Page 35 of Acting on Instinct
“No. I felt it this morning, though. When we drove into the city, it went away.”
“Huh.”
“Exactly.” Kira looked off at the trees, falling silent. And Lula didn’t press. She gave Kira a moment to swirl her thoughts.
“I’m thinking this through,” Lula said as they walked. “I believe in the sixth sense. Truly. I have seen too much real-world evidence not to believe. Is there a reason you might feel unsafe in your home? Have you seen anything strange?”
“Define strange,” Kira said.
White shook her head. “You’d know it if you saw it. The strangeness would catch your attention.”
“No. Any suggestions about what I should do?”
Lula shook her head. “Get a big bad-ass dog?”
Kira frowned at her.
“Apologies. I don’t mean to be flip. I just don’t have any answers for you. I’m sorry. For now, let’s try to find some peace and smell the sun on the sweet little leaves trying to unfurl.” Lula said, pointing toward a grandfather tree with lumpy roots stretching wide. “Hey, I was at Iniquus Security in December. I saw Ty in the parking lot,” she said as the two women settled, leaning back against the rough trunk.
“He was there for an interview.”
“With one of the tactical forces?” Lula asked.
“A Cerberus Team.” Kira closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted.
“Oh? Is that in the works? He’s still with the Unit, isn’t he?”
“He is,” as Kira said that she thought she felt Lula release her tension, but Kira might have imagined it.
“But he’s leaving the military?”
“His contract is up soon,” Kira said. “Rory’s retiring and will go live with his previous handler. So Ty is trying to develop a plan that’s a win-win situation.”
“Is it something you can tell me about?”
“There’s a thing called an IMA, do you know this?” Kira kept her eyes closed, reaching out, trying to let her intuition sense what was going on. Lula never said why she was in Durham.
Durham was a strange place to just stop by when you were a CIA field officer.
There was more to this visit than Lula was telling her.
Kira’s instincts whispered, “Pay attention.”
“IMA—Individual mobilization augmentee?” Lula closed her eyes and turned her face toward the sun. “Yeah, I’ve heard of that. The Pentagon keeps people with high skills in the military, with only so many days a year when they need to function.”
“Twenty-eight days, something like that.”
“Do you know where he’d be assigned?” Lula asked.
“Well, if things worked out with Iniquus, he would be with either JSOC or the DIA in the role of some kind of K9 consultant.”
“He’d maintain his security clearance, his rank, and his MOS as a military working dog handler. That’s good. I could see why the Pentagon would like to have a foot in the door at Iniquus and vice versa. As an IMA, he’d keep his government ID and have access to secure facilities. The Pentagon has signed off on it?”
“They want him. But Ty doesn’t want to sign if he’s not working for Iniquus because he would either stay in his role with the Unit or need to find something else. It’s all up in the air.”
“Iniquus interviewed him months ago, and they haven’t said one way or another?”
Lula was really pushing for details. Was she here in Durham because of Ty? “No. Well, he hasn’t said anything about the process since he got back, and I assumed it’s because he signed an NDA. Surely, they’d want someone with Ty’s capabilities.” Kira stood, feeling unsafe and exposed in the open park. “I think I want to head back to the house.”
