Page 27 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Matt exchanged a glance with Baptiste. “That answer feels professionally alarming.”

Baptiste was already checking ammunition magazines. “That is because it is.”

A sharp burst of static exploded through the nearest speaker, loud enough to make several operatives flinch.

Heavy breathing crackled through the interference, uneven and noticeably closer than before. Then a voice broke through the static.

“...help...”

The word came weakly, barely recognizable beneath the distortion.

A second voice answered somewhere deeper in the recording.

Low. Animal. Wrong in a way Matt could feel more than understand.

Then the gunfire started.

***

The gunfire lasted less than two seconds.

Three rapid shots cracked through the speakers in quick succession, echoing violently through what sounded like narrow stone corridors. Someone shouted afterward, the voice distorted badly enough that Matt could not tell whether the operative was yelling orders or screaming in panic. Then another sound hit the recording beneath the static.

A growl.

Deep enough that the speakers themselves vibrated. The transmission cut out abruptly a second later.

Silence slammed back into the command tent hard enough that even the storm outside seemed distant for a moment. Nobody spoke. Several operatives remained frozen exactly where they stood, listening to the dead static hissing faintly through the speakers like they expected the recording to resume on its own.

Matt became aware of his own pulse again somewhere around the same time he realized his hand had drifted toward the pistol at his side without conscious thought.

Commander Vale moved first.

“Final equipment check,” she said, her voice calm enough to cut cleanly through the tension. “Team One establishes relay points through levels two and three. Team Two pushes toward the breach corridor and locates the source of that transmission.”

One of the wolf operatives near the rear table looked toward the monitors. “Ma’am, the signal’s changing.”

The technician pointed at the display.

“It won’t stabilize.”

“Equipment?” Baptiste asked.

She shook her head.

“I don’t think that’s the problem.”

That changed the room again. The tension inside the command post sharpened instantly, not into panic but into something colder and far more focused as every operative recalculated the situation at the same time.

Matt watched the shift happen across every face as operatives transitioned from uncertainty into preparation. Weapons were checked again. Radios snapped onto tactical vests. Somebody killed the remaining audio feed from the speakers while another technician rerouted power toward portable relay equipment stacked near the entrance.

Outside, thunder rolled across the mountains hard enough to rattle the temporary steel supports.

Vale looked toward Matt. “Stay close to Baptiste once we descend. If communications fail, you maintain visual contact with your assigned team at all times.”

Matt adjusted the strap across his shoulder. “The fact you keep mentioning communication failure feels aggressively suspicious.”

“It is realistic.”