I open the folder, scan the operational parameters. Standard surveillance protocols with enhanced security measures. The team composition section is blank.
"You're assigning me to Prague," I say. Statement, not question.
"You and Reagan both. Her journalism background, language skills, contacts in Eastern European intelligence circles. She's the best asset we have for this kind of work." Kane meets my eyes. "I need you wheels up within the week."
"You've talked to her?"
"Not yet. Wanted to brief you first." Kane straightens the folder on his desk. "You're my best two-person surveillance team, and I need to know your head's in it."
"My head's always in it."
"That's not what I'm asking." Kane doesn't look away. "You've built something with her. With Khalid. I need operators who come back, not martyrs looking for a good death."
The weight of his words settles into my shoulders. He's seen too many good soldiers throw themselves into missions they didn't expect to survive. Hell, I was one of them before Reagan. Before I had a reason to come home.
"I'm coming back," I say. "We both are."
"Good. Brief Reagan tonight. I want confirmation by oh-six-hundred."
I stand, but something in Kane's expression stops me. He's looking at the folder, at the mission parameters he wrote, and there's something harder than regret in his eyes. Calculation, maybe. The weight of sending people into danger.
"Dylan." His voice is quieter now. "You've given a lot to this fight. Bled for it. If you ever want out, I'll make it happen. No questions."
"Would you? Walk away?"
Kane doesn't answer. He doesn't have to.
The thought follows me through the corridors of Echo Base. Train the next generation. Khalid asking about weapons training. Reagan researching Prague connections. The pieces of something larger taking shape.
I find Reagan in our quarters, laptop open on the small desk we share. Multiple browser tabs glow on the screen, financial records and corporate registrations and satellite imagery. She's been at this for hours.
"Kane assigned us to Prague," I say, closing the door behind me. "Cross sent more data. Committee's meeting with Kosygin's organization. Full merger, not just cooperation."
Reagan nods without looking up. "I found the money trail. Webb's been moving funds through a series of shell companies, all registered in the past six months. The pattern matches Morrison's old methodology, but the destinations are different. Eastern European banks, Russian investment firms, real estate holdings in Prague and Vienna and Budapest."
"Succession planning."
"More than that." She finally turns from the screen, and I see the same tactical focus in her eyes that I felt in Kane's office. "Webb's not just preparing for Kosygin. He's making long-range plans. Building infrastructure that survives individual leadership, that can operate regardless of who sits at the top."
"Something that outlasts him."
"Exactly. Morrison thought he was irreplaceable, and that made the organization vulnerable when we took him down. Webb learned from that mistake."
An organization without clear leadership is harder to decapitate. A network distributed across multiple nations is harder to disrupt. Webb isn't just rebuilding the Committee. He's evolving it.
"If Webb's planning for the next generation," I say slowly, "then Echo Ridge needs to do the same."
Reagan's expression sharpens. "What are you thinking?"
"Kane wants us wheels up within the week. Two to three weeks on the ground, surveillance and intelligence gathering."
"I figured as much." She gestures at her laptop. "I've been building target packages since Cross sent the first message. My old press credentials are still valid. I have contacts in Prague from my journalism days, assets who might provide intel if I approach them right."
She pulls up a map on her screen, points to a cluster of locations near the Vltava River. "Cross identified three safe houses the Committee is using. This one near the Old Town is their communications hub. Webb's senior people rotate through on a regular schedule."
"You've already mapped their patterns."
"Enough to know where we need eyes." She switches to another file, surveillance photos Cross provided. Faces I don't recognize, but Reagan's been studying them for days. "Elena Gracheva runs day-to-day operations. A Committee loyalist, stayed when others fled. She's the one we need to watch."
