Chapter 19 #2
We reach the extraction point forty minutes later. A parking garage near the train station, a rental car with clean plates, a route to the Austrian border that avoids major checkpoints. Dylan drives while I decompress, the adrenaline slowly fading into exhaustion.
"Kane's going to want a full debrief," Dylan says.
"Kane's going to be pleased. We documented the entire network, identified key players, and planted a time bomb in the middle of their alliance." I lean back in the seat, watch Prague's outskirts slip past. "By the time they figure out the intel is fake, they'll have done half our work for us."
"If it works."
"It'll work. Webb doesn't trust anyone, and Kosygin's people are already looking for excuses to cut ties. We just gave them one."
Dylan is quiet for a moment. The highway opens up ahead of us, Austria and safety getting closer with every mile.
"You scared me," he says finally. "When you didn't come out."
"I was inside for twelve minutes."
"Felt longer."
I reach over, take his hand on the gear shift. "I'm here. We're both here. And we're going home."
Home. Echo Base, buried in a Montana mountain. Khalid waiting for us, probably driving Mercer crazy with questions about the mission. The team, the work, the life we're building between operations.
"Khalid's going to be waiting at the airstrip," Dylan says.
"With Odin." I can picture it already. The kid who pretends he's too old for worry, pacing with a Belgian Malinois matching his restless energy. "He's been counting days since we left."
"He'll want to know we're okay."
"We are okay." I squeeze his hand. "That's what matters. We're safe, the mission worked, and we're coming home."
Dylan doesn't respond, but his thumb traces circles on my palm.
The border crossing goes smoothly. Our documents are solid, Tommy's work as flawless as ever. The Austrian guards wave us through with barely a glance, and then we're out. Free. Heading for the airport and the long flight back to Montana.
"Kane will have new assignments," Dylan says. "After the debrief. Prague was just the beginning."
"I know."
"You ready for that? More missions, more risk, more time away from Khalid?"
I consider the question. A year ago, I would have said no.
"I'm ready," I say. "As long as we do it together."
Dylan doesn't answer. Just lifts my hand and kisses my knuckles.
The airport appears on the horizon. Commercial flight to Frankfurt, then a charter to a private airstrip in Montana. Eighteen hours of travel, give or take, and then home.
The Committee is still out there. Webb is still building his empire. Kosygin is still expanding into Western operations. The threats keep coming.
But we hurt them today. Planted seeds of doubt that will grow into fractures, fractures into breaks. By the time they realize what we've done, the alliance will be in ruins.
KANE
I watch the transport plane touch down on the makeshift runway, Montana wind whipping across the flattened ground. Dylan and Reagan emerge looking tired but intact. Successful mission, minimal complications. I've learned not to take outcomes like that for granted.
Stryker falls into step beside me as I head toward the hangar.
"Prague went well?" he asks.
"Better than expected. They planted the package, documented the network, got out clean." I pull up my tablet, scan the preliminary report Dylan sent during their layover. "Webb's operation is going to eat itself from the inside."
"Good." Stryker's voice is flat. He's been distracted for days, ever since I gave him the Arizona briefing.
"You leave tomorrow," I say. "Rachel Donovan. You ready?"
He doesn't answer immediately. We stop at the edge of the tarmac, watching Dylan and Reagan cross toward us. Khalid bursts out of the base entrance, Odin racing beside him. Dylan catches the kid in a hug that lifts him off his feet while the Belgian Malinois circles them both, tail whipping.
"She's got a kid," Stryker says quietly. "Eight years old."
"I know."
"That changes things. How you approach, how you protect. Kids complicate everything."
"That why you're hesitating?"
Stryker's jaw tightens. "I'm not hesitating. Just thinking."
I've known Stryker for years. Watched him breach compounds, eliminate threats, survive things that would break most operators. I've never seen him think this hard about a protection detail.
"She's been through enough," I say. "Handle it right."
"I read the file."
"Then you know what you're walking into."
Stryker watches Dylan, Reagan, and Khalid head inside together. A family, forged from chaos and choice. Something I didn't think any of us would find in this work.
"Send me the briefing," he says. "Eighteen hundred."
"Already sent."
He nods once and heads toward his quarters. Tomorrow, Arizona. A woman who escaped a cartel. A boy who saw something he shouldn't have. And Stryker, walking into a situation that might change everything.
Dylan catches my eye as he passes, Reagan tucked under his arm. He looks different than he did months ago. Less hollow. More present.
"Good work," I tell him. "Both of you."
"It's a start," he says. "Webb's not finished."
"Neither are we."
They head inside, Khalid talking a mile a minute about everything that happened while they were gone. The base hums around me, operational and ready. Prague was a victory. Small, but real.
I head back to operations. Three teams deploying by end of week. The Committee thinks they're regrouping in the shadows.
They're wrong.