I got the AC after the Authenticate Transaction. Is it safe to assume that the value returned in the 9F26 tag is the ARQC?

Tag 9F27 is your Cryptogram Information Data (CID).
00 = AAC (declined offline)
40 = TC (approved offline)
80 = ARQC (go online for host decision)

To be more specific, it is the upper nibble of 9F27 that matters:
0x = AAC
4x = TC
8x = ARQC

And then 9F26 is the actual AC

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