Heavier Than Air

by T. E. Vario (t_e_vario@yahoo. com)

  As she expected, the main computer was set up with security in mind. All of the user accounts, like hers, were in a separate area and walled off from the databases and program areas. She looked at all the usual security holes and found them neatly blocked. Someone competent was running the main servers. She prowled a bit on the network and found that there were about 20 servers and 150 workstations on the network. There must be more people working here than I thought…

  Returning to her folder, Sara read through all the previous attempts to crack the Gengon code. It appeared that they were using the same encryption system for everything from hand-held communicators to broadcast stations. That was important, since it meant that the encoding and decoding logic could be placed in a very small device. Another clue was that all messages ended up being even multiples of 8 characters in length. The coding must work in blocks of eight characters, which eliminates many of the common encryption engines.

  Lost in thought, Sara jumped when Hanna returned for lunch. After Sara locked everything away, Hanna took her down the hall in the opposite direction from Heinrich Largos’ office, upstairs to the ground level. Actual sunlight came in through the few scattered windows. The door to the cafeteria had a huge sign above it. DO NOT DISCUSS CLASSIFIED MATTERS HERE. I get the message, thought Sara.

  The cafeteria had room for about 40 people, and was only part full. Faded pictures of beach scenes had been crudely taped to the walls to provide some relief from the monotony. The food was bland, but not terrible.

  Hanna and Sara exchanged information about their pasts, families, and past boyfriends. Romance was clearly on Hanna’s mind. “All the men in this place are hopeless, but I never see anyone else.” Sara looked around, hoping the men sitting near them did not notice. They did not seem to, but she still felt awkward. Hanna was awfully noisy for a spook.

  * * *

  It was three days before Heinrich Largos came by her office again.

  “May I see you for a moment in my office Sara?” he asked.

  “Of course sir.” Sara took a moment to lock all of her papers away and to log off the computer, and then walked back to Largos’ office.

  “Come right in my dear” Heinrich said while gesturing to one of the two chairs facing his desk. Heinrich headed back towards the back of his desk, but then seemed to think better of it and sat down next to Sara. Those hairs on the back of her neck started acting up again, but at least sitting next to her he could not stare at her breasts.

  “Tell me about how your work is coming along Sara.” He appeared to relax, spreading his bulk throughout the large chair.

  “I’ve brought myself up-to-date on all the previous work, which was pretty thorough. It looks like we are dealing with an eight-character block cypher, and one that can be executed on small hardware. I checked and that narrows it down to three algorithms that we are aware of, although it is possible they have a mathematician capable of coming up with a new algorithm.”

  “Doubtful” said Heinrich. “The Gengon have a strong anti-intellectual bias in their orthodoxy. All the mathematicians have either been killed, or driven out. We have several exiles working here, and none have any knowledge of basic cryptographic work taking place in northern territory. I suspect that they are using one of your established algorithms.”

  That makes sense thought Sara. Perhaps the bag of fat had a brain after all.

  Sara continued. “I’m working on an approach to determining which algorithm is in use from the transmissions already recorded. Once we know which method is in use, we can examine the known flaws and look for hints as to what keys are being used.”

  “Excellent Sara” he said while resting his hand on her left leg, just above the knee. Give me another report in three days."

  Sara resisted the urge to remove his hand from her leg, and simply stood up. Heinrich’s hand fell aside, but his eyes were back on her breasts as she rose and walked out of his office.

  She felt like she needed a three-hour shower to wash the slime off from that encounter. “I’m really getting to dislike you Heinrich Largos” she whispered under her breath as she returned to her office.

  * * *

  At that moment far to the north, another secret discussion was taking place. Both men were wearing sealed protective suits, ventilated by hoses blowing fresh air from outside the buildings. The suits were thin enough that they could talk to each other, although their voices sounded muffled.

  “All right Sergeant, this is the dispersion unit. There is enough virus in these two canisters to infect a large city. The key is to get good dispersion. You need to be two-miles away from the edge of town, and upwind. The wind should be less than fifteen knots. Any more than that and the agent will just be blown into the countryside.”

  “Two miles, upwind, less than 15 knots wind speed.” The Sergeant repeated the directions to demonstrate that he knew them, and to fix them in his own mind. Even to this hardened soldier, the canisters represented unbelievable violence.

  “Show me how the dispersion unit works professor.”

  “Right. There are two protective caps over the unit. You remove the first one by twisting, and the second one using this release lever.” The professor fell into his routine, lecturing the sergeant like a college student. Professor Peng was a virologist, and taught in the local university. Making bio-weapons was his night job.

  “Once you have the caps removed, just press this button. You will have ten minutes to escape the area. Be sure you go into the wind, so that you do not get into the dispersion cloud.”

  “Ten minutes, escape upwind.”

  “Very good Sergeant. I’ll just replace these caps, and you can be on your way. I understand that your squad will be leaving tonight.”

  “That’s correct. Can I take the cylinders with me now?”

  “Let’s place them into this disinfectant bath for five minutes, just to make sure that everything is sterile. I’ll have the canisters brought to you in the ready room. You can remove your suit in the next room.”

  “Thank you professor.”

  The professor went out the back door into a sterile shower, and washed down his suit. He then stepped out of the suit and went to his own office. Benjamin Fowler, the head of the Northern Council was waiting for him. Fowler was about 50 years old with long black hair tied in a ponytail. He had a narrow face and piercing blue eyes. The professor sat in front of him, but could not hold Fowler’s gaze.

  “So Professor, are the men set.”

  “Yes, they are picking up the canister in a few minutes. They start their journey tonight.”

  “And the delay on the dispersion unit?”

  “Deactivated. The unit will disperse a cloud of virus the moment they press the button. The squad will be infected instantly.”

  “How long will they last?” Fowler’s face showed no signs of emotion in discussing the death of four of his most loyal soldiers.

  “With a massive dose, they should show symptoms in hours and be dead in two days. All of their soft tissues will be liquefied by the virus, so there won’t be much left of them after three days.”

  “Excellent Professor. Keep the vaccine production going full speed, but limit inoculations to those directly involved in production. I want to save the vaccine for the right moment, politically.”

  “Understood your Excellency.”

  Benjamin Fowler walked back into the night. He did not hear the single gunshot that Professor Peng used to end his own life.

  John and Lieutenant Hermandez landed just after Charlie Zulu. They went straight to the briefing room where the pilot of Charlie Zulu, Cindy Cho, was already sitting. Cho looked miserable. She and Joe Callanto had been flying as combat partners for at least six months, which was bound to make the two pilots pretty close. She was going to take this one hard.

  Major Walters brought the debriefing to order. “Ladies and gentlemen, a few of the planes are on final glide and won’t be able to join us for another 40 minutes. However, I want
to get the debriefing started now so that we have as much time to take corrective actions as possible. Lieutenant Cho, please give us your version of the events.”

  Collecting herself, Lieutenant Cho rose and addressed the room. She used the pointer to indicate locations on the wall map. “The mission proceed per plan until shortly after 13:15 hours. Juliet Papa took position here at about 8500 feet, while I circled here about 2000 feet lower. Shortly after our 13:15 communication I spotted a bandit heading due south at high speed. The bandit had apparently been travelling under instruments in the clouds aligned with this ridge.”

  “Excuse me Lieutenant. Would you please indicate the location of stable cloud layers on the map, and the type of bandit aircraft?” The Major sat back down.

  “Yes Sir. The aircraft was V class, evidenced by the tail surfaces. As to weather, there were two major cloud streets running north-south along these ridges. There was a cloudless area here, roughly five miles across. Juliet Papa and I felt this was our best location for spotting a plane on a bombing mission, as we could maintain altitude and stay in sight of the clear area.”

  “After sighting the bandit we immediately started pursuit. Juliet Papa flew into the next line of clouds following the bandit in cloud while I stayed in clear air below. We were both able to maintain near redline speed because the lift was strong.”

  Cindy Cho paused to get her breath. She looked around the room for questions, but everyone was still. A few more pilots entered the room quietly from the back. It was clear from their expressions that they already knew someone had died. Refocusing, Lieutenant Cho continued with the briefing.

  “Both of us reached the end of the second band of clouds at about the same time. I would estimate that this was about 13:30 hours. However, we were not able to spot the bandit. Consistent with our briefing, JP opted to make the radio call and continue south in an attempt to intercept. I stayed back and circled in cloud for five minutes, hoping to catch the bandit later if he had held up in the clouds.”

  Tamara Cole raised her hand. “Wasn’t that suicidal to make a radio broadcast with a bandit likely within five miles and out of sight?” Perhaps Tamara was making a point for the Major’s benefit, rather than trying to humiliate Lieutenant Cho, but Cindy Cho took it like a gut punch. Cindy turned white and stared at Tamara without speaking.

  Major Walters interrupted. “You were at the AM briefing Lieutenant Cole, and know that these were the exact orders given. The threat of nuclear contamination forced us to take unusual measures, which these pilots carried out. Please continue Lieutenant Cho.”

  Cindy Cho’s voice was strained, as she finished the briefing. “At … at approximately 13:34 hours my radio direction finder lit up with Juliet Papa’s final transmission. He said he was under attack by three bandits. About 30 seconds later the radio lit up again with an emergency locator signal, JP’s black box. I followed the intercept course to that beacon and found three bandits circling above what appeared to be the wreckage of JP’s plane. No evidence of a parachute was visible. I made one attack pass at the lead bandit, but only affected light damage. During final glide home I was contacted by Alpha Romeo and reported the situation.”

  Lieutenant Cho stopped speaking, but remained standing at the front of the briefing room. She was staring out into space.

  “Were there any bombs visible under the wings of any of the three bandits?” asked the Major.

  “No Sir. They were circling and I got a good look at all three of them. There were no bombs.”

  The Major looked around the room. “Captain Young, anything to add to Lieutenant Cho’s report?”

  “I can confirm the timing the radio transmissions Lieutenant Cho referred to. From our observation point we could also confirm the location of the second line of cloud mentioned by the Lieutenant, but were too far away to see the point of their first contact. I would like to add that both pilots appear to have carried out their orders with distinction Sir.”

  Tamara Cole winced, betraying that she did not agree with the assessment of the pilot’s performance. She kept her thoughts to herself.

  “Very well, unless anyone else has something to add, this debriefing session is over. Lieutenant Cho, I’ll expect your full report on my desk at 07:00 tomorrow. Captain Young, would you be so good as to come with me to my office?”

  The Major lead the way out of the room as the meeting broke up. One of the other pilots took Lieutenant Cho by the arm and led her towards the sleeping quarters. Cindy Cho had aged 10 years in one short day.

  * * *

  John Young followed the Major into his office and shut the door behind them. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this Major” John said as he was taking a seat.

  “Speak your mind John, that’s what you’re here for.”

  “It’s just too neat. The NA plane comes through at the exact location we’re expecting, acting just like it’s on a bombing mission. Two experienced pilots get sucked into following it. Our orders assure that one of our pilots will use their radio when they can’t find the bandit at the south end of the cloud street. Then it turns out that there are really three bandits, and they act like they are just waiting for that radio call to jump on Joe. Pretty damn amazing luck to have that all fall together for the Gengon.” John was gripping the arms of his chair as he spoke.

  “I agree that it goes beyond bad luck. The Gengon had to position the second two bandits so that they were not visible as the first one crossed the gap. They then had to rendezvous in cloud and wait for the radio signal. You just can’t get that level of coordination without an exact plan in advance. And you could not create the plan unless you knew precisely what our orders were.”

  “Where did the information about the dirty bomb come from?” asked John.

  “Station 12 as always. Essentially all of our intelligence comes from there.”

  The Major saw that John reacted to the mention of Station 12.

  “Something on your mind John?”

  John paused, and then said: “Station 12 is where my daughter was stationed a week ago. She always had a head for numbers and computers, so I’m not surprised. It’s just weird seeing her so close to this lethal problem.”

  “Interesting. Sara’s presence in Section 12 might come in useful. Let’s get back to the problem at hand. For the Gengon to pull today’s stunt off they would need to not only feed us phony information about a dirty bomb, they would need to know details of our operations plan in advance. I only made up that operations plan the night before. How did they find out?”

  “How do you file the operations plan Major? On paper, or by computer?”

  “By computer. I log into a secure terminal locked in this cabinet right here. I’m the only one with a key, and the only one with the login password.”

  “Where is the computer you are connecting with?”

  “I’m not sure John, but a damn good guess would be Station 12.”

  After thinking for a moment, John laid out the options.

  “I think there are only two realistic options as to how the Gengon got the information. One possibility is that there is someone here on base that listened to your briefing and managed to transmit the message to the bastards up north. It’s unlikely but we need to check it out. The second option is that there is someone in Section 12 working the other side.”

  “John, why don’t you see about checking out the base angle, and I’ll make some discreet inquiries about Section 12’s security. Let’s discuss this again tomorrow after the debrief.”

  “Very good Major. Actually, not very good at all, but we had better deal with it. Mind if I involve JP in checking for a leak here?”

  “No problem with JP, but stop the information flow with him. The three of us need to sit on this until we get more data.”

  John started to salute, but saw that the Major was about to say something.

  “Oh, one more thing John. How did Lieutenant Hernandez do today?”

  “He did fine. I let him do a
lmost all the flying, and he improved steadily all day. I’d sign his log book off right now if he were my student.”

  “Well good. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Consider him your student from this point forward.”

  John smiled. He had half been expecting that, and he didn’t mind. Gabriel Hermandez was a good kid, and would make a great pilot if he didn’t get killed first.

  John saluted, opened the door and left. He had too more tasks to do that evening.

  * * *

  Lieutenant Cho was sitting at the desk in her room as John knocked and entered. It did not look as if she had managed to get a word down on the mission report form in front of her. John sat down on her bunk, but did not say anything immediately. John had been Cindy Cho’s combat instructor, and knew her well enough to know when to talk and when to wait.

  After a few moments Cindy Cho put down her pen and turned to face John.

  “I keep running it over in my mind, trying to figure out what I should have done. There is no way that Joe should have had to face those three bastards alone. I was his partner. I should have been there. It was my fault.”

  “It is noble of you to take responsibility for his death, but I don’t think that there was any way for you to have helped John further given the mission parameters and constraints you were put under.” John didn’t bother with military formality in this conversion. This was between himself and Cindy Cho.

  “Thanks. I’ve been thinking about the mission too. It’s almost like the situation was created to get Joe out into the open. How did those three Gengon fighters know to hold up in the same cloud I was circling in, but leave before me? I know I’m not thinking rationally, but I feel like Joe and I were pawns in some bigger game.”