The Major gave him a strange look, like that wasn’t as important.
“Right,” he said.
Brooke shuffled the deck like she was a Vegas dealer. When Henry found out that Norman Shepherd had a deck of cards, he invited him into the group. It was 10:30 p.m. and they were all sitting on the ugly carpet of her room. Last night Brooke had been playing alone with Henry, door open. She had been forced to listen to him talk the entire time about his collection of sports cars and ex-wives. She liked him just fine. He was funny. And while he was entertaining, and a decent poker player, she was happy to get a larger group involved.
Glickstein had recruited David, Natesh, and Norman. The evening meeting had just gotten out. They had agreed to play for one hour before they called it a night. With no Internet, no TV, and no phones, this was the best entertainment around. They were here for three weeks. At the pace they were going, everyone needed a little break.
Norman had used several rolls of scotch tape, paper, and black marker to create makeshift chips. You couldn’t shuffle them like Brooke liked to do when she went to the poker room just north of Fort Meade, but they served their purpose. She had a stack of the highest value chips in front of her. The rest of the group had not been so lucky.
Norman said, “Hey, Brooke, you should think about quitting the NSA and playing professional poker.”
She smiled. “Nah. The NSA keeps me happy.”
Glickstein said, “Yeah, happy reading my emails.”
Norman asked, “Okay, since everyone here has a security clearance, I’ve always wanted to know. Do you guys really read everyone’s emails? Do you really listen in on everyone’s phone calls?”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t be silly. We don’t read everyone’s emails. Only Glickstein’s.”
Henry smirked knowingly. “I knew it.”
Brooke was happy to notice that even David was relaxing, if only a little. He’d smiled more in the past ten minutes than he had all day in their team’s meetings. She got the impression that he seriously didn’t want to be here on the island. And something told her that it wasn’t just because he missed his family. She was pretty good at reading people. He had made that one odd comment to her the other day, and then they’d never finished their conversation. What had he said? Something about not trusting the reason they were there. She took a mental note to ask him about that later.
Henry threw in two crumpled paper chips and said, “Raise twenty dollah.”
“Fold.”
“Fold.”
“Call,” said Natesh.
Brooke said, “Call,” and threw in two chips.
The three players showed their cards. Natesh had them both beat with another full house. The group let out a mix of exclamations, swears, and laughter. It was good to let loose.
As Brooke shuffled, Henry said, “So Natesh, have you been using your Internet access here to play online poker?”
Natesh said, “Ha-ha. No, my friend. The Major and I are all business in there, I’m afraid.”
Henry said, “So how’s the Major? That guy seems like a real asshole if you ask me. Pardon my French. I probably shouldn’t talk bad about him. I don’t really know him. But he never talks to anyone. And he always acts like he’s above the rest of us. And why’s he always carrying that gun around? What’s he gonna do, shoot us if we get outta line?”
Norman said, “He’s Air Force. I think he’d be more liable to brush your hair than shoot you.”
Henry scoffed. He said, “But really — Natesh, what’s his deal?”
Natesh shrugged. He said, “His deal? I don’t know. He works with Lena pretty closely. I think she just wanted someone to act as security. Just in case.”
Henry said, “Humph.”
Brooke watched the exchange. She was used to having a lot of armed security where she worked. She wasn’t too concerned. David’s face was grey again. What was bothering him so much?
Norman said, “You guys hear about the Psychological Operations Team’s strategy to start a war with Iran? They looked at 9/11 and decided that the quickest way to get us to go to war with Iran would be to stage a terrorist attack on the United States that was so gruesome and emotionally charged that the public would demand retribution.”
David said, “What was the plan?”
Norman just shook his head. “That one guy. Dr. Creighton. They’re calling him Dr. Evil. The guy’s kind of a freak. I’m not sure where they found him. So he came up with this idea involving a massive traffic jam on the beltway around DC.”
Brooke said, “Uh… sorry guys, but I hate to tell you. The beltway is a traffic jam.”
Norman said, “He basically designed a terrorist attack. His idea is to create a massive traffic jam and have several teams of terrorists with handguns just walk along the stopped traffic and shoot people in their cars. If you timed it well enough, he thought the casualties would get pretty high. And in the DC area, you’re bound to get some high-profile targets, or their families, or co-workers of the decision makers. Dr. Evil also mentioned attacking schools.”
Henry said, “Schools? What kind of sick plan is that?”
“Yeah. Schools. But not just any schools. Christian schools. The idea was that it would look like a religious thing. They said if you’d planned the beltway attacks at the same times as the school attacks, you’d have virtually guaranteed a large-scale military response, just because of the national anger you would create. People would demand retribution, and look to the politicians to deliver.”
Brooke said, “That’s disgusting. I’m a little embarrassed that one of our groups even proposed that. I thought this was supposed to be about how China could attack us. Isn’t that why we’re here? Aren’t we supposed to be focusing on military conflicts with the Chinese? How did one of the groups get to planning a school attack?”
Norman said, “Well, technically, this is what we were asked to do. They wanted us to come up with a way to get a lot of American assets out of the way, so to speak, so that China would have the least resistance possible.”
Brooke looked at David. He had family in that area. He was glancing around at everyone nervously. He kept opening his mouth like he was going to speak, and then would stop and look down at the floor.
Finally, David said, “Guys…”
Natesh said, “Brooke, I know what you mean. But the task was how to create China’s most effective and efficient plan. They were looking for a way to remove American military obstacles.”
David said, “Guys.”
Brooke said, “Still, that’s disgusting. I don’t know if I want to be part of talks like that.”
Henry said, “Yeah, Bill was lucky he got to go home.”
David said, “Guys, I need to say something important.”
Brooke and the others looked at David. He was looking at the floor. He was struggling with getting the words out.
Brooke said, “David, what is it?”
David looked up at her and said, “I don’t think that Bill made it home.”
Brooke frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw something. The other night. When Bill left.”
She could see that he was disturbed. This was the same troubled look he’d worn all day.
Norman said, “David, what’s up? What did you see?”
He stayed silent. He turned and looked at the door. It was open just a crack. He got up and closed it, then returned to his spot on the floor. The others watched him with growing interest.
Natesh put his hand on David’s shoulder and said, “David, you’re among friends. Whatever is bothering you, you can trust us.”