Page 45 of Charged By the Razorbacks

Ivan stepped in slightly, his tone just as steady. “They are testing. Refining. Adjusting their weapon through live exposure.”

Riley nodded once. “They’re pushing until they find a stable threshold.”

“And burning through anything that doesn’t survive it,” Sienna added.

Elara didn’t look up from her screen. “Which means they’re still missing a critical piece.”

Aleksy’s attention shifted to Tamsin.

She didn’t hesitate.

“They don’t understand the system,” she said. “Not fully. They’ve forced compatibility between two frameworks that weren’t designed to integrate.”

Claire’s fingers moved faster. “Which is why the instability is inconsistent.”

“Exactly,” Tamsin said. “They can trigger it, but they can’t control it long-term.”

Caleb straightened slightly. “So, we use that.”

Aleksy watched the way the room moved with that statement.

“How?” Jackson asked, his tone sharper, already leaning forward.

Tamsin stepped closer to the table, her hand bracing lightly against the edge as she leaned in.

“We don’t stop them from using it,” she said. “We make it fail when they do.”

A focused and calculating silence followed.

Wyatt’s grin was slow. “Turn their own weapon on them.”

Elara nodded, already pulling up layered projections. “If we destabilize the delivery system at the right point—”

“It collapses during activation,” Claire finished.

Rafe leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing. “That would require access.”

Dorian’s gaze shifted to Tamsin. “From inside their system.”

She didn’t flinch. “I’ve already been in once. I can get back in.”

Jarek’s jaw tightened beside Aleksy, the shift subtle but there. “Not alone.”

Tamsin didn’t even look at him. “Breathe, baby, I wasn’t planning to.”

Sienna pushed off the table, stepping in closer now, her focus sharpening. “We’re not just talking about disruption,” she said. “We’re talking about targeted insertion, timed to their next deployment.”

Aleksy nodded slightly. “We still need to predict where that will be.”

The Wolves moved at that, their attention shifting fully to the data.

“They won’t repeat the same pattern,” Rafe said. “But they’ll stay within range of known variables.”

Dorian added, “They’re escalating in controlled increments.”

Riley’s voice cut in. “Which means the next test will be more aggressive with a higher yield.”

Caleb’s gaze hardened. “Which comes with more casualties if we miss it.”