Page 47 of Charged By the Razorbacks

“He gave us confirmation,” Aleksy said. “Movement patterns. Not specifics, but direction.”

Tamsin nodded. “They’re consolidating. Not spreading out like before.”

“Which means fewer sites,” Jarek said.

“And higher value,” Aleksy added.

Silence settled for a moment, not heavy, just thoughtful as they each ran the implications through their own lens.

Then Tamsin shifted slightly, leaning forward just enough that her hand brushed the back of Jarek’s shoulder as she reached for the tablet between them.

“Or,” she said, her voice lighter again, “it means they’re about to try something bigger and think we won’t see it coming.”

Jarek glanced back at her. “You ever think about giving reassuring answers?”

She smiled, slow and unbothered. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Aleksy felt the shift in the car, the tension easing just enough to let something else move in.

Jarek shook his head, but there was no real resistance in it. “You’re enjoying this.”

“I enjoy being right,” she said.

“You’re assuming you are.”

Her gaze met his in the mirror again. “I usually am.”

Aleksy didn’t argue, because she wasn’t wrong.

They ran two more leads before the night started to close in on itself. A warehouse that had been cleared too quickly to mean anything on its own. A contact who knew just enough to confirm Chimera had shifted resources but not enough to tell them where.

By the time Aleksy turned the car back toward headquarters, the streets had thinned, the energy of the city dipping into something quieter, more contained.

Jarek stretched slightly in his seat. “We’re close,” he said.

Tamsin didn’t answer right away.

Aleksy caught her expression in the mirror again, the way her focus had shifted inward, the way she was already putting the pieces together in her head.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “We are.”

The drive back passed easier than the one out, the conversation drifting away from leads and probabilities into something lighter. Jarek took another shot at her contacts, she fired back without hesitation, and Aleksy let himself settle into it, listening, tracking, absorbing the rhythm between them.

It wasn’t forced.

It wasn’t new anymore.

It just—was.

By the time they pulled into the secured level beneath headquarters, the tension from the night had shifted. Complicated in a way that had nothing to do with Chimera.

They moved through the building without speaking, the quiet of the late hour wrapping around them as they stepped into the elevator. The doors slid closed, sealing them in, and for a moment, none of them moved.

He felt her shift beside him, the subtle movement of her body as she adjusted her stance, the brush of her shoulder against his arm.

Jarek exhaled slowly. “Long night.”

“But productive,” Aleksy said.