by Andrew Watts
Behind the smoke, Lisa trudged into the sea wearing a tight black wetsuit. Before submerging, she looked up at the sky. Up there, somewhere, was an American drone. Or perhaps a satellite. She wondered if their network link was still operational, or if the cyberattacks had rendered them useless.
She blew a kiss to the sky.
Then she pulled a scuba mask over her face and unlatched the fins from her belt. She threw them over her feet, twisted open the oxygen valve of the thirty-minute container that was strapped to her back, and dove into the warm waters of the Arabian Gulf.
Chapter 13
Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE
Elliot and Chase stood looking at blank screens. The last thing anyone in the room had seen of the Bandar Abbas attack was the roadside bomb going off and destroying the troop transport.
“What in the hell is going on?” Elliot was fuming.
The screen was black. A small bit of text read: Satellite Signal Error 33948.29.2
Chase noticed that the other screens around the room all had similar error messages. Even the tactical displays seemed off. The main tactical display on the big screen, front and center of the room, was showing double the number of tracks it had a minute earlier. They weren’t syncing up with the datalink.
One of the enlisted Air Force men at the console said, “Sir, the system’s shit the bed.”
Chase frowned. It seemed odd that the tactical display, which used a different datalink than the drone, would fail at the same time. He looked around the room and saw just about everyone was troubleshooting some type of error.
The commotion in the room was getting louder. Someone said, “Use the radios.”
“Satcom radios are down, but we’ve got line-of-sight comms like VHF and UHF.”
Elliot said, “Well, that’s not going to get that video stream over Bandar Abbas back up, is it?”
“No, sir.”
One of the women manning a tactical display screen said to no one in particular, “All the links are down. The instant messengers are down. What the hell is going on?”
Chase felt a chill. This reminded him of 9/11. He had only been in high school. But the way multiple problems were occurring all at the same time…this had to be a coordinated attack.
Elliot sounded exasperated. He held a red phone to his ear and shook his head, looking at Chase. “Nothing.”
One of the men who had been talking on a radio headset called to the duty officer, “The next pass for surveillance in that area will be an EP-3, but they’re troubleshooting on the ground. They’re experiencing systems problems too.”
Elliot walked over to the Air Force officer who had been controlling the drone over Bandar Abbas. “Does that thing record video to its own hard drive?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is it going to crash somewhere over there if it doesn’t have a network link-up?”
“No, sir. It should automatically go back to its emergency landing field and make an instrument landing.”
Elliot said, “Okay, let me ask a real easy question.” He looked at the duty officer. “When this thing lands, how soon can you get me the video that it recorded on its hard drive?”
The duty officer said, “We’ll look into it, sir. It will probably be at least twelve hours or so.”
Elliot said, “Understand that this”—he motioned to the blank screens around the room—“and this”—he picked up the red phone without a dial tone—“is an attack. Someone has just attacked us.”
The room was quiet as they all listened to Elliot’s rant.
“Get me that freaking video as soon as possible. I need to know who was responsible for this attack.”
“Yes, sir.”
The room came alive as everyone scrambled to troubleshoot the communications and link problems they were having.
Chase noticed that the only screen still showing anything of value was the Fox News channel. The volume was off. It was on a small screen in the corner of the room, but to Chase, it may as well have been a billboard. He walked up underneath it.
His brother David’s face was being broadcast to the world. Underneath it was the headline: Manhunt in Australia Underway. A subheadline read: US men suspected of selling cybertechnology to Iran.
Chase looked over at Elliot to see if he had seen it. He was looking right at him.
*****
They went to an office around the corner from the Tactical Operations Center, where they had been talking before. The door was closed. A small TV in the room showed CNN. The news channel was flipping between coverage of the two Americans on the run in Australia and the Iranian attacks at Bandar Abbas. They had the volume on low.
“We can now provide you the names of the two American men that are considered armed and dangerous. David Manning and Henry Glickstein are believed to be somewhere in Australia or the Philippines. A global police manhunt is underway. Authorities say they have recordings of the men claiming responsibility for stealing US military cybertechnology secrets and selling them to Iran. They also participated in planning attacks against the United States. No word yet on whether any of this is related to the other major news coming out of Iran today.
“And a breaking news update on that other major Iran story—the violent attack that has killed a top Iranian politician and his wife, who we have now learned is the niece of the Iranian Supreme Leader. The Iranian government has stated that they now have indisputable DNA evidence linking the American government to the attack. They have provided a name—Tom Connolly—a man who Iran claims was the CIA operative who was behind the gruesome attack that left over two dozen dead. The US State Department has condemned the attack but has yet to put out a formal statement regarding this new DNA evidence. Another report coming out of Tehran cites a second American CIA operative by the name of Lisa Parker who was involved in the operation. Thus far the CIA has declined to comment.”
Chase spoke in a quiet voice. “There’s something you should know. I just checked my email and voice mail. David called me today.” Chase was conflicted. He knew what he wanted to do and he needed Elliot’s help, but he wasn’t sure that he’d go for it.
Elliot raised an eyebrow. “Now, you listen very carefully, Chase. I know he is your brother. But if you have any idea about where he is, if you know his whereabouts, then you need to let me know. Let’s hear the message.”
“I understand. But listen for a minute. Let’s think about this. You know my family. You have known my dad for years. Do you really think someone in my family would do something like this?”
Elliot breathed in through his nose and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he said, “No, I do not. But I have seen enough screwed-up things lately that I can’t tell up from down.”
Chase put his phone on speaker and played the voice mail.
“Chase, it’s David. I…I’m okay. Please tell Lindsay that I love her. I couldn’t get in touch with her and…I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me yet, so just please let her know that you heard from me and that I’m okay and that I love her. Listen, I’m in trouble. Some pretty bad things are going on. Some people may be after me and I…I’ll call you soon.”
Elliot said, “Play it again.”
He did.
Chase looked him in the eye. “Does that sound like someone who is voluntarily betraying his country?”
Elliot raised his voice. “How the hell should I know?”
“I think that this is connected to what we’ve been working on. Yes, David was on that list. But the police reported that they thought my brother was taken outside of his car a few weeks ago. So maybe this list isn’t of volunteers. Maybe it’s something else.”
“What are you getting at?”
“Have you seen anything through official channels about my brother? Any official policy on what we’re supposed to do with him?”
“No. Just this stuff on the news. And what Langley said a few weeks back about Gorji’s list not being a good enough source to go on.”
Elliot’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, what if my brother was taken into custody by the CIA? Since he may have information that’s relevant to our work, could Dubai Station take hold of him?”
“Now, how are we going to do that? They don’t even know where he is and there’s supposed to be some doggone international manhunt out for that boy.”
“Not anymore.” Chase pointed at the TV screen. Manhunt ends in Darwin, Australia, as two US men taken into custody by Interpol, it read.
Elliot scoffed. “What are you asking, Chase? You can’t really be suggesting what I think you are.”
“Hear me out. Let me bring him here. We’ll ask them some questions and find out what’s really going on. You know as well as I do that this could be related to Abu Musa and to Lisa Parker’s exploits.”
“How are you going to bring him here? He’s in custody? You want me to ask Interpol to give him to us?”
Chase said, “I don’t want to ask anyone. Where there is confusion, there is opportunity. Let’s create a little confusion.”
“Are you out of your goddamn mind? Even if I was going to authorize it, which I am NOT, how would you do it?”
Chase smiled. In his experience, very few people wanted to know how to do something that they were not interested in doing.
Chapter 14
Darwin, Australia
Henry Glickstein sat on his cot, biting his fingernails. The two young Australian military police guards sat outside his jail cell watching TV.
The rotating groups of MPs had watched the twenty-four-hour news channel all night long. They were excited. The news reports kept referring to David and Henry being captured in Darwin.
Henry was pissed. Since the TV had been on all night, he couldn’t get a lick of sleep. This place sucked. It reminded him of a jail cell in a John Wayne Western. Half the room was where they sat, behind bars. The other half of the room was the area where the Australian military police sat.
Supposedly they were going to be moved soon. The MPs said that they would get a shower at the next place. They had only been here for twelve hours, they were told. Just be patient. Right. Patience. That was what Henry needed.
Several weeks ago, David and Henry, along with another eighteen Americans, had been taken to a remote island under the pretense of participating in some top-secret CIA project. There were experts from a variety of fields that were with them. Some people were experts in defense, others in information technology, and others in military tactics. A lot of them were in the government or military. Each of them had been sent there by a trusted superior at their place of work.
Once on the island, they were told why they were there. China was planning to attack the United States. Everyone on the island was part of an American Red Cell: a team of experts that would plan out how China could best attack the US. The idea was that this would then help America to prepare its defense. They were told that Chinese spies had already infiltrated many of the US defense and intelligence agencies, so this carefully vetted team had to do their work on the island—a secret compound where no one would find out what was going on.
One minor problem—the entire operation was a ruse. The head woman there, Lena Chou, claimed to be a member of the CIA. Everything had seemed legitimate until David Manning discovered that the other half of the island was filled with Chinese military. Lena was working for them.
David had led the group in a revolt, but Lena and her mole, that no-good Indian bastard Natesh, had foiled that plan. As a storm pummeled the island, three Chinese helicopters landed and began to take over the buildings where the Americans waited.
Henry and David had escaped. David swam halfway around the island and commandeered one of the Chinese motorized rafts. The two of them had barely survived that night in the deadly storm. But luck was on their side. A day later, they had been picked up by an Australian fishing trawler and taken to Darwin.
Already paranoid about the Chinese coming after them, David and Henry didn’t tell the people on the trawler what was really going on. They also decided not to make any communications that might allow the Chinese to catch up with them while they were vulnerable and at sea. They needed to speak with the right people, and make that first communication count.
During the week or so that it took the trawler to reach Darwin, however, Lena’s spy network had apparently been hard at work. When David and Henry had called one of David’s trusted friends at his work, they had been too late. A bulletin had been put out by Interpol that David and Henry were wanted for selling cybertechnology to Iran. So when the two men thought they were being picked up by the Australian government and taken to safety, they were actually being taken to jail. Even the good guys were against them now.
David held on to one of the cold bars and asked the guards, “Can you at least tell us when we’ll be able to speak with an American representative?”
Henry knew what the answer would be.
The skinny guard looked like he’d just hit puberty a few weeks ago. Thick Australian accent. “Afraid we can’t help you. Interpol is in charge. We’re just doing them a favor, keeping you here until they can move you.”
Henry checked the spot on his arm that normally housed his Rolex. It must have been the tenth time he’d done so. Habit. A pale patch of skin told him nothing of what time it might be. He had traded his watch to a pawnshop the day before and used the funds to buy phones and pay for hotels. Their grand plan to get word out about the Lena and the Red Cell and the island. Lot of good it had done them.
The wall clock said six fifteen. About ten minutes had gone by since the last time he checked. Henry kept telling himself that this would all get sorted out. That any minute now a lawyer would come through that door and demand that his clients get fair treatment. But the TV had been tuned to the news channel, so Henry knew that no lawyer would be coming.
They were being called international terrorists. The TV was saying that US authorities had audio evidence that David Manning and Henry Glickstein had conspired in an Iranian cyberattack on allied nations. This was total horseshit.
Yesterday, soon after they had arrived in Darwin, they had called David’s office. Got hold of someone he knew and thought he could trust. Told him and a group of people on the phone everything. But Lena’s crew had already put plans into motion. They had put out information that David and Henry had given classified information to Iran. Which was a complete lie. But in the information age, perception was reality. Neither David nor Henry knew whether the people on that phone call were really American loyalists who had been tricked, or Chinese agents posing as Americans.
However they had done it, the Chinese had convinced enough people that David and Henry were international terrorists. Interpol had captured them in Darwin. David hadn’t even been able to contact his wife.
Just as bad as being captured was what they learned from watching the news.
The Red Cell’s plan for a Chinese attack on America began with a staged war. The plans called for attacks on Iran that would frame the United States as the aggressor. This would trigger retributive attacks from Iran against the United States, further fanning the flames. Covertly, the Chinese would actually execute some of the attacks. If the fire of an Iran-US war burned bright enough, the American military would be forced to overallocate its global military assets to the Middle East. The Chinese would launch a cyberattack and make it look like Iran was the culprit. This cyberattack would disrupt global communications, especially the ones that the US military relied upon. The effect of these initial plans was to leave the best American military assets stuck in the Middle East, fighting a war with Iran, and unable to quickly react to a Chinese attack.
As David and Henry first sat down behind bars, the news channel had rattled off three frightening stories. First, David and Henry were wanted for selling a cyberweapon to Iran. Second, the C
IA had assassinated a prominent Iranian politician and his wife, who was related to the Iranian Supreme Leader. Third, global satellite and communications outages were occurring. Lena’s Chinese team had implemented the Red Cell’s war plans.
It would have sounded preposterous if anyone had told Henry this stuff a few weeks ago. But now that he had seen what was on that island with his own eyes, he was a believer. David had seen even more. On the other side of the island from where the American Red Cell was held, David had seen a second Chinese encampment. A man-made cave had been created out of one of the island’s mountains. David surmised that it was some type of bunker, possibly for Chinese Navy ships or submarines. Henry had overheard another part of the Red Cell plans which suggested the use of electromagnetic pulse devices in the Pacific. For years, the Chinese had been building large military bunkers into their coastal mountain bases to protect their assets from EMP attacks. If they proceeded with that plan, it would leave any remaining US Pacific Navy vessels paralyzed and unable to respond to a Chinese assault.
“What a crock of shit,” Henry said when he heard the newscast. The Australian guards glared back at him. “What? Do I look like a friggin terrorist? I like beer and hamburgers. I’m not a friggin terrorist!”
David said, “Give it a rest.”
David was lying on his back on the other cot. He hadn’t said much since last night. Henry figured he was worried sick about what this meant for his chances to be reunited with his family.
The door burst open and an ogre in a military uniform walked in.
The man filled the frame of the door. He had to duck his head down so as not to hit it. A second, shorter man in a different uniform walked in after him. They stood there at the entrance to the small brig, taking everything in.
David looked at the man and sat up, wide-eyed. Hmm. Henry saw something in David’s eyes that he hadn’t seen since they’d been arrested. Hope?