Police in Los Angeles

Jack watched as Gaspare bent down the second finger and then clenched his fist. Cursing inwardly, Jack handed the machete to Captain Torrance, switched off the safety on his QBZ97, and rushed out.

In the hallway were three little men, literally dwarfs, all under 1.6 meters tall, carrying a naked woman's corpse downstairs. The hallway was narrower than the corridor, so Jack had to follow behind Gaspare, who rushed to the stairwell, swinging his thick arm and knocking down the closest dwarf.

The three men were carrying the corpse with one in front holding the woman's hair and supporting her back, while the other two held her legs. As Gaspare charged out, the man in front was already halfway down the stairs to the first floor, and the other two were just about to descend.

Gaspare knocked down one with his elbow and then grabbed the neck of another dwarf, pushing him into the corridor. When Jack arrived, the third person, who was halfway down the stairs, was just realizing what was happening and frantically reaching for the machete at his waist.

With a roar, the man on the stairs instinctively looked up, only to see a shadow pounce down. A sharp pain in his chest followed, and then nothing.

Jack had opted not to shoot, choosing instead to leap from the top of the stairs, knee raised. With the force of his jump, he slammed into the man's chest. The dwarf, barely able to withstand Jack's near-100-kilogram weight and the added impact force, had his chest cavity, lungs, heart, and stomach crushed into pulp under the sharp crack of breaking bones.

When Jack stood up, the man he had used as a landing pad was already dead, blood spurting from his nose and mouth. Jack carefully stepped over the woman's body and returned to the second floor, where Gaspare was kneeling on the other man, punching him repeatedly, cursing incoherently, his voice tinged with tears.

Captain Torrance stood helplessly, holding the machete, unsure what to do. "Keep an eye on him," Jack said, feeling that his teammates were currently unreliable. He picked up the assault rifle and continued upstairs alone.

The third floor had been modified, with six rooms all fitted with iron doors. Four rooms held captives, all young women, completely naked. The women were covered in bruises; three were unconscious on the floor, oblivious to Jack's presence. Only one seemed somewhat aware but cowered in fear upon seeing the stranger.

Jack tried to communicate with her, but she seemed only to speak the local Tagalog dialect. Frustrated, he moved to the fourth floor to continue the search.

The fourth floor had also been modified; the main hall contained a large bed, surrounded by tripods and some professional lighting equipment. After ensuring there were no hidden enemies, Jack tore the sheets off the bed and grabbed some relatively intact clothes from a pile in the corner. With a grim expression, he descended the stairs.

On the third floor, he tossed the clothes into the rooms but didn't immediately search for the keys to unlock the doors. Instead, he headed back to the second floor.

By the time Jack reached the second floor, the first dwarf had regained consciousness and was kneeling, pleading in a language Captain Torrance couldn't understand. Gaspare sat in the hallway, eyes vacant, with a corpse beside him, its head a bloody mess.

Jack approached the dwarf from behind, delivering a sudden blow to the back of his head with the rifle's butt. As the man collapsed, Jack stomped on his neck, breaking it. Captain Torrance, shocked by the brutality, stumbled back a few steps.

"Go upstairs and take a look," Jack said curtly, too weary to explain further. He roughly pulled Gaspare to his feet, covering the naked woman's body with the sheet, and helped him carry her downstairs.

Outside, the heavy rain had turned into a drizzle. They placed the body under a tree, and Jack sent Gaspare to notify the others hiding in the woods. He grabbed a shovel and began digging under the tree, each shovelful of dirt a cathartic release.

As the textbook described, tropical rainforest storms typically don't last long. As the pit under the tree grew deeper, the sun emerged, casting a rainbow in the sky.

At some point, Gaspare, Captain Torrance, and the co-pilot from Hong Kong joined in. The four men worked in silence, quickly digging a grave over three meters deep. They laid the unknown woman in the grave, covering her with earth until a small mound formed under the tree.

Jack casually tossed the shovel aside, sitting on a rock regardless of the mud, staring blankly at the rainbow. "Want one?" Captain Torrance offered a thin cigar.

"Oh? Thanks." Jack took it, lighting up and inhaling deeply, feeling the sting of the smoke as it hit his lungs.

"Miss Heat is comforting the girls. They were abducted from a girls' school, labeled sinners because their faith doesn't allow women to read," Captain Torrance explained, almost talking to himself.

"But what these bastards did is in no way aligned with their faith," Jack scoffed, choosing not to comment further. He had heard similar stories in his previous life, even in places like Singapore, which still had female circumcision practices.

In war-torn, impoverished regions like this, far more tragic stories were constantly unfolding. It was a cruel reality. The civilized world, despite its flaws, had been rebuilt through the sacrifice of countless heroes, raising civilization from the brink of collapse.

"I'm sorry for losing control earlier," Gaspare said, his emotions stabilized. "For a moment, I thought they were carrying my sister. She was about that age, fifteen years ago."

Jack patted his shoulder, indicating there was no need to continue. Some wounds were best left unspoken, not exposed for others to see.

"Let's go, start the generator and call for help. I don't want to spend another minute in this hellhole."

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