Chapter Two #5
He took a long drink. Viper came through behind him carrying a short black carbine I didn’t immediately recognize. He set a helmet on the table, removed his gloves and looked at the wall screen.
“You found something?”
“Three vehicles carrying the same cloned plate.”
Viper stepped closer.
“Countries?”
“Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic.”
He studied the map once.
“Someone running surveillance.”
“That’s what I think.”
He nodded with no argument, which seemed to be a rarity around here. Jackal leaned toward the screen.
“Did you tell Wolf?”
“He participated in the discovery against his will.”
Jackal laughed.
Viper looked at Raven. “What does that mean?”
Raven shook his head. “Nothing worth explaining.”
A door shut outside and Wolf came in several seconds later in his gear stopping whatever I was about to say.
Black tactical pants sat beneath a plate carrier fitted close across his chest. A black HK416 hung against the front of his body, secured on a sling, while a pistol rode at his hip beside a belt carrying magazines and equipment I couldn’t identify from where I sat.
His hair had been covered again, though this mask was different from what he’d worn inside the compound, with a large diagonal stitch through the side.
I might have gotten caught staring.
“What?” Wolf asked.
“Nothing.”
I turned back toward the computer, accidentally crashing the side of my chair into Raven’s, making him let out what sounded like a snort.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face did.”
Jackal pointed between us. “That’s my line.”
Wolf unfastened something from his vest and set it on the table.
“Status.”
Raven brought him up to speed. The direct photograph of ARC remained unconnected to the vehicles. The cloned registration had appeared at three target locations and border-camera queries were still processing. Wolf listened without interrupting and once Raven finished, his attention moved to me.
“Anything useful?”
I stared.
“Are you serious?”
“Do I seem unserious?”
“I found the pattern.”
“You found a pattern.”
“That’s what I just said.”
“No. You called it the pattern.”
My irritation rose immediately.
“Do you spend time planning how to make every conversation unpleasant, or does this come naturally?”
Wolf stepped closer to the table.
“You’re an analyst, Mercer. Be precise.”
“I am being precise.”
“Then don’t turn three cloned plates into an entire conspiracy because you want your first theory to be right.”
“I said whoever used them was watching those targets before ARC.”
“That part is supported.”
“So we agree.”
“We agree on what the evidence says.”
I folded my arms.
He looked toward the movement.
“Something else?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He started away.
“Actually.”
Wolf stopped.
Raven tightly shut his eyes.
“If I don’t know how ARC actually works in the field, I’m going to keep reading half of these reports like somebody who only understands the paperwork.”
Wolf looked at me over his shoulder.
“You’re not going into the field.”
“I know. You’ve reminded me several times.”
“Then you don’t need to know.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
His body turned fully toward me.
“Careful.”
I stood from the chair.
“I spent all morning reconstructing decisions made by people whose jobs I barely understand. Hawk reports vehicles and you change an entire operation. Bear is apparently making explosions outside. Jackal walks in carrying an MP7, Viper has something else entirely, and I’m supposed to understand why all of you were positioned where you were from a paragraph that says ‘team established perimeter.’”
Wolf’s stare remained unreadable.
“Read the files.”
“I did.”
“Then read them again.”
“That’s your solution to everything.”
“It usually works.”
“For you.”
Wolf stepped close enough that I had to tilt my head slightly to keep looking at him.
“You’re here to find Kade. You’re not here to study my team.”
“If understanding your team helps me understand the operations, then it’s part of finding Kade.”
For several seconds neither of us spoke and the rest of the room had become suspiciously quiet. Wolf studied my face, then turned toward Raven.
“Just keep her out of the armory.”
I blinked. Wolf turned and walked toward the rear of the operations floor.
“Does that mean yes?” I called after him.
“No.”
“That sounded like a conditional yes.”
Wolf opened the equipment room door.
“Work, Mercer.”
Then he disappeared inside.
I looked at Raven.
He lifted both hands. “I have no idea.”
“You’re his intelligence officer.”
“That doesn’t make me his translator.”
I sat back down, but the question stayed with me for the rest of the afternoon.
The cloned registration finally produced another dozen false hits across Europe, most of which turned out to be unrelated plate-reading errors or vehicles that couldn’t be confirmed.
We narrowed the useful appearances to the original three and one possible sighting near Vienna that Raven refused to count until he obtained better imagery.
TOO SLOW remained separate.
By evening, my notebook had filled several pages. Targets are being watched before ARC. Somebody is also watching ARC directly.
Beneath both, I wrote:
Same person? Same network?
I stared at the questions.
Across the operations room, Hawk and Bear were cleaning equipment while Viper worked on something at one of the side stations.
Jackal had taken over part of the couch and was throwing a rubber training ball against the wall until Bear told him that if it hit one of the screens, he was withholding food from him for a week.
Raven sat beside me, rubbing one hand over his eyes. Wolf was nowhere in sight.
I looked toward the windows, where the training grounds had almost disappeared into the dark mist.
“Raven.”
“Hm?”
“Give me a tour.”
He lowered his hand.
“A tour.”
“I’ve seen my room, the world’s worst bathroom and approximately twelve feet of this building. I want to see the rest.”
Raven looked toward the doorway Wolf had used earlier.
“I’m fairly certain he just told me to keep you out of the armory.”
“Then don’t take me into the armory.”
“You are going to ask.”
“Probably.”
“Mia.”
“I want to understand what all of you actually do. Not the personnel file version. If Hawk says he sees something six hundred meters away and Wolf changes an operation because of it, I need to understand why that matters. If Bear is responsible for whatever keeps shaking the building, I would also like to know whether I should be concerned.”
From the couch, Jackal called, “You should.”
Bear threw a cleaning cloth at him. Raven looked at me for another moment then closed his laptop.
“Tomorrow morning.”
I smiled. “What time?”
“6:30.”
“Look at that. Somebody finally gave me a start time.”
Raven stood and picked up his coffee mug.
“Wear shoes you don’t mind getting dirty.”
I glanced through the window again toward the training grounds beyond the compound and for the first time since I’d arrived, I found myself looking forward to something.
Mostly.
The bathroom was still involved.