Heavier Than Air
Page 16
“I’m afraid your boy is on his own for the moment John. No units are operating in that area right now.”
John sighed. “I guess that is what I was expecting. It is pretty empty out there. Eric is a resourceful person. I think he has a pretty good chance.”
“I’m sure you are right. Our forces will get a squad heading his direction immediately, so perhaps the distance he has to go alone can be cut in half.”
“Thanks Major.”
Barbara spoke up. “I have a lot of confidence in Eric. He’ll make it back John. Let me at least offer a partial explanation as to why you have been surprised by Gengon planes twice in the last week.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“I don’t have the whole story, but I think I found a key piece of the puzzle. After the first incident where my forecast was so far off, I sent a message to Signal Corps to get the actual text of the remote weather station’s transmissions. It turns out that each station transmits the data three times so that any errors can be eliminated by comparing the three copies. If one of the three messages differs from the other two, then the two that agree are assumed to be correct.”
“I asked the corporal if he ad noticed anything different about the signals in the last few months. He said that most of the stations were as they always had been, but one station in the far north had suddenly popped up with a lot of transmission errors. It was that station’s transmissions I focussed in on.”
Barbara laid a typed sheet of paper on the Major’s desk.
“Here are the three transmissions for an afternoon broadcast three days ago. Note the differences.”
STA 025, 13:00, WCD 15 AT 190 DEG, TMP 12, HUTID 71, PRES 3011, VIS 10, CLD 30 PCT AT 11000, 20 PCT HI STRATUS
STA 025, 13:00, WAD 15 AT 190 DEG, TMP 12, HUIID 71, PRES 3011, VIS 10, CLD 30 PCT AT 11000, 20 PCT HI STRATUS
STA 025, 13:00, WPD 15 AT 190 DEG, TMP 12, HUVID 71, PRES 3011, VIS 10, CLD 30 PCT AT 11000, 20 PCT HI STRATUS
“I don’t see a thing, said JP.”
“Neither did I for quite a while. But the corporal said there were differences, so I checked each letter. I’ll highlight the differences.”
STA 025, 13:00, WCD 15 AT 190 DEG, TMP 12, HUTID 71, PRES 3011, VIS 10, CLD 80 PCT AT 11000, 70 PCT HI STRATUS
STA 025, 13:00, WAD 15 AT 190 DEG, TMP 12, HUIID 71, PRES 3011, VIS 10, CLD 80 PCT AT 11000, 70 PCT HI STRATUS
STA 025, 13:00, WPD 15 AT 190 DEG, TMP 12, HUVID 71, PRES 3011, VIS 10, CLD 80 PCT AT 11000, 70 PCT HI STRATUS
The Major chimed in. “Whoever sent these messages either made mistakes very consistently, or deliberately changed the same two letter positions.”
“I think it was deliberate,” said Barbara. If you take the first changes and then add the second changes, you spell out C A P T I V. I think the sender is trying to tell us that he has been taken captive.”
The Major nodded at Barbara, but was not completely convinced. “I’m impressed that you found this Barbara, but wouldn’t a captive operator be dead or in a Northern Council jail somewhere, and unable to make this transmission?”
“Unless the Gengon are keeping him there because he knows how to make the transmissions. My guess is that they have him captive, but are feeding him false information to transmit to us. For example, the data we’ve been looking at suggests a very bad flying day, with two layers of clouds. That was the day that we had the intel. about the bombing run that never materialized, and lost a pilot when the Gengon set up an ambush.”
John seemed to be perking up a bit. “It was the combination of the incorrect forecast and the suspect intel. about the dirty bomb that set up the ambush. Are the bastards smart enough to put that all together? Would they bother doing all of this just to shoot down one of our planes?”
The Major answered the question. “The are certainly smart enough John. But I have a feeling that all of this is a diversion. I wonder what they are really planning while they have us focussing all of our energy on these distractions?
No one had an answer.
* * *
The meeting in the Major’s office broke up. “John, would you mind staying a moment, I have another matter to discuss.”
Barbara and JP left them alone, closing the door as the exited.
“I’ve gotten two messages from Section 12 today. One was a delayed transmission from your daughter, hidden in a recon. photo. Here it is:
HAVE SET TRAP. EXPECT LOCAL SITUATION TO DRIVE ACTION WITHIN THE NEXT FOURTYEIGHT HOURS. WILL REPORT ON OUTCOME. END OF MESSAGE.
John read the note several times. “Looks like she is making progress.”
“It gets better John, I just got an encrypted message from Heinrich Largos, the head of Section 12. Take a look.”
The Major brought up the message on his secure terminal for John to read.
YOUR RESOURCE HERE HAS SET UP SYSTEM THAT WILL ID PROBLEM WITHIN THE NEXT TWENTYFOUR HOURS. ALSO HAVE PHYSICAL ASSET WITH RELATED INFORMATION. SUGGEST JOINT MEETING HERE MAY BE OF HIGH VALUE.
This message also took several readings. John sat back down and thought about it.
“The second message suggests that Sara must have told Largos what she was doing. That means that she has already cleared Largos as not being the leak, which makes things a lot easier. I wonder what the physical asset might be?”
“John, it is almost certainly a person. It is not clear from the note whether it is a captive, or sympathetic sole who happens to have information, by I’m sure Largos is talking about a human asset.”
“That could explain why he wants a meeting. I would not mind going. It would give me a chance to tell Sara about Eric being shot down. God knows she’s cleared for the information.”
“OK John, I’ll let Largos know that you are going tomorrow.”
“I’d better go tonight Major.”
“Forget it John, you have been through the ringer and look like hell. Get some sleep and set off when you have recovered a bit. If you’ve got a favorite horse, let the stables know. Always makes the ride better if you have a familiar mount.”
“OK Major, tomorrow it is.”
* * *
John felt like just going to his room and sleeping, but he knew that he would just spend all night worrying about Eric. He knocked on Barbara’s door. She was waiting for him. Without saying a word she took him into her room and laid him on her bunk with his head in her lap. She gently stroked his hair while he relaxed. John was asleep in minutes. Barbara stayed in that position for several hours, making sure John was soundly asleep. She then got up, had a bite to eat, and quietly got in bed next to him, also fully clothed. It was a sad occasion, but she was so glad he had come to her.
Heinrich Largos had Sara back in his office, along with the internal security officer, Anne Giovani. Anne was tall and slender, but had an athletic build. Her black hair was cut very short and she had a piercing gaze. She would look like a security officer with or without the uniform.
“Sara, Captain Giovani has assembled a small team to help us control the situation as we attempt to unmask our spy. Would you be so good as to explain what we are looking for to the Captain.”
“We believe the person we are looking for has been taking information out of Section 12 in some small media, such as a single chip or micro disk. They may also have been bringing false or modified information into the section by the same route. I have set up the workstations so that either Mr. Largos or myself will be able to tell who the spy is by simply taking a close look at their workstation. There are 148 workstations left to check, each in a separate office.”
“So you need to look at each of the workstations to find the spy, but it will be obvious that something is up the minute you start the inspections. Is that the situation?”
“You are correct Captain. You may have a better idea, but ours was to simply have everyone stay in their office, while we go from room to room. People normally keep their office doors shut for security reasons, so it may be noticed.”
“Do you have a suggestion, Captain Giovani?” Largos was showing some concern.
“Perhaps there is a cover story we can invent that would provide a reason for either of you to go to each office.”
Largos offered a suggestion. “I suppose I could send a note around that I wanted to say a few words of appreciation to each of the staff. That would give me a reason to go to each office.”
“Unless you have done something similar in the recent past, that would certainly tip off our spy. We need something more ordinary.”
Sara pointed out another problem with Largo’s suggestion. “The other problem with an informal visit is that there would be no reason for the workstations to be on while you talked to each person. In fact, they should shut their workstation off when you enter if they follow the orders to the letter. We need an excuse that is boring, but forces them to have their workstations turned on.”
“That is readily accomplished Sara. We periodically do a emitted radiation scan of each workstation to make sure that the screen can’t be read from a distance from emitted radio-frequency sidebands. I chose a ‘volunteer’ each time to do the checks, which could be you this time. The workstations must be operating to do the check.” Largos was smiling broadly at his idea.
“Sara nodded. It’s good. I can’t think of anything more mundane. You do it all the time. Perhaps you could put out a boring memo saying that new regulations demand that we sweep more frequently, and we are behind. That would justify a rush sweep this afternoon.”
Captain Giovani nodded. “It sounds good to me. If you can do the sweep without attracting suspicion, we can go back later and pick up the spies. The trick will be to not give anything away when you spot the dirty workstation. Do you think you can do that?”
Sara paused. “I’m not sure. I’m not an actress or a spy. I don’t have practice doing things like this.”
Giovani nodded. “At least you are aware of you limitations, which is half the battle. Can I have a backup operative follow you, with a maintenance cart or some other cover? That way if you get in trouble, we will have someone armed right outside the door.”
“I don’t see why not, as long as the person looks like a technical lackey. Give them a clipboard and some stacks of paper, and everyone will ignore them.”
Gaptain Giovani smiled. “For a civilian, you sure think like a spy Sara. I have just the man for the job. Why don’t you come to my office and I’ll introduce him to you, and we can get set up. In the meantime, perhaps Mr. Largos can send the boring note to all staff about the extra emitted radiation check.”
“With pleasure! I shouldn’t be enjoying all this spy catching, but I can’t help myself!” Largos was in fine form. “Oh, Sara. Do you think you could check on the progress of that other matter before you start the checks?”
Largos was obviously dying to get the results of the decryption project, but that might take many more days. “Yes Sir. I’ll check it right before I go to the Captain’s office, and let you know if anything has turned up.”
“Excellent Sara, and best of luck.”
* * *
Anne had to leave Section 12 to go to Captain Anne Giovani’s office. Security had its own two-story building that looked as if it had been converted from a private residence. It was a white structure complete with colonnades and a large entryway. The basement had a few cells to hold prisoners in transit and soldiers recently arrested – usually for getting into fights. The Captain’s office was on the ground floor. Surprisingly, there were no guards posted to stop people from entering the building or going right into the Captain’s office. Sara speculated that few of the soldiers on base were motivated to break into the security building.
Sara knocked and then let herself into the Captain’s office. The Captain introduced the other occupant of the office, a man of about 25 with straight black hair and dark brown eyes. His good looks, and obvious confidence struck Sara. He looked like an actor playing the part of a soldier.
“Sara, this is Leutenant Chad DeForest. I have assigned him to help you with the process of finding the problem persons in Section 12. I have briefed him on the main points, but I’m hoping that you can go over the situation in more detail and put things in motion. I would like to be notified before you start actual operation. You may use the conference room behind my office to do your planning.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Although Sara was a civilian, she found herself falling into military habits of address.
“Come with me Sara, we might as well get started,” said DeForest. He had a deep voice and spoke with a tone that somehow conveyed sincerity. They walked into the next room and shut the door.
The conference room had windows on two sides, which was a welcome relief from Section 12’s underground chambers. Sara realized that it also provided no protection at all from eavesdropping. Someone outside of Camp Williams could be bouncing microwaves off of these windows right now, and they would never know it. This was not a good situation for so important a matter.
“I’m sorry to be a stickler for security, but this room is far from ideal. Is there somewhere else we could go with less chance of being overheard?”
“I’m embarrassed. I should be the one bringing up security. There is a security cube in the basement. Let’s see if it is available. Follow me.”
DeForrest led the way down a back stairway to the basement. The three empty prison cells occupied one half. The other half of the basement held a curious room within a room. It was a ten-by-ten foot box, elevated a foot off of the floor, and suspended from four cables attached to the basement’s ceiling. In addition, the box was covered in a fine steel mesh. There were no windows, and the single door was also covered in wire mesh.
“This is the most secure place I know of outside of Section 12. The setup makes it very easy to check for listening devices, and no radio transmissions can get through the wire mesh. Let me check the sign-up sheet and see if it is in use.”
DeForrest looked at the clipboard on the wall. It was free all day. He made a notation on the next slot and motioned for Sara to join him in the room.
There were six chairs and a small table inside of the box, which took up essentially all of the space. DeForest turned on a battery operated lamp, and a small ventilation fan.
“It’s a bit cosy, but at least we can speak openly. Have a seat.”
Sara sat down next to DeForest, as he spread out the plans to Section 12 in front of them.
“I guess I will be following you around from office to office while you do the checking. We need to establish some signals so that I know if you think I should intervene. We also need to decide what to do after we locate the first spy.”
Sara thought about the situation. “I will be carrying the radiation detector. I figured that you would have a cart with some equipment and a clipboard. If I the workstation is clean, I’ll tell you some numbers to write down. That’s just the usual practice. If I see the marker we have set up for the spy, I’ll tell you that I’m having trouble with the instrument. If I need you to come in and subdue whomever it is, I’ll tell you that I need your help with the equipment. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good. I’m assuming that it would be best if we found out who it is without their knowing that they have been identified?”
“Right,” said Sara. “There could be more than one leak, although I doubt it. I think it is more likely that we have one leak, but they may have compromised several other people in Section 12. We won’t know that until we question the spy.”
“What kind of person should I look like. A technician, a scientist, a janitor
?”
This struck Sara as an odd question. “Aren’t you pretty certain to look like Chad DeForrest?”
Chad laughed. “True, but Chad DeForrest has quite a range of looks at his disposal. What would you like today?”
“I guess janitor would be the best. It is the least threatening, and there is no reason that two trained people would be tied up with so simple an exercise. This is just one of those duties we take turns doing.”
“Janitor it is. Let’s go over the floor plan, and decide what routes to take, exits if things go bad, and so forth.”
The two of them spent the next half-hour going over the details. Sara noticed that her left arm kept brushing up against Chad’s right. Neither of them seemed to mind. They kept working, but she was definitely distracted. As they finished up, both of them got up from their chairs at the same moment and were just a few inches apart. Chad paused for several seconds, looking right into her eyes. Sara could feel the heat coming off of both of them. Chad brushed a few hairs off her forehead, just brushing her cheek with his hand, but then backed away. It was a simple gesture, but it felt oddly intimate.
“I’ll let the Captain know we are set to go. Shall we meet in your CO’s office in a half hour?”
“Sure Chad, that will be fine. I’ll brief Mr. Largos, and gather up the equipment. We should be able to start right after you arrive.”
They said a few more pleasantries as they climbed back up the stairs and then went their separate ways.
* * *
30 minutes later Sara, Chad DeForest, and Hienrich Largos were together in Largos’ office. Sara could not get over the change in Chad’s appearance. He had put on coveralls and old shoes. His face looked unwashed, and there was dirt on his hands and under his fingernails. He walked with a slight stoop, and even seemed to be a bit slack jawed. No one would give a second thought to this man going up and down the corridors, pushing a cart.