Chapter Eleven
Rylee
Tuesday
Neesa pushed back from her desk. “How was the helicopter jumping, bonding experience?”
“Well, if everything hurt this morning,” Rylee said, easing herself into the guest chair.
“This afternoon, it’s worse.” She dropped her backpack to the floor.
“I forgot just how strenuous that crap is. But I gritted my teeth and tried to make it look like a smile so everyone would think I was Miss Mary Sunshine and wouldn’t bitch when I told them I was going on the Fast Reaction Roster to head out with the next team.
” She reached behind her head and started pulling bobby pins from her bun. “So that’s me, what happened here?”
Rylee listened carefully as Neesa walked her through her meeting with Jasper, Dakota, and Tank. “Gorgeous dog.”
“Accurate, though?”
“They had a machine, and when Tank alerted, they tested the notes. So I don’t know if he found them all, but I do know that every alert was accurate.”
“We need everything in the safe to go through a machine to be tested, though, don’t we? To be extra sure?”
“We do. Since the Secret Service found evidence, they’re sending someone over tomorrow with a faster machine.
Their special agent will be in the vault with Erica.
We have the video recording anyway, but she’ll monitor everything.
After that’s done, Erica will make sure we have all the serial numbers properly documented, counted, and banded.
They were surprised that we kept that much cash in our vault and wondered why we had so much cash on hand. ”
“You explained the number of our teams, that we serve all over the world, and the length of time they’re often on site without a banking system, with major expenses?”
“I did.”
“All right. I’m going back to my office to look over our cash protocols and see if I can’t find some glaring hole that this bugger is sneaking into.
I mean, we video-record every aspect of our missions.
Did you mention to them that we have storage tent surveillance and body cam from all the missions on file? ”
“It didn’t occur to me since I’m the numbers side of things.” Neesa scooped up her phone. “Can you sit for a second while I try to get Jasper on the line before he leaves for the day?”
Rylee slid down in the seat until the back cradled her neck, pressing into the space that was starting to feel like a headache.
“Jasper? Neesa Meesang here. I’d like to put you on speaker phone. I have my co-director with me, and she mentioned a resource that I hadn’t considered.”
After a moment of silence, with permission, Neesa tapped the speaker feature and laid her phone on the desk.
“Rylee Jones, Jasper Lee.” Neesa introduced the two.
“Glad to meet you,” Jasper said. “So what have you got?”
“Rylee here. On missions, we use videotapes for security surveillance, and our responders wear bodycams. We maintain a library of the footage for ten years.”
“Interesting.” Jasper’s cogs were obviously whirring. “This is for security reasons?”
“Rylee. For many reasons, including the risk of being sued. We need to be good stewards of the money people donate and not hand out millions in legal battles. Equally importantly, responders are hard-driven men and women. They will run themselves into the ground trying to save lives unless we, by directive, tell them to stand down for eight hours of sleep and two hours of rest during the day. So movement is clocked. It seems a bit ‘big brother,’ but it has turned out to be necessary.”
“Neesa here. We have footage of everyone who would have contacted our teams and all movement in our storage area, which is usually on site.”
“A tent of some sort?” Jasper asked.
“Neesa. Yes, a refugee tent.”
“The tape is interesting,” Jasper said, “but we simply don’t have the manpower to go through that volume of data. By telling me about this, I’m assuming you believe there might be a common face that needs to be identified?”
“Rylee here. In my mind, it would have to be a known person. Someone that one of our people would say, ‘Hey, can you sit here with the packs for ten minutes so I can go find the latrine. Or even take over a stint. So, for example, if they set up their area next to ours, they could say, ‘I’ll watch both if you want to get going.’ It’s the only thing I can think of. ”
“Hailey Sterling and Iniquus,” Rylee whispered toward Neesa.
Neesa stilled and then nodded. “Neesa here. I can’t offer this as a solution, but I can reach out and ask.
” She tapped the desk in thought. “I don’t know how big of an ask this is.
” She looked out the window, obviously processing her thoughts.
“It would mean widening the circle of your investigation. Surely, you know of the security company called Iniquus?”
“I do,” Jasper said.
“They have a supercomputer that isn’t connected to outside sources. This means that all the data was entered into their system purposefully, therefore it is trustworthy and uncorrupted.”
“Interesting.” Jasper’s voice told Rylee he wasn’t sure where Neesa was going with this.
“Neesa here. The WorldCares family and the Iniquus family have, since Iniquus’s inception, worked at many of the same mission sites.
Two of those events led to marriages between our specialists and Iniquus operatives.
We’re a family of sorts. So, with your okay, I thought I might reach out to one of our alums who now works over there and see if Iniquus would be willing to process the footage. ”
“I don’t see that as a problem. We’d appreciate any data that narrows the playing field.”
“Alright. There are just a few more minutes in the workday, so let me reach out now. I’ll let the special agent we’re expecting tomorrow know what comes of this idea.”
“Or,” he paused. “Or you could call me directly. Thanks so much to both of you. Neesa, I’ll speak with you tomorrow?” Jasper’s voice was warm and soothing, what Rylee would deem a “boyfriend voice.” Why would he be talking to Neesa like that?
But then Rylee saw Neesa’s face, Rylee realized, yep, she was bitten by a love bug.
When Neesa ended the call, Rylee lifted her brows high, waiting for the scoop.
Instead, Neesa got right on the phone with Hailey, and Rylee wandered back to her office to take a pain pill.
The buzzing in her hands and feet had kept her awake for the last few nights, and this week had been physically taxing.
She really should think twice before she flew off with one of the fast-reaction teams into the desperate circumstances of a mass disaster, where sanitation was at a premium and exhaustion was a given.
Should she be putting her body under undue stress? Or was there someone else who could fill that role?
And with that thought, Rylee stared out her window, her mind a complete blank until Neesa barged in with a grin on her face. “The videos, that was a clever thought. Kudos.”
“What did Iniquus say?”
“Hailey got me on a call with General Elliot and, since we already had Jasper’s blessings—"
Rylee quirked a brow.
“What?”
Rylee grinned. “Just the way you said Jasper.”
Neesa stopped and lifted her chin. “How’d I say it?”
Rylee lifted a coy shoulder and, batting eyelashes, purred, “Jasper.”
“I did not.” Neesa objected. “Did I?”
“We can talk about this Jasper guy later. What did General Elliot say?”
“I explained the situation and the ramifications to the integrity of our organization. Something the general well understood,” Neesa said.
“He thanked me for the heads up because, like most groups going into disaster zones, Iniquus uses a cash economy, too. They’re putting their bills through the machine to check for authenticity.
But yes, they’re sending an operator team over to collect the video data in the morning. ”
“Did you consider, Casey Andrews?” Rylee asked. “His face is going to be all over those tapes.”
“Oh, shit.” Neesa froze. “I did not.”
CIA Case Officer Casey Andrews, at Langley’s request, often deployed alongside the WorldCares Rapid Response Teams to monitor issues arising from mass disasters.
Things that WorldCares wanted protection from: terrorism, governmental instability and regime change, human trafficking, and other forms of exploitation.
Andrews let WorldCares know when there was a threat and scooted them out of the area before they became victims, and in return, Andrews got to show up in parts of the world where he might stick out like a sore thumb if he wasn’t attached to a logo-wearing group.
“Okay. I’ll call Langley in the morning and let them know that Andrews might end up as a data point. And until given approval, I won’t mention Andrews to Jasper.”
“Jasper,” Rylee sing-songed. “Okay, tell me, what’s he like?”
“Smart, not too tall, which is good for someone of my stature. He just seemed really kind. Capable. Unflappable.”
“You could use those things in your life. Is he single?” Rylee asked.
Neesa dropped her purse on Rylee’s desk. “No ring. But what does that mean?” She pulled her coat on. “Speaking of Jasper. You done for the day?”
“Yeah. I think anything else can wait until morning.”
“There’s a bar up the street called Macadoo’s.” Neesa walked toward Rylee’s coat hook. “How about we go get a drink to unwind?”
“Suspicious,” Rylee said, tipping her head back. “We don’t go out for after-work drinks as a rule. Spill.”
Neesa lifted Rylee’s trench coat and held it to her chest. “On his way out, I heard Jasper saying on his phone that they were leaving here to go to the hospital. But they’d still be on time at Macadoo’s for their weekly meet-up.”
“It’s not at all suspect that you know they’ll be there?”
“No,” Neesa walked to the hook where Rylee kept her coat, “because I was slinking from potted plant to potted plant so I could eavesdrop.”
“Stop.”
“I’m kidding. I was walking to the ladies' room when he was making the plans on the phone. All is fair in love and war.” She handed Rylee her coat.