Prep for 2.18.6 release

Author: cowtowncoder

pom.xml

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson</groupId>
     <artifactId>jackson-base</artifactId>
-    <version>2.18.6-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.18.6</version>
   </parent>
   <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
   <artifactId>jackson-modules-java8</artifactId>

release-notes/VERSION-2.x

@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ Modules:
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+2.18.6 (22-Feb-2026)
+
+No changes since 2.18.5
+
 2.18.5 (27-Oct-2025)
 
 #372: `java.util.Optional` deserialisation fails when using `TypeFactory.defaultInstance`