The kitchen goes very still.
I don't move. I don't react. I watch Raven lay out a plan that would put her in the hands of people who've already tried to kill her once, and I wait for the room to catch up to what she's proposing.
Knox breaks the silence first. "That's a suicide mission."
"It's the only approach that gets us what we still need," Raven says, and her voice doesn't rise or sharpen. She's not arguing. She's briefing. "We've got video evidence against Harlan and encrypted emails tying him to Alvarez. But we don't have the cartel's operational center, and we don't have hard proof connecting Alvarez to their leadership. If I'm inside their operation, I can get you both."
"By letting yourself get kidnapped." Beckett's voice has gone flat.
"By giving them what they want on terms I've chosen, not theirs." Raven looks at each man in turn, making eye contact and holding it. "I wear a wire and a tracker. The team follows at a distance they won't detect. When they move me to their coordination point, you come in with overwhelming force. We dismantle the entire network in a single operation."
Hawk tilts his head from his position near the window. "They'll search you. First thing they do is strip you down and check for surveillance equipment."
"Then we use technology they won't find with a pat-down." Raven doesn't hesitate. "GPS tracker sewn into clothing seams. Micro-transmitter concealed in a button or embedded in jewelry. I've run undercover operations in hostile environments before. I know how to carry a cover and I know how to sell it."
The room turns to me. Every man in the kitchen is waiting to see how I'll respond to the woman I claimed in front of all of them two days ago volunteering to walk into a cartel's hands.
I let the silence stretch. Let them sit in it. Let Raven see that I'm not reacting emotionally, not refusing out of instinct, not losing my grip on the operational picture.
When I finally speak, my voice is level and stripped of everything except the command underneath it. "I have conditions."
Raven's eyes lock onto mine, and I catch the flash of surprise before she buries it. She came into this expecting a fight. She expected me to shut it down.
"We control the timing." I hold her gaze. "We control the location. We control every variable we can identify before you set foot on that street." I turn to Torque. "How fast can you source a GPS tracker and micro-transmitter built to survive a hostile search?"
Torque considers for a moment. "A day, maybe two. I've got contacts who supply military-grade surveillance equipment to private contractors and agency operations. Tracker sewn into a jacket lining, transmitter embedded in a watch or a piece of jewelry. Nothing exotic. Just professional-grade hardware that won't fail under pressure."
"Get it done." I turn to Cipher. "I need you monitoring every channel she's carrying. If she goes dark for more than thirty seconds, I want to know about it."
"Understood. I’d recommend drones, too," he answers. "I can follow from the air."
"Done. Rook, you're on overwatch. I want sniper positions mapped and supplied along every likely transport route. If this goes sideways, you take the shot."
Rook nods once. He doesn't need more than that.
"Hawk, rapid response. If she needs extraction, you're the first one through the door."
"Copy."
My attention shifts to my brothers. "Knox, Beckett. Counter-surveillance. I want every cartel observation point in this county identified and accounted for. Nothing moves without us seeing it first."
Knox's jaw works for a long moment before he speaks. "Are you serious? You're actually agreeing to this."
"I'm agreeing to a controlled operation with parameters I can accept," I say. "We don't have the resources to storm every cartel staging point at once, and we don't have the time to wait for federal coordination to catch up. Raven's assessment is correct. This is the fastest path to their operational center, and it's the only one that gives us a shot at taking down the full network."
Raven's eyes sharpen, and the way she reads me in this moment is the way she'd read a fellow agent laying out a tactical plan. Not a man making a decision with his heart.
Good. That's exactly what she needs to see.
"When?" Rook asks.
"Torque sources the tech first. Then we map positions, run a full rehearsal with contingency protocols for every scenario we can anticipate. When I'm satisfied we've accounted for every variable within our control, we execute." I pause. "That means days, not hours."
"That gives the cartel time to move more assets out of the area," Raven says.
"It gives us time to do this right." I hold her gaze and let the weight of what I'm about to say settle before I deliver it. "Youwalk into town without full operational support behind you, you die. We do this on my timeline, or we don't do it at all."
She meets my eyes for a long count, then gives a single nod.
