Page 62 of Charged By the Razorbacks

“Stairs!” she called.

Aleksy saw it.

He slammed into the remaining resistance, clearing just enough space. She didn’t hesitate. She ran past them, taking the stairs two at a time, disappearing below as he and Jarek turned to hold the line.

Aleksy shifted his stance, lowering his center, becoming the wall.

Jarek hit the right flank, fast and brutal, their movements tightening into something purely instinctive.

“Tamsin,” Victor called through comms. “Status.”

A beat.

Then—

“I’m in,” she said.

Aleksy exhaled once, sharp.

Her voice came back, tighter now, focused. “They’ve rebuilt the framework, forced stabilization through redundancy loops.”

Aleksy processed that instantly. “They’re compensating for the collapse.”

“Yes,” she said. “But it’s sloppy. They’ve layered overrides instead of fixing the core.”

Jarek took down another hybrid, shoving it aside.

Tamsin kept talking. “They’ve made it look stable, it’s not. If I hit the right point, it’ll cascade.”

Aleksy held position, driving another hybrid back.

The comms alerted again.

“Tigers—update!”

This time it wasn’t controlled.

It was tight. Urgent.

“They’re escalating,” Kamon said. “Device output is spiking—repeat, spiking. We are losing control of the perimeter.”

Inside his animal, Aleksy’s concern grew.

“How long before it triggers?” Ivan’s voice came quick through comms.

“Unknown—but it’s climbing fast!” Elara advised.

Sienna’s voice cut in. “Tamsin—”

“I know,” Tamsin snapped. “I’m working it.”

More hybrids flooded the corridor. They pressed harder, forcing Aleksy back a step for the first time since they’d entered. Jarek hit the sideline harder, compensating, keeping the pressure from collapsing inward.

Aleksy adjusted, holding, but the margin was gone. They couldn’t hold for much longer, but he wouldn’t have told her even if he could. She had enough on her plate.

Then—

“I see it,” she said.