Page 192 of The Other Omega

“They have it. Intelligence will work behind them.”

I ended the call as a woman appeared in a doorway with a child held against her chest. She watched the soldiers passing through the corridor, then retreated before any of them could approach.

I opened the command channel.

“Recovery takes priority in every secured ward. Keep weapons out of sight and reduce Alpha personnel wherever our presence causes distress. Explain before approaching anyone. Families remain together unless Medical cannot safely manage it.”

A team leader brought me the first count for the level.

“Thirty-two subjects confirmed, Commander.”

“Omegas.”

He looked up. “Thirty-two Omegas,” he corrected.

“Continue.”

I checked the list for Ivy and Nora, but neither name appeared. More reports arrived as we moved through the wards below, and by the time the count passed one hundred, organised resistance had collapsed.

There were children in the next ward. A little girl sat on her mother’s lap while a physician examined her hand. Another slept beside an adult Omega, their fingers intertwined between the beds. Farther along, a small boy clung to an older woman’s arm.

A physician approached me to request additional paediatric teams. Eleven children had been found in this ward alone. I directed her to Command, but she stayed beside me.

“There is an infant you should see.”

The baby lay in a transparent medical cot, one tiny hand resting beside her head.

I could not tell how old she was. Her face lacked the soft fullness I saw every morning in my daughters, and the blanket covering her seemed barely disturbed by the shape beneath it.

Vaela grasped whatever came within reach. Seren complained until someone helped her get it. I watched this child’s hand, waiting for her fingers to move.

“Where is her mother?”

“We have not found her. Intelligence is checking the records.”

“And her condition?”

“Dehydrated and underweight. She is stable enough to remain here until the specialist team arrives.”

“Find her mother. If she is here, bring them together as soon as you can.”

“And if she is not?”

“The child will remain with the specialist team until we can arrange custody.”

I left the physician beside the cot and continued through the ward.

On Level Two, one of my female Alpha officers stood in the doorway of a room where a chained male Omega had recognised her as a scent match. Her weapon belt lay outside, but she had gone no farther than he permitted.

I left them with Medical. She could wait for him to decide whether he wanted her near him.

Recovery was finding children in different wards from their parents and siblings separated across several levels. Others refused to leave without companions whose names appeared nowhere in their files. I gave the teams time to find them, despite the delays to evacuation.

Veska brought me a request from a woman who wanted to travel with her young son and two older boys she would not leave behind.

“Can they travel safely together?”

“Yes, Commander. But she is not the mother of the two older boys.”