Page 26 of Code Name: Tank
“Like you said on the plane—about Admiral being patient while you figured things out?”
“Exactly like that. Tank strikes me as the patient type, but even patient people have limits. Don’t wait too long to let him know you’re worth waiting for.”
As we reached the fork in the path where Alice headed toward the main camp and I turned toward Whisper Point, I found myself looking back toward the command center, where Tank was most likely still working.
Maybe Alice was right about him. Maybe it was time to stop pushing him away and trust that he could handle whatever complications my past might bring.
9
TANK
The command center was quiet when I arrived at zero eight hundred—an hour later than my usual start. I’d needed the extra time to clear my head after another restless night. The conversation with Dragon outside our hotel rooms in Texas had been replaying on a loop, along with the phone call I’d overheard at Whisper Point two nights ago. Someone from her past was pulling at threads I couldn’t see, and Dragon’s sudden coldness yesterday left me wondering if I’d misread the situation between us.
Admiral stood near the window, looking out at the lake, with coffee in hand when I walked in.
“Morning, Tank.”
“Where is everybody?” By everybody, I meant Dragon, and I was sure Admiral knew it too.
“Dragon and Alice left for CIA headquarters about an hour ago. They won’t be back until late afternoon at the earliest.”
I set my coffee down. Dragon hadn’t mentioned anything about a CIA consultation yesterday, but then again, she’d barely spoken to me beyond the essential details. “Everything all right?”
“According to Alice, Dragon requested an urgent meeting with McTiernan.”
What the hell? She asked Alice to go to DC with her, and not me? I’d actually worked for the CIA. Alice never had. I was trying to figure out a way to express my displeasure toAlice’s husband, when his cell rang.
He checked the caller ID, and his expression darkened.
“Doc,” he said, accepting the call. “How are you? How’s Merrigan?”
I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but Admiral’s responses told me enough. “Understood. How soon will you be here?” He paused. “Roger that, we’ll be ready.”
When he hung up, Admiral turned to me. “Doc and Merrigan are flying in from California. Emergency team meeting. Everyone’s attendance is mandatory. They should arrive here close to eleven hundred hours.”
Doc Butler and Merrigan Shaw weren’t just managing partners of K19 Security Solutions—they were legends. When they dropped everything to fly across the country, it meant something significant had either happened or was about to.
“I told him Alice and Dragon were on their way to DC, and he said that, while they’d prefer they be at the meeting, they don’t have time to wait.”
“Did he say what the meeting is about?” I asked.
“The investigation. But that’s all I know.”
I spent the next two hours prepping for whatever questions Doc and Merrigan might have.
At eleven hundredon the dot, I heard the distinctive sound of rotor blades approaching Canada Lake. Through the command center’s floor-to-ceiling windows, I watched a sleek helicopter settle onto the compound’s main helipad. Docemerged from the helicopter first, followed by his wife. Merrigan was a former MI6 agent who’d saved her now husband’s life after he was held hostage for several months by the Russians. Now, they were married, with two kids. I was sure there’d been a time in both their lives when they never could’ve imagined how things turned out.
It made me wonder if I’d ever find what they had. I shook my head at the ridiculous idea that I had fleetingly thought maybe I would with Dragon.
Admiral met them at the command center’s entrance, and I stood as they walked into the main area.
“Admiral,” Doc said, clasping hands with him. “Thank you for assembling the team on short notice.”
“Tank, good to see you,” he said when I approached, shook hands, then cheek-kissed Merrigan.
“We miss you, out on the West Coast,” she said, winking. “I’m sure your family does as well.”
I was born and raised in the Bay Area, where my folks still lived. Her mention of them reminded me how much I was looking forward to their Thanksgiving visit.
