Dan said nothing, but grabbed a few pens, his laptop, and some knickknacks he had, and slunk out the door. Rhodes was wearing a lopsided grin as he watched the scene unfold. He turned to watch the former commander of TTIC exit the room, reveling in every moment. When the door finally closed behind Dan, he turned back to the room.
Seeing that he had Rhodes’ attention back, Jackson began listing names. “Turbee, Khasha, George, Rahlson, and Lance. Conference room A, please. Now. You too, Rhodes.”
Even Turbee could sense the urgency in the Admiral’s voice. He could hardly comprehend that everything was happening so quickly. Dan had been placed on suspension, and Rhodes was now the acting director. They were receiving orders directly from the DDCI. And they were receiving them by name. He took a deep breath and rose from his desk. When he and the others reached the conference room, they found Big Jack already seated, waiting to proceed.
“Here’s the situation, people,” he began. “We are uncovering, with record speed, traces of the evil bastards who have executed this terrible crime.”
“Well, that’s good, I guess,” said George.
“I’m not so sure,” said Big Jack. “A vehicle that carried the Semtex has been found, pushed over a cliff into Lake Powell, just north of the Glen Canyon Dam. In the glove compartment, the GLOVE compartment, we found a passport and a copy of the Koran. Through the passport, we were able to get the LA address of a man. We sent agents to go through his computer. Everything was encrypted at 24 bits.”
“No way,” said Rhodes. “That’s like saying it was coded with a Captain Crunch Decoder Ring. Nobody encrypts at 24 bits. With today’s computers, you could crack the code in 14 or 15 minutes. Anyone sophisticated enough to pull off this kind of an operation is going to be encoding at least at 96. And nobody leaves a fucking Koran and passport in a glove compartment.”
“I absolutely agree,” said Big Jack. “It’s all very simplified. Overly so, if you ask me. This trail also led us to some of the other people supposedly involved in this plot, and we were able to retrieve their hard drives as well. They were sent immediately to the NSA. So far we’ve only conducted a quick search, but what we’ve found is interesting,” he continued. “There are emails that lead to a number of individuals in the Karachi anti-drug police, and from there, to a number of drug lords in Afghanistan.”
“The whole thing sounds pretty fishy, if you ask me,” said Rhodes. “Way too easy. Way too neat.”
“Oh, it gets even better,” continued Jackson. “According to the emails, the whole operation was masterminded by a retired billionaire from Karachi. Some guy by the name of Nooshkatoor.”
“I remember him,” piped up Turbee. “He was the President of Karachi Shipbuilding and Engineering Works. A rival of Karachi Drydock and Engineering. KDEC was definitely involved in this attack. And they’re definitely owned and operated by some powerful people. Maybe Nooshkatoor made enemies in the wrong places, with people who were more dangerous than he realized. If it’s a fishy trail, and it leads too easily back to Nooshkatoor, maybe it’s because someone’s trying to frame him.”
Rhodes nodded. “That’s a good point, Turb. You’re getting better with this conspiracy theory stuff. Either way, we should be able to figure out how and why this trail was constructed, and maybe find the real perpetrators from there.”
“Get to work on that,” said Jackson. “I’m having the hard drives we found brought here. George, Turbee, Rahlson, I want you guys working on them. Dig up everything you can find, and track it. Find out where it leads. The President is going public with the passport in the glove box idea. He is going to say that all the conspirators have been found, and are either dead or incarcerated. It’s the easiest way to clean this up for the public. And there are some higher-ups who would rather let it end there. But I think we all know that it’s just bullshit. The people who are involved in this are brilliant. They’ve pulled this off, but they’ve made a mistake. They got sloppy when they framed someone else. I’m willing to bet that they’ve been sloppy in other places, and that they might have left a trail somewhere. From what I’ve seen, you six are the smartest people in this community. You are going to find whatever trail they left. No one is to know what you’re doing. Liam, you’re in charge. You will report directly to me.”
“That’s our job, at this point?” asked Lance.
“Yes, that is your assignment. Your mission. And a lady from Canada will be joining you — Corporal Catherine Gray, and also a cop by the name of Indy Singh. They tracked the drug runners in Canada, who own the mine that the Semtex came through. I’m also bringing Richard Lawrence in. After his detox. He’s been in the field. He knows the people. I think they will all be invaluable to this little group. You have to work together to find the men responsible for this.”
The Admiral paused to look around, meeting the eyes of each member of the team. His voice became even more serious. “We’ve been put in a very critical position here, people. Someone out there had the nerve to attack the USA. We need to find out who it was. And then we need to design our counterplay.”
Sitting in his jet, Yousseff watched the TV coverage of the Glen Canyon Dam and smiled. It was going exactly as he had hoped it would. One dam was down, and the other, he hoped, was on the verge of failing. He had succeeded. Around him, his friends and accomplices turned away, their faces set in a wide range of disgust, disappointment, and horror.
As soon as the meeting was over, Turbee slipped by Admiral Jackson and darted back to his workstation. He already knew where to start. Rahlson followed him, curious.
“What’re you up to, Turb?” he asked, watching as the young man fell into his chair and began feverishly typing on his computer.
“This man the Admiral thinks is out there. I think I might already know who he is, Rahlson.” He grabbed his mouse and started scrolling through a screen full of data. “And I think I know how to find him.” Then he looked up at the older man standing over him. “We’re going to need a man or two in Afghanistan.”
Far above the dark stone fortress of Inzar Ghar, on a dangerous, ancient smuggler’s trail, two dark blue eyes looked back on the fortress one last time. From his vantage point, Zak had witnessed the commotion of several motor vehicles roaring down the mountain road toward Peshawar, carrying dogs and men. Undoubtedly reinforcements, going after Richard and his partner. But he knew that, at this point, his own absence had also been discovered, and that a massive manhunt would soon be underway to find him. He did not fully understand why the men, vehicles, and dogs had all been directed toward the valley floor, downhill from the fortress. Although it didn’t really matter, as long as it left his way open.
He shivered again, and pulled the ragged blanket he’d brought closer around his shoulders. It was bitterly cold, and wisps of snow drifted lazily down around him. The stumps of his missing toes, and his raw wrist joint, were screaming in pain, but Zak persevered, and continued to crawl toward the summit of the Path of Allah. Now that he was under the open sky again, all he could think of was getting to his people, and telling them what he knew.
In Nevada, the water continued to rush through and around the Hoover Dam. News and military helicopters still numbered in the dozens in the area, and the Marines and Army were both heavily represented. Because of the waves now hitting the dam, and because the President had officially proclaimed the structure safe, all personnel had been pulled out of the structure. No boats or subs patrolled the raging waters on the south side. No cameras were trained on the base, which was invisible in any case, lost in the haze of mist and rainbows.