Page 67 of Echo: Burn
"You're becoming someone who refuses to be a victim." Kane lifts my hand to his lips, presses a kiss to my knuckles. "Your father would be proud. I know I am."
The words settle something inside me. Not comfort, exactly. But acknowledgment. Permission to be both horrified and functional. To grieve the necessity of violence while accepting it as the price of survival.
"Come on," he says, releasing my hand. "Let's find out what Karina knows about this facility."
The conference room is packed when we arrive. Stryker and Mercer are already there, cleaning weapons. Rourke stands near the tactical display, arms crossed. Tommy's at his laptop, fingers flying across keys. Sarah sits beside Khalid, who has Odin's head in his lap.
And Karina Miles sits at the head of the table, looking far too comfortable for someone who breached our security six hours ago.
Cray is there too, still pale from his injuries but sitting upright, watching everything with those cold professional eyes.
"Nice of you to join us," Karina says without looking up from the files spread in front of her. "I was beginning to think the Committee actually managed to kill you."
"They tried." Kane moves to the tactical display, pulling up maps of the area around Whitefish. "That ambush was perfectly coordinated. Someone told them exactly where we'd be and when."
"Kessler," Cray says quietly. Everyone turns to look at him. "He's running point on Protocol Seven enforcement. Former Delta, worked with your Gunnery Sergeant Hart in Yemen. He's been waiting for the right moment to strike."
"How do you know this?" I ask.
"Because he recruited me for this operation." Cray's voice is flat. "Told me you were a high-value target, gave me the assignment to eliminate you. When I failed, he moved to the next phase—direct action with overwhelming force."
"The cabin ambush," Kane says.
"Exactly. He knew you'd check your cover position. Knew you'd bring Dr. Hart. Set up the kill box and waited." Cray meets Kane's eyes. "He's not going to stop. Not until you're both dead or he is."
The room falls silent.
"Then we make sure it's him," Stryker says finally.
Karina clears her throat. "If we're done discussing revenge, we have bigger problems. The Committee's been moving weapons out of the Whitefish facility for the past forty-eight hours."
She slides a folder across the table. Kane opens it, scanning contents. "How much is left?"
"Small cache. Maybe ten percent of what they produced. They're keeping it as insurance—proof of concept if the main deployment fails, or leverage if they need to negotiate."
"Negotiate with who?" I ask.
"Whoever's left alive after the attack." Karina's voice is cold. "The Committee doesn't just want to kill the current administration. They want to reshape American policy for the next fifty years. A successful chemical attack gives them that power."
"How are they transporting the weapons to DC?" Rourke asks.
Cray leans forward. "Private airports, chartered flights, security convoys disguised as legitimate government contractors. I can give you the specifics—which companies they use, which airports, how they move sensitive materials through customs without detection."
"Why help us?" Mercer's voice carries suspicion.
"Because they left me to die," Cray says simply. "Because I'm on Protocol Seven's list now. Because helping you is the only chance I have to survive."
Kane studies him for a long moment. "Talk. Tell us everything."
For the next hour, Cray details the Committee's logistics network. Private airfields in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. Security companies with federal contracts. Shell corporations that own aircraft. The web is extensive, sophisticated, and designed to be invisible to standard law enforcement.
Karina pulls up a map on her tablet. "Tommy, can you display this on the main screen?"
Tommy works his magic and the map appears—a web of transportation routes converging on Washington, DC. Multiple redundant pathways, each one carrying a portion of the weapons cache.
"They're not putting all their eggs in one basket," Karina explains. "Even if we intercept one shipment, three others get through."
"Then we intercept all of them." Kane studies the routes with tactical precision. "Split mission. My team hits the Whitefish facility, secures the remaining cache and any evidence of what they produced. Rourke coordinates with Victoria Cross to intercept the DC shipments."
