Classification: BLACK LEVEL ACCESS ONLY
Origin: Director V
Recipient: Colonel James Harkins
Subject: Team Route Management
Colonel,
The field team must continue believing that route selection remains entirely under their own operational control.
You will therefore continue transmitting satellite imagery, trader reports, road condition updates, and militia activity through the established encrypted channel. The information must remain accurate.
Accuracy is essential.
Selection is not.
Reports should be provided in a manner that naturally favors the western corridor while discouraging alternate routes through environmental, logistical, or security considerations. The objective is guidance rather than instruction.
Under no circumstances should Team Leader A-01 suspect external route shaping.
If questioned, all intelligence is to appear consistent with routine surveillance operations and trader network reporting.
Maintain the illusion of independent decision-making.
The team must arrive believing every turn was their own.
Do not interfere unless the probability of mission failure exceeds acceptable parameters.
The primary asset must be preserved.
Further directives will follow.
— V
ATTACHED NOTE
Colonel Harkins,
Continue providing periodic updates at irregular intervals. Predictable communications create detectable patterns.
No additional personnel are to be deployed.
The team is already under observation.
— V
