Huntress's heart pounded in her chest as she ran through the dark, narrow corridors. With each step her boots slammed into the ground, stirring up dust and sand in a thick cloud which swirled around her legs like fog. She ran with purpose, with her teeth clenched and her eyes focused from beneath her visor. Sweat and dust mixed with the camouflage paint on her face, but there was no time to wipe it away.

The first person who attempted to get in her way went down quickly, killed with a bullet directly to his eye which exploded in a puff of red. He fell just inside the doorway which he had attempted to step out from, and Huntress side-stepped his body without so much as breaking her stride. She kept her gun held at the ready in case she needed to use it again. Perhaps she should have waited for back-up, but in her eyes there simply hadn't been time.

Another man tried to stop her, but before he could shout to raise the alarm or even raise his own weapon she shot him too, leaping over his body as he fell at her feet. She continued on, each step bringing her closer to her goal.

'Huntress, come in Huntress,' her radio came to life in her ear.

She wanted to ignore it, but that would bring more trouble than it was worth, 'This is Huntress.'

'Where the hell are you? You were ordered to wait for us,' the man on the other end didn't sound impressed.

'I'm inside. Not too far from where the target is being held,' she had to duck down behind a wall as a group of three men crossed the hall just ahead of her.

'Why didn't you wait?' he growled.

'There wasn't time,' she snapped. 'I'm almost there. Just make sure you give me cover on the way out.'

There was a pause on the other end of the line, followed by, 'Fine, but we will be discussing this insubordination later.'

'Yes sir,' she muttered. 'Huntress, out.'

Leaving her radio, she peeked around her hiding spot and saw that the coast was clear. Readying her gun she dived out, sprinting the last few steps towards her target. A guarded door was just ahead of her and both guards went down instantly, one after the other. She reached the door and rammed it open, primed and ready for any attack she might have to face.

What she saw on the other side made her freeze in her tracks…

With a sharp gasp Huntress bolted upright in her bed, the blankets tangled mercilessly around her legs like a snake. She kicked them off, desperate to free herself and sat there among the tangled mess, panting as her heart raced wildly in her chest. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the lingering images from her mind.

Swinging her legs over her bed, she sat for a minute, trying to make herself breathe properly before she stood up. Opening the door to her bedroom, she peered up and down the hallway to make sure that she was alone. The last thing she wanted at this time was questions, but thankfully all the doors to the other rooms were closed and dark.

Tiptoeing to the bathroom, she promptly locked herself in side and breathed a sigh of relief. Turning on the tap she gathered the water in her hands and splashed it up over her face to wash away the sweat from her dream. The cold rush also served to calm her nerves slightly as she leaned against the sink and looked up at the mirror.

She frowned at her appearance and shook her head. Perhaps normally she should have been pretty, but now, pretty wasn't her goal. In fact, pretty was the exact opposite of what she needed at that moment. All the same, she missed her hair and the wild way it curled. Of course, like anything in this world, it had driven her batty up until the point where she had been forced to cut it and then she had realised that she missed it.

Grabbing the towel from the rack, she used it to rub the water from her face and threw it haphazardly back over the railing. It was far too early in the morning to bother with being neat and someone would just mess it up later anyway.

She tiptoed back to her room and had just made it through her door when one of the one's further down the hall opened. She ducked inside quickly, in no mood to talk to anyone at this hour and she certainly didn't want to have to answer any questions about why she was wandering the halls.

Throwing herself back down on her bed, she clasped her hands over her stomach and sighed, staring up at the ceiling and the steadily moving fan that was doing very little to cool the air down. Not bothering to put the blankets back on, she kicked them further down the bed, before rolling over and closing her eyes, trying to push herself to go back to sleep.

Victoria Station, Kenya, 16th March 2005.

Jack sat in his study, frowning at his white board, trying to focus. But his mind was wandering all over the place and it was hard to form a decent thought. Mostly he thought about Lily. The years had flown by, far faster than he had thought, and now she was nearly ten. He couldn't help but wonder if she was ready for this. Hell, he didn't know if any of them were ready for this. That was why he had to put in the extra research time now, to make sure that he was as well versed as he could be to lead them properly.

Turning away from the whiteboard he opened a thick book to an already dog-eared page and peered down at the images. Again his mind started to wander though and his eyes traced away from the page to the draw just under his desk. He shook his head, and tried to focus again, but he found that he kept on looking to the draw.

With a groan, he slammed the book shut and opened the draw, pulling out the thick folder which he kept his team's files in. Mostly it was for Zoe's use, so she could get access to their medical records, but he kept them locked up in his office to make sure that the others couldn't see them. Not that he didn't trust most of them, it was just he was uncomfortable with leaving highly classified documentation lying around.

He opened the folder and started to flip through them absently. Zoe Kissane, Liam Kissane, Zahir Al Anzar Al Abbas, Enrique Velacruz, V.J. Weatherly, Sky Monster and finally, Benjamin Cohen. He brushed through them all without much care, until he came to the last one in the pile and frowned. He was a little irritated with himself that he kept on coming back to this, especially when he had tried to convince himself to give the newcomer the benefit of the doubt. But in the back of his mind, something just wasn't adding up.

Pulling the file from the folder, he opened it up again and stared at it. It was all straight forward information, all the stuff he had seen before. Date of birth, date of enlistment, blood type, basic descriptors, current service record, date of transfer. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all and certainly nothing that should make him suspicious. He forced himself to put the file away, trying not to think anymore on it. It didn't do anyone any good for him to continue to dwell on his mistrust. Lily certainly didn't like it.

A knock at his door caught him by surprise and he scrambled to put the files back into his draw, nearly dropping them in his hurry. Slamming the draw shut he opened the door and came face to face with Zoe. She smiled at him in her usual cheery way, her eyes lighting up.

'Are you ready?' she asked.

'Ready for what?' he was so flustered that he had totally forgotten about anything else that might have been happening that day.

'Training. Come on, it's your turn to lead,' she gestured to the front door, where the rest of the team was no doubt waiting for him.

'Oh, of course,' he shook his head at his stupidity. 'Sorry, I'll be right with you.'

She raised an eyebrow, but smirked and walked away. He watched her go, before turning back to his desk and looking at the closed book that he should have been studying. There was so much to do, and increasingly less time to do it all in.

With a sigh, he stepped out of the comfort of his study, whistling for Horus to follow him. He would have to finish his research later.