When Bethan was unable to tell the cargo, Yekaterina turned to the driver sitting between her and Sean, looking like he was about to piss himself. “Hey, Kaffer boy, what’s in the back? And better cooperate, else I’ll pull over and let my mate here sort you out.” she threatened, Hayden beating the driver to the answer. “Nevermind. Does explain the guard detail though, even if it was at a discount given half of them up and vanished. Get your money back.”

The Russian was silent for most of the drive, preoccupied with navigating a truck laden with explosives through the unpredictable local traffic, all the while watching the driver out of the corner of her eye should he try to do something stupid. She only spoke up as they approached the SAMC compound, not taking her eyes off the road as she addressed the Irishman riding shotgun. “Now that you’ve had a few to cool down, I’ve been told a bit about how you two lovebirds landed in this crap. I wanted to hear both sides of the story before making my mind up about it. And on that note, can you two work together, or would it be better if you and the other guy formed a more permanent team? Though on the back of what the fuck just happened, there’s no winning in this situation, is it? Unless you can keep him in check. It worked out this time, but I can think of a hundred and one situations where such an outburst could be the end of us.” She didn’t sound accusatory, or too bothered by what Hayden did, more worried about the way it could’ve impacted them rather than the wanton slaughter.

She pulled up to the same gate where the Cadillac had been waiting for them, reasoning they hadn’t been gone long enough to change shifts and thus the guard ought to recognize them and not give them too much trouble. After announcing they had a delivery for Mr. Manar as if they were bringing pizza, they were directed to a paved rectangle just beyond the wall. She rushed to park the truck before Hayden pulled in with the caddy, hoping to avoid having to stick the truck into a confined space. As soon as they were out, a couple SMAC mercs came by and covered the truck with a tarp before leaving them alone again.

“Yeah, sorry about just going for it like this, but from the moment we found the truck there were five plans of action put forward by four people and at some point shit just stopped making any sense to me. Take it on the move, take it at the stop, check the dossier to confirm the target, try to find one that’s less defended, fucking madness. I think we need to figure out some hierarchy here, a team needs a chief, because this attempt at democracy ended up looking more like fucking anarchy.” Katya spoke up as soon as the four had left, sounding apologetic before turning to Hayden and continuing in a diplomatic tone absent of any blame or anger. “I don’t know where you’ve been and what you’ve done. But are these episodes going to be a regular occurrence, or is it out of your system now? How worried should the rest of us be about such sudden departures from coherent thought?”