Page 25 of Very Special Forces

"How didyou get the tank to Fort Charles in the first place? I figure youdidn't drive it from wherever it came from."

"You'reright, I didn't. It wouldn't do the tracks any good; plus, therewould be complaints about damaging the road surfaces. Besides, noone wants to make a cross country trip in one of those things. Itwould take forever. It came in on a tank transporter driven by aguy called Simmons. The transporter looks like a heavy tractor andtrailer unit."

"Where'sthe tractor and trailer now?" I asked.

Harrispaused. "I don't know. I can go check. It should still be parkedbehind the hangar since it was supposed to take the tank back toits home base next week."

"Pleasecheck and get back to me," I told him. "When did you realize thetank was missing?"

"Eightthe next morning."

That wasa twelve-hour window. Not great but at least something to workwith. "Any cameras in the hangar?" I asked.

"Yeah,there're two."

"I needto see that feed. Can you arrange that?"

"Iguess, but it won't be easy. What am I supposed to say?"

"I'msure you'll come up with something. Let me know when you get accessand if you can get me a copy. I can come to the base if it makes itany easier."

"I willlet you know. What will you do until then?" he asked.

"I'llwork with my team here to find out which traffic cameras areclosest to the base and see if we can pick up a tank transportersomewhere near Fort Charles between eight that night and eight thenext morning." Something else occurred to me. "What if it neverleft the base?"

"Itdefinitely left the base. Kafsky and I have lookedeverywhere."

"You'recertain?"

"It's atank, Lexi. Hiding a tank isn't easy."

And yetsomeone had managed to do it. "Call me when you have access to thesecurity tapes," I added and after we said our goodbyes, I hung upand went upstairs to talk to Lucas.

Lucaswas our resident tech geek although he didn't look it with hisruffled, blond surfer hair and relaxed jeans and t-shirt look. If Isaw him on the street, I'd probably think he was a college dropoutor a hipster in waiting, minus an enormous beard. Like me, he wasthe opposite of our other colleagues, most of whom I wouldn't wantto bump into on a dark night; not if I didn't know them for thegood guys they were. Unlike me, however, Lucas didn't go out in thefield. Instead he worked behind a large bank of monitors, observingthe world from the deep, dark corners of the internet.

"Hey,"he said, looking up and grinning when I dragged an office chairover to his station and plonked down on it. "I heard you lost atank."

"Ididn't lose it," I pointed out, "and how do you knowanyway?"

"I knoweverything," he said, flicking his eyebrows up and down.

"Do youknow where the tank is?"

He frowned. "I knowalmosteverything."

"Are youbusy?"

"Foryou, no. For everyone else, yes."

"Awesome. I need to find the closest cameras to Fort Charlesand access their security feeds between eight and eight three daysago."

"Okay.What are we looking for?"

"A tank,preferably but unlikely. A tank transporter mostlikely."

"Haveyou ever seen a tank transporter before?"

"Ofcourse!" Five minutes ago on my laptop, but there was no need totell Lucas that. It was better that he thought I knew everythingtoo. Bluffing was one of my key life skills.

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