The Blueprint of Control

Jessica stood by the lake at dawn, the cold air biting at her skin, her breath visible in the morning light. The surface of the water was perfectly still, reflecting the muted colors of the sky. She stared at her own reflection, feeling the weight of everything pressing down on her chest.

She had spent years chasing after ghosts, peeling back layers of lies, and searching for something real. Now, as the truth unfolded before her, it felt like she had stepped into a history she never asked to inherit.

The war had never ended. It had only changed its shape.

Footsteps crunched on the frost-kissed grass behind her. She didn’t turn. She already knew it was Olivia.

“You’re up early,” Olivia murmured, stepping beside her. She wrapped her arms around herself, huddling against the cold.

Jessica exhaled slowly, watching the mist of her breath dissipate. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“Yeah,” Olivia said, shifting her weight slightly. “Me neither.”

Silence stretched between them, but it wasn’t empty. It was full of unspoken thoughts and shared understanding.

Jessica finally glanced at her. “What are you thinking?”

Olivia hesitated. “That we’re in deeper than we’ve ever been.”

Jessica smirked faintly. “That’s saying something.”

Olivia shook her head, her expression serious. “This isn’t like Vanguard. That was just a corporate nightmare. This…this is history. This is power at a level we’ve never touched before. Dominion isn’t just erasing people, Jess. They’re rewriting the past.”

Jessica knew she was right. The file in the safe deposit box hadn’t just been a collection of names and operations. It had been a blueprint.

Projekt Schatten had been the precursor to Dominion. Before Vanguard was even formed, there had been experiments, thought control, the engineering of influence. And Mr. Black had been there. Not a participant. Not an observer, but as a designer.

Jessica turned back to the lake, her voice measured. “We need to find out how far this reaches. Who’s still pulling the strings.”

“And how do we stop it?” Olivia asked quietly.

Jessica nodded. “And how do we stop it?”

A gust of wind rippled across the water, distorting their reflections.

* * *

Back inside the guesthouse, Leanna had already set up her laptop, papers and photographs scattered across the wooden table in the small dining area. She barely looked up as Jessica and Olivia entered, her mind clearly working through a problem.

“You’re not going to like this,” she said without preamble.

Jessica pulled out a chair and sat. “Give it to me anyway.”

Leanna tapped a document open on her screen. “The Stasi files we recovered mention three locations tied to Projekt Schatten. Berlin was just a drop site. The real research, what they were actually doing to people, it didn’t happen here.”

Jessica tensed slightly. “Where, then?”

Leanna pulled up a map. Three red markers lit up across the screen.

“Moscow. Zurich. And Washington, D.C.”

Jessica’s fingers curled slightly against the tabletop. “D.C.?”

Leanna nodded, her expression dark. “According to this, some of the Stasi research was funneled to an American intelligence division in the late eighties. They didn’t just take the files. They continued the work.”

Olivia let out a quiet curse, rubbing her forehead. “So this isn’t just Cold War leftovers. It’s still happening.”

Jessica leaned forward, eyes fixed on the screen. “And Zurich?”

“Swiss banking,” Leanna said grimly. “If you’re hiding money, influence, or secrets, Zurich is where you keep them. If Projekt Schatten funded Dominion, the money trail probably starts there.”

Jessica exhaled sharply, rubbing the back of her neck. Three locations. Three potential answers. And three places where Dominion’s hand was still reaching.

Olivia tapped the edge of the folder, her brow furrowing. “There’s more, this isn’t just Cold War detritus. Look at this seal,” she said pointing to the page. “see it?”

Jessica leaned in. There was a faded insignia, barely visible behind the redacted pages.

“Jesuit cipher,” Olivia said. “Old-school encryption. The Vatican used it back in the Projekt Schatten files. It's not official, but someone on the inside flagged it.”

Jessica’s expression hardened. “So Rome’s watching.”

“Maybe more than watching,” Olivia murmured. “Maybe orchestrating. Who knows.”

Leanna folded her arms, watching Jessica carefully. “So where do we go first?”

Jessica considered the question, rolling it over in her mind, weighing every option.

Moscow meant diving directly into the remnants of the Soviet machine. It was where the old intelligence networks still thrived, where Dominion’s roots likely ran deepest. If they wanted to understand how it all began, it was there.

Zurich was money. Influence. The infrastructure that kept Dominion alive. Without funding, without resources, the machine wouldn’t run.

Washington, D.C. was power. If Dominion was still operating within the U.S. government, it wasn’t an old war. It was a current one.

And Rome. Rome was a myth. Jessica had seen enough to suspect the Vatican’s fingerprints on parts of Projekt Schatten, but chasing ghosts in the Holy See without leverage would be suicide. The real threads could wait. The visible ones were bleeding now.

Jessica drummed her fingers against the wooden table, staring at the glowing points on the map.

“We start where it hurts the most,” she said finally, her voice quiet but certain.

Leanna raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

Jessica met her gaze. “D.C. We find out how deep this goes. We see who’s been compromised.”

Olivia nodded slowly, exhaling. “Yeah. That’s the right call. If Dominion is still pulling the strings, we’ll find proof in Washington.”

Leanna closed the laptop and sat back, her fingers steepled in thought. “Then we better start planning.”

Jessica pushed herself to her feet, glancing out the window one last time. The lake was still and silent, reflecting nothing but the vast gray sky overhead.

She had come to Berlin looking for a past she could understand. Instead, she had found a war still raging in the present.

And now, as she turned back to her team, she knew one thing for certain.

It wasn’t over.

Not even close.