by H. L. Wegley
Josh shoved her head back down. “If you don’t keep your head down, I’m going to sit on it.”
“OK. OK. Maybe Peterson or whoever was monitoring my cell phone, heard about the shooting before I jumped and accidentally cut off the call.”
“Let’s hope so.” Josh turned his head toward hers.
The two were lying, cheeks on the floor, face-to-face, heads hardly a foot apart.
“You are so beautiful, Kate.”
“That was entirely inappropriate, don’t you think?”
“No. Just keep your head down so nothing happens to change it.”
“Josh, the bullet wouldn’t hit me. It would hit your thick head first.”
“Thick head, huh? Dumb old Joshua West, from the dregs of the genius barrel, while beautiful Kate Brandt—”
“Stop it! I never called you—”
Thwap!
Plastic shrapnel sprayed Kate’s ear as a bullet screamed by her head. “Josh, are you OK?”
“Yeah. But that last one was close. Do you think they’re running down the mountain, trying to get closer to us?”
“Yes.” She raised her head again.
He shoved it back to the floor.
“Ouch. That hurt, Josh.”
“You do that one more time, Kate, and…”
“The exit hole is a foot above the entrance hole. They are moving closer, coming down the mountain, shooting up at us.”
“That prayer thing you do. Feel free any time.”
“I have been. You’ll notice they haven’t hit us yet.”
“Listen. I hear a commotion. Sirens sounding somewhere.”
Two loud pops sounded from the terminal side.
“Shooters without silencers,” she said between heavy breaths. “I think the Mounties are onto them.”
“Yeah. My thoughts exactly. But you’re not raising your head until—”
Her cell started playing an old song about an agent with a number instead of a name. “It’s Peterson, calling from his cell this time.” She opened her phone.
“I thought you said all his calls were blocked. How did you hack your phone to key on a blocked number and play that—”
“Don’t ask, Josh. If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.” She hit the speakerphone.
“Are you two OK?” Peterson’s voice. Even the tinny cell speakers couldn’t remove his deep voice of authority.
“Three shots fired at us. All missed. We’re OK.”
“Katie, the Mounties spotted the shooters and are chasing them on the mountain. I shudder to even ask this, but do you know where they were staying in Whistler?”
“The Pinnacle Hotel, room 207.”
“Thanks, Katie. I’ll let the police up there know. I’m climbing into a chopper as we speak. The Mounties will reel you two in now and watch you until I arrive in a little over an hour. You behave until then, young lady, or I’ll think of some reason to arrest you. Do you understand?”
“She understands,” Josh yelled at her cell phone. “I’ll watch her, Peterson.”
“The voice of reason. Must be Joshua West.”
She moved the cell away from Josh. “That’s not fair. Two big men ganging up on one—”
“One mean ninja babe,” Josh yelled.
“You got that right,” Peterson replied.
The gondola lurched, and then began moving toward the terminal.
Katie brought her cell to her mouth. “They’re reeling us in now. One big sucker and an angelfish.”
A chuckle sounded on Peterson’s end. “See you in an hour.” The call ended.
“Some end to our honeymoon. You defected, Josh. Sided with Peterson.”
“You’ve got the sides confused, Kate. Peterson’s on our side.”
Josh was right. And he had shielded her with his body to protect her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, about any of the events of the past hour. The only thing she was sure of was that his lips, only twelve inches away, were a big, inviting temptation. “Can I get up now, Josh?”
“No. Stay down until I check things out.” He was already on his knees, rising to stand.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him back down. “Just to be safe, stay down here with me until we’re inside. I wouldn’t want to lose my husband on our honeymoon.”
Katie raised her head as the terminal building cut off the bright sunshine. Bright red forms surrounded the loading area. The Mounties were definitely here.
14
Josh listened, for the most part, noting how Kate carefully, brilliantly answered the Canadian police officers’ questions, while avoiding information the FBI might not want to divulge at this point.
Once the Mounties were satisfied that Whistler and its citizens were secure, the questions stopped. Maybe they were being respectful of the sensitive subject matter, waiting to let the FBI probe more deeply.
What troubled Josh most was that somehow the man and woman had eluded the police and gotten away from Whistler Mountain. Though he and Kate gave the Mounties descriptions of the two, the police had not seen the man or the woman since the brief gun battle. Furthermore, a search of room 207 at the Pinnacle Hotel turned up no computers, only some clothing the two had left behind. Was there a third terrorist in Whistler?
After the questions ended, the police left Kate and him alone in an interrogation room with a guard at the door, while they waited for Peterson to arrive.
Kate opened her purse, pulled out her netbook, and opened it.
“What have you got in mind, Kate?”
“Well, we’ve got some time to kill, and I see three wireless routers in the area. One is unsecured. I’m going to do a little research.”
“You’re not going to get us into more trouble, are you? Peterson wouldn’t like that.”
She flashed him a disapproving look. “That’s right, you two are buddies now. You both abandoned Katie. Fed her to the wolves.” Her voice had a sharp edge to it.
Though it wasn’t true, her accusation still stung. “I would never abandon you, Kate.” The words flew from his mouth, surprising him with their intensity. Where had all those emotions come from?
Kate’s fingers stopped moving on the keyboard. She laid her hand over his. “I know you wouldn’t.” She moved her hand back to typing position.
Josh slid his chair beside hers and tried to focus on the matter at hand. But their touch, a few words, and a dozen other little things clearly indicated the growing intimacy between Kate and him. This was a first in the life of Joshua West, and he didn’t want to blow it by doing anything wrong or stupid.
Kate’s browser was pointed at a search engine. She typed in three search terms, terrorist, threat, fire.
“You really think that’s going to tell us anything?” Josh looked down at her knowing his face held a questioning frown.
“It’s worth a try.” Kate pressed enter.
A page of links popped up on her screen. She drew a sharp breath when she saw the link titles.
Josh put a hand on her shoulder. “Not good. Not good at all.”
Kate read slowly, “Al-Qaeda encourages forest fire arson. State officials prepare against terrorist fire threats. Al-Qaeda touts forest arson as terror.” She paused and pushed the page down key. The list continued for another full page. “What do you think now, Josh?”
So this fire attack hadn’t come out of the blue. “I think you’ve got something to tell Agent Peterson. Can you imagine how easy it would be to start a devastating forest fire with a radio-controlled plane carrying a fire bomb?”
Kate stared at the screen for a moment, and then met his gaze. “What if it wasn’t just one plane, but thirty or forty, all aimed at the driest forests in the western states? What if they launched the attacks simultaneously in mid-August?”
Visions of wildfires he had seen in Montana played through Josh’s mind. “Let’s pray they don’t.”
****
From her chair in the interrogation room, Katie heard the rapid stacc
ato of a helicopter rotor. Her heart shifted into a higher gear. “I hope this goes well. For the first time, I don’t know how to handle Peterson or what to expect from him.”
Josh sat beside her, his big hand on her shoulder. “Just tell him what you found, Kate. He can’t come down too hard on us after he hears—”
“But I can’t disclose all of it here in front of a foreign country’s police. This is sensitive information.”
“Then tell him how sensitive your information is and let him decide where you brief him.” Josh paused. “Kate?”
She looked up at him.
He grinned as if something amused him. “Despite everything that happened, I’m glad I came up here with you.”
She returned his grin with a smile, then felt it fade away as images of Josh’s body falling from the gondola, or riddled with bullets, played in her mind. “And I’m glad I didn’t get you killed. What was I thinking, endangering you…”
Peterson’s booming voice sounded somewhere outside the interrogation room.
Josh took her hand, squeezed it, and gave her a tight-lipped smile.
The door swung open and a tall figure filled the doorway.
Katie gripped Josh’s hand as she met Peterson’s gaze.
“Katie Brandt, tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t arrest you right now.” He stared at her, hands on hips.
She tried to grin, but didn’t know what expression her face actually held. “Uh… Because, if you do, I won’t tell you certain information.”
“We’re not playing games here.” He closed the door behind him, pulled up a chair, and sat beside the table. “Keep your voice down and answer my questions. I’ll stop you if we need to move to a more secure location.”
She studied the tall agent’s eyes. “So my arrest is no longer imminent?”
His look softened and once again, he appeared as the man who was her adopted godfather and mentor. “Not if you cooperate and behave. Now, you mentioned fires and terrorists. Before I can even consider your information, I need to know how you obtained it.”
“I tracked them down using their Internet communications by identifying patterns of collaboration.”
“That’s what Jennifer used to do, but she had access to NSA’s classified database. Katie, you don’t even have a clearance.”
She met Peterson’s gaze, trying to portray confidence. “But I have my own database.”
“Please tell me that you didn’t borrow it.”
“No. I extended Jennifer’s doctoral work. You know, the work she never finished because she went to work for NSA and got married.”
“Extended it? So you created your own database from your own research?”
“I didn’t have any other option if I was going to prove my work could deter real threats.”
“Where is this database?” His voice became demanding. The softness was gone from his eyes.
Katie looked down at the floor. “Don’t worry. It’s encrypted and in a safe place.”
“Katie, you’re in way too deep.”
Josh cut in. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her.”
“At least your boyfriend has common sense.”
Her head popped back up. “Who said he was my boyfriend?”
“I have some evidence to that effect.” Josh squeezed her hand.
She pulled her hand from his. “Be quiet, Josh. That’s not fair, not even real.”
“We’re getting off track here.” Peterson looked from Josh to her. “You two can discuss your personal issues later. Right now, Katie, I need you to tell me everything you’ve learned about this conspiracy. And if you’ve drawn conclusions, I need to know your justification.”
“Justification?”
“Yes. You’ve taken some rather extreme measures. Risked your life by coming up here. Josh’s life, too. I want to know what was so compelling that you would do that.”
Katie drew a deep breath and blew it back out. She wasn’t at all sure this was the appropriate place to have this discussion. “I’ll need to start at the beginning. Are you sure you want me to do that here?”
“Yes. I’ll stop you if I think that’s necessary.”
At best, this would not paint her in a good light. At worst—she wasn’t ready to go there yet, and she prayed Peterson wouldn’t actually put her there. “OK. I enhanced Jennifer’s software that detects collaboration on the Internet. In parallel, I built my own database of terrorists, starting with IP addresses of known terrorist organizations at various locations, initially IP addresses I could easily scavenge from the Internet. The communication patterns I found identified more terrorist locations. Once I had what looked like the complete set of conspirators, I needed to know what they were plotting. So…I hacked a mail server and examined some of their email.”
“You knew that was illegal.” He shook his head at her.
She would not be shamed or intimidated. “Not illegal here. Illegal in Iran, maybe. But not in the United States.”
“Iran? Katie, you are playing with fire. And the legality, that’s a matter of interpretation.”
“And who’s going to interpret what I did as being illegal?”
Peterson’s body stiffened. “The people who are trying to kill you.”
“He’s got a point,” Josh said.
She shot him a frown. “Whose side are you on, Josh?”
“Yours.” Josh blew out a blast of air. “Somebody needs to be or you won’t live very long, Kate.”
Katie glared at Josh. “And who saved your life when you almost fell off the gondola?”
Peterson pounded on the table. “You two are both lucky to be alive. I don’t think I want to hear what happened on the gondola. But what I need to hear is a complete debriefing back at the Seattle field office, followed by a promise from both of you to stop hacking terrorist websites.”
Peterson still didn’t understand the scope of the danger. Katie shook her head. “There’s a lot more to this conspiracy than starting a forest fire, than even starting thirty or forty forest fires. Give me a little more time. I know I can prove it.”
“You’re not getting any more time, young lady. You’re going to give all of your information to me and let the FBI handle this.”
She feared this is how this conversation might end. She nodded her assent, but mentally ran through her remaining options. This threat was too serious to let Peterson stop her. The FBI would probably run out of time before they could spin up on this.
Josh looked from her to Peterson, and then sighed. “Kate, it’s best that you give this to the FBI. I’m glad you won’t be taking any more risks like—”
“But, Josh, you said…” She didn’t finish. Maybe Josh hadn’t really meant all of the things he said earlier. He had some explaining to do.
Peterson stood. Their meeting here was obviously over. “I want to return both of you safely to Seattle. Agent Ruska will drive Josh’s car back. Katie, you and Josh will fly back to Seattle with me and we’ll debrief there.” He gave her his stern look. “Then you will turn over all of your findings and your database to the FBI.”
Again, Katie nodded her compliance, but deep inside she knew the FBI, even with all of its resources, could not flesh out the conspirators and their plans as quickly as she could. Despite her incomplete traffic data and limited database, the tools she used were an order of magnitude more powerful, and would be more productive than what the FBI or NSA were using. She didn’t intend to have any more “Whistler” incidents. But she couldn’t just drop this. Josh could bail if he wanted to, but Katie would continue her work until she knew the full scope of this conspiracy.
15
Five years ago, the FBI SWAT team had come in a van, so Katie hadn’t gotten a helicopter ride out of the human trafficking incident on the Olympic Peninsula. Though she had never ridden in one, something about the look of the big chopper sitting on the grass in Whistler gave her a sense of foreboding.
Katie wouldn’t tell anyone, especi
ally Josh, that the thought of the chopper ride made her nervous. She hurried up the steps and sat in the second seat.
Josh climbed in beside her.
Peterson plopped down in front of them, beside the pilot, and turned toward her as the whining engine spun the rotor. “I called Jennifer on the way up here. You scared her to death.”
“So did you, especially if you told her we were evading gunmen by riding the peak-to-peak at Whistler. You shouldn’t have called her, Peterson. Not yet.”
The rotor began the whopping sound, the helicopter tilted forward, and they lifted off.
Peterson looked at her incredulously, “And do you know what would have happened to me if I knew you were in danger and didn’t call her?”
Katie glanced at Josh. “Mom can get a little intense.”
“A little intense?” Peterson blasted out. “She would have probably shot me, or let your granddad kick my head off.”
Josh stuck his head between Katie and the tall FBI agent. “Your family sounds almost as wild and wacky as you, Kate.”
Katie sighed in resignation as she pictured how things would play out in Seattle. “You can see for yourself when we get to Seattle. I know Mom’s going to pop in on us.”
After fifteen minutes of the rotor’s incessant drumbeat on her head, Katie had developed a headache. As the headache grew, her stomach became queasy.
The noise inside the cabin restricted all but the most important communication, so their conversation ended.
Glad for the respite, Katie leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes, and tried not to puke.
“Kate?” Josh whispered into her ear.
She turned her head and opened her eyes. Josh’s forehead bumped against hers.
What was he doing? Surely not trying to kiss her. Her stomach quivered from the nausea. If he tried, Josh might get more than he bargained for.
“You look sick, Kate.”
She didn’t reply, didn’t dare speak or move. She closed her eyes again.
“Don’t close your eyes. It’s the worst thing you can do. Focus on something in the distance.” He pointed ahead to their right. “There’s Howe Sound and beyond it, Vancouver.”