Page 20 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“It’s usually within five minutes.”

“So even if he’s off by five, they’re moving before your decision even matters.”

Wolf looked back at the timeline.

“I know.”

“You keep calling these operational compromises,” I said.

“They are.”

“Romania starts before you have the operation. Prague starts before final assignment. Budapest starts before you change the departure time, and nobody outside this unit even knew you’d changed it.”

Wolf set the folder on the table.

“You’ve been here less than a day.”

“Is there a minimum amount of time I have to be employed before chronological order becomes relevant?”

I heard Raven’s hands stop moving over the keyboard. Wolf’s eyes settled on me with enough weight that I knew I’d found the exact boundary I shouldn’t cross and stepped over it anyway.

“I’ve spent a lot of time inside this network, Mercer. You’ve spent one flight and a morning reading summaries written by people who were actually there.”

“I know.”

He tilted his head. “Do you?”

My face began warming, which only made me angrier because Wolf somehow got visible proof he succeeded in getting under my skin.

He continued before I could answer.

“If you’re going to tell me the working theory is wrong, bring me something that proves it. Stop throwing questions at people who have already asked them because you want everyone to know the new analyst has arrived.”

Raven looked down.

Whatever humor had been floating around the operations floor disappeared with enough speed that I became acutely aware of who else was in the room. Bear was somewhere behind me near the equipment cabinets. Jackal had been arguing with Viper five minutes earlier and had gone completely silent.

Wolf had embarrassed me deliberately.

“Fine.” I held his eyes.

“Fine?”

“I’ll bring you something.”

He picked up the folder again. “Yeah, you do that.”

Then he walked away.

For several seconds I stared at the Budapest timeline and considered several professionally inappropriate uses for Raven’s keyboard.

Raven finally cleared his throat.

“He’s...”

“If you say misunderstood, I’m going to hit you.”

“I was going to say an asshole.”