by Bob Blink
"They have made threats against me," Susan explained. "It's probably related to one of the cases I'm working or worked in the past. That suggests they have a criminal connection, but we aren't certain of that. It might make sense to begin with a search of known criminals. If that doesn't work, then expand for a wider check."
"We have a large number of databases that can be searched," Shaun warned. "Some are quite big, and the larger the search field, the longer this will take. One of the best databases is the DMV records. If you are concerned with an international connection, we can search some our allies databases, as well as the photo records of those admitted to the country."
"I think they are US citizens," Jake said, recalling something Jim had said over the phone when he'd sent the pictures to him after capturing the kidnappers.
"You might begin a couple of searches in parallel," Susan suggested. "One of the known criminals, and another of the DMV records. You would know best how that might work out."
"The DMV records for the entire country is a very large database. Actually, it's a series of linked databases. Do you really wish the search to be that wide, or would you want it more localized? Is this a matter they might be restricted to those in the DC area?"
They considered the surrounding area, and finally Susan said, "Let's start with the neighboring states. Search DC itself, as well as, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. If that doesn't show anything, then we'll expand the search area."
Shaun nodded.
"Is there anything else?"
"Finding these men is by far the most important, but I also have a more nebulous task for you. I'd like a search of unsolved crimes over the past five years. I want locations by date, and anything that might correlate the different offenses."
"That's awfully open ended," Shaun noted. "It sounds like the kind of thing you had me doing some years ago."
Shaun had never been told how the search for Jake and his personal crusade against serial killers had worked out. All that Shaun knew was that one day Susan had simply ceased pursuing the searches they had been working for several years. Shaun had decided that something had happened to whoever they'd been looking for, but now he wondered.
"Keep me informed how this is going," Susan directed. "I'm planning on going to the Director with this, so we can count on his support, but that doesn't change the need for secrecy. We don't know there is a leak within the agency, but if the wrong people learn what we are doing, it could literally cost some people their lives. Understand?"
Shaun nodded, and understanding he had his orders, stood and prepared to leave.
Once Shaun had left, Susan wanted to discuss the new Back-Tracker.
"How do we identify this person as having your abilities?" she asked. "Even if Shaun finds the people in the sketches, how do we know one of them is who we are seeking?"
"Once we have someone to investigate, I might be able to see certain patterns in his behavior that would reveal his ability. It would depend a great deal on how he uses it. And how often."
"How would he have developed this ability?" Jim asked.
"I gained my ability through the trauma of war," Jake reminded them. It's possible that this person was involved in some kind of similar situation, but we won't find that in his records. Like me, he would have looped back around the event, so that for everyone other than himself, it would never have happened. On the other hand, the ability might develop for other reasons. We simply know too little about it. Up until recently, we all believed I was one of a kind."
"What weaknesses would this person have?" Jim asked. "How can we approach and detain him?"
"For now, since we have no specific knowledge about him, we had better assume he has the same basic capability as I have," Jake said. "He could be stronger, or weaker, but I'm not sure how to apply that. You can't simply arrest him. He'd immediately loop back and change events so you never were able to detain him. He's already done that. You have to render him unconscious or drugged immediately, preventing him from acting. Depending on his skill level, you'd have only seconds at best. In the early days I was slow to prepare and execute a Back-Track, but with practice I could do so in a fraction of a second."
"What's our biggest advantage?" Susan asked.
"At the moment he doesn't know we are aware of his ability, and that we have someone with the same basic skill. That gives us an edge he can't be anticipating. If he learns that, then we have an even bigger problem, and one he might try to overcome by a very long loop backward. I don't know if he has that ability, or realizes he has. If he can loop back farther than I have, he could come at us before we are aware of a problem. That would guarantee a win for him."
"That brings us back to what I said earlier," Susan pointed out. "Once we know who this is we need you to go back and deal with him before this all starts and he might be less cautious."
"And do what, exactly?" Jake asked. "Kill him? We have to be certain we have the right individual. That might be more difficult to determine at an earlier time, before these people initiated their actions against you. There could be months where he doesn't use the ability, and I might not be able to go back far enough to catch him and uniquely verify his ability. If I only go back a short time, during the period when they are active, and mistakenly eliminate him, and he's not the right person, I could alert the real Back-Tracker, and that's exactly what we want to avoid. "
"There's also the matter of our agreement. You asked me to not simply eliminate troublemakers like I once did, but to work through you. If I go back, your earlier self might not be so ready to bypass the rules and simply take him out. Depending on when I went back to, you would likely have no awareness of the magnitude of this problem. For now, until the other side becomes aware we know what they are doing, or they learn of my existence, I believe our chances of figuring out who these people are, is here in the present."
"I'm beginning to think Susan is right," Jim said unexpectedly, "At the very least, you need to be ready to Back-Track at all times."
"I've already decided to loop back at least a double jump at the slightest anomaly," Jake admitted. "It'll be tiresome, but it's the only protection all of us have."
"Jake, I've been wondering something else, related to what you said about the long Back-Track efforts," Susan asked. "We all know that when you made the long multi-jump Back-Track some time ago it had dire consequences for you. I know that since then you have been very careful about how far back you attempt to reach. Have you ever resolved whether the problem is the size of the jumps you made, or the number required? Also, do you know just how far you can safely go, if it were to become necessary?"
"I believe it is some of both," Jake replied. "I was making long jumps each time I moved backwards that time when I had the problem. I've always known the physical effects of longer jumps are disproportionate to the length, and rapidly become severe. But I've done some experimenting, and making a number of short jumps to accomplish the same thing is cumulative as well, and I'm not certain that making ten one-day jumps isn't actually worse than making a single ten-day jump."
"I've seen you make more than a dozen very short jumps in a couple of hours, looping around a situation we had to solve," Jim said. "It didn't seem like that affected you at all."
"Actually I can feel each jump more than the previous," Jake agreed. "After some of those efforts I've had a very bad headache for a couple of days. Only the fact I was Back-Tracking minutes instead of hours made it even possible. A simple rule is that each jump is harder than the previous one. It's just a matter of how much the previous jump affected me, and the longer and more recent the previous jump the greater impact it will have on any additional attempts. Eventually it becomes almost impossible to find the earlier version of yourself and force the Back-Track transition."
"Do you think this other person would have the same problem?" Carlson asked.
"I certainly hope so, and hopefully worse, or they are going to have an insurmount
able advantage," Jake said. "I don't consider it safe, or that I would arrive able to function, if I were to go back much farther than I did recently to resolve Karin's problem. That's why it had to be dealt with then, before it became even more unreachable."
Susan was quiet a long time.
"Even if we catch this person, drug him, and cart him off somewhere he supposedly can't reach out to himself, we won't know. Only you really know your ability, and we can't use that to be certain of this other person's ability. You managed to get free of some situations you shouldn't have, and if he ever gets loose, all is lost. I'm still of the opinion an abrupt end for him is the only solution."
"We have to figure out who it is before we can decide how to proceed," Jake reminded her. "That's always the key."
Susan checked her watch.
"I'm going to see Walter," she said. "I don't want to call ahead. I don't want anything said that might be overheard."
Chapter 12
Jake and Jim spent the time while Susan was off with the Director brainstorming. By the time she returned they had a list of items to discuss with her.
"How did it go?" Jim asked.
"He was surprised when I told him, and has his doubts about some of this, but he finally agreed to allow us to go ahead. He'll support us however he can. In the meantime, my various tasks have been assigned to others, freeing me up as needed."
"Won't that raise suspicions?" Jake asked.
"The change in my task load is officially to help him with several administrative tasks suddenly demanded by the White House. It's happened before, so I don't think anyone will take particular notice," Susan explained. "What have the two of you decided?"
"We believe we are going to need additional resources," Jim said. "Among other things, Jake and I have been trying to create a list of people we can approach for help. They have to be people we are absolutely certain of, who are willing to go out on a limb. We might have to bend a few rules to get this done."
"Based on your remark about how the criminal Back-Tracker needs to be handled, we've also considered how we might go about attempting to capture such a person, assuming his abilities closely match my own and for some reason we elect to try to bring him in alive," Jake added. "We might wish to question him. I know I have a number of questions I'd like answered. The risk here is that he doesn't suffer from some of the same limitations as I do, and we risk revealing ourselves and allowing him to get away."
"I assume it would have to be something that was incapacitating rather quickly?" Susan noted. "Didn't you say that the person in the picture, the one who you currently suspect, was captured during the ambush for the kidnappers and was disabled for a while?"
"That's correct," Jake agreed. "He and another of the foursome were shot with Tasers. Clubbed as well, I suspect, although Jim didn't provide me with the details beyond they were both out while he was taking pictures to forward to me. I can see being Tasered have a scrambling effect that might well disrupt the ability to Back-Track for a lot longer than it takes to regain consciousness. I've had both blows and drugs render me unable to act."
"I assume you believe we should be equipped with one or both?" Susan asked.
Jake nodded. "The Tasers are the better bet for quick disabling. The drugs would hopefully be for a longer term sustaining effort. I believe they would be a little too slow acting to prevent someone from Back-Tracking and escaping. We want something we can safely apply in larger quantities than normally required. We can't know just when it might wear off and allow the person's ability to return, so we'd have to err on the side of caution. We'd probably also want to keep him drugged up for an extended period of time, perhaps as much as a couple of weeks to ensure he passes beyond his normal jump range."
"We'd also want a couple of options well away from Washington where we could imprison this person," Jim added. "Jake is unable to Back-Track over distance."
"All of these limitations may or may not be relevant to our suspect," Jake made a point of reemphasizing. "As Susan pointed out, the only certain approach is to kill the man outright."
"Which would make it impossible to gain intelligence as to what this is all about," Jim protested.
"My gut still tells me that is the wise approach," Jake admitted. "Getting the intelligence should be secondary. Once the ability to Back-Track is taken from these people, we regain the advantage, and would be able to sort out what is going on the usual way."
"First we have to figure out who they are," Susan said. "Then we can decide what the takedown will be like."
"Up to now we've been assuming that whoever is behind this is somehow tied to Bureau business in some way," Jim said. "We have added several areas that need to be considered as well."
"Good," Susan replied. "I've been thinking along those lines myself. What's on your list?"
"Let's start with Norm," Jim said.
Jake was startled by how quickly Susan looked up, and the harsh glint in her eyes.
"Norm had nothing to do with any attempts against me," she said with certainty.
Jim held up his hands defensively, as if to ward off an imaginary blow.
"I don't think he did either," he was quick to offer, "but you know as well as I that one's significant other is automatically a prime person of interest in cases like this. We would be negligent in not considering how to at least verify that he isn't involved. That said, I was thinking more about his own Bureau work, and that he might somehow be a target, or perhaps the prime target."
"That doesn't make sense," Susan objected. "Nothing Jake has told us suggested Norm was a target. They tried to kill me, not him."
"Unless that was their way of getting at Norm," Jake pointed out. "Killing a person isn't always the worst thing you can do to him. We should look at what Norm is involved with, and see if there are any leads to be found there as well. He should have a look at the pictures and see if he can recognize the people. I'd guess we might also have to bring him in on my secret."
"We'll have to consider how we can safely do that," Susan said. "He's away for a couple of days on assignment. I don't think communicating about this via our phones would be the wisest thing to do just now."
"I can think of several ways we can set up a secure link via computers," Jake said. "You could use a key that means only something to you and him as a means of gaining access. We'll think on it."
"Shaun can also provide us a complete list of Norm's cases to add to our primary list," Susan added. "I'm still uncomfortable with the very idea that he might be somehow involved."
"Understood," Jake said. "But we have to be certain, especially if we are to include him in the list of people who know about me. In this case, that bit of information is key to our survival."
Tactfully, Jim suggested they consider other items on the list.
"What about people within the Bureau?" Jake asked. "There are always rivalries, and sometimes outright issues with fellow workers. Sometimes competition for a position has resulted in murder. Could there be anyone inside the FBI who has reason to go after you? Jim and I are concerned with the amount of closely held information about you these people appear to have gotten access to. That suggests a source inside the FBI itself."
"Or the White House," Susan added. "I'm still bothered how they were able to use the meeting that originated from there to set up the attempted shooting. They knew in advance where they wanted to make the attempt, which suggests they somehow maneuvered the arrangements from within the government. Someone there would probably be able to learn anything they wanted about me. They have people with access."
"We need to pursue that," Jim said pointedly, "but it's going to be difficult. We don't want to reveal what we know, and the people there are historically reticent about revealing anything about their people."
"The matter clearly requires more thought," Susan agreed.
"What about outside the Bureau?" Jake asked. "What about your personal life. Friends, Associates, people you meet at the market. Is
there anyone with whom you've had difficulties in the last year?"
"Outside of Norm, I don't have that much of a personal life," Susan admitted. "Most of my neighbors don't even know I exist. Beyond a nasty argument in the park some months ago regarding another jogger and her unleashed dog which scared me, I can't think of anyone who might be a problem."
"What happened with the dog?" Jake asked.
"It was a large German Shepherd, and it came at me from the trees when I made a blind turn. I pulled my gun, which upset the owner when she realized I was close to shooting her pet. We exchanged some angry words, but that was the extent of it. I've never seen her again, and I can't see that being the source of such an organized attempt."
"Keep thinking about this," Jake urged. "Something else might surface. Meanwhile, we need to consider how to approach the other items on the list."
It was well past lunch and they agreed it was time to break and get something from the executive lunchroom, when Shaun knocked discretely on Susan's door. Once inside, he summarized their status.
"I've set up a secure link you can access from your computer where any possible hits can be reviewed," Shaun explained. "I'll show you in a minute how that works. There are a couple of early hits in there already for you to look at."
"You've already got our search in progress?" Susan asked clearly surprised.
Shaun beamed.
"Not our search exactly, but I figured out a way to attach our search to searches by other agents that are scheduled. I've linked ours into them so no one who isn't specifically looking would ever notice they are there. This way, if they check certain databases, our sketches get checked as part of their effort. No one really knows what drives the time for a search to complete, so if we delay them slightly, they'll never know. Anything that is found regarding our suspects, is stripped off and routed to the link I mentioned."
"You're certain your alterations won't be detected?" Jim asked.
Shaun looked mildly offended.
"Of course not. If I don't do something like this, then we are at the bottom of a long queue. Even getting access to NCIC [National Crime Index Center] is going to take some time. Even with a decent picture, facial hair, beards, dental work, facial implants, caps, glasses, and the like can all interfere with the ability of the software to sort out possible suspects. It can take hours or days. A sketch is even worse, since the artist can't really get little details like eye spacing correct. That means lots of extra hits since the search parameters have to be opened up. It can also mean more misses. The person might be in the database, but the parameter tolerances miss by enough they aren't picked up. The specific search I submitted for our people will have the best chance since I was able to adjust certain parameters, but it's down the queue and probably won't get run until tonight. What I have so far is based on a more limited search gained by riding on other efforts."