Page 63 of Code Name: Tank
“Can you make out any identifying features?” I asked, not liking what I was seeing.
Dragon studied the screen. “No, but I know it’s Flint.”
“You’re sure?” Admiral asked.
“Yes,” she said without any hesitation. “Then he vanishes less than two hours later.”
“So he left the photo, knowing he was about to disappear,” I said. “Like he was trying to warn you before it was too late.”
Admiral joined our discussion. “What are you thinking about this message? ‘Trust + leverage = betrayal without choice’?”
“It sounds like someone being forced to do something they don’t want to do,” Alice said, readjusting the pillow near the small of her back on the chair. “Someone with access being coerced.”
“But who?” Atticus asked. “And coerced how?”
Dragon stared at the photograph. “Flint spoke in riddles all the fucking time. Drove me crazy. He’s pointing me toward something specific.”
“The fund diversions,” I said. “Someone with legitimate access to the accounts.”
Dragon scowled. “Exactly. But why leave a cryptic message? Why not just say it directly?”
“Maybe he couldn’t,” Alice suggested. “Maybe he was already in danger when he left this.”
We spent the rest of the day trying to apply Flint’s message to anything we’d learned about the authorization patterns from the defense contractors. Alice and Tex continued analyzing the financial data, looking for signs of coercion rather than corruption. Atticus coordinated with local authorities, but Flint’s trail had gone completely cold.
“I keep coming backto the word ‘leverage,’” Dragon said the next morning as we walked toward the command center. “What kind of leverage would force someone with high-level access to authorize unauthorized fund transfers?”
“Blackmail,” I said. “Personal information, family threats, or career destruction.”
“Or all of the above.” Dragon’s expression was troubled. “Tank, what if we’ve been looking at this wrong? What if the person authorizing these transfers isn’t the real criminal?”
“A victim instead of a perpetrator.”
“Right. Someone being forced to sign authorizations they don’t want to sign.”
Alice’s pregnancy symptoms had been troubling her over the weekend, requiring her to take more frequent breaks. Admiral’s protective instincts were in overdrive, though he tried to hideit. Later in the afternoon, I found him hovering near her workstation with a cup of ginger tea.
“She’s stronger than both of us combined,” I told him quietly.
“I know,” he said. “Doesn’t make it easier to watch her push through this.”
Dragon had been spending extra time helping Alice with the technical analysis, covering for her when the nausea got too bad. I watched the two of them work together, noting how naturally Dragon had stepped into a supportive role. She was building the family connections she’d never had growing up.
Monday night,as we prepared to head back to our camps, Dragon looked exhausted.
“Still thinking about Flint’s message?” I asked.
“I can’t shake the feeling we’re missing something obvious,” she said. “The answer is right in front of us, but we’re not seeing it.”
“Maybe that’s the point. Maybe Flint wanted us to figure it out gradually, to be absolutely certain before we act.”
Dragon nodded, but I could see the frustration in her eyes. “I just hope he’s safe, wherever he is.”
Since Flint went missing,Dragon and I spent what quiet time we could together, away from the investigation. We took a long walk around the lake, cooked a simple meal at my camp, and talked about everything except missing operatives and cryptic messages. But even during our most relaxed moments, I could see her mind working, trying to solve Flint’s puzzle.
“You know what bothers me most?” she said Tuesday evening as we watched the sunset from my dock.
“What’s that?”
