He 'd never felt so unsettled during a raid.

Usually there was noise, and chaos, and action, not eerie stillness all around, stark shadows thrown by weak fluorescent bulbs that strobed erratically.

His earpiece trilled, startling him in the quiet of the hallway he was clearing, but his weapon didn 't waver where it was aimed up ahead. 'His handler 's voice was loud in his ear, easy to make out over the soft sound of his own footsteps, the creak of an occasional floor board, the steady rhythm of his breathing.

'Blackbird to Riptide, you got eyes on anything? '

Phillip tapped at his comm link once to activate the channel, his partner silent at his back as they moved in tandem into the next room.

'Negative, ' he answered, carefully picking his way around the broken remnants of a chair and trying to ignore the more glaring details of the bedroom he 'd entered.