The team gathers inside the fueled ambulance: Luna and Cpl Bawer sit with the secured newborns, Rhea watches the bay, and Sgt Dunn remains near the cab.
A mud-covered woman crawls from beneath a neighboring emergency vehicle. She appears middle-aged and lean, with cropped gray hair, a weathered face, and a soaked brown jacket over dark work clothes; both empty hands rise.
Mara Venn
Do not shoot. Mara Venn. The main access road is watched. I know a concealed service route out of the base.
Rhea keeps her weapon trained low but ready, shifting half a step to place herself between Mara and the ambulance door. Rain beads on the stranger’s raised wrists.
Rhea Chelo
Watched by what, Mara? Dead, living, or both? Keep those hands where I can see them.
Before Mara can answer, faint scratching starts behind the ambulance’s sealed rear equipment panel. The sound is delicate, repeated, and unmistakably close.
Rhea Chelo
Hold. Something is inside the rear panel. Nobody opens anything until we know what is moving.
Verify Mara Venn's concealed service route