I was recalled to her office hours later. Jack wasn't present this time, which tipped me off to the seriousness of this meeting. Adawe's blinds were drawn, and the rain tapping against them gave the illusion of secrecy. Behind her, the city's lights shimmered across the lake giving off distant, sterile, and unreachable vibes.
I stood at attention across from her desk, gloves still wet from the walk up. Gabriel Reyes leaned against the wall to my right, arms folded. His silence filled the room more than his words ever could. Adawe didn't offer a chair. She never did when the discussion wasn't one between equals.
"Madam Director," I began, "Talon trusts me. I've been deeper inside than any other operative. Pulling me now would burn weeks of progress."
Adawe didn't look up from the document she was reading. "Progress," she repeated softly, as though testing the word for cracks. "You mean deception. Lies. Murder."
"I haven't killed anyone," I said.
Her eyes lifted sharp, gray, merciless. "Yet."
"And what if I do?" I shot back. "Because while we debate morality, Talon's building weapons under Geneva, resurrecting banned research, and planting agents inside Overwatch command. You think you can fight shadows with policy? You can't."
Gabriel's voice cut through the tension. "He's not wrong."
Adawe turned toward him. "You're defending him?"
"I'm stating facts," he said. "He's the only one they trust right now. He's already proven he can survive among them without breaking."
"Or he's halfway to becoming one of them," she said.
Gabriel met her gaze evenly. "That's what the leash is for."
Adawe leaned back in her chair, folding her hands. "You want to stay undercover, Sergeant Rose?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Then you'll do it under my conditions."
She tapped the console. A holographic list appeared, cold blue light spilling across the desk.
"Condition One," she said. "You will not, under any circumstance, kill an Overwatch operative. I don't care if your life depends on it. You disable, you mislead, you disappear, but you do not kill."
"Understood."
"Condition Two. You are forbidden from informing your team of this operation. No contact, no coded messages, no accidental meetings. They are to believe you are operating under medical leave. If you attempt to reach them without approval, I will have you detained."
I said nothing. I didn't need to, I wasn't planning on telling them what I was doing anyway.
"Condition Three. You will not, under any circumstance, take Talon-made injections, serums, or medical treatments. You have seen what their technology does. If you allow it into your system, we'll consider you compromised and irrecoverable."
"Clear."
"Condition Four. You answer only to me or Commander Reyes. If either of us is unreachable, you do nothing. You act only under authorization."
I nodded once.
"Condition Five," she continued, "Strike Commander Morrison will be kept entirely out of this. He has enough responsibility carrying Overwatch's public image. If the mission fails, I need plausible deniability at the highest level. He cannot know."
"Understood," I said quietly.
She paused. "Condition Six. Every week, without fail, you report to Commander Reyes for a psychological evaluation. He'll determine your mental stability and check for manipulation, brainwashing, or ideological drift. Any signs of deviation, and the operation ends. Permanently."
Gabriel exhaled through his nose. "I'll keep the sessions off record."
Adawe gave a curt nod. "Good."
"Condition Seven," she said finally, "You will communicate through a system we design together, an indirect cipher. No direct transmission, no digital signatures, nothing that could lead them back to Overwatch. You will not improvise new channels. You will not break radio silence. You'll send only what's absolutely necessary."
She leaned forward. The glow from the hologram turned her eyes pale blue, almost metallic.
"And last," she said, "if you violate any of these conditions, any of them, you will be dishonorably discharged and imprisoned for life without trial. And if you're found out…"
She let the sentence hang, then finished it like a blade being sheathed.
"…no one from Overwatch will come for you. You'll be on your own, Sergeant Rose."
I stood there for a moment, the weight of the words pressing against me. Each condition felt like another door locking shut behind me.
"Do you understand?" she asked.
"I do."
"Do you agree to these terms?"
"Yes."
"Say it."
"I agree."
Adawe turned off the hologram. "Then you're officially reinstated as a covert agent operating under Overwatch jurisdiction, assigned to the Talon infiltration initiative. Your existence in that capacity is classified above all else."
She looked up at me, the exhaustion behind her professionalism barely hidden. "I'm not protecting you, Shawn. I'm protecting everyone you might bring down with you."
"I know."
Gabriel finally pushed off the wall. "He'll hold."
Adawe's gaze flicked to him. "You'd better hope so. Because if he doesn't, I'll hold you accountable."
He nodded. "Fair."
When the meeting ended, Adawe dismissed us with a quiet wave of her hand. Outside her office, the corridor stretched long and silent, the hum of lights the only sound.
Gabriel walked beside me for a few steps before stopping.
"You sure about this?" he asked.
"Wasn't planning on living forever," I said.
He grunted. "You know what she meant, if you get caught, you're gone."
"I know."
He looked at me for a long moment. "You break, you burn, you vanish or whatever happens down there, you're mine to fix. You understand?"
I met his eyes. "Understood."
He clapped a hand on my shoulder, firm and heavy. "Then go make the devil nervous."
Walking out the building, I stripped off the Overwatch insignia from my coat and placed it in a small box. The metal was cold against my palm.
It was better if I wasn't an agent anymore. Not to them. Not to anyone. From now on, I was just a ghost wearing another ghost's face.
Adawe's words echoed in my mind as I walked through the darkness.
"No one will come for you."
I didn't need them to. I'd already chosen this road. All that mattered now was walking it until the end.