Page 172 of The ARC Unit: Breach

There was no countdown after that. Viper crossed the service lane and reached the fence, cutting through the section German surveillance had already identified as partially damaged. He slipped into the property and disappeared behind a stack of broken pallets. Wolf followed, then Bear, while Raven tracked them through the external cameras without touching anything inside the network that might trigger an alert.

My hands rested on the edge of the workstation.

I had spent enough time watching them work to know what each marker meant, but knowing did not make sitting still easier. Somewhere inside that building were women who might have spent days stuck behind old, insulated doors while we were rebuilding reimbursements and fuel receipts. Kade had walked into the same building that morning and had not come back out.

Raven enlarged loading bay two. Bear reached the personnel door beside it and checked the frame. The camera angle showed only part of his back before Viper shifted into position near the corner.

Wolf’s voice came through my headset.

“Bear.”

“Mechanical. Five seconds.”

Bear put the Halligan into the gap near the latch and worked it once, hard and controlled. The metal flexed. He reset the tool, drove it deeper, and the door opened inward without the blast I had been bracing for. Viper went through first. The external camera lost him immediately. Raven switched to the loading-corridor feed we had compromised earlier. It showed an empty stretch of concrete under white fluorescent lights, the image slightly warped at the edges. A steel door filled the far end.

Viper appeared at the bottom of the frame, weapon raised. Wolf came behind him. Bear stayed at the entry long enough to keep the door controlled, then moved inside.

“Front corridor clear,” Viper said.

“Office block right,” Raven told them. “Insulated section straight ahead. One camera. No movement on feed.”

Wolf answered, “Take offices first.”

A man stepped out of a side doorway before Viper reached it. I saw the pistol in his hand a fraction of a second before he raised it, but Wolf was already moving. He pulled Viper off the angle with one hand as the HK416 came to his shoulder, and two suppressed shots cracked through my headset before the man could clear the doorway. The camera jerked as he disappeared out of frame.

“One down,” Wolf said. “Weapon.”

His voice did not change. Keller glanced at me once before returning to his radio. German officers on the perimeter had heard the shots too. Nobody moved until Wolf called for them. Viper cleared the office doorway and Bear moved past the man on the floor, checking him only long enough to confirm he would not become another threat.

Raven pulled up the next camera.

“Rear lot still quiet. BMW hasn’t moved. Three vans remain.”

Jackal said, “South road clean.”

Hawk’s voice came from the embankment. “Movement east window. One male, upper office.”

Wolf changed direction without hesitation. “Hold him if he stays inside.”

“Holding.”

Viper disappeared deeper into the office block. Thirty seconds later a woman shouted through his microphone, her voice partly swallowed by boots and doors, and another voice rose behind hers. Viper answered in English, softer than I had ever heard him speak.

“Police. Stay where you are. Hands where I can see them. You’re safe.”

My fingers tightened around the edge of the workstation when he said it.

Wolf came onto comms. “Raven, medical package now.”

Keller was already moving.

“German support advancing,” he said into his radio, then looked at me. “Stay with Raven until interior route is clear.”

I nodded.

On the screen, Wolf crossed the loading corridor toward the steel door at the far end. Bear reached it a moment later.

“Locked from outside,” Bear said.