Page 37 of Hardline Torque
It was assessment.
Keanu was the first to break it.He straightened, nodding once.“Works for me.Guy speaks our language.”
“And doesn’t sugarcoat,” Luca added.“I like that.”
Niko rolled his shoulders.“If they’re expecting a soft perimeter, they picked the wrong coastline.”
Luca smirked faintly.“I’ll make sure they choke on bad data.”
Keanu lifted his chin.“If the Directorate’s sniffing around, I’d rather have the person they’re scared of standing next to us than pointed at us.”
Tane glanced sideways.
Victor’s expression hadn’t changed—but his shoulders had eased, just a fraction.
Kael watched it all without comment, letting the acceptance settle instead of forcing it.Then he nodded once, sharp and final.“Good.Then we move.”
He keyed the table display, bringing up a layered defense schematic.“We don’t react.We get ahead of them.I want overlapping coverage, hard redundancies, and zero predictable patterns.”
Niko leaned in.“Rules of engagement?”
“Defensive until they cross the line,” Kael said.“Then we end the problem.”
No one argued.
That was Black Tide.
“Keanu, Niko—lock down perimeter redundancies.I want eyes everywhere.Luca, spin up counter-surveillance, scrub our signatures back a week.Victor,” Kael added, turning fully to him now, “you stay with Tane.You see something we don’t, you say it.”
Victor inclined his head.“Understood.”
That was it.
The room broke into motion, chairs scraping, comms activating, purpose snapping into place like a well-oiled machine.Black Tide didn’t waste time convincing themselves they were safe.
They prepared.
As the others filtered out, Tane caught Victor’s wrist, tugging him a step closer, voice dropping.“You good?”
Victor met his gaze.“Yes.”
Tane believed him.
Still, he leaned in, close enough that only Victor could hear.“You stay behind me if it gets loud.”
Victor arched a brow.
Then he shook his head slowly, a ghost of a smile touching his mouth.“If you think that’s possible,” he murmured, “you don’t know me.”
Tane exhaled a laugh under his breath.“Fair.”
He squeezed Victor’s wrist once before letting go.“Just don’t disappear on me.”
Victor’s eyes softened, just a shade.“I’m not running.”
Good.
Because whatever the Directorate thought they were reclaiming—whatever ghosts they were dragging back into the light—they were about to learn something new.
