Page 140 of Specter Bred

"I think they were talking about a training base. It sounded like they were trying to figure out the best time to hit the place."

A heavy silence settled over the ridge. Grizzly's eyes flicked up, his expression unreadable.

"That's everything?" he asked.

Mathias nodded quickly.

"Everything I know. I swear."

Grizzly closed his notebook.

"One more thing before I cut you loose."

Mathias swallowed.

"What?"

“Do you deal exclusively in firearms, or do you move explosives too?”

“Explosives are rarer,” Mathias admitted. “Higher risk, higher price. But if someone’s paying enough, I can get them.”

Grizzly’s expression didn’t change, but something about the question felt more deliberate than the others.

“Two years ago,” he said. “Did Helix place an unusually large order for C4?”

Mathias furrowed his brow. “How large?”

“Enough to level an entire compound.”

For the first time since the interrogation started, Mathias had to think about his answer.

“Two years…” he muttered, staring toward the ground. “Yeah. Actually, I do remember that one. Biggest explosives order I’d moved up to that point. Huge pain in the ass to source, too. They wanted military-grade C4, detonators, everything, and they wanted it fast.”

Grizzly had stopped writing.

“How fast?”

“Couple weeks, maybe less. They paid nearly double to have it expedited.”

“Where?”

“Some shithole in the desert a few clicks south of the border.”

The silence that followed felt different.

Grizzly’s attention remained fixed on Mathias. “Anything else with the order?”

Mathias shrugged. “Remote detonators. Det cord. Enough wire to rig the whole fucking compound if they wanted to.” He paused, then seemed to remember something. “Actually, yeah. They were real specific about the detonators. Wanted everything capable of being triggered simultaneously from a distance.”

Grizzly went completely still.

I looked at Archer.

She was already watching him.

Mathias, oblivious, kept talking. “Thought it was strange at the time. Most people buying that much C4 want demolition supplies. These guys wanted to turn the entire site into one big fucking kill box.”

Grizzly’s eyes lifted slowly from the notebook.