Page 24 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“The same false registration appearing around two unrelated Cerberus targets before your team gets anywhere near them.”

His attention settled on me.

“So find the third.”

My jaw tightened. “That’s your response?”

“What response were you expecting?”

“I don’t know. Maybe basic acknowledgment that I might be onto something.”

“You were assigned here to analyze intelligence.”

“I am aware.”

“Then analyze it.”

Raven suddenly became intensely interested in another monitor. Traitorous bastard.

I pushed my chair back enough to turn toward Wolf properly. “You know, most people can admit when somebody helps them.”

“Most people don’t work here.”

“Clearly.”

Wolf folded his arms.

“If you need congratulations every time you do the job Vale sent you to do, you’re going to have a difficult time in this unit.”

“I don’t need congratulations.”

“Good.”

“I need you to stop acting like everything I find is somehow irritating because I’m the one who found it.”

For one hopeful second, the hard line around his eyes eased as if I had finally reached him. Then he nodded toward the computer.

“Find the third vehicle, Mercer.”

He walked away at the same pace he came in with. Jackal waited until Wolf was well beyond conversational distance.

“I think that went better,” he whispered.

I turned toward him. “Than what?”

“Yesterday.”

“Your standards are horrifying.”

“That’s what I keep telling people.”

The third vehicle took almost two hours.

Romania finally gave it to us through a traffic camera several blocks from the warehouse, where an older gray Audi carrying the same Slovak registration appeared twice during the week before the location began clearing. It never parked directly outside the property so whoever drove it had been smart about their movements.

Three countries now carried the same registration on vehicles that did not belong to it. Raven created a map and pinned each appearance to the wall display, from Prague and Budapest down to Constanța.

Wolf eventually came over without being called and this time, I didn’t ask for praise.