Page 51 of Echo: Line

This must be Kane.

"Alex." Kane's voice is rough, controlled. His gaze never leaves me. "This the FBI agent?"

"Delaney Ward." Alex positions himself slightly between us. "She saved my life. Multiple times."

"That why she's here instead of in witness protection?"

The question carries weight. Kane's evaluating whether I'm asset or liability.

Meeting his eyes directly. "Hiding means living scared. I'd rather fight."

Kane studies me for another long moment. Then something in his expression shifts—not quite approval, but acknowledgment. "Tommy's monitoring Committee chatter. They've got teams searching a fifty-mile radius. You ditch everything trackable?"

"Everything," Alex confirms. "We're dark."

"Good." Kane turns to the woman beside him. "Willa, check them over."

The woman steps forward. Dark hair pulled back, practical clothing, medical bag slung over her shoulder. Sharp, intelligent eyes carrying awareness that comes from surviving trauma.

"I'm Willa." She offers a small smile. "Let me guess—gunshot wound to the shoulder?"

"How'd you know?"

"Because that's what happens when you run with these guys." She gestures for me to sit. "I'm a vet. Was a vet. Now I patch up bullet holes in operators who refuse to go to actual hospitals."

Sitting. Letting her examine the wound, peeling back the shirt to check Alex's suture work.

"Not bad. Clean edges, good tension. Who did it?"

"Alex."

"He's getting better." She pulls out antiseptic and fresh bandages. "This is going to sting."

It does. Breathing through it while she works. Behind us, Alex and Kane talk in low voices—tactical discussion I can only partially hear.

"You're not what I expected," Willa says.

"What did you expect?"

"Someone more hardened. You've got the training, but you still look like you believe things can be fixed through proper channels." She tapes the bandage down. "Kane said you went from investigating Alex to breaking him out of a Committee facility. That's quite a shift."

"Something like that."

She meets my eyes. "I saw how Alex positioned himself when Kane approached. How he watches you. Whatever's happening between you two—it's not casual."

Heat rises to my face. "That obvious?"

"To someone looking for it." She gestures Alex over.

Willa examines him looking at the evidence where Kessler's people worked him over. Bruising has darkened to purple-black. She prods gently, checking for fractures, and probing for bits of shrapnel and other foreign material and extracting them.

She turns to Alex and checks the wound I packed earlier, nodding at me with approval. “You did good.” Foolishly, that simple praise pleases me. "Your ribs are cracked but not broken. You'll live. Try not to get punched there for a few weeks."

Kane gestures everyone closer. "Intel summary. Committee knew about the extraction. They were tracking the equipment from the truck."

"We dumped everything," Alex confirms. "We're clean now."

Kane nods. "Which means they know our general area but not our specific location. Echo Base remains secure, but we stay dark. Full lockdown protocol until we're certain they've lost us." He looks at me again. "You understand what you're signing up for? Echo Base isn't a safe house. It's a military facility run by burned operators the Committee wants dead. You walk in there, you're declaring yourself an enemy of people with unlimited resources."