“Rylee seeded some vivid nightmares with her river caper. So yeah, rough, and yeah, last night is one I never want to repeat. But we’re calling with what we hope is good news.”
“Hailey called from Iniquus,” Rylee said. “They have our analysis done. Just so you know, we only gave her tapes from the three instances when our responders had counterfeit money with them.”
“Smart to set those limits.” He watched Tank and Fifi running up and down the fence line together. “That narrows the playing field. What did you find out?”
“It didn’t surprise Hailey because she’s been a logistician for a long time, and it didn’t surprise us, but it might well surprise you to know how very small the Venn Diagram is for people who were around for the times when the counterfeit money was a known factor.”
“They processed it into a report?” Dakota asked, turning toward his drive as Jasper turned in. “It’s not just a raw list?”
“Neesa and I are going over in a little bit to talk to Hailey about the findings. We were wondering if anyone from your team wanted to participate in her presentation.”
“Jasper just pulled up. We’re on our way to Iniquus so Tank can do a walk-through of their vault. Iniquus has decided to test all of their currency, but getting a nose on it seemed like a good first step. We could meet there.”
“Okay, if you’re heading there now—I’m not sure how involved that search is for Tank—but we’re not expected there until ten thirty,” Rylee said. “So if you’re done by then, maybe you two could join us?”
“Absolutely, I’ll let Reaper know we need to make that meeting.”
The morning unfolded much too slowly for Dakota. He kept checking his watch, hoping for ten thirty. It was high school all over again. Jasper, too, seemed itchy. Tank hadn’t wanted to leave FiFi. It was spring, and love was in the air.
He smiled at the thought, then set it aside.
One thing he’d learned in his history with women was never to get ahead of the curve.
Dakota needed to stay present and work the job at hand.
In that moment, Reaper was monitoring Dakota’s ability to handle Tank on a counterfeit search.
General Elliot was on hand to watch Tank do his thing in the vault, where Tank had a hit.
The general turned his battle-hardened focus on Reaper. “Reaper, do we need a K9 trained up to police our currency?”
“No, sir. The Secret Service brought in specific scents from specific known counterfeit crews from specific countries. The only counterfeit money that Tank alerts on is narrow. If Dakota wants to use Tank in the field searching for a different criminal organization’s counterfeit money, Cerberus would have to start with a known sample and train Tank to those particular scents, so my training one of our K9s isn’t practical.”
“All right.” The general tapped a finger on Dakota’s chest. “When this young man brings in a new scent for Tank. We’ll do the training.” He turned to Dakota. “The currency I’m concerned with is coming out of North Korea. It can fool even the currency machines. So work on getting hold of that sample,and we’ll have Tank do an occasional walk-through to pay for his bread and butter.”
“Fair enough, thank you, sir.” Dakota focused on Tank as he lay down and rested his chin on his front paws.
“You boys going to play in the AI games today?” the general asked. “Swiftwater Crew, weren’t you both?”
“I’m not familiar with what’s going on, sir,” Dakota said.
The general put a hand on Reaper’s shoulder. “See what you can do to get them involved. I’m curious to see how today turns out.” And he walked away.
Reaper pointed down the hall where Neesa and Rylee rounded the corner with their Iniquus escort. “I’ll take WorldCares,” Reaper told the escort, who turned on his heels and left.
“When you’re done, the general was saying that DARPA’s here today.” Reaper used the acronym for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “They have an AI system that they want to test. It can monitor a building by watching for and signaling an advancing human. They’re setting it up on the barracks wall facing the field. They want to see if anyone can get to the building without the system detecting their approach. We have a couple of Marine Raiders from Strike Force that I know are taking a turn. Cerberus Bravo will all be there—Hailey’s husband, Ares, with his K9 Judge. Some others are throwing their hats in the ring. No prize, no glory, but it’s a break from the norm. A good challenge.”
“I haven’t quite forgiven Cerberus for stealing Hailey from us,” Neesa told Jasper. “She was one of our best logistical assets.”
“Stealing would be a stretch.” Rylee shifted back so she was walking beside Dakota with Tank between them. “She fell in love with Ares, and she’s still doing her good work in the world, but now she can still be home with him. We should talk to herabout that, Neesa. I bet she has some insights into our attrition issues.”
“Still,” Neesa said.
“I miss her too. Try not to grump,” Rylee said. “It’s because of Hailey that Iniquus analyzed our body cam footage.”
Neesa looked up at Jasper. “Did you find any funny money in the Iniquus vault?”
“I can’t say,” Jasper replied.
