by Barry Eisler
Ben rubbed his wrists and nodded. The truth was, he didn’t know what he was going to do. A minute earlier, he would have given anything to have one last shot at Hort. Now he wasn’t sure.
“Go,” Hort said, and the van pulled away.
Ben turned to Sarah. “You okay?”
“I need to go,” she said, shaking her head.
“Well, sure, we could just—”
She held up her hands and took a step back. “No. I just need … I just want to be alone.”
Ben said, “Sarah, wait.”
She shook her head. “Like you said, it was a mistake.”
Alex said, “Sarah, don’t go. We need to—”
“Forget it,” she said, turning and breaking into a run, not even looking back.
Caltrain was only a few blocks away. Ben guessed she was going home. “Let her go,” he said.
“You think she’ll be okay by herself?”
“I think if Hort were going to do anything, he would have done it now, while he had all three of us.”
“He’s not worried you’ll come after him?”
Ben shook his head, trying to sort it out, feeling distinctly unsure of himself. “He might be, but—no, he wouldn’t have let us go. Or letting us go knowing that I might want payback. It was like an apology.”
Alex grimaced. “Not much of an apology, I’d say.”
“Yeah, well, it beats some of the alternatives I was expecting. You know, he as much as told me he didn’t want this mission. I think … maybe part of him was relieved to have a reason to stand down.”
“You can’t really know that. How can you trust a guy like that?”
Ben thought for a moment. All the answers that presented themselves felt stale and useless.
“I can’t,” he said, and the words brought up a fresh wave of pain and nausea. “I can’t.”
They were quiet for a moment. “Tell me what you did,” Ben said. “You published Obsidian?”
“Yeah. But just on the tech sites. I didn’t contact any of the political blogs Sarah told us about. There wasn’t time.”
“It’s better you didn’t. Disseminating it the way you did neutered Hort’s op. Going political on top of it—that kind of scrutiny would have made him feel threatened. And a guy like Hort, you don’t want him to think you’re a threat. Anyway, how did you find the source code? I didn’t follow that.”
Alex smiled. “I could use a beer. You want to go someplace?”
Ben thought about that. A beer … with Alex?
“What about your car?”
“It’s probably already towed. I’ll say it was stolen.”
“All right, then. A beer.”
They started walking. “And after the beer,” Ben said, “if you want, we could … go to the cemetery.”
Alex glanced at him, then away. “You don’t have to.”
“No, I want to. I’d like to go with you.”
They walked, the afternoon sun warm on their faces. “You know, I knew it was a trap,” Alex said.
Ben laughed. “A trap? What movies have you been watching?”
“Well, I just knew you wanted to trust this guy, and that you shouldn’t. I had to find some way to end this.”
Without thinking, Ben slung an arm across his shoulders. “You did good.”
Alex didn’t answer. It took Ben a second to realize his little brother had choked up.
After a moment, Alex said, “Thanks.”
Ben squeezed his shoulder and didn’t say anything. He might have felt a little choked-up himself.
35 A BREAK IN THE ROUTINE
Sarah got to Ritual Coffee at six-thirty, a little after sunup. She hadn’t been there since everything had happened, and should have been happy to be back to her routine. But rather than being a comfort, something about it felt … stale.
Going back to the office had been weird. Osborne was missing. Everybody was talking about it. She’d ducked into Alex’s office and asked what he thought was going on. He told her, “I think it was a punishment to Osborne, and a warning to us.”
“You don’t think we should say anything?”
“I think we’d be crazy to say anything.”
“What does your brother say?”
“The same.”
She thought she should have been scared, but instead she felt depressed. She wanted to tell him she was sorry about what had happened with Ben. It ought to have seemed inconsequential after everything else, but it didn’t. But maybe mentioning it would make things awkward, more awkward than they already were. So she’d nodded and left Alex’s office, and they’d managed to avoid each other since.
She walked inside and there was Gabe behind the counter, just like every morning. “Hey, Sarah,” he said. “Missed you the last few days.”
“Yeah, I had some stuff going on.”
“Hope it’s all sorted out now.”
“I think it is, yeah.”
“Cool. The usual?”
She sighed. “The usual.”
“Make it two,” a voice said from behind her.
She spun around, already knowing.
“What are you doing here?” she said.
Ben said, “I wanted to see you.”
“All right. You’ve seen me. Now you can go.”
Ben handed some money to Gabe.
“I can pay for my own coffee,” she said.
“You can get the next one.”
She shook her head. She wanted to be angry. And she was—but more at herself now, for being excited to see him, than for anything else.
“Can we just talk?” he said. “I’ve been waiting out there for a half hour, freezing my ass off. I could really use a coffee. What did I just order, anyway?”
“A Black Eye.”
“Sounds dangerous. What is it?”
“A cup of coffee with two shots of espresso.”
“Damn, you drink one of these every day? I’d expect one a week would be enough.”
Now he’s charming, she thought. Goddamn him.
They moved down to the end of the counter to wait for the coffees. “I didn’t get to thank you for what you did the other day,” Ben said. “You should have run, but still. That took a lot of guts.”
“I wasn’t even thinking.”
“Well, that much was obvious.”
She didn’t answer.
He said, “What is it?”
She looked away. After a moment, she said, “I should do something.”
“What?”
“Go public. Contact the blogs. Tell them what I know.”
“What do you know?”
“Cut it out. I know a lot. And you know it.”
He gave her a gentle smile, utterly unlike the smirk he wore when he wanted to get a rise out of her. “Yeah, you know some things. But you don’t think my unit’s ever dealt with a public mess before? Granted, this is a bad one, but there’ve been others. And I can tell you, right now, while we’re drinking our Black Eyes … records are being destroyed, aliases changed, alibis established…. It’s practically a routine. These people know how to protect themselves, Sarah. They’re good at it. Bigger players than you and I have tried to take them down, and so far they’re still in business.”
“And that makes you happy?”
“It doesn’t make me feel one way or the other. It’s just the way it is. Maybe information wants to be free, but freedom—freedom wants a unit like mine.”
“You want to believe that.”
He shook his head, and for a moment she thought he looked unaccountably sad.
“Look,” he said. “At the moment, we’ve got a delicate balance going. I think Hort meant it when he said he was standing down.”
“What about Osborne?”
“You know what happened to him.”
“And it could happen to me, right?”
“If you give Hort a reason, yeah, it could.”
“Are you threatening me?”
The sadness crossed
his face again. “No. I don’t want you to be afraid of me. That’s the last thing I want.”
She looked away. She knew he was right. She knew what the government could get away with—hell, she’d been watching it happen for years. Going public, she had to admit, was more about her own dignity than effecting any real change.
And there was another reason for her reluctance. She didn’t want to hurt Ben. More than any other, that reason shamed her, and the shame was making her angry.
“Yeah, well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it,” she said. “Sneaking into my room at the hotel, and now sneaking up on me here.”
She looked away. After a moment, she glanced back at him. It looked like he was trying not to smile. Maybe it was the reference to the hotel room. She had to admit, it was hard to stop thinking about it.
“You really want me to grovel, don’t you?” he said.
She thought for a moment. “Don’t you think you should?”
His expression grew serious. “Look,” he said, “what happened the other night … it couldn’t have happened at a worse time for me. And it couldn’t have been a better thing.”
“That’s it?”
“I don’t know. I’m not used to groveling.”
Now she was the one trying not to smile. “I think you should practice.”
“Okay, how about this? I want to see you again.”
She shook her head. “How’s that going to work? Everything you stand for, I abhor.”
He glanced away and shook his head. She realized she’d been expecting one of his patented snappy answers, and the fact that he didn’t have one, or didn’t want to offer one, suddenly fascinated her.
“I mean, I don’t even know where you live,” she said. “Where do you live? Do you live somewhere?”
“I move around a lot. But … I was thinking about spending some time in San Francisco for a while. Closer to home.”
“Yeah? How long?”
“I don’t know. How long could you stand me?”
“I’m not sure.”
“It wouldn’t be right away, necessarily. I wanted to stop in Manila first. Make sure my daughter knows she has a father. But after that. If you want.”
She didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure what was happening. She felt like she wasn’t keeping up.
Their coffees came. She put milk and sugar in hers. Ben took a sip. “Hooah,” he said. “Is this how you bill all those hours?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how I do it.”
He looked at her. “It’s not really you, is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you want to do instead?”
She sipped her coffee. “I’m working on that.”
He shrugged. “Take some time off. Travel. Figure things out.”
“You make it sound simple.”
“It is.”
“Oh, really?” she said. “Is that why you’re going to Manila?”
“I have a few things to figure out, yeah.”
“Like?”
His eyes narrowed, and she wondered whether she was pushing too hard. But damned if she was going to let him talk down to her.
“Like what the hell happened this week,” he said, gravel in his voice. “Like whether I’m one of the good guys, like I always thought.”
She looked at him. “Well, why don’t you just admit that, instead of acting like the advice is just for me?”
His expression softened. “I’m not used to admitting things. It’s like groveling. But I’m willing to learn.”
She couldn’t help smiling. They were quiet for a moment.
“You were right,” she said. “Afterward, it seemed like a dream. The rest of it, too.”
He nodded. “That’s the way it works.”
“And then you showed up here. Am I dreaming again?”
“You’re not dreaming.”
“Can you prove that?”
“Well, I could pinch you.”
She looked at him. “My apartment is two blocks from here. Why don’t you pinch me there?”
They walked fast. She knew this was a bad idea, but she didn’t care. And maybe she would never see him again, but she didn’t care about that, either. She could figure the rest out later. And she would. She would figure it out. She was sure of it.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Once again I’ve written a book that has been made much better through the generous contributions of family and friends. My thanks to:
My agents, Dan Conaway and Simon Lipskar of Writers House, and editor, Mark Tavani of Ballantine, for seeing the promise in this story when it was not much more than an idea, and for helping me get it to where it is today.
Detective James Randol and Lieutenant J. R. Gamez of the San Jose Police Department, for answering all my questions, for providing some terrific ideas, for giving me a tour of the SJPD—and most of all for doing the incredibly important work they do.
Ernie Tibaldi, for continuing to generously apply thirty-one years of fieldwork with the FBI to the law enforcement issues in these books, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
Warren Wolfeld of Haynes Beffel & Wolfeld LLP, for terrific tutorials on the inner workings of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the whole process of applying for a patent, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
Ashraf Hosseini, for sharing her family’s story and answering all my questions about the Iranian immigrant experience in America—and for outfitting me in some stylish eyeglasses, too, at her wonderful Palo Alto store, A Site for Sore Eyes.
Hank Shiffman, for answering all my technology questions and coming up with quite a few excellent ideas of his own along the way; for expertly moderating my Web site discussion board; and for helpful comments on the manuscript. Come over to the dark side, Hank …
Dennis Volpano and Dave McAllister, for helpful background on network security and computer viruses, and Adam Young and Moti Yung for their excellent book Malicious Cryptography: Exposing Cryptovirology.
The extraordinarily eclectic group of “foodies with a violence problem” who hang out at Marc “Animal” MacYoung’s and Dianna Gordon’s www.nononsenseselfdefense.com, for good humor, good fellowship, and a ton of insights. A special thanks to Marc himself, for his continued insights into violence, operator mind-sets and behavior, and what makes people tick, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
Vivian Brown, Alan Eisler, Judith Eisler, Montie Guthrie, Tom Hayes, Mike Killman, Lori Kupfer, novelist J. A. Konrath, Naomi Andrews and Dan Levin, Doug Patteson, Matt Powers, Owen Rennert, Ted Schlein, and the Man Called Slugg, for helpful comments on the manuscript and many valuable suggestions and insights along the way.
Most of all my wife, Laura, for the usual input into the story and terrific comments on the manuscript, but even more than that for putting up with my occasional obsessiveness (“Occasional?” she might say here) with nothing but love and goodwill.
AUTHOR’s NOTE
Much of the backstory and many of the incidents recounted in this book are real. Here’s a partial bibliography.
Defection of Iranian general Ali Reza Asgari: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1601814,00.html.
National Intelligence Estimate on Iranian nuclear efforts: http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20071203_release.pdf.
Victor Litvinenko assassination by polonium radiation poisoning: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article756950.ece.
Rendition of Abu Omar from Milan: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n15/foot02_.html.
Aviation hobbyists expose CIA rendition flights: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=65446.
Special operations “military liaison elements”: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/international/americas/08forces.html?pagewanted=print;http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/isa.htm.
Russia governed by siloviki, ex-KGB, and ex-military: http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article=107.
Chinese antisatellite efforts: http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/world/china/asat.htm.
Russian cyberwarfare efforts: http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/05/17/1248215.shtml.
Eighth Air Force Cyber Command: http://www.af.mil/news/storyasp?id=123030505.
CIA: Hackers to blame for power outages: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/26/power.at.risk/index.html.
Wrongful prosecution of Iranian-American businessman Alex Latin: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002484.
CIA/mafia connection: http://www.upi.com/Security_Terrorism/Briefing/ 2007/06/26/family_jewels_detail_castro_mafia_plot/6711/; http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/castro.htm.
Executive order prohibiting assassination: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63203-20010ct27?language=printer.
Dark Avenger and the polymorphic engine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Avenger.
Adam Young, Moti Yung, and cryptovirology: http://www.cryptovirology.com/
Chinese cyberwarfare initiatives: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystorycfm?story_id=9769319&CFID=11752607&CFTOKEN=ccdd4740076c5dcl-43Bl0757-B27C-BB00-012901C5EA08C4BB.
Abuse of national security letters (NSLs): http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/06/nsls/index.html.
National Security Agency domestic spy program: http://wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120511973377523845.html?mod=djm_HAWSJSB_Welcome.
FISA and warrantless eavesdropping: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/14/fisa_101/.
The Quantico circuit and warrentless eavesdropping: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/whistleblower-f.html.
a cognizant original v5 release november 04 2010
The Bay Area and Istanbul locations that appear in this book are described, as always, as I have found them.
Read on for an excerpt from
INSIDE OUT
by
BARRY EISLER
Published by Ballantine Books
Ben Treven could feel the Australians looking at him again, sizing him up for whether he’d make a good victim tonight. He brushed his blond hair out of his face and kept his gaze on nothing in particular, nodding his head slightly as though he was enjoying the pulsing house music. He knew the smart thing was to ignore them, but part of him couldn’t help hoping they’d take their wordless interview just a little further. It had been a hell of a day and he could feel that old, crazy urge to unload on someone. If these guys wanted to give him a reason, it was up to them.