Devin Zak, code name Hornet, and Kima Sakari-Zak, aka Delfino, arrived next. Dagger and Magnolia walked in next, only not together. The only person who’d survived the blasts who wasn’t here was Givre, who was still in hospital.
Lyra came in last with Henry. The two took seats near the front. Henry had a leather portfolio and a pen, and he was already writing before anyone spoke.
I looked at those gathered in the room. These were the people who were left. Not all of them shared blood with me, but every one of them had bled for the same mission.
I stood and propped the crutch against the table.
“I don’t need to remind any of you of the tragedy of two days ago. I probably don’t need to tell you who’s responsible. Our enemies will not end their decades of vengeance until every last one of us is gone.” I let that sit for a second. “Or until we end them. I refuse to give up or spend the rest of my life in hiding. I’m going to fight in the same way my grandfather, my parents, and the rest of my family have fought. It’s not only against an enemy. It’s for truth and justice and freedom.”
Amaryllis stood. “I’ll fight right beside you.”
Delfino stood next. “I will too.”
Reaper and Hornet followed, and Dagger gave a single nod.
Magnolia met my eyes from across the table. “I was in that building, and I survived for a reason. I’m with you, Beacon. I will never quit.”
Blackjack was the last to speak. He raised his head, and the expression on his face was one I hadn’t seen from him before. It wasn’t his typical professional composure or his embarrassment from yesterday. I couldn’t explain why I thought it or how I knew, but, in my gut, it was as though every word I spoke belonged to him too.
“I’m with you,” he said.
Lyra stood and joined me. “Thirteen years ago, my sister Eleanor, my brother, Edgar, and I found the first piece of what our father and Katarina’s grandfather were investigating when they were killed. It’s what got our oldest sister, Amelia, and her husband killed. What got Katarina’s parents killed. We founded Minerva Protocol to finish their work. Eleanor and Edgar gave their lives for it. I have buried more people for this mission than I can stand to count.”
She turned to me. “Katarina lost her parents. So did Amaryllis. Every person in this room has paid aprice. The danger isn’t gone, Katarina. Our enemies will not stop.”
I nodded once. “Even if I stand alone, I will not surrender.”
Lyra looked around the room at those who’d already committed to stand with me. “What Beacon is proposing is not a reconstruction of what we lost. It is the completion of what my father intended. If you are all committed to do this, I will stand behind it with everything I have left.”
“As will I,” said Henry, looking up from his page of notes.
I leaned against the table. My knee had been throbbing since I stood up, and my arm ached from my shoulder to my wrist. But none of it mattered, because every person in the room had committed to go to war with me.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked.
Henry set his pen down and joined Lyra and me. “If you’re standing up a private intelligence organization from scratch, there are capabilities you need on day one and capabilities you build over time. I’ve spent the last two days putting together a framework.”He opened his portfolio. “Leadership and strategy. Intelligence collection. Analysis and assessment. Field operations and tactical capability. Counterintelligence. And specialized divisions for the specific threats you’ll be targeting are where we start.”
He went through each category and described what it required. Not in bureaucratic language—in operational terms that every person here understood. When he finished, he surveyed the room.
Magnolia spoke up. “Forgive me for being direct, but how is all of this being funded? We’re talking about standing up an intelligence organization from scratch. That’s not free.”
Lyra answered. “It’s a good question, Rovena. The Hyde family has generational wealth that predates Minerva’s existence. My father established a trust decades ago specifically to fund the organization’s operations. That trust is intact. The bombing destroyed a building, not a bank account.” She paused. “Beyond the trust, Minerva has always taken on contracted work for governments and intelligence services that needed discreet, deniable capability. That revenue funded our operations and kept us independent. Whatever webuild next will operate the same way. We’re not dependent on any single government, agency, or donor. We fund ourselves.”
Magnolia nodded, and Henry looked around the room. “Where were we?”
“I’ve no doubt I’m speaking on behalf of all of us when I say there are no two people better at intelligence analysis than Beacon and Amaryllis,” said Reaper.
As he spoke, I realized how much he looked like Blackjack. I’d never noticed the brothers’ resemblance until now.
Hornet raised a hand. “Counterintelligence and signals interception are mine.”
“Behavioral analysis and profiling,” Delfino said. “That’s what I’ve always done, and it’s what I do best.”
“I’ll run tactical,” said Reaper.
Dagger spoke from his seat by the door. “Deep cover and corruption investigation. That’s my lane. I can also build out a division for human trafficking and exploitation—that’s where the war overlaps with what I’ve been doing for years. And when Givre is out of hospital, she brings crisis negotiation and human source recruitment.”
“Imagery and geospatial analysis,” Magnolia said. “That was my work in Albanian intelligence before Minerva, and it’s what I did inside the organization.”
