Page 68 of Cold Ignition

“Zoom in,” Alexios said.

The feed tightened. Rangi watched the man’s shoulders—tense, tight, controlled in a way that didn’t match the chaos he’d just driven through. Not adrenaline. Restraint.

“He knows,” Rangi said quietly.

“Yes,” Alexios replied. “He does.”

Rangi’s stomach twisted. Because he knew that look. He’d worn it. Back when things had started to feel wrong, but not wrong enough to walk away from.

Back before walking away had stopped being an option.

“They’re not offering him anything,” Rangi said.

“They’re not recruiting,” Rangi said.

Below, the driver disappeared behind a row of vehicles—out of sight, but not out of mind.

Rangi’s hands curled into fists against his thighs.

“Say the word,” he muttered. “We go down there. We pull him out.”

Alexios didn’t even look at him. “No.”

Rangi’s head snapped toward him. “We just watch?”

“We observe,” Alexios corrected calmly. “We learn. And then we dismantle it properly.”

Rangi’s jaw tightened. Every instinct in him screamed to move. To act. To break something. But Alexios wasn’t wrong. That was the worst part.

“If we move now,” Alexios continued, voice steady, “we lose the network. We lose the leadership. We lose the chance to stop this properly.”

Rangi dragged in another breath, slower this time.

Controlled.

“Yeah,” he said eventually.

But he didn’t like it. Not even a little.

His gaze flicked back to the track just as Ahi’s car rolled out, smooth, unhurried, like nothing about this place could touch him.

Rangi’s chest tightened again.

“God, I hate that helmet,” he muttered.

Alexios’s mouth twitched slightly. “I know.”

Rangi huffed a breath. “Feels like I’m watching someone else drive him.”

“You are,” Alexios said quietly.

Rangi glanced at him.

Alexios met his gaze. “That’s the point.”

Rangi looked back at the screen.

At Ahi.