Chapter Seventeen #2
“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.
“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 knew exactly what 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 will not entertain 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 has moved 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. ”
“You sneered,” Jasper said.
“I’m not a fan. To me, it’s a moral gray area,” Hailey said.
“Granted, he sells the photos to news outlets, and that brings emotional awareness to the situation and might boost needed donations. On his website, it says that money from his photography sales goes to affected areas. Is it true that he gives the money? He’s not listed as a 501(c)(3).
He said the proceeds from the book will help recruit and train disaster response workers worldwide.
You can see the images on his website. They’re poignant. He’s good at what he does.”
“And yet?” Rylee asked.
“It feels exploitative of the suffering. I’m very much conflicted by it all. WorldCares asked that we not be included in the images. He’s honored that request.”
“If anyone who has a signed Iniquus contract is at those disasters, Iniquus sends in a team to extract them. Are they in the photos?” Rylee asked.
“We have a computer system dedicated to protecting our client’s safety from the Internet.
For example, say one of our people is doxed, they scrub that data to stop such things as swatting.
That ongoing search looks for any image of anyone working for Iniquus.
If we were on Dr. McLeod’s website, we would pay to have them removed for security reasons. ”
“If he knew that, he could focus all of his efforts on taking Iniquus photos.”
“He could,” Hailey agreed. “Surely, someone sat him down and had a conversation. We do everything necessary to keep our operators safe in a world where privacy is at a premium.”
“Pretty soon, I’m going to start wearing a variety of silicone masks,” Dakota said. “Or start walking around in war paint stripes, like we did at the races.”
“Is that why you did that?” Rylee asked. “It looked like modern art.”
“How long do you think that will hold until you can’t thwart the computer with the paint?” Jasper asked. “Has Iniquus considered balaclavas? Other groups have started using them.”
“We’re not criminals,” Hailey said. “We wouldn’t want to dress the part. We’ll keep working to stay a step ahead.”
“How dangerous is your work, Dakota?” Rylee’s mouth pulled into a frown.
Dakota’s job put him in the thick of things. If he were identifiable, it would end his ability to operate.
He reached under the table to squeeze her hand, so she’d know everything was okay.
But that flash of fear for his safety, that was why he’d always promised himself, whether he was with the Navy or the Secret Service, that he’d step into a different role once he found someone who cared, something that was mostly behind a desk like Jasper and Kumar, with some field trips with Tank.
Dakota had seen too many good women and loving families absolutely devastated by the constant strain.
And he wasn’t selfish enough about his career to make his loved ones pay the price.
Had Dakota known about Iniquus back when he left the Navy, he would have liked to throw his hat in the ring for a spot on one of their tactical teams. Back in his prime, he wouldn’t have minded traipsing around the world, pulling college students and executives out of their emergencies.
He would have seen a lot of the world that he hadn’t seen when he was stationed on either side of the Red Sea.
Yeah, in the military, he’d seen a lot. A lot of it he’d like to forget.
Instead, his career took him to the Secret Service, where he tried to protect the integrity of the US dollar by stopping counterfeiters. That brought him primarily to Peru and Colombia.
Once Tank held his certifications, Dakota would take up assignments closer to home.
He paused for a moment as he realized that he’d already made up his mind to talk to Jasper about a lateral move out of the field.
When had he made that decision?
It was time to make a career move—this was a huge acknowledgement of his shifting priorities—he wanted a family life.
He wanted to reach out and bring peace to someone just by sitting close and holding her hand.
Dakota liked the harmony and comfort he felt last night with Rylee, and he wanted that for himself as his constant.
Possibly, Rylee wanted that in her life.
Could things work out between them?
It was early days.
Too soon to tell