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“To make it easier to place it in the correct file later,” Logan said, understanding the importance of it as they continued to help build cases against various packs.

“When you’re not answering communications, you’ll want to go through your casefiles, look at what’s already been done in each instance and apply the skills you always have to find new avenues to ferret out information,” Em explained. “Each file has a field agent, you might even see your name written on a few. Put your heads together, figure out where the trails went cold, and find any key pieces of information that are missing from the files or people who haven’t been investigated who might be connected to others involved.”

“Something tells me I am about to go on an epic scavenger hunt,” Logan said. “Let me ask you something, Em, has anyone ever combed through the files looking for names with matching initials?”

Her eyebrows knitted together as she cocked her head. “Not to my knowledge, but I feel like you’re on to something, so let’s hear what the thought process is.”

“When I was in the field, I used a bunch of aliases, but they were…”

“Always ones that started with an L, the same as your real name, and you always used the letter B for your last name, no matter what name you chose,” she finished for him.

“I wasn’t the only one to do it, either,” Logan explained. “Lysander, the wolf who taught me how to infiltrate groups and ferret out information, was the one who suggested it. It’s enough to make me wonder if a few of the wolves we’ve been after are doing the same thing.”

“It’s worth pursuing,” Em said. “Let’s get your security information entered, that’ll give you access to your files.”

She glanced at the top of the wall, then over to where the blond was still hard at work, phone pressed to his ear as he typed in between occasionally firing off questions.

“Second shift will be here in three hours,” she said. “Follow the prompts on the screen and get your security information and palm scans registered. From there, have at it.”

“Thanks, I will. I don’t know if it will pan out, but some of the patterns I encountered on my last case made me wonder if the reason I got burned was because I was dealing with someone I’d already encountered before and hadn’t been able to shut down.”

She nodded, lips pressed in a thin line, all the humor having bled from her eyes now that they were discussing the ring that had been trafficking in shifters for far longer than any of them had ever imagined. So far, they’d touched upon twenty years’ worth of suspicious cases and incident reports, but the potential for it to run deeper was something they all knew to be a very real possibility.

“Office supplies are in your desk drawer. Should you run out, you’ll find more in the supply cabinets in the storage room, located through those double doors.” She pointed to the large, brown doors on the far side of the room. “Everything from Bluetooth headsets to ballpoint pens.”

“What’s our command structure?” Logan asked before she could walk away. “If I need to get a field agent out of harm’s way or arrange for the extraction of missing shifters who have been located, what are the proper channels I need to go through?”

“The buck stops right here with us,” Em explained. “Take the time to familiarize yourself with the region as well as all the names listed on your resource list. That would be in the binder in your top desk drawer. Where they are, what they do, and how many they have at their disposal, it’s all there, including contact information, method, and second in command. They’re programmed into the system. All you have to do is reach out and give them their matching orders. You’ll be able to share GPS coordinates, and they’ll be able to share live body cam footage of what’s taking place as well as any drone footage if they’re using one. Some of our teams employ far more primitive, but no less effective methods, as you well know.”

“Yeah, the smash and grab teams tended to be the ones I was involved with most often.”

“If you have any other questions, there is a station-to-station messaging system that allows us to communicate even while we’re doing other things. Anything you need, just hit me up. I’ll introduce you to Sam as soon as he has a moment free. With any luck, you might get to see one of those retrieval deployments play out in a most joyous way.”

“Thanks, Em.”

“It’s what I do,” she said before heading back to her own station and leaving him to get to work.

First step, entering all his information and setting up his log on password.

He took his time with that to avoid the potential of being speared by an overzealous member of security.

Second step, setting up the desk so everything was where he could get to it at a moment’s notice. The clipboard of resources he removed from the drawer and hung from one of several hooks running along the wall directly in front of him.

Legal pad, highlighters, and sticky notes of various sizes. Logan preferred fine-point pens, there was less bleed, and thin lines didn’t bleed as badly if he was forced to scrawl notes at a rapid rate. He laid everything out before opening the first case file. Though the notes were in the computer, he preferred to go through the physical file first, pouring through it line by line, looking for names and descriptions of individuals, as well as the detailed map of where the events took place.

That part he used his monitor for, zooming the map in until he could see the roads and trails leading in and out. Following the paths the notes described was much easier with a visual. Because every route had a reason, he printed it out and added the case file number, as well as a note regarding direction of travel, the closest connecting route that left the region, and additional notations on the closest shifter territories to that exit point.

He’d chosen the first file for its slimness more so than anything else, to establish his workflow and get the feel for how everything was organized. There were only two files in the drawer assigned to the Roan Mountain Pack. One dated three years before, and one dated just last year.

The profile of the missing wolves read so similarly he ran the names through the database of all enrolled pack members beneath the High Council’s prevue just to see if they were related beyond pack ties, but at no point did their bloodlines overlap.

Loners.

Little to no family ties or at least not close enough ones where they would be missed right away.

Both were russet colored with golden eyes. That told him someone somewhere had a preference.

Because he knew that a handful of traffickers used the twice-yearly gatherings, where wolves from different packs got together to mingle and hope to meet their fated mates, as a means of identifying potential victims, he pulled up the records on when and where the ones before their disappearance had taken place. Some were so brazen as to have attended them, while others he’d busted over the years had subscriptions to dozens of pack newsletters.