This meant Adam was the only person authorized to use the terminal, and this was extremely good news for Adam because the cone crusher operating program wasn’t the most distinctive thing about this PC. Adam had been briefed and trained by the CIA’s Science and Technology staff on how to use the terminal to send clandestine messages back to the Acrid Herald operations center at the Liberty Crossing Intelligence Campus.
Even though the device wasn’t attached to the Internet, there was a text feature that was connected not to the computer’s hard drive and motherboard but to another device that had been built into all the hardware. It was, essentially, a satellite phone without a speaker, just the components of the device that could make a connection via satellite and send a text message. The miniaturized pieces of the device were so well hidden within the rest of the computer hardware inside the tower that even if the North Koreans disassembled the machine, they would need a computer hardware expert to come to the conclusion that tiny pieces that didn’t belong were attached to different parts of the motherboard and power supply. Even then it would be nigh on impossible to discern just what the equipment was, only that it wasn’t needed.
But that wasn’t covert enough for Science and Technology. The tiny components they did use were all Chinese in manufacture, made by the company Huawei, which, surely everyone in North Korean intelligence knew, had ties to Chinese intelligence.
Taking this extra step ensured that, even if the computer was revealed as an intelligence collection device, China would be the country blamed for spying on the Chongju operation.
That wouldn’t do Adam one damn bit of good. North Korean counterintel would shoot him for being a Chinese spy just as quickly as they would shoot him for being an American spy, but at least America would be in the clear.
On his first day getting his machine up and running, Adam realized he couldn’t have asked for a better desk. He had the lone workstation at a cubicle alongside a two-story-tall cone crushing machine. As far as secure locations went to broadcast his messages back to ODNI, he felt like he was in a comfortable place.
Several men worked on the machine in his proximity, most of them on a catwalk above him, but Adam was the only man with any business in the back of the machine where his workstation stood. Further, the other workers were mechanical engineers and simple ore loaders, and Adam doubted they would notice anything amiss even if they did see him opening the texting program to contact ODNI.
This cone crusher had been here in North Korea for a year and a half, long before construction started on the refinery. The state-owned Chinese company Chinalco put the machine at the Chongju mine itself, a kilometer to the east, because the Chinese had planned on crushing the ore down to processing size so it could be transported in sacks on trucks, as opposed to larger rocks, which were harder to ferry. But the North Koreans had no problem trucking the ore the kilometer to the processing facility, so they brought the massive machine here, where the electricity ran more regularly than at the mine.
Right after a fifteen-minute break for tea and plant-wide government-mandated singing, stretching, and knee bends, Adam returned to his desk with plans to send his first message home. He checked his area to make sure there was no one around who could see what he was doing. This involved him simply looking back over his shoulder and then scanning overhead through the grating of the catwalk. When he was comfortable that he was clear, he restarted his PC, then went into the BIOS screen of the computer. Here he changed a series of settings, and then pressed enter.
He had two choices now. He could type a 1, which would take him to the texting program, or he could type a 2, which would send him to a satellite map of North Korea that had been hidden on the drive. In the case of an emergency exfiltration, Adam’s minders had had the foresight to realize, he would need a good idea of the area and the ability to type in specific coordinates, so the function had been secreted on the drive.
Adam wasn’t on the run now, and he hoped like hell he never would be, so he typed 1 and hit enter again.
The screen went blank except for a small blinking cursor in the lower right.
Adam had to admit, S&T had set this up so no one was going to accidentally find the clandestine software.
He took another glance around, then quickly typed out a message, all in Mandarin, so if it was somehow intercepted, the U.S. would not be blamed for the operation.
SECRET
TO: FLASH FOR TIDALWAVE
FROM: AVALANCHE
SUBJECT: ARRIVAL ESTABLISHMENT
SOURCE: AVALANCHE
1. ALL NOMINAL. FULL REPORT SOONEST
2. FLASH — DIR. HWANG MIN-HO MET WITH AVALANCHE AND OTHER CHINA TECHS 2 DAYS PRIOR IN PYONGYANG — HE CLAIMS ONE (1) FURTHER SHIMENT OF LARGE EQUIPMENT TO ARRIVE BEFORE FACILITY ON LINE. NO INDICATION OF TYPE OF EQUIPMENT. WITH NO FURTHER CORROBORATION, AVALANCHE CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY CONFIRM.
3. HWANG CLAIMS HE WILL BE PRESENT AT PROCESSING FACILITY IN COMING WEEKS.
AVALANCHE
The final reference to his code name was the tip that he was not writing under duress. Had he signed off with anything else — or nothing at all — the control officers of Acrid Herald would have known the words on their screen could not be taken at face value.
Adam hit the enter key twice; this directed the satellite phone to send the digital message.
Science and Technology had warned him about this part. Back in McLean they let him know the sending could take a couple minutes, and some messages might have to be resent. As good as the technology was — and the eggheads from Langley promised it was the best — there were always atmospheric conditions that could come into play, as well as issues with other equipment at the Chongju facility.
They’d also given him one more interesting tidbit of information. Most sat phones blast their signals to one of many commercial satellites, but this phone beamed to an NSA satellite in geostationary orbit over North Korea, parts of China, and Japan. He was assured the signal would broadcast, eventually, but was reminded to wait for a confirmation from the computer in the form of a long row of dashes that ran from left to right.
After a minute and a half he received this confirmation.
Adam was pleasantly surprised the boys and girls at S&T, who didn’t have to be out in the field with the devices, didn’t just put a big flashing “MESSAGE SENT” graphic on the monitor.
51
As director of national intelligence, Mary Pat Foley was the chief intelligence officer of the United States of America, and with this role quite naturally came a tremendous amount of responsibility and a large number of draws on her time.
So the fact that she made a third trip down the George Washington Memorial Parkway to the offices of Hendley Associates indicated the importance of the intelligence product being generated by the sub rosa private outfit run by former South Carolina senator Gerry Hendley.
Today’s meeting was not with the entire Campus operational staff. Instead, only Mary Pat, Gerry Hendley, and Jack Ryan sat in the conference room. Sam was still in New York, monitoring Sharps Partners. And there would be no after-action report today as they had done to explain their activities in Vietnam, so Clark, Chavez, and Caruso remained at their desks.
Ryan imparted the knowledge they had gleaned on the operation, without going into details of shootouts and breaking and entering. He was careful to avoid any more detail about the events of Las Vegas than was necessary.