Page 52 of Hardline Torque
A stairwell opened off the far side of the room.Tane took point, back pressed to the wall, breath controlled.A shadow moved above.
“Contact—”
The man lunged too early.Tane caught him mid-step, drove him backward down the stairs in a tangle of limbs and gunmetal.They hit the landing hard.Tane came up first and finished it before the echo could carry.
They flowed upward.
Second floor resistance was desperate.Two men barricaded behind a heavy door tried to hold the line.Torch burned through the hinge with brutal efficiency, and Reef dragged one out into the open while Victor put the other down through the frame.
No pauses.No hesitation.
They were everywhere at once, pressure collapsing inward, room by room, floor by floor.The enemy tried to regroup twice and failed both times.Black Tide did not give them space to think.
The estate was larger inside than it looked from the outside.Wide hallways meant to impress.Too many corners.Too many places for arrogance or danger to hide.
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Moving.”
Bodies fell.Some fought hard.Some never got the chance.Every death was fast, intentional, and clean.Black Tide did not linger.
“South wing secure,” Tane reported.
“Copy that,” Kael replied.“Push inward.”
They were winning.
Tane felt it in the rhythm—the way resistance collapsed, the way the enemy tried to reset and failed.This should have been the end of it.
Then Niko went down.“Hit!”Niko grunted, pain sharp and ugly in his voice.“In the vest, I’m okay, but fuck that hurt.”
Tane snapped toward the sound just as Niko stumbled, his recently healed leg giving out beneath him when a man slammed into him from the side, driving him hard into the wall.Another stepped in, weapon rising.
“Reef!”
Tane moved to assist, but was engaged by two fuckers looking to die, but Victor was already there.
He dropped his rifle and went in barehanded, fast and vicious.The first man took a blow to the throat and crumpled instantly.The second caught Victor’s elbow across the jaw—bone crunching, body folding.
A third came from behind.Tane shouted a warning even has he fought desperately to get to him.
Victor spun, blood slicking his knuckles, breath steady, eyes cold.He absorbed the hit and answered with a knee that drove the man back into the doorframe.
For a heartbeat, it looked like he would win.
Then the corridor opened.
A man stepped into view like he had been waiting for this exact moment.
He didn’t rush.He raised a weapon Tane didn’t have time to identify before the soft thunk sounded.
Victor stiffened.
“No—!”Tane shouted.
The tranq hit clean, and Tane could see the colored dart end sticking out of Victor’s neck.Victor swayed once, tried to correct, then his knees buckled and he hit the floor hard, already unconscious.
