Page 58 of Charged By the Razorbacks

Jarek’s hand brushed hers as they moved, his fingers catching hers for a brief second.

“You ready for this?” he asked.

“I have been ready to shut these assholes down for a long fucking time,” she said.

Aleksy’s voice came quieter from her other side. “We stay with you.”

Tamsin glanced between them, something tight and steady settling in her chest.

“Good, but keep up,” she said. “Because I’m not slowing down for either of you.”

Jarek huffed a quiet laugh. “We wouldn’t expect you to.”

They moved.

The drive out blurred into motion and silence, the weight of what was coming settling over them without needing to be spoken aloud. Tamsin sat between them in the back, her focus inward, running through the system in her head, the architecture, the flaws, the points where she could break it.

Where she would break it.

Aleksy’s hand rested briefly against her knee, grounding, steady. She didn’t move it away. By the time they reached the outskirts of the facility, the night had gone completely still.

Tamsin felt it immediately.

“They know,” she said.

Jarek didn’t argue. “Yeah.”

The compound rose out of the darkness ahead of them, larger than the previous sites, more fortified. Lights cut low, but not off. Movement barely visible along the perimeter.

“This is a trap,” Aleksy said.

“Of course it is,” Tamsin replied. “Totally getting trap vibes of this place.”

She stepped out of the vehicle before the engine had fully cut, her boots hitting the ground with a solid thud as she took in the structure, the layout, the entry points.

The Razorbacks moved with her as the Gorillas fanned out, already adjusting, already preparing to break through whatever stood in their way.

Tamsin’s gaze tracked the building, her mind mapping it in real time, finding the access point she needed, the fastest path to the system core.

“There,” she said, pointing toward a secondary access on the east side. “That gets us closest to the mainframe.”

One of the Gorillas nodded. “We’ll open it.”

Jarek’s attention shifted, scanning the perimeter. “Too quiet.”

“Not for long,” Aleksy said.

He was right. The first hybrid hit the perimeter line like it had been waiting for the signal. Then another. Then—more.

They came out of the darkness in numbers that made the air shift, bodies moving too fast, too coordinated, their forms wrong in ways that still made something in Tamsin’s chest tighten.

Chimera hadn’t just left guards. They’d left a wall.

Jarek’s grin came sharp, dangerous. “This looks fun.”

Aleksy stepped forward, his stance settling, his focus locking in. “Stay close.”

Tamsin didn’t argue.