“Any questions?” Abbott waited the space of thirty seconds, an uncomfortably long pause which put everyone’s attention directly on him. Once he had their eyes and ears trained on his next move, he sat straighter in his chair. “Well, I have one. As far as we can tell, this attack has been limited to Dallas. Why? Obviously whoever is behind it has the ability to go to the next level. Why aren’t they attacking at a national level?”
“Actually, they are.” Nora clasped her hands behind her back. “Someone intercepted the first team that was dispatched here.”
“Have they breached TSA or a single airliner?” Abbott asked.
“Unclear. They also attempted to prevent our landing in Grand Prairie.”
“So they’re in the naval system?”
“Perhaps, or it could be they hacked into a single weather station. At this point we don’t know. I had a message from the director twenty minutes ago. Other teams have been deployed to key points across the nation.”
“Overreach by the national government to take charge of our operation,” Quinn argued. “There’s no indication that this attack has expanded to other Texas urban centers, let alone national ones.”
“You mean other than sabotaging two planes of federal agents?” When Quinn didn’t answer, Nora directed her final comment to Abbott. “We’ll let you know if and when the federal situation changes.”
Randall almost laughed at the expression on Quinn’s face. He looked like a prize rooster that had been kicked out of the hen house. Randall had seen it before—locals convinced they didn’t need help from the outside. But this attack was too big, too sophisticated, to worry about turf. Plus he’d seen tougher men and women than Quinn try to go up against Nora. He wanted to tell the guy to save his energy, because when it came to national security, she wasn’t going to let anyone stand in their way.
Security Breach Page 7