In the heart of London – Surveillance at a glance…

Three hours after unlocking the case, Emma, Jake, and Tess sat in a sealed briefing room beneath MI5’s sub-basement—colloquially known as The Vault. No windows. No signals. Just silence and secrets.

Projected on the wall was a map of Europe, overlaid with glowing nodes—each one a Harrowgate asset.

Jake scrolled through the files. “This network spans 14 countries. Embedded agents, deep-cover operatives, even ghost identities tied to shell corporations.”

Emma leaned forward. “And they all report to one directive: destabilize hostile networks before they reach the surface.”

Tess nodded. “Harrowgate was designed after the Berlin breach in ’09. MI5 realized traditional intelligence was too slow. So they built a shadow network—off-book, untraceable, and autonomous.”

Jake frowned. “But if it’s autonomous… who’s pulling the strings now?”

Tess hesitated. “That’s the problem. Harrowgate was meant to be self-regulating. But someone hijacked the command node.”

Emma’s eyes narrowed. “Vance?”

“No,” Tess said. “He was just a broker. The real controller is still out there.”

Jake tapped into the metadata. “There’s a pattern in the asset movements. Someone’s been activating dormant agents—coordinating them across borders. And they’re all converging on one location.”

He pulled up the coordinates.

Prague.

Emma stood. “Then that’s where we go.”

Tess looked uneasy. “Prague was the original Harrowgate launch site. If someone’s reactivating it… they’re not just using the network. They’re trying to take control of it.”

Jake’s voice was low. “And if they succeed?”

Tess didn’t blink. “Then they’ll have the power to rewrite global intelligence in real time. Every agency. Every operation. Every secret.”

Emma holstered her weapon. “Then we burn it down before they do.”