Page 23 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“The Skoda was near the Budapest farmhouse three days before ARC took over surveillance.”

Raven nodded.

I opened Prague.

“The Volkswagen was outside the courier’s hotel eleven days before you were involved.”

Jackal’s expression changed enough that the joke left him.

“Same people watching both?”

“Maybe,” I said. “The plate tells us somebody wanted the vehicles to be difficult to trace. It doesn’t tell us who.”

Heavy steps came from across the operations floor.

I had already noticed that Wolf never hurried when everyone else did. He approached at the same deliberate pace he used for everything, as though whatever waited on the screen would still be there when he arrived and anyone incapable of waiting could learn.

He stopped behind my chair.

“Show me.”

I turned the two images toward him. Wolf leaned closer, planting one hand on the edge of the table beside the keyboard. His forearm entered my line of sight first.

The tattoo.

Up close, it raised more questions than it answered. A snake that size took up most of his forearm, coiling around the muscle in dark bands of ink, and I found myself wondering what would make someone choose something so deliberate and impossible to ignore.

My attention lingered for perhaps one second.

“Something interesting, Mercer?”

I looked up.

“Your tattoo.”

“Try the screen. Eyes up here.”

The irritation returned instantly, which was probably useful because his chest was somewhere directly behind my shoulder and I had become much too aware of that fact.

“I can see both.”

“Based on your work yesterday, I’d focus on one.”

I held his stare and decided murder on government property would complicate my first performance review.

“The plate,” I said, pointing toward the photographs. “Same registration on two different vehicles. Neither vehicle matches the registration.”

Wolf looked closer.

“Dates?”

“Budapest three days before ARC surveillance. Prague eleven days before you were involved.”

“Anything in Romania?”

“Not yet.”

“Then you have two cars.”