Page 7 of Hardline Torque
Tane waited until his eye returned to the scope, then he smiled.
Slow.Deliberate.
Then he nodded once.
Yeah,he thought.I see you.
Victor packed up not long after.
Tane stayed where he was long after the feed showed the tree empty.
The site noise faded into something distant and dull—voices, machinery, the thud of work continuing without him.The air felt heavier.Like a held breath that hadn’t been released yet.
He knew that look.
The one Victor had worn when he pulled back from the scope.Shock, yes—but also resolve.The kind that set men on paths they didn’t survive alone.
Tane rested his hands on the railing, jaw tightening.
Running wasn’t cowardice.Sometimes it was the only way to stay alive.
But Victor wasn’t running to survive.
He was running toward a fight he didn’t think he deserved help with.
And that—that was something Tane refused to accept.
Tane watched him move through the forest, silent as smoke, disappointment settling heavy in his chest.Running again.
He waited until Victor hit the ground and headed for the motorcycle parked well back from the site.Only then did Tane turn and head inside.
“Luca,” he said, already moving.
“I know,” Luca, who was back in the command center and sitting at his desk, replied without looking up.“We’re good, I’m on him.”
“Tag him.”
Luca’s fingers danced.A drone lifted without a sound, slipping into the canopy like it belonged there.Tane watched the feed as it followed Victor to the bike, a pinpoint laser flickering once before vanishing.
Invisible.Persistent.
Tane exhaled, tension easing just a fraction.
Victor could run.
But not forever.
