Page 60 of Code Name: Tank
“Very,” I said under my breath. “What’s our next step?”
Admiral looked around the table. “We continue investigating from our end. Alice, keep working on those files with Tex. Tank, Dragon—I want you to follow up on any other leads while we wait to hear back from Hartwell.”
“Come with me,” Tank said, motioning to the hallway.
“What’s up?”
“I’m gonna call my recon contacts. See what they found. If anything, I want you to hear it at the same time I do.”
My head cocked.
“We’re partners, Dragon, remember?”
“Right. And partners can’t brief each other after a phone call.” The command center door shut behind us.
“Sure they can, but they probably wouldn’t do this.” He snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Okay if I kiss you?”
“You never have to ask.”
It was brief but needed.
“Got some interesting findings in the overhead footage you requested regarding Canada Lake activities,” said the man Tank called.
“Yeah? What?”
“Thermal imaging from last night shows a small watercraft approaching your compound’s shoreline near Sandy Point around twenty-three hundred hours. Single occupant disembarked, appeared to have brief interaction with someone already on shore, then both departed via the same boat.”
My pulse quickened.
“What happened next?” Tank asked.
“The boat proceeded to the coordinates I’m sending you now—close to the entrance to West Lake. Thermal shows it pulled up close to the shore and the occupants disembarked. Heat signatures moved inland toward what appears to be a vehicle access point.”
“How many signatures?”
“Two total.”
“Does what you’re seeing suggest voluntary departure or forced extraction?”
“Most likely voluntary. I’ll send this over for your team’s review.”
“Anything else noteworthy?” I asked.
“Vehicle thermal suggests SUV or similar, civilian plates. We’re tracking its route now, but the heavy tree coverage sometimes interferes with clean signals.”
After Tank ended the call, we returned inside.
“They have something,” Tank said. “They’re sending it over now.”
Alice pulled the footage up on the display, zoomed in, and played it slowly.
“This looks voluntary to me,” said Admiral after we’d watched it a few times.
“Appears that way. Question is whether he was meeting a contact, fleeing from something, or coordinating with accomplices,” said Atticus.
I agreed. It could’ve been any of those things.
By the timeAdmiral called it a day, saying we’d reconvene at zero seven hundred, darkness had settled over Canada Lake.
