His phone rang, “Dakota here. What’s up, Jasper? Miss me already?”
“Yeah, my heart aches,” Jasper deadpanned. “Are you private right now?”
Dakota chuckled. “I was just wondering if I will even be private again. I’m walking to Rose’s work. Why? What have you got?”
“Two things. I might call you in a minute. I was talking to Kumar about Tank to see if he had anything you could use to get him real-world experience. He said there’s a charitable group of first responders coming in from the Colombian landslide. Since that’s a vector for counterfeit, and since we’ve been seeing an uptick in counterfeit U.S. dollars in global disaster spots, he’s working on getting search warrants together so he can look at any cash they’ve got on them. I told Kumar I wanted to come along and loop you in so we can test Tank’s snoot. He said no problem. We need to wait on the judge’s signature, then it’s a go.”
“What are you thinking?” Dakota asked.
“We stand to the side as the passengers walk by one at a time. If there are any hits, Kumar takes control of them. Then you and I go down to the luggage. You and Tank sniff the bags as they come off the conveyor. I take control of those that Tank indicates on. The rest head on through customs. We take anyone with a suspicious scent to a little room and do asearch. Even if Tank doesn’t get a hit, Kumar’s going to signal to customs that we need to search the group.”
“When is this?” Dakota asked.
“I need to get more details.”
“I’m game,” Dakota said. “Once we have a plan, I’ll call over to Cerberus to check in. Tank is training today.”
“In the meantime, your target’s in the paper. The Colombian police took him into custody. Well done. I’m sending you the article. Read it, then give me a call.”
Dakota’s text pinged with a link, and Dakota stepped out of the path to lean against a bare-branched tree as he read that the attorney general’s office in Colombia had arrested Carlos Diaz, the leader of a transnational counterfeiting group. This was the guy Dakota had been after for years, gathering data and evidence, and on that last trip to Colombia, he’d handed it all over to the government, hoping protection schemes wouldn’t make it all disappear.
Since Diaz had been seeding their fake money in Colombia, Ecuador, and the U.S., Dakota had sent the same information to Ecuador as a back stop to the kind of corruption that exists to some degree in governments worldwide.
Dakota wished they could extradite Diaz to the U.S. and try him in American courts, but it was always easiest if the country of origin charged first, and the guy went through their system.
Dakota rang Jasper back. “Damn, they seized fifty plates, three machines, over a million in counterfeit bills, and they cut off the head of the chicken, leaving the group leaderless.”
“A good day. If the airport doesn’t pan out, you’re back in the office?” Jasper asked.
“Yeah, right after lunch. We’re just going to the deli down the way. You want me to bring you something back?”
“Me? I’m good. I brought my lunch. I’m putting you on speaker phone. Benny, hey, Dakota’s grabbing a bite at the deli. You want something?”
“Nah, this heartburn’s still terrible. I’ll be drinking the pink bottle for lunch. It’s my fault for all the pizza. I was watching basketball and got overexcited. Sometimes you gotta pay the fiddler.”
“All right. Just text if you guys change your mind. Out.” Dakota checked the time and slid his phone into his pocket, picking up the pace to make sure Rose wasn’t waiting in the cold.
Arriving at Rose’s building, he moved to the alcove out of the wind and waited between the medical office and the florists. In the window, beautiful bouquets were on display. Considering them, Dakota wondered if he should buy one for Rose. She’d been in a funk this last week, and flowers might cheer her up. The roses would be a no-go. Rose hated roses; every man in her life leaned into the play on her name, and she announced straight off that she thought that was low-energy and lacked creativity or a sign of genuine interest.
Noted.
But the bouquet next to the roses was tropical and unusual, with bright, upbeat colors. Maybe those?
His cell rang again. And he put his phone to his ear. “Yeah, man. You change your mind about lunch?”
“Kumar’s back with the search warrant in hand.” Jasper’s voice rang with excitement. “The search covers anyone on the flight, but our target is WorldCares.”
“They have their directors’ suite up right up the street near Lafayette. That’s convenient if there’s an investigation.”
“And who doesn’t love convenience? They’ve got their team coming in on a direct flight, landing at two, but it looks likethey’re delayed an hour. Can you get Tank and get in place? I’ll meet you over there.”
“WorldCares. We need to tread lightly, there. They’re an internationally renowned, a world leader in disaster relief with an impeccable reputation,” Dakota said. “They have tight control over their accounting. I guarantee it. And we need to make sure we’re not somehow getting them bad press.”
“I’m not accusing them of anything. We don’t suspect the WorldCares workers. We’re simply trying to prove a theory. Kumar has the search warrants in case our 'please' and 'thank you' aren’t enough for those folks.”
“Putting pins into a corkboard?”
“Exactly,” Jasper said. “Kumar’s tracking natural disasters, and which NGOs,” Jasper used the acronym for non-profit organizations that operated independently from the government, “might have come into contact with counterfeit bills. It’s worth a look-see. And you said you needed a real-world field operation for Tank. That’s what I came up with. I agree with you. There’s little chance Tank will get a hit. But it’s something.”
