The night we’d been given?
It was over.
And somewhere out there, someone had just confirmed what we already feared.
They knew where we were.
40
Trigger
Havoc was already outside when I stepped onto the porch.
He stood just off the edge of the clearing, massive frame half-shadowed by the trees, head tilted the way it always was when he was listening to more than sound. He didn’t turn when he sensed me—just lifted two fingers in acknowledgment.
“You felt it too,” he said quietly.
“Yeah.”
I moved to his side, both of us facing the tree line. Dawn was still an hour off. The forest was wrapped in that gray-blue stillness that made distance hard to judge and movement easy to miss.
Havoc tapped the tablet strapped to his forearm. “Perimeter sensor three. West slope. The reset sequence wasn’t automatic.”
“Manual clear,” I said.
“Exactly.”
That was the problem.
Animals tripped sensors. Wind did too. But they didn’t clear them cleanly. They didn’t step just far enough to test range, then retreat without leaving a sign.
This had been deliberate.
“How long?” I asked.
“Sixteen seconds from trigger to clear,” he replied. “Long enough to clock our response time. Not long enough to get caught.”
I scanned the ground near the tree line. “Tracks?”
“None we can confirm,” he said. “Which tells me they knew what they were doing—or they didn’t come on foot.”
A drone was possible. So was a spotter dropped and lifted fast.
Either way, it meant one thing.
We weren’t hidden anymore.
“Does Wolf know?” Havoc asked.
“He’s home,” I said. “Nora just had the baby. I’m not pulling him into this unless it escalates.”
Havoc nodded once. No argument. Family came first.
“We rotate the watch,” he said. “Tighten the perimeter. No movement from Rylie without escort.”
“Already planned,” I said. “But we don’t spook her yet.”
“She already feels it,” I said. “She’s smarter than you think.”
