"I'm going to delete the evidence that proves how I found it." Reagan tries to access the terminal again. I block her. "Move."
"No."
"Dylan, move. I'm not letting anyone else die because I was too stubborn to quit."
"Destroying evidence doesn't save them." I keep my voice level. Calm. "The Committee already knows what you found. Already knows who helped you. Deleting files now just makes their deaths meaningless."
"At least it stops the trail. Prevents the Committee from using my investigation to find more targets."
"They don't need your investigation to find targets. They have the same databases you accessed. The same financial records. The same personnel files." I pull her away from the terminal. "You're not protecting anyone by destroying evidence. You're just making it easier for Webb to get away with murder."
"Then what am I supposed to do? Keep working while people die?"
"Help us use what you found to end the Committee permanently. Every person who died did it so you could expose Morrison's crimes and Webb's current operations. Honor that. Make their deaths count for something."
Reagan's shoulders sag. The adrenaline and anger draining away, leaving exhaustion behind. "I don't know how to do this. How to keep going when people are dying because of me."
"You do what I do. Focus on the mission. One file at a time. One connection at a time. Build the case until it's airtight and then burn the Committee's entire network to the ground."
"That's not enough."
"It's all we have." I guide her away from the terminal, toward the small kitchen area where coffee is perpetually brewing. "Youwant to save lives? Help us build a case that holds up in federal court. Something so comprehensive that Webb and everyone connected to Protocol Seven spends the rest of their lives in prison."
"What if we don't have time? What if the Committee kills everyone who helped me before we can finish?"
"Then we make sure their deaths destroy the people responsible. But we don't get there by destroying evidence or giving up. We get there by doing the work."
I pour coffee, hand her a cup. She drinks it in silence.
"This is insane. All of it. I'm a journalist. I write stories. I don't build federal cases or run from assassination teams."
"You're not just a journalist anymore. You're a witness. And right now, you're the most valuable asset we have in bringing down the Committee's network."
"Asset." She laughs. No humor in it. "Is that what I am? Another tool for you to use?"
"You're someone who found evidence that could change everything. Someone brave enough or stupid enough to keep digging when everyone else would have stopped. The Committee wants you dead because you're dangerous. Kane wants you alive because you're useful. I want you to survive because I've seen too many good people die for bad reasons."
Reagan studies me over the rim of her coffee cup. "Why do you care? You barely know me."
"Because you remind me of someone who couldn't stop asking questions even when it got her killed. And because maybe if I can keep you alive, it makes up for not saving her."
"Your wife."
"No, but someone she knew. Lisa said her friend was investigating something. Never told me what. Said it was safer if I didn't know. Three weeks later she was dead—supposedly inthe wrong place at the wrong time, but sometimes I wonder and I wonder if whatever it was got her killed."
"And now you think saving me redeems that?"
"I think saving you means someone lives who shouldn't have died. That's enough."
Reagan sets down her coffee cup. Studies me with that analytical intensity she brings to everything. "You're not what I expected."
"What did you expect?"
"A monster. The Committee's enforcer. The man who disappeared witnesses without remorse. But you're just someone trying to make better choices."
"Don't romanticize it. I'm still the man who tortured people for information. Still the one who made innocents disappear because I followed orders without questioning them. The only difference now is I'm choosing my own targets instead of letting the Committee choose them for me."
"Is that supposed to make me trust you?"
