Page 118 of The ARC Unit: Breach

Jackal moved before Varga pulled his hand free. They hit the side of a parked car hard enough to shake the camera, Jackal controlling the arm that had gone inside the jacket while Varga twisted his body between the door and the front quarter panel. The car door blocked their hands from the camera until metal flashed near Jackal’s side.

“Knife,” Jackal said breathlessly.

Wolf answered immediately. “Break if you can. Viper is coming to you.”

Varga tore his arm loose and tried to run. Jackal caught the back of his jacket and yanked him sideways between two cars before he reached the ramp.

Varga turned inside the grip and drove the knife inward. Jackal made a sharp sound through the microphone as his hand went to his left side, and Varga stumbled away with the blade still in his hand.

“Fucking Korean,” Varga said in a deep accent.

Raven cut through. “Jackal’s hit. Left side.”

Wolf’s next order came without a rise in volume. “Viper takes Varga. Bear goes to Jackal.”

Viper came through the south stairwell at a run and caught Varga before he made the ramp. They went down beyond the camera’s clean angle while Jackal stayed upright beside the nearest car, one hand braced against the hood and the other pressed hard against his side.

When Wolf called his name, Jackal answered with a thin, weak “Yeah.”

“Sit down.”

“I’m good, boss.”

Bear came onto the channel from somewhere much closer now. “Sit your ass down before I put you down.”

Jackal gave a breath that might have been a laugh. His knees bent before he answered, and he let himself slide down the side of the car without taking his hand off the wound.

Viper called, “Varga secure. Knife’s clear.”

“Stay with him until Wolf gets there,” Raven said, already pulling the nearest trauma-capable hospital onto another screen.

Wolf came into the garage from the street entrance and went to Varga first. My first reaction was anger because Jackal was bleeding ten meters away while Wolf knelt beside the man who had done it. The instant Wolf took control, though, Viper broke away and ran to Jackal. Seeing Viper reach him made the choice clear because Wolf had freed the only other person close enough to help Bear without leaving Varga loose inside the garage.

Bear reached Jackal less than a minute later and opened the trauma kit beside him while Viper cut the shirt away from the wound. Blood had already soaked through the fabric and spread across Jackal’s hand, dark enough on the camera that I could see the size of it even through the bad image.

“Move your hand when I tell you,” Bear said. “Not before.”

Jackal nodded.

Bear packed gauze against the wound and replaced Jackal’s hand with his own pressure. Jackal swore once and tipped his head back against the car while Bear checked him. Viper opened another packet and passed it over without being asked.

Wolf asked for status, and Bear answered without looking up. “Still conscious. Bleeding’s heavy, but it’s slowing under pressure. I need transport now.”

Raven had already sent the request through the German coordination channel. “Medical team is staging two streets south. Garage access is too slow, so I’m routing you to the service exit.”

“Copy.”

Wolf looked toward Jackal from across the garage before returning to Varga. “Bear, tell me if he changes.”

“I will.”

“T-tell Varga to suck my Korean dick, bitch.” Jackal managed to blurt out.

Wolf let out a breath and asked about Jackal’s condition again before Bear reached the service exit, then kept asking for updates until the medical team took over.

Viper helped Bear get Jackal onto the compact stretcher from the response vehicle. Jackal tried to argue that he could walk until Bear told him, with surprising calm, that he could either lie down willingly or discover how humiliating it felt to be carried over Bear’s shoulder in front of half the garage. Jackal stopped arguing after that, though the fact that he had no better insult ready frightened me more than the exchange helped.

Raven started the van as soon as Bear’s vehicle cleared the garage. “We’re going to the hospital.”