Page 47 of The ARC Unit: Breach

On the screen, Jackal changed direction before Wolf said anything.

“Why did he turn?”

Raven watched the diagram. “He heard the runner.”

A figure in padded training gear burst from a side exit at the back of the building but Jackal was already moving. He came around the corner at a sprint, MP7 secured against his chest, and cut toward an alley section instead of following directly behind the role-player.

“He’s going the wrong way.”

“No, he’s not.”

The runner disappeared behind a wall. Jackal changed direction twice through the course and emerged at the opposite end before the runner reached it. He stopped the man cleanly.

“How did he know?”

“Tracking and pursuit. Jackal’s very good when a controlled plan becomes messy. He reads where people will go instead of where they are.”

The role-player raised both hands and Wolf arrived several seconds later. He slung the HK416 against his chest and reached toward his belt.

Click.

The same metal sound.

He pulled the narrow black webbing free, stepped behind the role-player and secured the man’s wrists with two practiced movements before clipping the remaining length back to his own gear.

I looked at Raven.

“Retention webbing. Useful when you need somebody controlled and moving.”

“Looks uncomfortable.”

“Generally not designed for comfort.”

I watched Wolf check the restraint before handing control to Jackal, and by the time Jackal had the role-player, Wolf’s attention was already back on the building.

The second phase started almost immediately.

Bear moved to a reinforced door on the east side and inspected the frame while Wolf waited rather than rushing him. Bear chose the breaching shotgun this time, fired into the locking point and stepped aside as Viper took over the opening. A training smoke canister went off farther down the exterior lane, white smoke spreading across the exposed crossing between the two structures.

“Why smoke there?”

Raven pointed toward Hawk’s angle. “The team has to cross open ground. Hawk can cover one side, but the smoke denies the other angle.”

“Even in training?”

“Especially in training.”

Wolf waited for Bear’s signal, sent Viper through and rerouted Jackal before the smoke fully covered the lane. Raven fed him information through the comms, Hawk called a movement from the ridge and Bear changed positions as soon as the entry job was finished.

I watched Wolf more than I meant to.

He did not look like the best sniper on the field because he wasn’t. He did not touch Bear’s breaching equipment unless Bear handed him something, and when Raven corrected an interior position based on a camera feed, Wolf changed the plan without arguing about who had authority over the information. His job seemed less visible than everyone else’s until I understood what I was looking at.

He was tracking all of them at once: Hawk’s line of sight, Bear’s progress at the door, Viper inside the structure, Jackal moving around the exterior, and Raven feeding information from beside me. Wolf carried the entire map in his head while still moving through it himself.

I was irritated.

I had wanted him to be an arrogant man who happened to have authority. That would have been easier. But the man was clearly very fucking good at this.