Minor Characters

Below you will find the supporting cast - characters who appear only briefly in each story. They are sorted alphabetically by the first letter of their title or name.

### Arin

A member of Raul Sa's private mercenary stealth and extraction team. She is of unspecified Asian descent, small, and looks enough like Sophie Kim to pretend to be her and act as a decoy while Sophie's life is in danger in *Absolute Trust*.

### Beckhorn

A friend of David Cruz, still active in the military and stationed at Lackland Airforce Base in Texas. He and Cruz were on several deployments together. Beckhorn swears creatively and doesn't like consultants as a general rule. He's accounted a keen judge of character. He first appears in *Extreme Honor*, and later recommends that Raul Sa go to Hope's Crossing Kennels to be paired with a new working dog in *Absolute Trust*.

### Brutus

An older German Shepherd Dog with grey around his muzzle and eyes. David Cruz and Hope's Crossing Kennels helped train him for **Kathryn and Thomas**. He lives with them and their other dog, **Caesar**, at their Bed & Breakfast. He appears in *Extreme Honor*.

### Caesar

A dog trained by David Cruz and Hope's Crossing Kennels for **Kathryn and Thomas**. He lives with them and their other dog, **Brutus**, at their Bed & Breakfast. He is mentioned in *Extreme Honor*.

### Calhoun

A friend of David Cruz, and previous handler to Atlas. Witness to shady dealings within his Navy SEAL unit, which eventually led to his death. Mentioned in *Extreme Honor*.

### Dodger

A dog trained by Hope's Crossing Kennels. He was one of the dogs Raul Sa was contemplating adopting as a partner before he chose **Taz** instead. He appears in *Absolute Trust*.

### Dr. Medicci

She's the go-to veterinarian for Hope's Crossing Kennels, and was the one to find the micro USB drive hidden under the dog Atlas's skin. Appears in *Extreme Honor*.

### Gary Boulding

Co-Owner of Revolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy, where Serena Rojas, Alex Rojas, Elisa Hall, David Cruz, Sophie Kim, **Sean Cannon**, and Officer Kymani Graves and his daughter **Grace Graves** all train or take classes. He shares ownership, teaching responsibilities, and living space with his husband, **Greg Boulding**. He's a broad man in his late forties, with laugh and worry lines etched into his face. He's warm, friendly, and very insightful about people, with a rather bawdy sense of humor. His students call him Sifu, and he prefers coffee over tea. In return for some chores, Gary and his husband allow Elisa to stay in the student crash room above their school at Rojas's request. He appears in *Ultimate Courage* and is mentioned in *Absolute Trust*.

### Grace Graves

A young friend and schoolmate of Serena Rojas, and the daughter of Officer Kymani Graves. She appears in *Ultimate Courage*, where she and Serena and **Marlene** have a sleepover at her house.

### Greg Boulding

Co-Owner of Revolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy, where Serena Rojas, Alex Rojas, Elisa Hall, David Cruz, Sophie Kim, **Sean Cannon**, and Officer Kymani Graves and his daughter **Grace Graves** all train or take classes. He shares ownership, teaching responsibilities, and living space with his husband, **Gary Boulding**. Greg is a tall, lean man in his late forties, with laugh and worry lines etched into his face. He's warm, friendly, and particularly good with twitchy personalities. He teaches Jun Fan Jeet Kun Do and an anti-bullying program. He is called Siful by his students and prefers tea over coffee. In return for some chores, Greg and his husband allow Elisa to stay in the student crash room above their school at Rojas's request. He appears in *Ultimate Courage* and is mentioned in *Absolute Trust*.

### Jeff Santos

The crooked head of Sophie Kim's accounting firm. His office is luxurious, with frosted glass walls instead of clear ones so his clients can relax in privacy. He yells at Sophie when she gets too helpful in organizing data for his clients and comes very close to realizing that he's helping them launder money. His connection with the Labs-Anders Corporation results in Sophie's car blowing up and her spraining her ankle. When she comes back to work, Santos fires her, claiming that she must have brought the bombing on herself by associating with the wrong people. These events take place in *Absolute Trust*.

### Julie

Cat's paw of Joseph Corbin Junior, and ex-best friend of Elisa Hall. She is described as having curly hair long enough to flip over her shoulder. She approaches Elisa and Alex Rojas on their first official date, and immediately separates them by insinuating that Elisa is addicted to pills the same way Rojas's ex-wife was. Julie believes she is more important to Corbin than she actually is, and he holds leverage over her attempted modeling career in the form of very indiscreet pictures she's texted in the past. She appears in *Ultimate Courage*.

### Kaseri (Katherine)

A small Japanese woman described as having a nice, round face with dark eyes and two ponytails worn low on her head. She goes by Katherine for people who have difficulty pronouncing Kaseri. She runs the recently opened Cat Cafe, where people can drink coffee and play with cats from a local shelter. Brandon Forte brings Sophie Kim there to help her recover some of her emotional balance after she is attacked in *Absolute Trust*. Sophie subsequently adopts the young cat Tesseract, who had been rescued from a garbage can after being tied in a garbage bag and abandoned there.

### Kathryn & Thomas

A couple who run a Bed & Breakfast. They are friends of David Cruz and handle the dogs **Brutus** and **Caesar**. Cruz, Atlas, and Elisa Hall stay at their place in *Extreme Honor*.

### Marlene

A school friend of Serena Rojas. Mentioned in *Ultimate Courage*, when she and Serena have a sleepover at their friend **Grace Graves's** house.

### Mary Hall

Mother of Elisa Hall. She loves her daughter, but doesn't much understand her. She wants Elisa to have a husband in her life to take care of her, because Mary doesn't want her daughter to have to scrape by like she did. She is thrilled when Elisa gets engaged to Joseph Corbin Junior, and chalks up her daughter's reports of abuse in the relationship as mere nerves and stress. Unable or unwilling to grasp the truth, she gives Corbin information about her daughter's whereabouts while Elisa is on the run, thereby allowing him to stalk her more effectively. Mary appears in *Ultimate Courage*.

### Miss Patrick

Teacher to Serena Rojas. Mentioned in *Ultimate Courage*.

### Mrs. Seong

An older Korean lady who has been a friend of Sophie Kim's family for Sophie's entire life. When Sophie wanted to move out of her parents' home, Mrs. Seong argued on her behalf. Sophie, in turn, chose to live in an apartment very near to Mrs. Seong, where the older woman could keep an eye on her and reassure Sophie's parents. She likes cats. In *Absolute Trust*, she brings Sophie food and meddles cheerfully in Sophie's romantic life as it relates to Brandon Forte. ""Test drive before you decide to lease the car, hmm? Nowadays, you don't even have to commit to buying. I go test driving all teh time for fun." "He is probably good in bed, too. Soldiers are trained in many things."

### Officer Hanley

A police officer based in Hope's Crossing. He has sandy blond hair, light colored eyes, and clears his throat a lot when he's nervous. Appears in *Extreme Honor*, where he takes Evelyn Jones's statement after she is attacked in her hotel room.

### Officers Patterson & Wegner

Dirty cops from Richmond, Virginia. They show up at Revolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy, with no name tags, and demand that Elisa Hall come with them for questioning at division headquarters. When Alex Rojas refuses, they threaten to take her by force. Officer Kymani Graves's appearance runs them off. They were supposed to be on vacation, but were actually acting on behalf of the middleman service used by Joseph Corbin Junior to keep track of Elisa. They appear in *Ultimate Courage*.

### Sean Cannon

A student of both Revolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy and an obedience class at Hope's Crossing Kennels. He owns a pug with bad manners, and while he's a decent human being, he is young and lacks a common sense filter. He's asked to keep an eye on Elisa Hall for her safety, and ends up scaring her half to death in the process. She is so embarrassed that she returns to the kennels for a second day of work instead of fleeing. Cannon appears in *Ultimate Courage*.

### Sean Harris

A Navy SEAL stationed in Richmond, Virginia. Harris is described as lean, dark, and intimidating, but with a ready smile and laugh lines around his mouth. He is married, with three small children under the age of ten. He was a member of **Calhoun's** team, but elected to protect himself and his family by keeping his head down and going along instead of protesting. David Cruz and Evelyn Jones track him down while investigating Calhoun's murder in Extreme Honor, but Harris refuses to talk to them out of fear for his family's safety.

### Sergeant Zuccolin

A member of the cadre of Navy SEALs looking to turn mercenary after their retirement, and implicated in Calhoun's death. He is described as an older gentleman who talks like a politician. In *Extreme Honor* he shows up at Hope's Crossing Kennels claiming that he was ordered to retrieve Atlas. He ends up kidnapping and striking Evelyn Jones, and is subsequently arrested.

### Taz

A working dog trained by Hope's Crossing Kennels. He's good at tracking and identifying specific people. He finds a partnership with Raul Sa in *Absolute Trust*.

### Zerta

A recruiter for Labs-Anders Corporation - a private military outfit set up to run like a business where the bottom line matters a lot more than anyone's ethics. He has an impressive office and is entirely willing to use blackmail, threats of violence, and other intimidation techniques to force people to work for the Corporation if the initial hiring package isn't sufficiently tempting to the new recruit. Zerta attempts to use these intimidation tactics on Brandon Forte in *Absolute Trust*, even after the Corporation failed to fulfill its contract to assassinate Sophie Kim. When Forte refuses Zerta, several members of the Corporation are sent to kill the veteran. Forte uses a camera mounted on his dog Haydn's prosthetic leg harness to record the whole thing.