“Is that what you call it?” Dakota laughed. “Funny money?”
“Well, no, it’s not at all funny,” Neesa said. “I just don’t like to say counterfeit because it sounds like confetti for a celebration—funny money isn’t any better. I need something that means evil.”
“The Devil’s Cash,” Rylee said.
Neesa looked over her shoulder at Rylee. “That works.”
Reaper opened a door and looked in. “Hi, Hailey, I have WorldCares and the Secret Service with me.”
“Perfect.”
They filed in and sat down to see a PowerPoint on the screen.
Reaper left.
“There are a lot fewer names on that list than I expected,” Dakota said as he signaled Tank under the table.
Hailey clicked and brought up color-coded lists. “These are the members of the World Cares teams over three deployments. These next three are the lists of names from other International teams. WorldCares tends to match up with the same international groups,” Hailey explained. “They have good communication. They know each other's strengths and weaknesses. When I was in logistics for WorldCares, we emphasized those relationships when we could.” Hailey shot a glance at Rylee. “This next slide has the name of our special friend.”
“Langley said to share,” Rylee said.
Langley? Dakota and Jasper turned to each other, then back to the screen.
“These are the two faces that have shown up in all three of the WorldCares deployments where they had a known contact with counterfeit currency.”
“Casey Andrews,” Rylee said as she tapped her thigh and reached for Tank, “is a CIA field officer who has our permission to ride along with us and wear our logo at disaster sites. We do that with immense gratitude.”
Under the table, Tank wriggled over to Rylee to get scritches.
“Tell me about that,” Dakota said. “That is, if you’re allowed to. I’d like to understand the CIA’s relationship with you.”
“There are very good reasons that the CIA sends intelligence to these events,” Rylee explained. “From the CIA’s point of view, they want to monitor how foreign governments operate under stress. How efficient they are. If there are concerning levels of unrest because of what the government did or didn’t do. What fissures were there in the country, and who was trying to exploit them?”
“Hailey can tell you,” Neesa said. “She saw a lot of this in her time out in the field doing prep work for an anticipated crisis.”
“Exactly,” Hailey agreed. “Certain manipulators wanted to shove themselves in and look like the good guys with soft diplomacy and humanitarian efforts—food and a handshake. That wasn’t the danger. Casey was looking for dangerous alliances born out of desperation—who was there to put a foot in the door to ease their reputations as a terrorist organization and try to garner the label of a brotherhood instead. And then some groups wanted to exploit the situation. They were the ones who took control of the trucks or train cars filled with supplies. To survive, people did what they were told to do at gunpoint.Paid what they were told to pay. Even then, sometimes those supplies were just rerouted to insurgent camps to feed themselves and never reached the hungry disaster survivors.”
“And, of course, there’s nothing like a natural disaster to exploit for extremist recruitment,” Rylee said, “undermine local authority, or simply cause chaos and panic in a group of people desperate for survival.”
Dakota looked across the conference table to see Jasper purse his lips and raise his brow, conveying, “That might explain it.” And Dakota knewexactlywhat Jasper was thinking.
Neesa picked up on it, too. “What’s that, Jasper?”
“I’m not saying I did this or specifically know anyone who did. I’m just saying it’s done. Sometimes in the field, a group comes upon something of value—diamonds, gold, bags of U.S. dollars in cash meant by the CIA to bribe some tribal head. And sometimes that thing of value is moved to a secret space. The idea is that people live dangerous lives to serve the government, and the government doesn’t exactly compensate them appropriately. So they set this up as a rainy-day fund. If the team member becomes disabled or dead, the family isn’t left desperate. If everyone gets home safe and sound, they have a nest egg for retirement. They figure, the thing of value would only land in the hands of a bad guy, so why not put it to good use?”
“Why not?” Rylee asked. “The ethics seem okay to me if it were an enemy, and we were at war. But if you’re insinuating that Casey would endanger us, or his position, or the people in crisis by trading out US dollars for counterfeit, I’m putting my foot down. I willnotentertain that idea. Casey Andrews is a WorldCares hero.” Rylee’s voice rang clear with conviction.
Hailey leaned forward, her face was a storm of emotion. “Casey’s work in gathering information during a disaster has led him, on many occasions, to learn of armed dangers. He hasmoved our people out of harm’s way, hidden us in safe spots, and helped our people escape in what seems similar to the Underground Railroad, out of the country before kidnapping raids. I agree with Rylee, having personally survived an armed attack that destroyed the village where I was working, people like Casey are the greatest of heroes. I stand staunchly with him and his integrity.”
The three had women shifted to a war footing. Time to change the subject.
Dakota pointed at the list. “What about the second name, Dr. Lewis McLeod?”
Rylee shook her head and looked at Neesa.
Neesa shook her head and looked at Hailey.
“He’s a professor who goes to mass disasters, especially during winter break and during the summer, to work on a photography project, taking pictures of people at their most raw moments. People in disasters,” Hailey said. “I met him once. He’s dedicated to his work and otherwise stays out of the way.”
