Caught in the Crosshairs: The Cost of Keeping Secrets
In a Berlin safehouse, Calder and Stroud clash over Dar’s role—is she a liability, or the key to their success?
Stroud confronts Volkov in front of a Berlin cafe, and Logan has Dar’s six as their first mission lifts off.
BERLIN – 2100
Fracture. The mission came down in razor-sharp detail long before either man set foot in Berlin.
Veyr’s orders: Stroud would surface in public—outside Volkov’s favoured haunt, Café Minouche in Tiergarten — identify himself only if forced, deliver no threats, make no arrests, draw no weapons. His sole job: let her know she was watched, mapped, compromised.
At that exact moment, Calder would unleash a string of mundane snarls—inexplicable customs hold here, a frozen account transfer there, a sudden lab-access revocation—each move so blandly bureaucratic it screamed “you’ve been exposed” without a single raised voice. No fireworks. Just the quiet crack of inevitability.
Rhys Calder sat hunched at the battered wooden desk in the Kreuzberg safehouse, three laptops humming before him, a headset clamped over one ear. The room hung heavy with stale coffee and yellowed dossiers. His jaw throbbed in time with Veyr’s clipped final directives over the encrypted line. “Understood,” he said, voice taut.
He straightened, testing comm traffic: “Sabre, Loud and Clear.” A crackle. Stroud’s confirmation. He cut the feed and watched the digital dot slip through rain-slicked streets. He thumbed a battered burner phone, its plastic casing splitting under his fingers, and imagined the butterfly effect of the supply-chain snafus he’d just set in motion.
Twenty minutes later, Callum Stroud’s trainers announced his arrival with a wet slap on the warped floorboards. He peeled off a soaked running jacket in the hall, nodding to Calder. “Major” the burner phone felt slick and cold in his palm as he moved to the kitchen table, tossing the device onto a towel. Rain rattled the windows like distant gunfire. “How was the Midland exercise?”
“Drowned,” Calder said without looking up, fingers drilling a furious tattoo on the keyboard. He snatched a towel from a chair and hurled it at Stroud. “Veyr sprung this on me last minute.”
Stroud caught the towel, ran it through his hair, water tracing rivulets down his neck. He draped it over his shoulders and angled his eyes at Calder’s silhouette. “Not much runway, eh?” His voice was low and sharp. Then: “Why keep Montgomery in the dark about the live fire?”
A heartbeat of silence amplified the rain outside. Calder’s hands froze over the keys before he finally met Stroud’s glare. “She didn’t need to know. You’re here to intercept a target, not hold hands. And next time you question my orders, make sure you outrank me.” His chair groaned as he leaned back.
Stroud grabbed the ends of his towel as he turned to stare out the window, streetlamps bleeding gold streaks through the downpour. “She’s on the task force, mapping Volkov’s network—alone. She thinks we cut her out.” He let the accusation land. “Montgomery’s the only one who can tell us if our pattern holds. Without her, we’re blind.”
Calder exhaled, shoulders knotting. “She knows how to handle herself. Don’t go playing babysitter.” He turned back to the screens, thumb idly stroking the burner phone. “I’ll manage Montgomery.”
“How?” Stroud advanced. “By leaving her in the dark until it suits you?” He paused, voice low. “She’s not a liability. She’s why we knew Volkov slipped into Berlin instead of Mitte.” He pulled on the towel around his neck. “But you’re right. You’ll handle it.”
Calder rose, rain drumming on the windows. Their faces were inches apart. “You her guard dog now? Do your damn job. Let me do mine.” His jaw was a metronome of barely restrained fury.
“I am doing my job.” Stroud’s voice was a quiet weapon. He slung his kit over one shoulder, eyes locked on Calder’s. “If you want to protect her, start treating her like part of the team—stop acting like she’s made of glass.” He headed down the hall. “0830.”
Calder’s expression went stone. He didn’t move as Stroud’s hand grasped the knob. “She’s not fragile.” His voice dropped to a growl. “And she’s not yours to worry about.”
Stroud returned Calder’s stare for a tight, charged second. “She’s ours. If you can’t see that—you’re not the leader I thought you were.” With that, he turned and went into the bedroom off the hall, closing the door.
Alone again, Calder stared at the inert burner phone. Rain hammered the roof. His thumb hovered over the send key, trembled—and then he stepped back, leaving the message unsent.
Stroud sat on the edge of the narrow bed, phone in hand, rain pattering against the walls, and tapped out: They make it home okay?
His phone was face down on the table later, all dark and quiet. One of the laptops glowed in the near darkness, feeds cycling—street cameras, maps, overlay of the Café Volkov would be at tomorrow.
Callum exhaled slowly, closing the laptop. He stood, moving to the window. Berlin stretched below him, lights bleeding into fog as the rain had let up.
He’d spent years compartmentalizing. The job in one box, everything else locked away in another. Clean lines. No bleed-over. That’s how you survived in this world—how you kept your edge.
Dar had a way of slipping through those lines. Not intentionally. She wasn’t trying to get under his skin. But she was sharp and isolated and trying so damn hard to hold it together while her own team left her in the dark. And he recognized that. Recognized her in a way that made his chest tighten.
She’s not your mission. She’s Calder’s responsibility. Calder’s—what? Friend? Partner? More? He should back off. Let Calder handle his own team. Let Dar fight her own battles. That’s what a professional would do.
But he’d seen that look in her eyes. The same look he’d worn after Syria and after Alice died.
He pulled out his phone, thumb hovering over her message thread. See you then.
Two words. Professional. Appropriate.
His thumb hovered, hesitating slightly. Typed: “Calder’s wrong to keep you in the dark.” Deleted it immediately. Typed: “I shouldn’t be messaging you.” Deleted that too.
Finally, he just pocketed the phone and turned back to the window, hating himself for both wanting to reach out and for stopping himself.
0700 Wednesday. He’d see her then. And maybe by then, he’d have figured out what the hell he was doing.
Or maybe—more likely—he’d just keep running. Literally and figuratively. Because stopping meant admitting this was more than reconnaissance. More than tradecraft. And admitting that meant risking the one thing he couldn’t afford to lose: control.
TIERGARTEN, BERLIN – 0828
Outside the café, steam rose from his untouched coffee, melting into the freezing air. His dark wool overcoat concealed the tension coiled in his shoulders. Inside, Volkov moved between tables, oblivious to the noose tightening around her operation. Countless hours of surveillance had crystallized into this exact moment as Volkov pushed through the door, her breath clouding before her.
Stroud stepped directly into her path and locked his stance.
Her eyes flicked over him—not his face, but the way he occupied space, the deliberate stillness of a predator. Recognition flashed across her features, microscopic but unmistakable.
“Stroud,” she said, voice like steel on ice.
He offered nothing. Not a muscle moved.
“Major,” she added, testing for weakness.
The silence between them crackled with unspoken threat.
Across the city, her empire was already fracturing. A shipment seized at customs. Banking permissions revoked with a keystroke. Lab credentials erased from security systems.
Volkov’s pupils dilated slightly. She understood with knife-sharp clarity: she hadn’t been stopped—she’d been exposed. Stripped naked before invisible watchers.
Within three hours, she was on a secure line to her handler. Within four, Dar’s screen lit up with confirmation.
The trap had sprung exactly as designed.
SAFEHOUSE HEREFORD – 1400
Dar leaned into the glow of SIBYL at two minutes to two, every nerve taut. Logan hovered behind her, a silent shadow. The ping cracked the silence; Dar responded, and Veyr’s face flickered onto the screen.
Veyr didn’t pause her furious typing. Mid-thirties or maybe forty-something, no one could say for sure. Her dark bob was flecked with silver, each strand gleaming whenever she shifted. Clad in a black cashmere turtleneck that whispered, “dangerous money,” she was ex- MI6 and ex-who-knows-what-else, now the ruthless architect of this slice of the globe. Even seasoned operators swallowed hard in her presence.
Logan exhaled, settling into the chair Dar had dragged in from the kitchen, the frame creaking under his weight.
Finally, Veyr’s hands stilled, and she looked up. “Sibyl.” If she were surprised by Logan’s presence, she didn’t show it. “Storm.” Veyr’s eyes were motionless, barbed behind wire rims. “Berlin package first, then we’ll discuss your weekend radio silence.”
They reviewed the success of Stroud’s contact with Volkov in Berlin, the hiccup in the chain. Dar confirmed it was already tracking in the data. Veyr leaned back, fingertips steepled into a pyramid of menace. “Flawless work.” Praise sharp as broken glass. “Sabre also noted you were flying solo while the team went dark this weekend.”
Dar’s jaw clenched. “Affirmative.”
Veyr’s gaze pinged to Logan, then back. “Protocol breach?”
Dar’s voice was ice. “Negative. Task: continuous intel support. Operational security uncompromised. All findings forwarded via encrypted channels. Sabre’s Friday check-in was purely courtesy.”
“And you used those channels?”
Dar held her ground. ” No, ma’ am.”
A flicker of something — disapproval? — crossed Veyr’s face. “You weren’t informed the team was blacked out?”
Dar held her posture, breath steady. “Not until Sabre told me.”
Logan shifted but stayed silent.
When Veyr spoke again, her tone was steel hidden beneath velvet, eyes locking on Logan. “Sibyl should’ve been notified. Anchor would’ve done that.” No question.
Logan’s jaw twitched. “Understood.”
Veyr swiveled back to Dar. “Going forward, any blackout goes through my office first. Sabre did the right thing checking in—Going forward, he’ll remain at the safehouse until they return.” She paused, letting the weight sink in. “And if this ever becomes more than a courtesy, I want to know immediately. Operational security isn’t just data—it’s the human leverage we wield.”
Dar felt her stomach knot. “Understood.”
Veyr’s stare bore into her for three heartbeats, then she nodded once, bone-dry. “Berlin debrief is solid. What’s Volkov plotting next?”
SAFEHOUSE HEREFORD – 2315
Dar’s office had settled into its late-night quiet.
The house beyond the door was dark, the kitchen lights off, the hum of the comms rack downstairs reduced to a patient, almost domestic thrum. Dar sat at her desk with her sleeves pushed up, a pen resting against her knuckle, the Berlin model still glowing on the screen like an unfinished thought.
Logan leaned against the doorframe, arms folded, sunglasses hooked on his collar instead of on his face for once. He hadn’t spoken in several minutes. He’d been watching her work instead. That alone said something.
Veyr’s voice came through the encrypted speaker, crisp and unadorned. “You’re confident in the assessment.”
Dar didn’t look up right away. She nudged a timeline marker forward by three hours, then another twelve. Watched the simulation adjust. Watched it strain.
“She’s not scrambling,” she said. “Not yet. She’s testing whether the system will correct for her.”
Logan shifted. “Volkov.”
“Yes.” Dar finally turned in her chair, meeting the dark lens of the camera. “If we take her down hard, she disappears. If we squeeze her cleanly, she looks for shelter.”
“And you know where,” Veyr said.
Dar nodded once. “I know who benefits when she does.”
There was a pause on the line. No hesitation. Calculation.
Logan pushed off the doorframe. “You’re saying Berlin wasn’t the fracture point.”
“No,” Dar said quietly. “It was the diagnostic.”
She tapped the screen once, not hard. Final.
“Berlin tells us who’s been shaping the damage, not just profiting from it. Volkov didn’t break. She recalculated.”
Veyr exhaled, slow. “And you’re certain.”
Dar held her gaze. “This is what I do.”
Another silence. Different this time.
Logan glanced at the model again, then at Dar. There was something new in his expression — not protectiveness, not concern.
Recalibration.
Veyr spoke again. “Then we proceed carefully.”
Dar inclined her head. “We always were.”
The call ended without ceremony. The screen went dark.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Logan broke it first. “You didn’t just read the field,” he said. “You read the people behind it.”
Dar gave a faint, tired smile. “Patterns don’t care who carries them.”
He nodded once, slow. Respect, finally catching up.
Outside the window, Hereford lay quiet. Berlin, by contrast, was already reacting — not in panic, but in subtle, dangerous motion.
Dar turned back to her screen, fingers poised.
Somewhere down the line, this was going to hurt.
But not yet.
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