Page 33 of Surge
Surge joined the crew, looked at the screen like he knew what he was looking at.
“I had Caldwell send me the video of the search this morning.” She hit play.
They all stood there silently as the video ran.
It finished, and Garrett said, “I know what happened—I was there.”
“This time watch what I do.” She rewound and showed them the hits again, skipping the first one.
“Huh,” Caldwell said. “You look at Garrett, and Surge hits on him.”
“Yes,” she said quietly. “An inadvertent cue—leading, as it were. Surge thought I was cuing him to hit on Walker. My fault. I own that.”
Garrett’s lips twisted in thought. “What about that first hit?”
“It’s not a hit.” She rewound to it and hit pause when Surge turned to stare at him. “He’s on the other side of the alley, by me.” She zoomed in. “He’s caught sight of another dog. No behavior break, though. When I said his name, he immediately focused on me and went on the seek. Like I said, not a hit.”
Zim started laughing. “A dog in the middle of an MWD detection.”
Garrett’s jaw jerked to the side. “Inadvertent cues were your fault, Delaney?”
“Yes. I own that.”
He didn’t respond. Just stared at the video, jaw muscle twitching. Hard.
Man . . . tough audience. Delaney gulped, thinking of going back to Heath as a failure and with no new titanium prosthetic leg for Dad. She was a disappointment to God. Again.
Zim shrugged. “Boss, we need Surge. Especially now.Inadvertentmeans inadvertent—unintentional.”
“What it means is that she cost us time and possibly the chance to get this sorted and stop the Sachaai.”
“C’mon,” Zim said, his voice quieter. “She’s here. Our only chance to get Surge in the field. If Ghost sent her . . . maybe let her do her job. So she messed up. It happens. We all make mistakes. Let her try again.”
Caldwell nodded. “Delaney keeps looking at you because she’s worried that you’re going to cut her. You lasered her the whole time during that search. You interfered, so if you want to blame someone?—”
“I want the op to succeed,” Garrett said.
“Then let her focus on what she’s doing.”
Obviously irritated, Garrett signaled Caldwell and Zim aside.
As usual, God wasn’t letting her have a chance. Her stomach clenched.
Garrett’s right cheek twitched, and he jerked his thumb at the screen. “These inadvertent cues are solvable, right?”
She straightened. “Absolutely. Now that I know what happened, I fix it.”
Silence stretched between them for a long second. Then he exhaled heavily. “I’m not sending you home.” He met her gaze. “You found your mistake. Owned it. And you paid attention to Surge this time.”
This time? Oh, wow—he’d heard that dressing down from Heath? She bit her lip.
“Yeah. I heard Daniels call you out about that.”
But he wasn’t firing her? “You still sound unsure . . .”
“A lot is riding on you doing your job correctly. A lot of lives.” He stood silently for a second. “Meet me downstairs in twenty.” He pivoted and walked down the hall into his room.
He had something up his sleeve.