Sarah looks at me for a long moment. Anger and grief and maybe the beginning of understanding move behind her eyes, all tangled together in ways that don't resolve neatly.
"I spent months hating you." Her voice is steady but raw. "Months thinking you'd chosen the mission over me, that whatever you were doing mattered more than whether I lived or died. I built so much anger around that belief, used it to survive when everything else was falling apart."
"And now?" The question is dangerous, opening doors I'm not sure either of us is ready to walk through.
"Now I don't know what to feel." She turns back to her screens, but the deflection is transparent. "Anger was easier. Simpler. Hating you meant I didn't have to miss you."
The admission cracks something open between us. Not forgiveness, not yet. But acknowledgment that what we had mattered enough to grieve, that the silence hurt because the connection was real.
Her computer chimes again. Satellite imagery loads across her screens. Work waits. Whatever's between us will have to.
14
MICAH
We sit in silence for a moment, the weight of Sarah's messages hanging between us. Everything's broken, everything I can't fix. But the investigation won't wait for us to process two years of grief and anger.
Sarah accesses the new images, scanning through overhead surveillance of Reeve's movements. "This is from yesterday. Kalispell again, different location."
The image shows Reeve outside a storage facility, meeting someone in the parking lot. The second figure is partially obscured by a vehicle, but the body language screams familiar interaction rather than first contact.
"Can you get a better angle?" I lean closer, trying to identify the person through limited visual information.
Sarah adjusts the satellite imagery, calling up a second pass from different orbital positioning. The new angle reveals the man's face clearly, and recognition hits like a physical impact.
"That's Davis." My voice goes flat. Implications reshape our entire investigation. He's the logistics coordinator we'd already cleared—financial pressure but no evidence of intelligence sharing. "Why the hell is Reeve meeting with him?"
Sarah runs facial recognition confirmation, but I don't need biometric analysis. I spent two years studying Committee personnel files, memorizing every face and detail of everyone involved in their operations. Davis's face is as familiar as my own from Kane's surveillance files.
"Davis is on the audit list." Sarah's fingers move rapidly across her keyboard, opening Davis's file and recent activity. "Reeve is checking his security, verifying he hasn't been compromised."
"Or Reeve already knows Davis has been compromised and is running cleanup protocols." The alternative explanation is darker—the Committee has penetrated our investigation deeper than we realized.
"Except Davis doesn't know anything about Echo Base." Sarah's analytical mind works the problem, testing theories against available evidence. "We've been watching his communications for weeks. He handles warehouse logistics, nothing more. He's never mentioned Echo Ridge operations or base location."
"But someone he knows might." I zoom in on the image, studying the interaction between Reeve and Davis. "Davis's logistics work connects him to other Committee assets. One of those connections could have knowledge about Echo Base."
We're looking at new threat vectors, ones we missed. Davis himself might be clean, but his network of contacts could include someone with dangerous information. Someone Reeve will interview during his security audit, someone who will reveal details about operations in northwestern Montana.
"We need to identify everyone Davis has contacted over the past several months." Sarah's already accessing communication records, building a network map of Davis's professional connections. "When Reeve audits Davis's network, we need to know who else gets interviewed."
Davis isn't the problem anymore. His entire network is the problem now. Each contact Davis has made, each colleague he's worked with, each contractor he's coordinated with represents a possible thread Reeve could follow toward Echo Base.
"This is going to take hours." I boot up my own workstation, preparing to help analyze the massive data set Sarah's compiling. "Maybe days if the network is complex."
"Then we'd better get started." Sarah's voice carries the determined focus I remember from DC, the stubborn refusal to quit that made her exceptional at intelligence work. "Because when Reeve finds someone in Davis's network who knows more than they should, we're out of time."
We continue working to build network maps and analyze connection patterns. Davis's professional contacts spread across the Pacific Northwest, dozens of logistics coordinators and warehouse supervisors and transportation contractors. Each one gets profiled, assessed for potential knowledge about Committee operations in Montana.
Most are clean. Standard contractors doing legitimate work without knowledge of the Committee's broader activities. But a few names trigger alerts in our databases, matching individuals with previous intelligence connections or operational experience.
"Here." Sarah highlights a name on the network map. "Daniel Williams. He worked with Davis on supply chain coordination for the Committee's Montana operations a few years back. He's since moved to independent contracting, but his client list includes several Committee front companies."
I examine Williams's file, scanning his background. He's a former Army logistics specialist with decades of experience in supply chain management, currently running a small consulting firm based in Missoula. His financial records show regular payments from companies we've identified as Committee fronts.
"Williams would know about Committee logistics infrastructure in Montana." I trace his recent movements, noting he's stayed close to Missoula. "When Reeve interviews him about security protocols, Williams will mention supply routes or storage facilities that could narrow the Committee's search grid."
"We need to know if Reeve has contacted him yet." Sarah reviews surveillance data, checking for any interaction between Williams and known Committee assets. "If Williams's already been audited, we have a problem. If not, we have a chance to get ahead of it."
