Page 97 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“I guess that’s fair,” I said.

Wolf briefly turned toward me, almost surprised.

“Don’t get used to it.”

“Wasn’t planning to,” he replied.

Silence settled again.

I wrapped my left hand around the cold railing.

“I still think staying for Südweg was the right call.”

Wolf’s voice went flat.

“Of course you do.”

“Because it was useful.”

“Useful doesn’t make it right.”

“You keep saying that like the risk produced nothing.”

“I never said it produced nothing.”

“You treated me like I nearly got the team killed.”

Wolf grounded the cigarette once against the concrete edge, then stopped before putting it out completely. He pulled his mask back down and turned toward me.

“You want to know what happened from where I was standing?”

“I’ve been trying to get you to explain things instead of blindly ordering me around for days.”

His eyes narrowed, but he continued.

“Hawk lost you first, which I expected once you dropped below the hedge, but Raven still had partial view and enough audio to tell me where you were, so I let it run. His signal started breaking after that, and you stayed when he told you to move.”

“Because Kade was speaking.”

“I know why.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. I know exactly why you stayed.”

Wolf looked toward the trees again.

“Then Raven lost you too.” He sighed. “He had no usable audio and Hawk had already lost visual. Viper couldn’t see the path from his angle, while Jackal was east with Bear still outside the gate, so from where I stood there was nothing left to work with.”

I watched him.

“For forty-eight seconds,” I said, but there was less fight in it now.

Wolf’s head turned.

“You were gone.”

“I was behind a cabana.”