Page 56 of Charged By the Razorbacks

“Yes.” A beat. “Which complicates acquisition.”

The final figure leaned forward slightly, distortion tightening around them, their presence sharpening.

“We need to recover these assets,” they said. “Both of them.”

The display split. Tamsin and Naomi side by side.

“Yes, Tamsin completes the system,” the figure continued. “She stabilizes what we have forced into existence.”

“And Naomi?”

“She proves it can be controlled.”

The room absorbed that.

“If we integrate both,” another voice said, “we eliminate instability entirely.”

“Not entirely,” the final figure corrected. “But enough.”

For deployment. For expansion. For what came next.

“And if they resist?” someone asked.

The answer came without delay.

“They will most definitely resist.”

“They already have,” another voice added.

“Then we escalate,” one said.

“Carefully,” another countered.

“Decisively,” the final figure corrected.

The room stilled again.

That tone—that authority—it did not invite disagreement.

“We do not chase them,” the figure said. “We draw them in.”

The display shifted once more to transport corridor projections with civilian density overlays. E.S.E. predicted movement patterns.

“They are already moving toward our next deployment,” the figure continued. “They believe they are intercepting.” A pause. “They are not.”

“They will come,” the voice said. “Because they must.”

“And when they do—”

The display narrowed.

“We take them.”

Tamsin and Naomi. Primary objectives. Everything else—secondary. Disposable.

The feeds began to collapse one by one, each presence dissolving back into nothing as the system erased itself in real time.

The display went dark.