by Jack Davis
Brooklyn, New York, 09/25/09, 1030 hours
It was just after 1000 hours when Morley arrived in the vicinity of the coffee shop. He circled the block twice looking for anything out of the ordinary. On the third pass, he parked up the street, watched, and waited.
His mind and heart told him that Kensington would never set him up, but years of law enforcement instincts screamed, don’t trust in coincidence!
Mak arrived fifteen minutes later. Morley watched her park. Getting out of the car, she didn’t look around unduly, check her phone, or do anything suspicious. She disappeared into the coffee shop.
Morley was as satisfied as he knew he could be with his brief counter-surveillance. Now he’d have to gauge his good friend face-to-face.
Walking through the door, Morley switched on a small electronic countermeasures device in his pocket. At least there’d be no recording of the conversation.
He saw Mak seated at a table, a cup of tea and a bran muffin in front of her. She rose to meet him.
“Well this is a first. PJ Morley, late for a meeting?”
PJ gave an embarrassed smile; he prided himself on always being early. “I had to take care of a couple things before I got here. Sorry.”
“No problem. I didn’t get a chance to have breakfast. I’m starving so I ordered already. Do you want anything?” she asked as she sat and took a bite of the muffin.
“No, thanks. I’m not hungry,” said Morley taking the seat across from his friend. He didn’t notice any unusual mannerisms or verbal cues. He hated analyzing Mak like a suspect, so he dove in. “I’m not hungry, but I am curious. What’s with the cryptic oh-dark-thirty phone call? And why were you in DC?”
Mak took a sip of tea before leaning across the table and lowering her voice.
“Officially, I had to go down because the Feebs claim to have a case against someone here in our office.”
Morley, trying to show the appropriate amount of interest but not concern, raised his eyebrows. He let Mak continue.
“The meeting turned out to be typical FBI one-way crap. They wanted to identify points-of-contact in Inspection and NYFO, and then requested personnel files for just about the entire office.”
Morley jerked his head back in mock shock, and his facial features conveyed his disgust.
Mak finished another bite of muffin before she went on. “We told ’em no. We said if they wanted to work together, we’d be happy to help, but unless we’re read-in, they’ll have to go through the DHS OIG.”
“What’d they say to that?”
“What do you think? They can’t make decisions like that without half the Hoover Building weighing in. They said they’d get back to us in a day or two. But that’s not important right now…oh and you’re not supposed to know that.”
Morley gave a bemused look. “Okay.”
“What is important, and what does concern you, is the clandestine part of my trip.”
Morley saw a twinkle in Mak’s pale green eyes. “We have a situation that requires a quick, discreet resolution. You need to keep this close and only use people you trust.”
“Wait, you just leaked information to me about an FBI case against someone in the office without giving it a second thought, but what you’re gonna tell me now is a close hold? You got bin Laden stashed at your condo or something?”
“My condo’s way too small. I’ve got him in a storage locker in Jersey.”
Morley laughed. Then a thoughtful look came across Kensington’s face. As if she’d just had a revelation. “Have you told anyone in the Service that we dated on The Detail?”
Morley didn’t hesitate. “No.”
Mak’s face lightened again. “I rest my case. That was three years ago. If I can trust you to keep that secret, years past its reasonable expiration date, I’m comfortable you’re not going to tell anyone the Feebs have an open investigation against someone in our office.” Then, as if for good measure, “For god’s sake, I trust you more than I trust myself.”
For the first time in all the years Morley had known Mak, her trust made him uncomfortable. He suddenly wanted to tell her about his encounter with Belsen. He knew the impulse was selfish. Dragging her into his morass could only hurt her.
Mak broke the silence the next second as she finished her thought. “Except when it comes to making career decisions. Those I don’t trust you with, I’ll make those for you.”
Morley smiled. “Thanks.”
Kensington leaned back in her seat. “Let me paint you a picture.” She took a sip of tea. “It turns out there are a number of double-blind internet companies out there where people, important people, can buy certain pharmaceuticals. If you don’t mind spending a lot of money for anonymity, you can buy drugs, say like Viagra or natural male enhancement product.”
“Natural male enhancement products, what are they?” Morley relished the opportunity to try and embarrass his good friend.
Kensington refused the bait. “Google it. Now, as I was saying, you can discreetly purchase these products online, and have them shipped to any address. So, let’s say you’re a congressman with aspirations—”
“Are there any other kind?”
“Point taken. Say you are a congressman and you don’t want to do something illegal.”
“I hate to interrupt again, but would they know the difference between something legal and illegal?”
“Legal and illegal? Yes, they’re mostly lawyers. They generally know the law. Moral and immoral, that’s a whole different debate that we don’t have time for.” Kensington feigned an annoyed let-me-finish-my-story glare.
“Okay, go ahead,” said Morley.
“Thank you,” said Kensington. “You don’t want to do something illegal, like have someone else get the prescriptions for you; you’re smart and use this double-blind purchase method for years. You move up in the government, and you become a really important politician. Then one day out of the blue, you’re notified that the small resale company that had your credit card and personal information has been hacked. Their database has been compromised. You realize if this information gets out, it would be verrry embarrassing.”
Mak playfully emphasized the point by opening her eyes wide as if in shock. Morley smiled before she continued.
“The important politician knows that even if he cancels the credit cards, his personal data is still in play. He needs the criminal caught, and fast, before the information is sold on the web. This politician, who may have been a presidential candidate in a recent election, knows the people who protected him are also the premier computer crime investigations agency in the world. He also knows from some compromising situations on the campaign that he can trust their discretion. Sooo, he contacts his former Detail Leader, who says he’ll look into it.”
Morley filled in the rest. “The DL in turn calls someone he trusts in the NYFO, possibly a very attractive ASAIC, and asks her to look into it. And she needs the Electronic Crimes Task Force expertise…”
“I was always impressed by how quickly you sized up situations, PJ.” Kensington slid a manila case folder across the table.
Morley held up the envelope, looking for a printed case number. When he didn’t see one, he cocked his head. “Don’t take this wrong, and I know you’re a GS-15 and all, but are you my only top cover on this apparently unofficial, unsanctioned investigation?”
“When you say it like that it sounds almost dirty.”
“Mak?”
Kensington looked at Morley over the top of her cup. “We have friends in DC, but they have to remain behind the scenes. If it got out that a supervisor on the President’s Detail intervened on behalf of a senator from the other side of the aisle, it would be very uncomfortable.”
Morley considered the situation. “Mak, depending on where this goes, we could be out on a pretty thin limb. If the limb breaks, it would be nice to have someone backing us up who doesn’t have to meet us in the middle of the night in a parking garage.”
“It’s not like that.” Kensington’s protest was mild.
“We’re sticking our necks out so that some PPD Sup can ingratiate himself to some senator. Are you sure about this?”
“It’s not about my friend; it’s for the senator.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t think for a second this isn’t about your friend. He could’ve just told the senator to go through normal channels. No, your friend is thinking this senator may win the next time around and get to choose a new director for the Service. So, don’t—”
“PJ, will you do it for me?”
In that split-second Morley was done. Kensington had pierced what she knew were the weak spots in his armor: friendship and loyalty.
She thrust the dagger in deeper. “I really need your help.”
Morley sighed. “You’ve got it; you know that. I’ll look at the file and see what’s what.”
“Thank you.” Kensington paused before she continued, in a somewhat apologetic tone. “One more thing: time is a critical aspect of this whole case. It needs to be done yesterday.”
Morley gave a look of exasperation. “Well, luckily since all of NYFO spent the past three weeks working eighteen-hour days babysitting foreign-digs at the UN, we’re raring to get back to investigations. And since the criminals were nice enough to stop their activities during the General Assembly, we don’t have any other cases this month. So, we’d love to jump right on this case that doesn’t exist. Anything else you want to add, like it also involves nuclear warheads from a rogue Eastern bloc country being transported by Islamic terrorists?”
“Nope, all you’ve gotta do is find one little hacker before he releases the senator’s info. It should be easy for someone as talented as you,” she shot back in a fun-loving tone. “What time later this morning should I expect an arrest?”
Morley closed his eyes and shook his head. When he looked again Mak was smiling. “Thank you.”
“Anything for you, you know that. I’ll have a couple of guys ready to move on it as soon as I look over the details. When I get anything worthwhile, I’ll let you know.”
“I’ll keep Tommy off your back as much as possible,” Mak promised.
“That’d be helpful.” Morley had a thought. “Oh, and by the way, if we’re able to make something of this,” he held up the envelope with two fingers, like it was contaminated, “can your friend get a good trip for a couple of my guys?”
“If you’re able to get this resolved quickly and quietly, my friend can get your whole squad on the PPD trip to Zurich and Vienna next month.” She smirked malevolently. “On the other hand, if you screw up, Carter is taking another tour of sub-Saharan Africa to help inoculate the people there against some flesh-eating worms, or virus, or something like that. It’s disgusting. We’ll need to staff that too.”
Morley laughed. Getting up to leave, he paused. “Mak, Sean’s Special Olympics team has a soccer game in Staten Island this evening. With the UN goin’ on, I’ve missed every one so far. I’m planning on ducking out in time to catch the game. I’ll get you a status before I leave.”
Kensington frowned sympathetically. “PJ, I’ll cover for you, take off whenever you need to. Tell Sean good luck for me.”
The end of the meeting brought Morley two distinct quandaries. First, he now had knowledge that the FBI had a criminal investigation focused on someone, maybe him, in the New York Field Office. He wasn’t supposed to have the information and couldn’t act on it without potentially compromising Kensington. He needed to get more information, discreetly.
Secondly, he had to move quickly on Mak’s case. He glanced at the envelope sitting on the passenger seat of his car.
Normally he would have assigned the case to the best cybercrime investigators he had, arguably some of the best in the world. Unfortunately for him, they were in upstate New York, conducting their quarterly weapons requalification. Three of the four had missed the last quarterly and were down to their last week of this period without having shot. Morley had been explicit: they absolutely had to go this time. No excuses. He had even threatened to send them on in-town protection assignments—something he knew they despised—if they didn’t requal.
Morley thought about calling his cyber Dream Team off the firing line, but realized the twofold message it would send. One, firearms training wasn’t that important; two, there was something significant going on in the office.
Humiston, Hogan, Fatchko, Venit, Swangler, James…Morley went through the names of the other agents in his squad who he could assign to the case. Two were finishing up UN Foreign Digs, and the rest had put in for leave. For some it would be their first days off since before Labor Day. The senator’s hopes notwithstanding, the case would take time to solve. Assigning it to an agent who would only have time to briefly look at it before taking the next six days off didn’t make any sense. Continuing down the mental list, Morley was quickly running out of good options.
He resolved this dilemma when he opened the envelope while sitting at a red light on his drive back to the office. He breezed through the superfluous information and got to the heart of the case. Based on the brief report, their adversary probably wasn’t a criminal mastermind. The victim company had lax security and fallen prey to an older buffer overflow attack. It was an unsophisticated exploit the company should have caught.
At the next light Morley read that the hack had taken place a month prior, and it wasn’t uncovered by the company’s IT security department for two weeks. The company was headquartered in Delaware and under that state’s law, not required to disclose the breach to law enforcement. Since discretion was a big part of the company’s business, the CEO had tried to handle it quietly to minimize the damage. By law the company was required to notify the individuals whose credit cards and/or personally identifiable information (PII) had been compromised. That was what led their most high-profile customer to become very uncomfortable and seek a trusted source for help.
Morley knew that, as important as the type of attack, was what the criminal had done afterwards. A review of the information showed that while there were no purchases on the senator’s credit card yet, there were numerous fraudulent purchases made on other compromised card numbers. A number of these purchases were for electronics. They had been shipped to three Mail Boxes Etc. locations in Staten Island, the most recent being five days prior. That was the link to New York and Morley’s squad.
With as complete a picture as he could draw from the information in the envelope, Morley decided to keep the A-Team up north killing paper bad guys, and in a squad full of thoroughbreds, he’d assign the case to two Clydesdales.
13 | Kruzerski and Murray
NYFO, 01-07/09
While Morley wasn’t exactly sure where his Clydesdale analogy had come from, he was actually quite pleased with it. It fit perfectly. He was sure that any of his Group Leaders would have substituted mule for Clydesdale, but that had as much to do with their biases as the performance of Lionel Murray or Brian Kruzerski.
The former Marines had started their careers in the Secret Service as Uniformed Division Officers. After just over four years they had moved into the agent ranks and been transferred to the NYFO. Most of their time in New York had been in the Fraud Squad, where they had racked up impressive arrest statistics. One or the other had led the office in arrests twenty-six of their first thirty months. When the time came for them to rotate to a new inter-office assignment, neither wanted to leave Fraud, but as with most aspects of the Service, in the name of career development they were going to be forced out. Everyone, including Kruzerski and Murray, assumed they’d land in the Counterfeit Squad. It was still a Crim. Squad, and the cases were normally straight forward and simpler than the other options: Protective Intelligence or Electronic Crimes. The Counterfeit Squad, that was where the former Marines should land. That was the conventional wisdom, until Group Leader Cornell Tate set up a lunch with Morley.
Morley was curious, bordering on suspicious, about his friend’s
impromptu lunch invitation, especially so close to the squad realignment. When Tate recommended an off-site location Morley knew something was up, but what? Even with that background, Morley always enjoyed spending time with Tate. Being away from the office was an added bonus.
Initially “Wow,” was all Morley could say to his friend’s recommendation that Murray and Kruzerski attend the next ECSAP school. The two drove in silence for a moment as the shock wore off.
“You really think they could get through the schools?” Morley asked, trying as much to buy time as to get his friend’s input.
“Not sure,” said Tate, glancing behind him to check his blind spot before changing lanes, “but they deserve the chance to try.” He sped up to complete the merge. “One of the two of them has led the office in arrests almost the whole time they’ve been in the office.”
“Yeahhhhhh,” Morley drew the single syllable out to six. “There’s talk that those are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens numbers.”
Tate didn’t take his eyes off the road. “I know there’s talk of…coercion.”
“Coercion?” Morley’s one-word question mocked the understatement.
“Yes, coercion,” said Tate in an overly dramatic tone, “but I haven’t seen any actual proof that the two have done anything.”
Tate’s hesitation told Morley that he didn’t want to lie to a friend.
“Let’s just say I haven’t seen anything that I classify as over the line. They’re aggressive, and may have intimidated a suspect now and then, but it’s not like the people they’ve leaned on are Amish tourists.”
And then, as if to put a fine point on his argument, “They haven’t been sued this year, and they’ve never had a conviction thrown out.”
The last comment drew a sideways glance and a smirk from Morley. He recalibrated. “You know that if I were going to come up with a list of the top one hundred candidates in the office to take the open ECSAP school slots, your guys wouldn’t make the list.” Then for good measure, “They may not have made my top three hundred.”