Van still knew that this was the sensible choice. He knew that the baby CCIAB would quickly die if they didn’t prove their serious chops as go-to technical people. Jeb had promised that the feds would be good for Van’s money sooner or later. As the legendary Admiral Grace Hopper had often told Jeb, it was always easier to apologize to a bureaucracy than it was to get permission. Jeb did not have the necessary money, himself. Jeb had spent most of the last twenty years as a federal law-enforcement instructor.