAZLANE managed, struggling to speak
MOHITO sat in the corner again, wiping his sword, as if he had never left his place at all.
On the way back, the silence was heavy.
The clouds in the sky looked darker, as if reflecting what had happened inside the souls.
In the corner, MOHITO stared at his hands.
He whispered to himself,
"Freedom… do we find it by taking the lives of others?"
and the question hung in the air, unanswered.