Carolyn shrugged her shoulder to the side to keep him from taking the note out of her hands. He grabbed for it again but she turned her shoulder away from him once more. He tried to reach around her the other way, but she stepped back, faced him with the note held behind her back and said, “Hey! I just want to get a picture of this for my records. Stand back from me!”
“That isn’t yours, Carolyn. Give it to me! Give it back!” He panicked. He looked around then nodded his head. “Then hurry. I need to give this to the authorities. I, uh, already told someone that I was, um, gonna bring it to them.”
She turned her body halfway away from him as she took out her phone and quickly snapped a couple pictures of it for her records before it got ‘lost and forgotten’ again. Then she handed it to him, watching him stuff it into his front shirt pocket under his suit jacket, using no care to keep it protected or clean for examination.
“Oh, uh Perry, how long have you been following Jahn?”
“Following? What do you mean... oh, you mean since we were tipped off? Uh, probably about a month. Yes, I am sure of it. It’s been a month.”
“And in this whole month, concerning an agent with security clearance, here at the airport, which is under Homeland Security directives and the TSA, you never thought to come to me, or anyone else about this possible security breach?”
“I couldn’t yet Carolyn. I, uh, had to figure out this situation and decide the best course of action.”
“Perry, there isn’t any ‘deciding’ that was needed by you. There are directives that we are held to with absolutely no wiggle room. Protocol has already been established. We have trained for this for how many years together? Are you a one-man army? Basically, by not bringing this to my attention, everything that was done on Jahnni’s shifts are now considered a security breach. Every single flight and transaction done while Jahnni had access to ANYTHING concerning our airlines is now considered suspect. I’m very surprised, that if you thought there was cause for concern, that you didn’t give me time to pull her off the floor, and start an investigation. This is a pretty significant security breach. Every branch of the law should have been notified and Homeland should have told YOU what the next step was.”
“Carolyn! It was top secret! I couldn’t let you in on it yet. I am just as surprised by her actions as you are!” he said with exasperation in his voice.
Carolyn squinted her eyes at Perry then asked, “What do you mean top secret? By whom? Who notified you and why wouldn’t they notify me, the First Class Station Manager? I’m sorry Perry. But I am not surprised at her actions like you think I am. I find this extremely difficult to believe. And don’t change the subject. We were discussing your inept ability to follow emergency security protocol.”
Perry Prattle was sweating under his suit coat. He loosened his tie and moved his neck side to side, making popping noises. He extended his arms as if to adjust the fit of his clothing and shrugged his shoulders up and back. He looked at Carolyn with a distant, detached stare. He just stood there, not answering. Carolyn stood there as well, not saying anything either, waiting until he answered her last question.
He pulled out his cell phone and acted like he was getting a call. “I have to take this Carolyn. We will talk soon.” Then he walked back across the lanes that carried cars, taxis, buses, and foot traffic on a regular day. He held his mobile phone to his ear and his mouth was moving and his head bobbing like he was in deep agreement with someone. He continued into the airport, with his cell phone to his ear.
Carolyn stood there in a total shock. Not about the suicide/terrorist note, not about the lock down, and certainly not about whether Jahnni was guilty of these heinous accusations. She glanced around and finally saw who she needed to talk to. She waved him over from where he was guarding the entrance to the parking garage, keeping unauthorized people from sneaking into the mix. He then motioned to another person on his team with the Port of Portland Police Department, and pointed to the area he was leaving so he could walk towards Carolyn. She began walking towards him too, and they met half-way.
“Jake, how long have you been with the force?”
“Gee Carolyn, probably almost as long as you have worked here. Maybe 15 years give or take,” Jake said.
“Any complaints here? Problems with anyone, behavior that piqued your interest?” she queried.
“Hell, no Carolyn. I love this job! Best place to work ever. My wife complains that I help a little too much by picking up shifts for the guys... oh and gals,” he assured her.
“I assume I can trust you to be open with me?” Carolyn asked further.
“Of course, well, except for our own NTK, but what can I help you with?” Jake said with furrowed eyebrows of concern.
“Ya, um... didn’t you just tell me that there is a 5-mile wireless phone and radio blocker down by long term parking, behind the garage?”
“Yes. That was one of the first positions that were set up when this situation presented itself. But immediately, before that, they called the wireless carriers to activate the kill switch for the cell towers in this zone of the city. Wireless phones lost their connection to the towers that service this area first. But the zone had to be expanded with this type of situation. That’s why the larger radius block is set up. We are all using the Port SAT phones, if that is what you are worried about.”
“No, no, I know about the SAT phones. I’m using one. But you are absolutely sure there is no cell phone access at all, right?”
“Like I said, none. The cable lines are down inside the airport also. That was standard for the emergency. I mean, the land lines are connected through the cable so they are out as well. The computers will work individually off-line, but they can’t talk to each other or go out into the internet while they are down. Why?”
“Grab those Homeland guys standing by the Max, and the FBI gal over there. Find out who is in charge. Homeland or FBI. Tell them I want to talk to them. We need to have a conversation. Thanks.”
Chapter 21
Self-Importance is Blinding
Perry came back to his office to think. As he passed the first room in his office, he was oblivious to the fact that the tech who was monitoring his cameras before, was gone and replaced by Port tech support. They too didn’t hear him slip in the door and access his private office, as he shut the door quietly behind him. His darting eyes slowed to a stare. He paced between the door and his desk, running his hands through the top of his hair. He patted it down then smoothed his hands back over the sides of his hair to erase his disheveled appearance. He whispered to himself, “There’s no time. I need to find Arnie. I need to find him and make him use the key to... Hey wait! What the...”
Perry started rummaging through everything in his office as trickles of sweat began to bead up and roll down the sides of his face. His hands moved over the shelves and touched every dusty corner like they were thirsty, seeking to find the one thing that would quench their anxiety. He stood on a stool to brush his hands over the top of the bookcase, hoping that possibly, he moved his prize during the frenzied activity today. His eyes bulged and frown lines dug into his face. He turned in circles, swinging his head back and forth, up and down, trying to see every possible place it could have gone. Not only was it not here, but Arnie’s bag was gone as well. “I didn’t notice that before when I found Craigs! Aaaarrrgh! What have they done?” he whispered loudly to himself. “I’m going to find those sleazy miscreants and kill them myself after I get that key back. In fact, I’m not even going to kill them fast. I’m gonna drag it out until I get bored with it.”
Perry Prattle turned nervously to his desk. He saw the dark screen on his computer and his anxiety soared even higher. After wiggling the mouse to wake up the screen, he noticed that it was turned off. He began to pound on his keyboard before the realization that it would not respond started to sink in. Realizing the on-off button wouldn’t respond, he started crawling on the floor under his desk and patting the floor at every corner
. Then he crawled to the side of his desk looking everywhere for the cord. It was nowhere. Still scrambling, he shoved stacks of boxes, books, and small storage shelving out of the way, searching frantically for the missing cord. He found it, wadded in the plant’s pot. His fingers fumbled to plug it in the wall socket before shoving it into the back of his desktop. His hands were shaking as he pressed the power button to get his computer powered back up. Now, it appeared to be in a long reboot mode, the screen stating that it is applying updates. The clock on the wall was ticking louder and louder with each passing second. Perry knew that he wasn’t going to get his computer back up in time because he had to move fast. He pounded on the desk in frustration and looked around the office, realizing he had to devise another course of action.
“I don’t have time for this!” he grumbled out loud to no one, but himself. A thought entered his head, Maybe I’ll use the computers in the badging office.
He calmed his demeanor before he left his office, now noticing the techs working on the camera feeds in the next room he was passing through. As if it had no bearing on his situation, he turned his head back to the door, ignoring the fact that his own tech was not sitting in the main seat. No time to think about that. I need to bypass the Port computers to regain access to mine. He wound his way down the three floors towards to the Badging and Port Police offices and pulled up short when he saw who was there. Homeland Security agents were mingling with the FBI agents and the Port Police as some were huddled around the Airport Badging Office Manager’s computer. She looked very intent as she typed away. They all seemed to be waiting for whatever information she was accessing. Perry slid back behind the pillar he was by to watch from a distance. He could see through the office windows to watch what was going on. He could not hear their conversations but he knew it wasn’t good. He had to accomplish his plans today or there would never be another time. Changing plans, people interrupting, glitches. Nothing was going as he planned. He still needed to re-craft his cover-up with all these pieces falling apart. The last thing I need is to lose my job. What will this airport do without me? he grumbled in his mind to himself in his normal grandiose, self-appreciative way.
Chapter 22
Technology on the Heels of the Mayhem
The printer that was directly connected to the computer kept spitting out pages and pages of information.
“Thank you for staying and helping us out, Doris,” Special Agent Delaram Pahlavi said after she had introduced herself. “This is my partner Special Agent Liam Anthony. He is headed over to the food court right now to speak with the remaining TSA agents. I have many questions, but you can interrupt me if I miss anything.”
“No problem, Ms. Pahlavi. I am happy to help in any way that I can,” Doris answered her.
“Okay.” Agent Pahlavi asked Doris, “Can you tell me which agents accessed the security doors today? Like... times and badge numbers. I understand that the list will be quite long, but we’ll have a starting point, and a possible end point when compared to the time that access was shut down.” She wanted to compare the information that the Station Manager for First Class Air had confided to her, minutes before, along with the information and photos that her other FBI agents had passed along to her.
“Well... yes is the short answer, but it will take a little more research. Just a few minutes to match up badge numbers to security clearance because it comes in like a list of data with a time stamp and I need to convert it. Do you need that right now?” Doris asked, trying not to show her curiosity.
“Yes... is my short answer,” Agent Pahlavi replied with a smile on her face. “And... are all the security doors locked down? Are they all on one grid, or divided into sections? I understand that some doors shut down automatically and no one can override the lock with badging, so which doors can still be accessed in this exact emergency? What about the fountain? Does anyone else have access to the workings of the fountain, apart from, Port Police that we have there right now?”
“All doors are secured and no one can enter or leave through a security door. In the event of an airport emergency, certain doors are automatically sealed when it throws itself into no-access. Airport employees have about three minutes to exit the secure area through the interior doors to access the public area. Five, to make it through the gated checkpoints,” Doris began explaining. “And when all the cable lines and intranet go down, for whatever reason, all access is severed for safety after that three-minute window. Here, I’ll show you,” she said as she accessed the program she needed that showed a colored grid on her computer. “This is the last live feed to my computer. But keep in mind that at this point, even if I wanted to, I can’t release anyone’s badge to access the doors because my computer can’t communicate outside of itself... except to the printer that we hard wired to it. We will need the cable, or intranet back up for me to release egress and ingress for one, twenty, or all previously cleared employees.”
Doris pulled up the program through which all security doors were monitored, then turned to Agent Pahlavi to explain, “Normally, I can grant or retract authorization through various areas, doors, and even private offices. While we wait, I can still pull up history. I can pull up information based on different search parameters. This information was already in my program before access shut down. For example, do you want to know access by clocked time, today or another date? By names under each airline, or other airport employees, Customs agents, Port Police, etc... I can even delineate the list to show you when someone accessed the employee parking lot coming or going.”
“Hmmm,” Agent Pahlavi said, “Instead of the entire day, I would like to start by time. Start with about an hour before the airport went into emergency protocol and forward to now. I will eventually throw the net out further, but I am looking for something in particular first. What about any other persons that have access to this program? Someone who may be able to grant or remove access to anyone.”
“Well yes, the Port Manager here at PDX has that authority, but he always goes through us for transparency. With the protocol in place, no one can override the shut-down. Like I said, the entire airport is... oh,” Doris said under her breath as she stared at the image on her screen. Pahlavi stood behind her, watching the screen also.
A quadrant of the airport had a green section that indicated that the security doors were active. The other quadrants were ensconced in red showing that no access was available through any doors within its parameters.
“I’m a bit confused,” Doris said slowly. “There must be a glitch in the color coding or something because it’s not supposed to be accessible. It should have shut down when the other sections shut down access. I need to get a message to the tech team. They were headed upstairs not too long ago, so let me send a runner with a message. Hang on.”
As soon as she handed off the message, she began working on the list of information from the history that Agent Pahlavi had asked for. Then the printer fired up and paper after paper started feeding into another agent’s hands. As it was handed back, Doris accessed another part of the program to narrow down the information.
Agent Pahlavi was looking out the office window into the baggage pick-up area, thinking about the conversation that she just had with Carolyn, the First Class Air manager. Carolyn said she knew where every one of her remaining agents were stationed around the airport before the emergency but now had concerns because of the information that she garnered from Perry Prattle. So now... who else is still inside? And how do they plan on exiting the premises? Agent Pahlavi wondered.
“Doris, could you print out the parameters of the green section you just noticed? Like a screen shot or use a snipping tool. It seems odd that if you look here...” Agent Pahlavi said as she pointed to a couple spots on the grid, “and here... these doors are like a mere few feet apart yet one is accessible and one isn’t. And if you look at the elevation view, it appears that an entire floor is operational and certain doors are randomly arced into this green area. The p
attern is extremely random. I realize that it could be a technical glitch in color coding, but I would like to know what access doors are in that zone... and if possible, to see who accessed them. Just in case. Also, what about the cameras? Are they accessible? How are those configured into the security system?”
“You can go to the Port of Portland Police office right around the corner, and down that hallway. They can help you with that,” Doris said without looking up from her computer as she printed out what Agent Pahlavi requested. “As far as the grid, there are so many doors in the airport that they had to draw the lines somewhere. It is weird though... how these doors here…and here, don’t follow the regular grid pattern. More importantly, there was a reason the grid was built a certain way when it was compared with continuing security and safety. Still, I’m not sure how this green zone that forms a pocket down the center of the airport is... well... green. The techs will check it out.”
Agent Pahlavi pointed to two other agents to stay with Doris and then motioned to one other agent to come with her. They walked out of the Security Badging office and turned down the hall. The carpeted hallway kept the noise to a minimum but with no passengers anywhere, it was mostly quiet at this end of the airport. No baggage carousels were spinning; no announcements were being made. No carts clinking and rolling around. Just the sound of footsteps seeking answers.
The door to the Port Police office was already open so they walked right in and identified themselves. There was no need, Delaram had already spoken with most of the officers that remained in the office when she had consolidated information between the chief of the Port Police, TSA and Homeland Security. She looked directly at the chief, Officer Chet Boulder, and made her inquiries, “Do you still have access to the Port cameras? Are they connected wirelessly, wired in, what?” she asked.
You're Clear Page 15