by H. L. Wegley
“It was only a hypothetical suggestion. I wasn’t—”
“Would you two quit your romantic sparring in the backseat? In about five minutes, you need to hit the ground running. Can you access your files from Jennifer’s lab, Josh?”
“Yeah. I can use our VPN to get them using Kate’s netbook. It has our VPN client loaded.”
When the van drove into the lab parking lot, the entrance door flew open and Jennifer’s petite form stood in the doorway.
“Mom is ready to roll, Josh. Be prepared. This might actually feel like trying to take a breath inside NASA’s supersonic wind tunnel.”
“You know her, so what do you recommend, Kate?”
“Just tell her exactly what you want, your algorithm accessing the NSA data, running on the fastest machine available. She’ll get you there.”
After they crawled out of the van, Kate took his hand and pulled him toward the open lab door.
“Kate, Josh, are you both all right?” There was concern in Jennifer’s eyes.
“We’re fine, Mom. But Josh needs—”
“Peterson told me. Now, FTP your code using that laptop.” She pointed to a machine on a desk near the doorway. “And meet me in the vault. Katie said you’ve been coding in C++, so I wrote a database access method. It’s ready to drop into your code. We can compile and be running in five or ten minutes.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He sat at the desk and looked up at Kate. “I’m beginning to see what you mean.”
“Josh, don’t talk. Work.”
“The FTP client is already up on the laptop and pointed at the computer science department’s big UNIX server. How did she—”
“Don’t ask. Just login, Josh. Grab your code and anything else you need and let’s go.”
In fifteen minutes they had all moved into the vault.
Jennifer brought Josh’s code up in a VI-like editor, pasted her method into his database class, modified a couple of variables, and compiled it. The compilation was clean. “Now, show me how you look for these guys, Josh.”
Amazing didn’t begin to describe the speed of Jennifer’s mind. It was his code, but one glace and she understood it.
Katie stepped beside Jennifer. “Mom, they’re running an open-source chat client using HTTP. We know one person is in British Columbia. Well…we think so. Some are around Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle. The rest are scattered around the Western states.”
Jennifer patted a chair in front of a UNIX workstation.
Josh sat in it and began typing. “I’m entering the IP address ranges, ports, and protocol now. I’ll start the run in a couple of minutes.”
“Hurry up back there,” Peterson spoke loudly. “We’ve started the video conference with DHS, NSA, and part of the National Security Council.”
Josh looked up at Jennifer. “Did he say the National Security Council?”
“Yes. Get used to it. They’re just people, Josh. People with important jobs. But at the moment, yours is more important than theirs.”
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
Jennifer put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. What we’re trying will either work or it won’t. We know it’s not a sure thing. Besides, I’m praying for you.”
He looked into Jennifer’s eyes. They were brown, her hair was dark, and she was a small woman. But other than the physical differences, it seemed like it was Kate sitting beside him. How could two unrelated people be so much alike? They belonged in the same family. But what, or who, had brought them together?
Josh turned his focus to the workstation’s monitor, entered the command-line parameters at the UNIX prompt, and then pressed enter.
“The vice president just joined the National Security Council group.” Peterson said as he sat in a chair in front of a big flat-screen monitor with a video camera mounted on it. The screen was sectioned into four different views. “He wants to know what measures we’re taking to stop the attack and the probability of success.”
Jennifer met Josh’s gaze. Her penetrating look might normally have unnerved him, but in this situation, the feeling that she was reading his mind had the opposite effect.
“Josh, I can brief the NSC, but…”
That she was leaving the door open for him to address security leaders of the entire nation filled him with excitement. But…now I know I’m going to puke.
“The president just joined us,” Peterson said. “One of you needs to explain what we’re doing. Jennifer, would you please—”
“Josh should do it.” Kate’s voice.
Jennifer smiled at him. “I agree.” She nudged him toward the monitor.
When he stood, Kate was at his side. She leaned close and whispered, “It’s your algorithm. You can do this, Josh, better than anyone, here. Just tell them what you’re trying to accomplish with it.”
He looked at Kate’s face hardly a foot from his. What was she up to?
She put her arms around his neck. “You look a little green. Maybe I can help you.” Kate pulled his lips to hers.
She didn’t realize the danger of doing that at this moment.
“Katie?” Jennifer’s voice.
Kate’s kiss was a sweet diversion that, for a few seconds, stole his thoughts of the audience, the pressure, and the doubts about his own abilities.
She slowly pulled her lips from his. “I know what I’m doing, Mom.”
“That’s what I’m concerned about.”
Josh cupped Kate’s cheek. “You are lucky, Kate.”
“No, I am blessed by God.” She gave him her warm smile.
“I mean…I might’ve barfed—”
Her nose wrinkled as she pressed her fingers over his lips. “That would’ve been more than payback. How do you feel now?”
“Better. There are some things I need to tell you, Kate. I—”
“Later. First, you’d better tell something to the president. Look at the man. He’s nervous. Help him, Josh.” She pulled him to his seat centered on the big monitor, gave him a smile, and then a nod.
Josh sat, took a calming breath, and looked up at the camera above the screen, then stood again. “Mr. President, members of the Security Council, and others involved in our attempts to stop this imminent attack. I’m Joshua West—”
The president spoke. “Mr. West, how imminent is this attack?”
“It could be launched at any moment. Almost certainly within the next twenty-four hours.”
The president pressed his fingertips together. “How are we being attacked?”
Josh explained the three components of the attack, forest fires, biological warfare, and cyber warfare, and then explained the unusual cooperation between the terrorists groups. This led naturally into the subject of the command and control center and the communications being used.
Grim faces looked at him from each of the windows tiled on the big display.
“Mr. President, my algorithm is built upon the work of Jennifer Brandt. I carried her work forward, providing a very powerful way of finding communication between organizations on the Internet. But this is the first attempt to use my approach.”
“What’s the probability of success and how long might it take to locate the terrorists?”
“The probability of finding them is nearly 100 per cent.”
There were audible gasps, and then smiles from the various audiences.
“But we don’t know how long it will take to find the first line of communication. Once we find that, we can, within an hour two, locate anyone else involved, provided they are communicating during the time interval we are scrutinizing them.”
Kate stood. “I’m Josh’s partner in this research effort. Your best chance of thwarting this attack is to let Josh proceed.”
Jennifer stood. “I’m Jennifer Brandt and my daughter is right.”
“Your daughter?” The president gave them a puzzled frown.
“Yes, my daughter. It’s a long story. One for another time.”
Peters
on stood. “I’m Special Agent Peterson, and I can vouch for these two young people’s abilities, persistence, and bravery. They, Mr. President, are the cream of the crop. We do have a backup plan, but if you want to minimize loss of life and property, Mr. West and his partner, Katie Brandt, are our best hope. Jennifer will assist them as necessary.”
Josh sat down. The others in the room followed his lead while the National Security Council members muted their audio and had an animated discussion.
When the hand waving, head shakes, and nods ended, the president’s voice returned. “Mr. West and those assisting…keep pressing on, but I want a progress report every hour on the hour. Now, I want someone to brief me on the backup plan to stop this attack.”
Jennifer pointed across the room toward the UNIX workstation. “I believe we’re excused. Back to work, you two.”
As they walked back to the UNIX workstation, behind them, Peterson opened the presentation of the backup plan.
The display on the workstation’s monitor indicated that Josh’s program had terminated and had written ten records to the output file. “Kate, Jennifer, we’ve got something. Let’s check it out.”
31
Katie noticed the change in Josh. After his program ran successfully, there was no more talk about puking, and she heard a confident sound in his voice. This was the Joshua West she had hoped for, a man who could lead a family, a family that included a strong-willed woman like Katie Brandt. At least it fulfilled part of her hopes. The rest required a satisfactory conclusion to their aborted discussion.
Josh swiveled around to face her. “We found the man and the woman. Kate, here is their IP address. Track them down. And I’ve got ten collaborators identified. We need to locate them, also.”
“I’m on it.” Jennifer said. “Spool three copies of the file to the printer.”
“Done.” Josh stuck out a thumb toward the big laser printer in the corner.
Jennifer ran to it and grabbed the printout.
Katie took a copy from her mom and watched as Josh launched another run of his program with much more specific search parameters. She prayed this was the breakthrough needed to stop this attack.
A commotion behind them drew her attention.
A DHS employee was speaking. “We have a confirmed forest fire in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Smoke jumpers have been dispatched. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, all forest service locations, and all firefighters, are on high alert. The military, including the National Guard, are on standby to respond—another report just came in. Satellite pictures show the fire starting with an explosion. We need to stop them all before this spirals out of control.”
Katie grabbed a report, now with eight locations on it, and ran toward the big monitor. “We’ve identified eight terrorist locations. Motels in Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; Jackson, Wyoming; Taos, New Mexico; Farmington, New Mexico; Wallowa, Oregon; and Eagle Point, Oregon.”
Peterson stood. “We need to dispatch law-enforcement officers immediately and start air searches in the vicinity of the eight locations.”
“Kate!” Josh’s voice. She turned and trotted back to the workstation.
“My program crashed and core dumped shortly after I started this run.”
“We don’t have time to analyze a core dump. Just reduce the number of locations, rerun it, and hope for the best.”
“OK. The code’s pretty green, so it’s probably a stray pointer or some unhandled event.” He paused and typed in the command-line parameters. “It’s running. Let’s hope we find the smallpox release locations this time.”
She stood behind Josh, looking over his shoulder as the intermediate printout scrolled by on the screen.
“Josh, Katie.” Peterson called out to them in his deep voice. “We need you. There’s been a new development.”
With Josh’s program running smoothly they could leave it for a few minutes.
Peterson stood with a look of disgust on his frowning face. When they approached, he stepped toward them and spoke hardly above a whisper. “Local police just raided the motel you located in South Chicago. They took two men into custody along with a heavy canister they believe is a biological agent. I told the president we suspect it’s variola major. He wants an explanation of our suspicions. When I told him about your foray into Canada, he said he wanted to speak with you.”
She looked up at Josh’s frowning face. “You, or me, Josh?”
He sighed. “I’ll do it.” His mouth curved into a half smile. “I’m the one who reads thrillers about biological warfare.”
“And I’ll be standing beside you. The trip to Canada was my doing.”
“Actually, Kate, I’m the one who persuaded you to go to Burnaby and said we could do it safely. It’s my dirty laundry. I’ll handle it.”
She followed Josh as he moved to center stage in front of the video camera and stood near him, praying this would go well.
The president had a scowl on his face. “Mr. West, why do you suspect there is weaponized smallpox in the recently confiscated container?”
Josh briefly told the president of Kate locating the command and control element of this conspiracy in Burnaby, of their trip to Canada, and the information they found on the laptop about weaponized variola major. “Mr. President, thousands of pounds of this weaponized virus remain unaccounted for since the collapse of the USSR.”
“But my question is how could they possibly have gotten this into the United States?”
Katie had to bite her tongue to stifle a scoffing laugh. Was he really that arrogant, really that stupid, or just playing politics?
Josh turned his head toward her and rolled his eyes.
She nodded to Josh.
When he turned back toward the video camera, she knew what Josh would say. But what would the president’s reaction be?
“Mr. President, are our borders secure?”
“Yes, Mr. West. And we have sensors at all entry points to—”
“But, Mr. President, we don’t have anyone or anything at many entry points. Our border patrol estimates that nearly a thousand people enter the USA daily in unsecured areas along our southern border, bringing in diseases, drugs, and themselves. How could you not know there would be terrorists among them at some point, bringing things like weapons of mass destruction?”
“Are you finished stating your opinion, Mr. West?”
“No, sir, I’m not.”
Kate grabbed Josh’s shoulder and pulled hard.
Big, strong, handsome, Joshua West would not be moved.
“This isn’t a game were playing.” Josh’s voice grew intense, forceful, almost scary. “The kill rate on this virus is thirty per cent—that’s on the non-genetically engineered strain. We don’t know what strain may have been obtained by this group. Both sides of the Islamic house have ties with Russia, especially the Shiites in Iran.”
The president stood and walked away.
The vice president took his place. “The president has some urgent business. That’s enough, Mr. West. You can go back to whatever you were doing.”
Whatever Josh was doing? Katie clenched her jaw and her fists, drawing upon every ounce of self-restraint to keep from verbally assaulting the vice president.
Obviously, Peterson noticed. He hooked her shoulder with a hand and pulled her away from the camera.
Josh shrugged, and with a scowl on his face, followed Peterson and her across the room.
The tall FBI agent was mumbling softly, something about politicians. He corralled both of them near Josh’s workstation. “You can’t let the politicians get to you. Most have an agenda, a personal one. Just go find the rest of the conspirators and let us take care of them. We don’t need the president to accomplish that.”
How did anyone accomplish anything with people like this at the nation’s helm? Katie blew out a single blast of air, trying to release all of her frustration. She looked up into Josh’s eyes. “I’m proud
of you. The president was posturing himself for political damage control. Just watch what he says to the media over the next twenty-four hours. You’ll see.”
“Come on, Kate. The last run I started should’ve finished by now.”
Kate looked at the text on the workstation’s screen. “Fifteen more IP addresses, Josh. We may have the complete set.”
He spooled the report to the printer. “Let’s split the addresses, get the locations, and give them to Peterson. We need to make sure they get this operation shutdown. Then…” he sighed, “…I could use a long vacation.”
“Can I come along?”
“Without you, Kate, it wouldn’t be a vacation.”
Things between her and Josh were heating up again. She hoped the completion of their unfinished conversation wouldn’t prove to be a bucket of ice water.
****
In four more hours, DHS sent word to all involved agencies that the threat was under control. The two canisters of a weaponized virus found inside the USA’s borders were disturbing, but at least they were in friendly hands and the CDC, or its military equivalent, would soon be analyzing them. When they were done, the biological threat would be known. Only one fire was actually started. However, six radio-controlled planes were seized, each loaded with explosives and a fire accelerant. The triple threat danger was over.
What troubled Kate was that the couple in Surrey had escaped again. Each time they had swung the ax, the serpent had moved its poisonous little head. Where had it slithered off to this time?
32
“Party’s over, Josh. We’ve been up all night, but no way could I sleep right now.” She looked up into Josh’s tired eyes hoping…
“Coffee sounds good.”
Katie nodded. “Very good.”
Jennifer slung her purse over her shoulder. “Well, I can sleep…if Lee will watch the twins. Come on, you two, I’ll drive you home so Katie can get her car.” She looked at Josh. “I heard yours got a little shot up.”
“Yeah.” He gave Jennifer a weak smile. “Good thing it was only a little.”
“Mom, he saved my life. The bullets—”