Page 61 of Hardline Torque
Inside, resistance came in uneven bursts.
A man burst from a side office, weapon half-raised.Kael put him down with a single suppressed round before the man’s brain caught up to his body.Another tried to retreat, only to run straight into Reef’s controlled fire.
“Hallway secure,” Surge reported.
Tane nodded once, even though Kael couldn’t see it.“Move.”
They moved faster than the site could adapt.
Doors breached cleanly.Rooms cleared in pairs.Storage spaces, makeshift offices, temporary sleeping quarters.Evidence of haste everywhere—half-packed crates, open laptops, discarded coffee cups.This wasn’t a fortress.It was a waypoint.
Hostiles were neutralized before alarms could cascade.The few who survived long enough to drop their weapons found themselves on their knees, hands shaking, eyes wide with the dawning realization that the wrong people had found them.
Tane crouched in front of one such man, voice low and conversational.
“You will tell me where Victor Dane is,” he said.“If you lie, you will die.If you tell the truth, you will live long enough to regret being involved.”
The man swallowed hard, eyes flicking between Tane and the others.He pointed down the corridor with a trembling hand.
Tane made good on his promise and put him down quickly.Clean.Final.
They advanced.
The deeper they pushed, the more wrong it felt.
Not enough resistance.Too little coordination.A site meant to hold a high-value asset would have layered redundancies, overlapping fire zones, men willing to die buying time.This place felt hollowed out—designed to delay, not defend.
“Handover site,” Breaker muttered.
“Yes,” Tane agreed.“Which means we’re on their clock.”
“Extraction first,” he said.“Questions later.”
The holding area came into view at the end of a reinforced corridor—heavier door, thicker frame, power routed separately from the rest of the compound.The kind of setup meant to stay functional even if everything else went dark.
Tane was already thinking in layers.Entry.Exit.Secondary routes if the primary collapsed.Casualty extraction points.What they could carry and what they would have to leave behind.
No celebration.
Just focus.
He placed his hand against the door, feeling the faint vibration of equipment running on the other side.
“Stack up,” he said.
They formed instantly, bodies aligned, weapons ready, breathing synced without conscious effort.The breach charge was set with care—enough to open the door, not enough to compromise whoever was inside.
Tane counted down in his head.
When it went, it was precise.
The explosion punched inward, the door tearing free in controlled violence.Sound and pressure rolled through the corridor, and the team moved with it, already flowing through the opening as debris settled.
And somewhere beyond the blast, as adrenaline sharpened the world into clean edges and clear purpose, Tane knew with absolute certainty that they were either about to get Victor back—
Or everything was about to go very, very wrong.
****
