why he had come up with constructive ways of filling his time.
Wherever they were going, Honda arranged to patch his personal computer
into the data files of both Stephen Viens at the National Reconnaissance
Office and those of Op Center computer chief. Matt Stoll. The NRO was
the group that managed most of America's spy satellites. Because Viens
was an old college chum of Stoll's, he had been extremely helpful in
getting information for Op-Center when more established groups like
military intelligence, the CIA, and the NSA were fighting for satellite
time. Viens was later accused of forward-funding two billion dollars of
NRO money into a variety of black ops projects. He was vindicated with
Op-Center's help and recently returned to duty.
Before Striker headed to any territory, Viens set aside satellite time
to do all the photographic recon that Colonel August needed. That
imaging was considered of primary importance and was sent on the mission
in Colonel August's files. Meanwhile, Stoll spent as much time as
possible collecting electronic intelligence from the region. Police
departments and the military did not share everything they knew, even
with allies. In many foreign countries, especially Russia, China, and
Israel, American operatives were often watched without their knowledge
by foreign operatives. It was up to Op-Center to pick up whatever
information they could and protect themselves accordingly. They did this
by diverging from the agreed-upon routes and time schedules, using
"dispensable" team members to mislead tails, or occasionally subduing
whoever was following them. A host nation could not complain if the
person they had sent to spy on an ally was later found bound and gagged
in a hotel closet.
The ELINT Stoll had gathered was composed of everything from fax
messages and e-mail to phone numbers and radio frequencies. Everything
that came to or went from official sources or known resistance and
opposition forces.
These numbers, frequencies, and encryption codes were then run through
programs. They were compared with those of known terrorists or foreign
agents. If there were any possible "watchdogs or impediments" in the
region, as mission planners referred to them, these scans helped to find
and identify them. The last thing American intelligence chiefs wanted
was to have undercover operatives photographed or their methods observed
by foreign governments. Not only could that information be sold to a
third party, but the United States never knew which friendly governments
might one day be intelligence targets.
"Think Iran," Colonel August reminded them whenever they went on a joint
mission with allies.
Honda had brought along a Striker laptop. The computer was equipped with
a wireless, high-speed modem to download data Stoll was still
collecting. Honda would memorize any relevant data. When Striker reached
India, the computer would be left on the transport and returned to the
base. Colonel August would keep his laptop to download data.
Where they were going, the less Corporal Honda had to carry the happier
he would be.
As the new intelligence was dumped into Honda's computer, an audio
prompt pinged. It was alerting him to an anomaly that Stoll's program
had picked up at Op-Center.
Honda accessed the flagged data.
The Bellhop program on the air force's "Sanctity" satellite continually
scanned the cell phones and radios that used police bands. Op-Center and
the other U. S. intelligence agencies had these numbers for their own
communications with foreign offices. It was a simple matter to hack the
computers and look for other incoming calls.
The Bellhop had picked up a series of point-to-point calls made on a
police-registered cell phone. It was coded "field phone" in the Bellhop
lexicon. Most of the calls were placed over a five-month period from
Kargil to the district police headquarters in Jammu, coded "home phone."
During that time there was only one call to that field phone from the
home phone. Stoll's program, which integrated Op-Center intel with NRO
data, indicated that the call was placed less than one second before the
Kashmir-focused Cluster Star3 satellite recorded an explosion in a
bazaar in Srinagar.
"Damn," Honda muttered.
Honda wondered if Colonel August or General Rodgers had been informed
about a possible terrorist attack. The fact that a police cell phone
made a call to the site an instant before the explosion could be a
coincidence. Perhaps someone was phoning a security guard. On the other
hand there might be a connection between the two. Honda unbuckled
himself from the uncomfortable seat and went forward to inform his
commanding officers. He had to walk slowly, carefully, to keep from
being bucked against his teammates by the aircraft's movements in the
turbulent air.
August and Rodgers were huddled together over the general's laptop when
he arrived.
"Excuse me, sirs," Honda said. He had to shout to be heard over the
screaming engines.
August looked up.
"What have you got, Corporal?" Honda told the two officers about the
explosion. August informed Honda that they were just reading an e-mail
from Bob Herbert about the blast. It provided what few details anyone
had about the attack. Then Honda informed his superiors about the phone
calls. That seemed to grab General Rodgers's interest.
"There were two calls a day for five months, always at the same time,"
Honda said.
"Like a routine check-in," Rodgers said.
"Exactly, sir," Honda replied.
"Except for today. There was just one call and it was made to the field
phone. It was placed a moment before the explosion that took out the
temple."
Rodgers sat back.
"Corporal, would you go through the data file and see if this calling
pattern is repeated, probably from field phones with different code
numbers? Outgoing calls to one home phone and one or none coming back?"
"Yes, sir," Honda replied.
Honda crouched on the cold, rumbling floor and raised one knee. He put
the laptop upon it. He was not sure what the officers were looking for
exactly and it was not his place to ask. He input the code number of the
home phone and asked for a Bellhop search. Colonel August's hunch was
correct.
He told them that in addition to this series there were seven weeks of
calls from another field phone in Kargil.
They were made twice a day at the same times. Before that there were six
weeks of calls from another field phone, also two times daily.
Thirteen weeks was as far back as these Bellhop records went.
"New Delhi must have had civilian agents tracking a terrorist cell,"
Rodgers said.
"How do you know that?" August asked.
"The calls may just have been field ops reporting in."
"I don't think so," Rodgers told him.
"First of all, only one of the calls on Corporal Honda's list was made
from the home phone to the field phone."
"Correct," Rodgers replied.
"That would suggest the officers in charge of the recon did not want
field phones ringing at inopportune moments."
"I'll buy that," August said.
"There's more than that, though." Rodgers said.
"When Pakistan was knocked out of Kargil in 1999, the Indian Special
Frontier Force knew that enemy cells would be left behind.
They couldn't hunt them down with soldiers. The locals would have known
if strangers were moving through a village. And if the locals knew it
members of the cell would have known it. So the SFF recruited a shitload
of locals to serve in their Civilian Network Operatives unit." The
general tapped his laptop.
"It's all here in the intelligence overview.
But they couldn't give the recruits normal militia radios because, that
close to Pakistan, those channels are routinely monitored by ELINT
personnel. So the SFF gave their recruits cell phones. The agents call
the regional office and complain about break-ins, missing children,
stolen livestock, that sort of thing. What they're really doing is using
coded messages to keep the SFF informed about suspected terrorist
movements and activities."
"All right," August said.
"But what makes you think the calls on this list aren't just routine
field reports?"
"Because CNO personnel don't make routine field reports," Rodgers said.
"They only report when they have something to say. There's less chance
of them being overheard that way. I'm willing to bet that there are
terrorist strikes to coincide with the termination of each of those
series of calls. A target was hit, the cell moved on, the calls stopped
being placed."
"Perhaps," August said.
"But that doesn't explain the call to the temple right before the
blast." "Actually, it might," Rodgers told him.
"I don't follow," August said.
Rodgers looked up at Honda.
"Corporal, would you please get the TAC-SAT?"
"Yes, sir."
Rodgers turned back to August.
"I'm going to ask Bob Herbert to check on the dates of terrorist strikes
in the region," he said.
"I want to see if reports from field phones stopped coming in after
terrorist strikes. I also want Bob to look into something else." "What's
that?" August asked.
Honda closed his laptop and stood. He lingered long enough to hear
Rodgers's reply.
"I want to know what kind of detonator caps the SFF uses for
counterterrorist strikes," the general replied.
"Why?" August asked.
"Because the Mossad, the Iraqi Ala mn al-Khas, Abu Nidal's group, and
the Spanish Grapo have all used PDEs on occasion," Rodgers said.
"Phone-detonated explosives."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Srinagar, Kashmir Wednesday, 6:59 p. m.
It was nearly dark when Ron Friday returned to the bazaar.
Though he was curious to see how the authorities here were handling the
investigation he was more interested in what he might be able to find
out about the attack. His life might depend on that information.
The rain had stopped and there was a cold wind rolling off the
mountains. Friday was glad he had worn a baseball cap and a windbreaker,
though the drop in temperature was not the reason he had put them on.
Even from his room he could hear helicopters circling the area. When
Friday arrived he found that the two police choppers were hovering low,
less than two hundred feet up. In addition to looking for survivors, the
noise echoing loudly through the square helped to keep onlookers from
staying too long. But that was not the only reason the choppers were
there. Friday guessed that they were also maintaining a low altitude to
photograph the crowd in case the terrorist was still in the area. The
cockpits were probably equipped with GRRs--geometric reconstructive
recorders. These were digital cameras that could take photographs shot
at an angle and reconfigure the geometry so they became accurate frontal
images. Interpol and most national security agencies had a "face-print"
file consisting of mug shots and police sketches of known and suspected
terrorists. Like fingerprints, face-print photographs could be run
through a computer and compared to images on file. The computer
superimposed the likenesses. If the features were at least a 70 percent
match, that was considered sufficient to go after the individual for
interrogation.
Friday had worn the baseball cap because he did not want to be
face-printed by the chopper. He did not know which governments might
have his likeness on file or for what reason.
He certainly did not want to give them a picture with which to start a
file.
The blast sights had been roped off with red tape. Spotlights on
ten-foot-tall tripods had been erected around the perimeters.
Physically, the main market area reminded Friday of a gymnasium after a
dance. The event was over, the place eerily lifeless, and the residue of
activity was everywhere.
Only here, instead of punch there were bloodstains. Instead of crepe
there were shredded awnings. And instead of empty seats there were
abandoned carts. Some of the vendors had taken their carts away, leaving
dust-free spots on the ground in the shape of the stall. In the sharp
light they resembled the black shadows of trees and people that had been
burned on the walls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear fire.
Other carts had been simply abandoned. Perhaps the owners had not been
there when the blast occurred and the hired help did not want to stick
around. Maybe some of the sellers had been injured or killed.
Militiamen from the regular army were stationed around the perimeters.
They were carrying MP5K submachine guns, very visible in the bright
lights. Police were patrolling the square carrying their distinctive 455
Webley revolvers.
Apart from discouraging looters--which did not really require exposed
firearms--there was only one reason to haul out artillery after a
strike. It was a means of restoring wounded pride and reassuring the
public that the people in charge were still a potent force. It was all
so sadly predictable.
Reporters were allowed to make their news broadcasts or take their
pictures and then were asked to leave. An officer explained to a crew
from CNN that it would be more difficult to watch for looters if a crowd
gathered.
Or maybe they just did not want cameras recording their own thefts,
Friday thought. He was willing to bet that many of the goods that had
been left behind would be gone by morning.
A few people had come to the marketplace just to stare.
Whatever they expected to see--broken bodies, the spectacle of
destruction, news being made--it did not appear to fulfill them. Most
left looking deflated. Bomb sites, combat zones, and car wrecks often
did that to people. They were drawn to it and then repulsed. Maybe they
were disappointed by a sudden awareness of their o
wn bloodthirstiness.
Some people came with flowers, which they laid on the ground beneath the
tape. Others just left behind prayers for dead friends, relatives, or
strangers.
At the destroyed police station and temple, building inspectors were
moving through surrounding structures to determine whether they had been
weakened or damaged in the blasts. Friday recognized them by their white
hard hats and palm-sized echo meters These devices emitted either single
or multidirectional sound waves that could be adjusted to the
composition of an object, from stone to concrete to wood. If the sound
waves encountered anything that was inconsistent with the makeup of the
material--which typically meant a breach--an alarm would sound and the
officials would examine the site further.
Apart from the engineers there were the usual police recovery units and
medical personnel working at all three sites.
But Friday was surprised by one thing. Typically, terrorist attacks in
India were investigated by the district police and the National Security
Guard. The NSG was established in 1986 to act as a counterterrorist
force. The so-called Black Cat Commandos handled situations ranging from
in-progress hijackings and kidnappings to forensic activities at bomb
sites. However, there was not a single black-uniformed NSG operative
Clancy, Tom - Op Center 8 - Line of Control Page 9