“She’s on Taiwan?” the general said, his voice rising with excitement. “This is incredible news.”
“Yes, but it could be bad news for us.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s obvious.”
“What is obvious?” the general said with some irritation.
“Don’t you see? The only reason she would be there would be to help them with their missile defense system. They must have decided to send more parts after the first shipment was … destroyed.”
“Yes. Yes, I am sure that is what she is doing.”
“That is bad news. She invented that Q-3 system that can take over a cruise missile and redirect it. We can’t have some upstart taking control of our cruise missiles. It would be a disaster.”
“Only if we use cruise missiles,” the general said.
“Yes, but maybe she’ll get that other system working.”
“Sterling’s system?” the general asked, raising his eyebrows. “Impossible.”
“It seems that nothing is impossible with that woman.” The colonel paused and added, “Why did you say that this was incredible news?”
“She is working to develop a defense against our stealth missiles. The ones we aim at the planes,” the general said. “We have plenty of other forces to handle Taiwan, but we need to keep taking down their planes so the Americans won’t be able to intervene here. You know that.”
“I don’t follow you, sir.”
“If she is on Taiwan, that means she has taken a break from her other project.”
“Which may mean that she’s finished, and it’s working.”
“No. If it were working, we would have heard about it. Don’t you think the Americans would shout on every network that they finally had a defense against the missile attacks on their airliners?”
The colonel nodded.
“And that means they do not have it working.” the general said. “So we must ensure that she does not return to finish the job.”
The colonel brightened and said, “The message today said she would be returning with the vice president on Air Force Two. However, we don’t know when that day will be.”
The general waved his hand as if he just didn’t care. “No matter. Our agent in Taiwan will inform us of her departure and I’m certain he will be able to find out where they are going to land. It is a long flight. That will give us plenty of time to get our west coast agents in place. After all, we did not get her on the previous plane, but now we have a great opportunity. An opportunity not only to finish off this irritating scientist, but to change history and get rid of Jayson Keller as well.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
THE WEST COAST OF TAIWAN
“Raj, come check this out,” Cammy said excitedly, motioning to an item she had just pulled out of the motherboard. “I’ve been studying Sterling’s software, and I think the problem with the whole system is right here in the computer processing unit.”
Raj navigated his way through rows of tables holding computers, screens and telephones in the large missile defense headquarters situated at a base along the west coast of Taiwan. He had been working with a team of radar specialists, but he stopped and rushed over to Cammy’s side. “Do you think you’ve really found the problem?”
“I’m not sure, but something is really weird here.”
“If it’s new software, it’s not uncommon to have infant mortality,” Raj said, looking over her shoulder. “With new systems, you almost always have strange things. That’s why they probably went through a low-rate of initial production. Maybe this was the first iteration.”
“No. I think it’s a basic flaw,” Cammy countered. “Look. I’ve been reading the lines of code in the software. This whole defensive system involves a GPS. It has to know where it is so it can figure out the distance to an incoming missile.”
“I can see that,” Raj said, as he pulled up a chair.
“Okay. Now stick with me on this. Read the lines of code here, and you’ll see that the output of a certain chip isn’t working right.”
“So you’re saying the error is in the chip.”
“Maybe it is. Maybe there’s some sort of internal design error on the chip itself, so we need to check this card.” She looked around the room and motioned to the colonel in charge.
He came over to her console and said, “Do you need something, Dr. Talbot?”
“Is there any way we can get a microscope?”
“A microscope?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
“Yes. I need one.”
“Wait a minute.” He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a series of numbers. He had a quick conversation, hit the end button and turned back to Cammy. “We’re having one sent over immediately. But why is there a need for such a tool right now, if I may ask.”
“I need to check something on this software. I have an idea, but I have to confirm it.”
“All right. It should be here shortly. You all have been working hard. Why don’t you take a break? There is coffee in the next room, and we have brought in other refreshments.”
Cammy pushed her chair back and said, “Good idea. But first I’d like to make a call. Is there a phone I can use to call Maryland?” The colonel nodded and pointed to a private office in the back. She turned to Raj. “I’ll meet you next door in a few minutes. I want to check in with Mel.”
At the mention of Melanie’s name, Raj looked startled. When he had worked at Bandaq, he and Melanie had become quite involved. In fact, they’d had a torrid affair. But when he’d been caught stealing the software for the Q-3 system and been deported, he knew he’d never see her again and it broke his heart. “Uh, Cammy, would you please tell her I miss her and still think about her? Please say that I wish her well.”
“Will do.”
Cammy closeted herself in the office and dialed Mel’s private line.
“Melanie Duvall here.”
“Hey Mel, it’s Cammy. I’m in Taiwan. I wanted to check in and see if everything’s on track for that new team to fly over here tomorrow.”
“Cam! Great to hear from you and yes, we’re gearing up back here. Of course, nobody else knows about the flight. At least we pray that nobody knows except the base commander at Travis and the cargo pilots. And Bollinger, of course.”
“How’s he doing with all of this?”
“He’s been his usual curt self, barking out orders all over the place.”
“Maybe we can have some Bollinger fright masks made for Halloween,” Cammy said. “I’ll bet the whole staff would buy them.”
“Now there’s a thought. Oh, we did have one bit of good news. Our stock went up a couple of points.”
“Are you sure that’s not a dead-cat bounce?”
Melanie giggled. “No. There’s a lot of speculation around town that you’ll come up with a defense for our planes, so the analysts on CNBC are touting Bandaq’s stock right now.”
“Oh Lord! And I feel like I’m juggling book-ends here.”
“Bookends?” Mel asked.
“I mean, I have two problems. First, protect our airliners and second, try to help Taiwan.”
“And how’s that coming?”
“You’ll never believe who’s here helping me,” Cammy said.
“Who?”
“Raj!”
“Raj Singh?” Melanie exclaimed. “How in the world did that happen?”
“I asked for him?”
“How?”
Cammy explained how she had called the Indian ambassador and put in the request and then how the vice president had exploded when she told him about it.
“Oh boy,” Mel said. “Does this mean you and Jay are history now?”
“I don’t know, but after all the attention he’s been giving me, let’s just say he’s executed an amazing pirouette.”
“Well, give it time. Besides, you’ll have the whole flight back to the States to get him to warm up again.”
“If I want to warm him
up,” Cammy said.
“What now? More thoughts about Hunt?” Mel asked cautiously.
Cammy sighed. “Well, maybe. When we worked together the last few days at Travis, he was so … oh, I don’t know … so nice to me.”
“Did he ever explain why he hadn’t called?”
“Not in so many words. But we weren’t alone much, so maybe he will … later.”
“Interesting. But Cam, now that we’re talking about old loves, did Raj? I mean, did he say anything? Anything at all?”
“Of course he did,” Cammy assured her.” He said he still thinks about you and misses you. And I know he means it. He looked pretty sad when he said it.”
There was a long pause. “Well, tell him I miss him too. But I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to see him again. He won’t be admitted back into the states, and I’m not about to move to New Delhi.”
“I know. By the way, what’s the latest with Derek?”
“Oh, I meant to tell you. I dumped him,” Mel said.
“Really? Why?”
“It just wasn’t working. I mean that guy only seems to be happy when he’s standing in a spotlight, and I decided I didn’t want to spend my life shining in reflected glory.”
Cammy chuckled. “Well, congratulations. That’s the best decision you’ve made in ages.”
“I guess. The only trouble is that now I spend my evenings alone. Last night I watched a program on the History Channel about ancient aliens.”
Cammy burst out laughing. “Wish I had that kind of time on my hands. Look, I’d better get going. I have a lot of work to do here. But is there any other news I’ve missed lately?”
“Well, there is one really weird thing that people are talking about.”
“What’s that?” Cammy asked.
“Nobody’s seen Franklin Thorne in ages.”
“The secretary of Homeland Security?”
“Yeah. He hasn’t been in his office. Hasn’t been in any White House meetings. Nobody knows where he is. He’s always been sort of an odd duck though, you know?”
“Well, he has no history of involuntary confinement,” Cammy quipped, “but you’re right, that does sound strange.”
“Maybe he’s resigned or been kicked out, and they haven’t announced it yet.”
“Is there any gossip about who a new director might be?”
“I haven’t seen any white smoke yet,” Melanie said.
“Well, keep watching the news, send me a text, and I’ll try to check back with you later. Now, I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Okay. Thanks for the call. But Cam …”
“Yes?”
“Nobody on this side of the Pacific knows you’re there or how you’re flying back. Just make sure that nobody on that side figures it out either.”
Cammy shared a cup of coffee with Raj, grabbed a few cookies off a side table and headed back to the Sterling command center. A young man was standing next to the desk holding a box. “You requested this microscope, ma’am?”
“Oh yes. Let’s set it up over here.”
Cammy pried the chip loose from the card and peered at it under the scope. She studied the configurations and noticed a slight architectural difference. She had seen something similar in some of her research a while ago. She tried to remember where. She stared at the chip again. This just doesn’t look right. It’s different from everything else in this system. It looks like an orphan. She stared into the microscope again and called out to Raj. “Can you come over here again?”
“What is it?” Raj said, walking over to the scope. “What do you see?”
“Look here. Tell me if you’ve ever seen a chip that looks like that.”
Raj leaned over and looked through the scope. “This is strange, but yes, I believe I’ve seen something like this, and it was made …”
“In China, right?” Cammy said.
Raj looked up, puzzled. “Yes. China could have produced it. I wonder why it’s in there?”
“I don’t know,” Cammy said, “Let me think about that.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
ON BOARD AIR FORCE TWO
“Welcome aboard,” Jayson Keller said as Cammy climbed up the long stairway leading to the front cabin of Air Force Two. She noticed that he was wearing a crisp blue and white striped shirt with the sleeves rolled up, but he had discarded his tie and suit coat. He smiled and reached for her computer bag. An aide followed with her carry-on luggage.
He must have decided that I wasn’t starting World War III after all, she mused as she saw Jay’s wide smile. Or maybe he’s just happy he got the Japanese to sign onto that defense pact. That’s probably it.
“Hi Jay,” she said. “Where would you like me to sit?”
“Come on into the conference room,” he said, leading the way past the communications center where an Air Force major was studying his computer screen. “I’m anxious to hear all about Taiwan and whether your old system is up and running.”
Cammy stowed her bags and sat down in one of the plush leather seats. She saw that a flight attendant had placed a glass of ice water at her chair. She took a sip. “You have no idea how relieved I was when that cargo plane landed with our engineers and all the equipment. I guess they really did keep a lid on all the travel plans.”
“They had to after the orders we gave to your boss.”
“I think they were all pretty nervous about flying over,” Cammy said. And I’m nervous again about this flight back.
“I can’t blame them. They were real troopers to volunteer for that assignment. So you got things working to set up the defense perimeter?”
“Well, with Raj’s help …” she stopped and looked up at Jay with guarded eyes.
“Raj?” Jayson asked, arching his brows. “You mean that man from New Delhi you told me about? He was there?”
“Yes. I figured you knew. I mean, by now,” she murmured.
He stared at her and shook his head. After a long pause, he started to smile. “What am I going to do with you?”
“You didn’t know?” Cammy persisted.
“No. No one from India contacted our people. They must have just decided to send him over quietly when you asked. I must say you have a lot of pull for one American citizen.”
“Only with India,” she said. “And Raj told me that the people in the Defense Ministry in Delhi told him to go to Taiwan, but not to release any statements.”
“Well, that was a smart move.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Cammy went on to explain how they had worked together for several days setting up all of the components to sense, track, and take control of a cruise missile if one or more should ever be launched against the island.
They still would have trouble with a whole battery of ballistic missiles because Sterling’s system was not working. She told him how she had received permission to examine Sterling’s software because she thought she might be able to get the system up and running. But then she explained how she had found the strange chip inside the system.
“Strange?” Jay asked. What do you mean, strange?”
“It was the weirdest thing. I examined the chip under a microscope and studied the code, and I realized it was totally different. I sensed that it was configured to allow the system to work in one part of the world, but not in others. It all has to do with the GPS and the frequencies the system uses. It sounds wild, but I figured that it worked just fine in American testing areas. But if it’s outside those areas, it transmits through a different frequency. So, of course, it wouldn’t work overseas. It’s like the system was sabotaged by a tiny chip.”
Jay stared at her wide-eyed. “How could that be? Sterling manufactured that whole system, tested it and sold it to Taiwan in a huge contract. Why would they sabotage their own system?”
“Of course, they wouldn’t, unless …”
“Unless what?”
“Unless they didn’t know it was a bad chip.”
“Ho
w in the world could they not know? They built it,” Jay protested.
“Maybe not all of it. That chip looked like it was made in China.”
“China?” Jay blurted. “But how? Wait a minute. You don’t think …”
Cammy nodded. “Yes, I think that maybe they broke the law and had the chip manufactured by a foreign power. And that power, China, knowing that Sterling was selling to Taiwan, developed a chip that wouldn’t allow frequencies to operate as expected if the GPS sensed that it was deployed outside the U.S, or anywhere near Taiwan.”
“But that would be against our ITAR regulations.”
“I know,” Cammy said. “That’s all part of the Arms Export Control Act, isn’t it?”
“Exactly right! Jesus Christ! So we have an American company getting components for a sensitive missile defense system manufactured in another country that’s proscribed from contributing to national security projects?”
“An American company run by an Indian named Nettar Kooner,” Cammy replied.
All these years she had been trying to compete with Sterling. All these years, she had blamed that company for making a missile that she knew in her heart was defective, a missile that she believed caused the death of her father. And now, finally, she may have caught them breaking the law.
She had worked and waited for just such a moment. A moment when she would get revenge. Is that what she felt now? Was it a sense of revenge? No. It was a feeling of intense sadness. She was sad that Kooner had tried to skirt the law probably in an effort to lower his costs. She was sad that the man had built a system that should have worked perfectly to protect a thriving island from a possible attack by a well-armed communist regime.
She knew that once they got back to Washington, Jay would take steps to bring charges against Sterling. Would that make her happy? As she thought about it, she realized that the answer was: not especially.
“Cammy? What are you thinking? You seem miles away,” Jay said.
“Oh, guess I’m just sorry that a company would do something that stupid, something that could sabotage an entire system and allow another country to be put in harm’s way.”
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