Page 117 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“Looks like it,” Raven said.

Wolf kept his attention on the windshield. “Don’t tighten on him.”

Jackal acknowledged the order, and his marker widened away from Varga before cutting back through a side street. He never stayed directly behind him for long enough to become familiar. By the time Varga reached a small square near the tram line, I understood why Raven had described Jackal as good at reading where people would go rather than simply following where they were. Half the time his position made no sense until Varga changed direction and Jackal was already somewhere useful.

Varga stopped beside a bank and pulled out his phone. He read the screen long enough for his shoulders to tighten, then pocketed the phone and checked the street behind him. The coffee he had been carrying went untouched after that.

“Jackal,” Wolf said.

“Saw it.”

Varga crossed against the light and picked up his pace.

Raven enlarged the map. “South takes him toward the station. There are two parking structures before it.”

“Viper, move ahead,” Wolf said. “Do not close him yet.”

Viper answered once and disappeared from the route we could see.

I kept my eyes on Varga. “If he knows about Haus Eberhardt, why wait until now to run?”

“Maybe the message just reached him,” Raven said.

Wolf glanced toward the screen. “Maybe he saw something. Doesn’t change what we do.”

Varga made another sharp turn, and this time the change was enough to turn a fast walk into a run. He cut between parked cars and disappeared into a narrow pedestrian lane where Raven lost the nearest camera, forcing a cyclist to brake hard as he crossed.

“He’s running,” Jackal said.

Wolf opened the van door before the words were finished. “Stay on him. Don’t force the stop until we have the exits.”

He was outside a second later, moving toward the next street while Raven shifted through cameras and tried to pick Varga up again. I stayed in the rear seat with the map across my knees, watching Jackal’s marker enter the same lane and then veer hard west instead of following the route Varga had taken.

“Why is Jackal turning?”

Raven looked at the map. “Jackal, confirm.”

His answer came through controlled breathing. “Varga won’t stay on the lane. It dumps him into the open square by the station. He’s looking for cover, so he’ll cut for the garage behind the apartments.”

Raven pulled up the satellite layer and found the passage Jackal meant. The garage entrance sat behind another row of buildings, connected by a service lane that Varga could reach without crossing the open station plaza.

Wolf’s voice came through comms from the street. “Viper, south garage exit. Bear, move closer.” Hawk was already holding the west road, so Wolf left him there.

The map tightened around the garage while Jackal cut across the route instead of chasing from behind. Varga reappeared on a camera for barely two seconds, running west exactly where Jackal had predicted, and by the time Raven said, “Garage, garage,” Jackal had already reached the other side.

The parking operator’s interior camera refreshed badly, but it caught Varga coming through the pedestrian access with the messenger bag bouncing against his hip. Jackal entered from another aisle and slowed when Varga saw him, giving the man enough space to stop while keeping himself between Varga and the nearest exit.

Jackal yelled, “Emil Varga! Stop.”

Varga looked over his shoulder, then toward the ramp leading down.

“Don’t,” Jackal said. “Hands where I can see them.”

Varga hesitated long enough that surrender looked possible. His messenger bag slipped from his shoulder and hit the concrete, and Jackal eased his stance by a fraction, leaving him room to comply without being forced onto the floor.

Then Varga’s right hand went inside his jacket.

“Jackal,” Raven warned.