Page 13 of The Hyena’s Guardian
“You all continue to exceed expectations.”
Baptiste handed him the mug without warning.
Matt blinked down at it suspiciously. “You drugged this, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“That hesitation was concerning.”
“There was no hesitation.”
Matt took a careful sip anyway before pausing. “…Okay that’s actually fantastic.”
“I know.”
“That somehow makes you more upsetting.”
Baptiste’s expression remained perfectly neutral. “I contain multitudes.”
Matt stared at him. “Was that a joke?”
“No.”
“That answer somehow makes it funnier.” Movement near the helicopter drew Matt’s attention before Baptiste could respond.
Commander Vale crossed the hangar floor surrounded by two operatives carrying equipment cases while Keene followed several steps behind with the same quiet emotional enthusiasm he brought to literally everything.
Matt was becoming increasingly convinced the man would maintain that expression during an apocalypse.
Vale stopped near the aircraft and addressed the team without raising her voice, though the hangar still seemed to quiet around her automatically.
“We deploy in ten minutes,” she said. “Rules of engagement remain unchanged from briefing protocol. Recovery remains priority one. Containment priority two. If conditions deteriorate beyond operational viability, extraction becomes immediate.”
“Define deteriorate,” Matt muttered.
Baptiste glanced toward him. “Usually screaming.”
“That is an aggressively vague answer.”
“It becomes less vague during experience.”
Matt was still deciding how much he hated that sentence when Keene approached a moment later carrying another folder. The sight alone made him sigh. “If this is more psychological reading material, I want hazard pay.”
“It’s your operational clearance badge.”
“That is somewhat less disappointing.”
Keene handed him a black access card bearing nothing except the silver crescent-and-blade insignia of Valker. Matt turned it over once in his hand like he still expected the thing to suddenly explain what kind of life choices had brought him here. “Still feels weird carrying one of these.”
“You’ll adapt.”
“I’m starting to think that’s Valker for ‘you’re going to hate this.’”
Keene did not deny it, which honestly felt unnecessarily rude. A moment later a metallic screech echoed through the hangar as the helicopter blades overhead began to turn, and the entire atmosphere shifted with immediate intensity. Conversations stopped while equipment checks accelerated around the aircraft. The controlled movement around the aircraft tightened into something sharper and more focused as instinct moved through the room like tension pulled across a wire.
Matt felt the same shift settle into himself almost automatically. The military had carved mission mindset into him years ago through repetition, exhaustion, and survival: the narrowing of focus, the quiet emotional compartmentalization, and the understanding that fear always became easier to carry once there was finally something to do with it.
Except this time fear was not the only thing riding beneath his ribs. Curiosity lingered there too, restless and alive every time he thought about the thermal image buried in the mission file. The shape had looked isolated rather than threatening, alone in the dark in a way Matt could not stop thinking about no matter how much he wanted to.
