Page 46 of Cold Ignition

That drew both of their attention.

“Not yet?” the first repeated.

“No,” the third said, almost idly. “Because we don’t know if he’s reacting... or if he’s already part of something larger.”

Silence followed that.

The kind of silence where decisions began forming.

The second man leaned forward slightly. “The drivers are still viable?”

The third’s gaze flicked back to the screen, to the images of those who had been taken.

“Some,” he said. “The rest...”

He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to. They all knew what happened to the rest.

“Acceleration phase?” the first asked.

The third considered that.

Then nodded once.

“Yes.”

No hesitation. No doubt. Only inevitability.

“Then we move forward,” the second said quietly. “Faster.”

“Agreed.”

The third man tapped the screen again. The image of the car filled the display. Black. Flames. Unmistakable.

“Find him,” he said. “Before he finds us.”

Outside, the ocean continued its endless rhythm.

Unaware.

Unmoved.

But inside that room—

Something had shifted.

And whatever came next...

Would burn.

Chapter Eight

Two days.

It shouldn’t have been enough time for anything to change.

And yet everything had.

Keanu stood at the open side panel of his trailer, the night air rolling in off the ocean in slow, warm currents that carried salt and heat and the faint echo of waves breaking somewhere beyond the cliffs. The compound had settled into its usual rhythm—quiet, controlled, alive in that low, constant way that came with people who never really switched off—but his world had narrowed to something far smaller.