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pensively. He was in charge of a two-vehicle convoy that was meant to back up the initial assault team that had been dispatched to the home of the traitor, Senator Vongaard. While he was surprised that the call to apprehend the Senator came at the late hour it did, he was thankful he was on duty at the time. The surveillance team had called in suspicious activity before they had lost contact, then the assault team also went silent, so he decided to move on the house himself.
                  When he arrived on-scene, he had found his surveillance team stunned and one injured quite badly by a blow to the head. The muddy tire tracks leading to the property from the west, and leaving as well, left little doubt as to which way the guilty party had fled. A quick check had verified what he had feared; the Vongaard family was missing.
                  "Slow down... what's that?" Caalum asked the agent driving the vehicle. Ahead of them, illuminated by the vehicle's running lights, was an unrecognizable heap in the road.
                 
                  "Looks like our missing assault team, sir," the driver said quietly, eyes scanning all around his field of view. When they pulled closer Caalum could clearly make out the van, sitting on its side and showing no signs of activity.
     
                  "Stop here. Squad two, move forward and look it over." At Agent Caalum's command, the troops in the trailing vehicle disembarked and moved forward slowly, weapons ready, to investigate the wreckage. It didn't take long to get an answer.
     
                  "Sir, it's assault team Alpha. It looks like they've got some injuries and are trapped inside, but no fatalities. They're telling me they were in pursuit of another CIS surveillance vehicle that had been fleeing the scene." The report came in over the com as squad two began to help the injured in the disabled vehicle.
     
                  "Why didn't they call this in?" Caalum snapped irritably. A fake CIS vehicle? This was starting to reek of a professional job, which usually came with professional soldiers. He would have to proceed much more cautiously.
     
                  "They said the vehicle's com repeater was knocked out and the hand-held units didn't have the range to reach dispatch."
     
                  Agent Caalum signaled his driver forward, leaving the second vehicle behind. The tracks from their quarry had faded away, so they were just proceeding along in the hopes they could intercept the vehicle. There were no side streets off of this stretch of road, but Caalum didn't want his vehicle to end up like that of Team Alpha's, so he ordered it slow and steady so they didn't rush headlong into a trap.
                  It was another couple of kilometers when he ordered a stop again. Something had caught his eye, but he couldn't readily identify it. The team sat in silence for a few more seconds before he ordered everyone out of the vehicle, "Spread out and search both sides of the road. Something doesn't look right, keep an eye out for anything that may have been discarded or anything else that looks out of the ordinary."
                  After a few minutes of searching, Caalum found what he was looking for: tracks that clearly led off of the road and into the woods. The overgrown path had been trampled down recently by something large passing through and led steeply down into a low-lying set of fields that were completely obscured by fog. He knew this must have been where they went, but he hesitated.
     
                  "Are we continuing pursuit, sir?" Caalum looked over to the young agent that had asked the question. He didn't want to appear to be a coward in front of his subordinates, but he really didn't want to walk down that path into whatever may be lying in wait either. At least not with only a four man fire-team. Before he could