Ryan said, “You know that’s bullshit. Nobody in North Korea who is starving now is going to get a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken when the government mineral mine starts producing.”
Arnie followed Adler’s argument. “But that’s how it will play in the press if we push to cut off their access to manufactured goods from abroad. Politically, Mr. President, this is a dead end.”
Ryan heaved. “I don’t do politics anymore. I won my last election and I can’t run again. You remember that, don’t you?”
Van Damm rolled his eyes at the comment. “I’m not talking about you. Midterms are coming up, you’ve got a tenuous hold on Congress and a contested Senate. If you concentrate on issues that move the needle in our favor, you can write your own ticket for the last two years of your administration.
“The populace focuses on the shiny objects in front of them. The media is talking about domestic issues first, then the Russia — Ukraine problem, and lastly the conflagration in the Middle East. North Korea’s craziness isn’t even a blip on the radar to these people anymore, even with the missile test and the interdiction of the rocket tubes from France. That was barely a one-news-cycle story. The country doesn’t care.”
“It’s not my job to just focus on what’s trending, Arnie. You know that. Just because this problem isn’t as overt as some of the other world flash points, it doesn’t mean I can just ignore it.”
“Fair enough,” Van Damm said. “But be warned. You won’t have a lot of friends on this issue.”
22
The Hendley Associates Gulfstream G550 flew overnight from Baltimore/Washington International Airport to Václav Havel Airport Prague. The aircraft had a range of well over 5,000 miles, so the 4,200-mile transoceanic flight was an easily makeable jaunt for the jet without any need to stop along the way to refuel.
On board the flight the needs of Jack Ryan, Dom Caruso, and Gavin Biery were attended to by Adara Sherman. She brought them drinks after takeoff, and the three passengers sat at the four-seat conference table in the center of the cabin so they could prep for the operation ahead.
The plan for the men during tonight’s flight over was to use the time to acquaint themselves with the area they would be operating in in Prague. Karel Skála lived in the Žižkov district of the city, far to the east of the tourist traps of the Old Town and Hradcany. It was a large area of apartment buildings, working-class neighborhoods, and municipal parks, and the men knew if they were going to run any kind of a surveillance package on their target there they would need to know the area without having to walk around with their nose in a map.
The service they were using on their laptops tonight to acquaint them with the eastern neighborhoods of Prague was state-of-the-art. Gavin had recently briefed the operators of The Campus about the new application from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency that now ran on their computers. It was called Map of the World, and it was an incredibly detailed interactive mapping service that could show the team virtually any place on earth, and also give them an easy interface through which they could pull up all data on the area known by the U.S. intelligence agency and the other members of the “Five Eyes,” the English-speaking countries who shared intelligence product with the United States. Map of the World contained millions of pieces of information culled from open sources as well as the intelligence organizations from the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
They spent time testing Map of the World by researching their target’s apartment building. Through a few clicks they could see the façade, the parking area in the rear, photos of inner corridors, security camera angles and schematics, and even information on tenants of the building in the form of the computerized rental agreements kept on file by the property manager.
Map of the World was an incredible resource, like Google Earth on steroids, and Jack and Dom knew it would replace EagleView, the high-tech mapping program they had been using. EagleView was good, but it wasn’t going to tell you what time a particular trash bin on a particular street corner was emptied. Map of the World could do that — provided someone in the U.S. intelligence community had entered that bit of intel from any linked intelligence or open-source database.
Gavin Biery had loaded a mobile version of the service onto Jack and Dominic’s iPhones for quick reference while in the field, and he was even testing out a proprietary application he had created himself whereby the operators could speak commands into their phones and have answers computed for them using MOTW information, and then read aloud back to them.
As they ate their dinner and discussed the capabilities of the software, Gavin asked Jack to give it a try.
“What do I ask?”
“Whatever you want. Like I said, she’s still in beta, so don’t be too rough on her.”
Jack thought for a moment, then pushed the button on his mobile. “MOTW,” he said, letting the computer know he was talking to the Map of the World app. “Tell me which airport in Prague has the least police presence.”
All eyes in the cabin looked at the mobile. After just a few seconds, a female voice replied, “I am sorry. I do not understand.”
Jack made a face at Gavin. “Sorry, Gav, but I don’t think this is quite ready for a field test.”
But Biery snatched the phone out of Jack’s hand. He said, “MOTW, how many police officers are at Václav Havel Airport in Prague?”
Another brief pause, and then, in a slightly computerized voice, the mobile replied, “Exact answer unknown. There is a municipal police precinct at Václav Havel Airport, a federal police station at Václav Havel Airport, and an airport police office at Václav Havel Airport. Shall I give you terminal locations, phone numbers, or e-mail addresses?”
Jack and Dom both raised their eyebrows.
Gavin smiled. “There are millions of bits of data at its disposal. You ask the right question in the right way, and it can be of use.”
Dom joked, “Now that we’ve got this, what the hell do we need you for?”
Gavin rolled his eyes and went back to his dinner, and Adara refilled everyone’s wineglass.
After dinner Adara cleared the table and offered coffee to the three men. Ryan and Biery never hesitated to thank Adara for her great service and even ask her if there was anything they could do to help out on the journey, but Caruso was the only passenger on tonight’s flight who actually spent time up in the galley at the front of the cabin, helping with the dishes and the linens.
Neither Gavin nor Jack noticed it because they were engrossed in their work, but Caruso spent a lot of time on the flight over to Europe up front chatting with Sherman.
The G550 landed at nine a.m., and the three men of The Campus climbed into a black Mercedes E-Class sedan Sherman had arranged to be waiting for them at the hangar where they parked after clearing customs. They threw in several pieces of luggage, and then drove directly through morning traffic to Prague’s 3rd district.
The workup Ryan had done on Skála over the past day gave the team some basic information about the man, but not much illumination into his habits and movements. Since Skála worked out of two different offices in two different locations, Ryan decided that in order to keep their operation simple they wouldn’t try to surveil him at work. That seemed like it would be a fifty-fifty prospect at best. Instead, they would watch the man at home, tail him as he left the house, and spend a couple days determining his habits and movements before proceeding, unless of course some great opportunity presented itself earlier.