Chapter Ten #2
Raven brought up the wider case map. Haus Eberhardt sat near the center now, connected to Varga and the two new addresses.
Other names from Südweg and Morgenstern spread outward from it.
Kade’s Stuttgart photograph remained pinned at the top of the board because it was still the cleanest face we had for the man we believed could move through more than one part of the network.
The picture looked almost harmless compared with the records beneath it, just a young man in a white shirt with long dark hair who would not have looked out of place at half the bars in Stuttgart.
Wolf noticed where my attention had gone.
“Don’t make him interesting,” he said.
“I wasn’t.”
“Good.”
There was enough edge in the answer that Raven glanced over before returning to the computer.
Wolf nodded toward the transfer records. “I don’t care how good looking he is or how well he blends into a party. Women were moved after he approved the change. I want him alive because he can open the rest of this network.”
Nobody argued with him.
Appearance had never been evidence of innocence, and the woman from Haus Eberhardt had tried to escape only to end up with a new identity instead of freedom. Somebody had approved that move, and Varga had just put Kade closer to the decision than ARC had ever managed before.
Raven closed the interview summary and opened a list of the two addresses we had not known about yesterday. “German authorities are checking the first one quietly. The second is outside Strasbourg and belongs on the French side of the border, so that request is moving slower.”
Wolf pointed toward the local address. “No approach until we know whether it’s active.”
“Already told them,” Raven said.
“Varga stays in custody.”
“He’s not going anywhere.”
“Good.”
The conversation moved into the practical work of rebuilding the transfer routes, and for the next hour Jackal remained on the couch pretending he was not listening while listening to everything.
Bear made him eat before giving him medication.
Viper moved the low table closer so Jackal could reach his water without leaning forward, then acted as though he had only moved it because it was in his way.
Hawk noticed every time Jackal shifted too quickly and said nothing unless the movement made his face tighten.
The attention would have driven me insane, but Jackal tolerated it with only moderate profanity, which told me he felt worse than he wanted anyone to know.
Around 3:30 in the afternoon, he fell asleep in the middle of Raven explaining the Strasbourg property.
Nobody commented when his head tipped toward the back of the couch and stayed there.
Bear lowered the volume on the kitchen radio while Viper moved Jackal’s phone off his chest before it could slide to the floor.
Wolf kept the briefing going in a lower voice.
I watched them adjust around him without discussing it. ARC had done the same thing when Bear cooked breakfast or Raven disappeared into a screen for hours. Somebody filled whatever space another person could not carry that day and nobody treated the help like a favor that needed repayment.
It was probably the closest thing this building had to a family right now.
◆
Jackal came to about an hour later, furious that nobody had woken him sooner.
“I was unconscious in a room full of classified material.”
Raven did not look away from his monitor. “You were asleep.”
“Same vulnerability profile.”
“We considered selling your passwords.”
Jackal pushed himself upright, moving slowly enough that the joke could not hide the effort. “You don’t know my passwords.”
“I know all your passwords.”
“That’s invasive.”
“You used the same one on three streaming accounts.”
Jackal stared at him. “You said you wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“I didn’t say what it was.”
Bear came around the couch and handed Jackal another glass of water. “Medication.”
Jackal looked at the pills in Bear’s palm. “You enjoy this too much.”
“Take them.”
“Bossy.”
“Jackal.”
He took the pills.
Wolf had disappeared into his office above the operations floor sometime during the afternoon, the door shut while the rest of us worked below.
When he finally came back down the stairs, Jackal was awake enough to be irritating again and had convinced Hawk to bring his MP7 case from the equipment room so he could inspect the weapon without standing up. Bear saw it from the kitchen.
“No.”
Jackal did not even look toward him. “I’m sitting.”
“You’re not cleaning a weapon on pain medication.”
“I’m looking at it.”
“You can look at it from across the room.”
Jackal rested one hand over his chest. “Wow, so this is it. You all officially hate me.”
Hawk took the case back without waiting for the argument to finish.
“Two-timing bird,” Jackal muttered.
Hawk carried it toward the equipment room. “I’m not the one stabbed.”
Jackal’s eyes followed him and then moved toward Wolf.
The easy expression faded.
For a few seconds, neither man said anything.
Raven and I were still at the operations table, close enough that pretending not to hear would have been more obvious than simply continuing our work.
Bear stayed in the kitchen while Viper sat in the chair beside the couch, one ankle resting on the opposite knee.
Jackal looked toward the floor. “You got a minute?”
Wolf stopped beside the table and nodded.
Jackal did not ask him to go somewhere private.
Maybe walking to another room was more effort than he felt like spending, or maybe the part of the conversation that warranted that had already happened months before I arrived.
He waited until Hawk came back and settled near Viper, then looked at Wolf again.
“What happened that night. It was personal.”
My hands stopped above the keyboard.
“I know.”
Jackal’s mouth tightened. “I know you know.”
When I first arrived, I would have expected Wolf to push back simply because someone had called him out in front of the team. Instead, he nodded.
“You’re right.”
Jackal rubbed his thumb along the side of the water. “I should’ve kept it about what you did instead of making it about whatever I brought into it.”
“You were right about what I did.”
Jackal looked up.
Wolf continued in the same controlled tone. “You asked whether she said yes. She didn’t. Everything after that was on me.”
Heat rose under my skin as I listened to the conversation happen with me sitting close enough to be part of it, while neither man turned me into an object they were arguing over again.
Jackal looked toward me then, only briefly, before returning to Wolf. “Good. Because I really don’t want to get stabbed every time we have unresolved shit.”
The line was ridiculous enough that Bear made a tired sound from the kitchen. Jackal’s mouth moved at one corner and the tension in his shoulders finally loosened.
Wolf looked down at him. “You planning to use the stabbing for leverage now?”
“Absolutely.”
“Denied.”
“Worth trying, boss.”
Wolf knew what had made the wrists personal, and I’d be lying if I didn’t feel even a little bit curious about it.
Watching them, I finally understood that Jackal challenging Wolf had never been the opposite of respect.
He had expected Wolf to know where the line was because he wholeheartedly trusted him with it.
Jackal leaned back into the couch and exhaled carefully. “Now that we’ve grown emotionally, can I have my gun back?”
“No,” Bear and Wolf said together.
Jackal closed his eyes. “This place is bullshit.”