Nate

by Mercer, Dorothy May

  Caroline assumed an innocent look, “Who me? Nothing at all. Must have been Hal.”

  “Yeah sure,” Shapiro interjected. “Not my man, no way.”

  “Perhaps it was the reality of the situation,” suggested Douglas. “She seemed to have no idea how or with whom she had gotten entangled. We’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out. For now, she is reluctantly working for us, but her attitude will improve, we hope. Her background checks out beautifully, so no problem there. We plan to follow her to her contact who will lead us to the lobbying firm.”

  “Who is this woman?” asked Bell.

  “You do not need to know. We’ll just call her Sally.”

  “And this Sally works for one of us?” Bell was incredulous, and gazed around the table suspiciously.

  “You, actually,” Caroline laughed and pointed a finger at Bell, “in her day job.”

  Bell coughed and took a sip of water.

  Everyone else studied their hands and schooled their faces. Bell had a bit of a reputation as a pompous ass who enjoyed putting the women under him in their places.

  “How much time do we have?” asked Bell, changing the subject.

  Caroline looked around. “We need to take time to build our case, wouldn’t you say?” Everyone nodded except Mason. He shook his head.

  “You don’t agree?” asked Caroline of Mason.

  “Well, they could be closer than we think.”

  “Why is that?”

  “They haven’t been relying entirely on the airplane industry connection. They may be exploring more than one means to bring down a plane.”

  “I suppose so, but we know that the TSA has been successful in upgrading their inspections,” Caroline decided to hand Bell a bone. “So what else is there?”

  “Well … we’ve been following a sub-group out of Chicago,” Mason explained. “One of our undercover Air Marshals stopped a chap who was threatening a flight attendant with a smuggled six-inch switchblade,” said Mason, trying not to look at Bell.

  Caroline had no such qualms. Drilling Bell with her practiced glare, she inquired, “And how did this chap manage to get a weapon on board a domestic airliner?” She already knew, but wanted it to be said aloud.

  “This knife was made of a top-secret material that will pass through security,” said Mason in level tones.

  “Impossible!” sputtered Bell.

  There was a stunned silence.

  “Go on,” Caroline invited.

  “It’s a bit of a long story,” Mason offered.

  “Summarize,” said Douglas, “just give us the important points.”

  “Okay, well, our agent, Nate Goodrich, was able to thwart the attempt, and alert our local office. The man was arrested, let go, and later murdered by another member of the cell. We shot that guy. Were able to question him just a little before he died. All we got was the name of his cell leader, a woman named Kabandha. We hypothesized that the cell was connected with a larger terrorist group. I’m wondering now, whether it could be the one here in DC.

  “Fortunately a neighbor had noticed suspicious activity and called in a tip. Even so, the woman named Kabandha managed to slip away. Turns out she was a top scientist working at a small firm which is designing and testing a totally new air traffic control guidance system which is due to come out in a few years. I’m sure that Bell can fill us in on that.” He smiled at Bell. “In the meantime we assigned an agent to locating and following the woman. She left Chicago and turned up in Dallas in a rental car parked outside DFW. We lost track of her for a full day until a day ago when her rental car’s GPS gave off a brief signal.”

  “Where did the signal come from?”

  “It was a strange thing,” said Mason. “Right here is DC, the car was driving from Andrews to Dulles where it parked in a lot. And then we lost contact.”

  “Oh my God!” Bell exclaimed. “That all adds up.”

  “What adds up?” Douglas demanded.

  “Well, we’ve had a few guidance problems reported from airliners.”

  “Why don’t I know about this?” her voice rose.

  “W-we’re investigating,” said Bell, color creeping up his neck.

  “And just exactly how many pilots from how many airliners reported these guidance problems?”

  “There were two at once at Dallas-Fort Worth, and then an hour later, one more. And then the same thing happened at Dulles a whole day later. In this case three, then two a while later, and finally just one airliner.”

  “What sort of guidance problems?”

  “All they said was that the guidance system suddenly cut out when they were scheduled to make a turn in the traffic pattern and they returned to the intended flight path using VFR—Visual Flight Rules. And then it seemed to come back on.”

  “No doubt you have the exact time of these incidents.”

  “Yes, of course,” he had recovered his attitude, “I have it right here.” He handed her a page.

  She looked at the printout and then passed it to Mason, who examined the paper. “Could just be a coincidence,” said Mason, “but it appears the timing coincides with our terrorist’s visits to those airports.” He handed the paper back to Bell.

  “Do we have a description of this woman?” asked Douglas.

  “We’re working on that right now,” said Mason. “We know her place of employment in Chicago and are hoping to get a picture from her personnel records. If not that, at least her full name and a driver’s license picture.”

  “Very good,” said Caroline. “Hurry that, and we’ll meet back here at nine o’clock. Good morning, gentlemen.” She stood and left the room, moving back to her office.

  The men continued to confer.

  “Do you have the name of the company she worked for in Chicago?” asked Bell. “You said they were designing and testing air guidance systems for the FAA.”

  “Yeah, I did. I’ll have to look it up,” said Mason. “Ring any bells with you, Mr. Bell? Sorry, bad pun.”

  “It sure does. We need to know if it’s the same company who’ve reported some testing problems. If so I need to talk to them immediately. I have a really bad feeling about this.”

  “Give me just a minute, while I call my office,” said Mason.

  Mason listened for a minute and then wrote a name on a slip of paper. “Thank you,” he said and clicked off, shoving the paper over to Bell.

  Bell glanced at the paper, “Oh my God in Heaven.” He gasped, “She works for the very same outfit that is testing our new ACAS guidance system. They reported a loss of six unmanned drones on their third round of tests and only two on their fourth round. We thought that was progress. I’ll have to call their CEO. We need to know whether this Kabandha has anything to do with the development. Holy Cow! What if?”

  “What if what?” asked Shapiro.

  “What if she is working for the terrorists at the same time she is designing and programing our new guidance system?”

  “Oh my God!” said Shapiro.

  “Well, I’ll make those calls and see you back here at nine,” said Bell, grabbing his briefcase and hurrying out the door.

  Shapiro and Mason looked at each other.

  “Wow,” said Shapiro.

  “Yeah,” said Mason. “I’m thinking I’d better have all my people on board at nine o’clock.”

  “We’re thinking the same thing,” said Shapiro. “I’ll see if I can round up Hal Brown and Sally what’s-her-name, assuming she hasn’t flown the coop.”

  “We’re in luck. The Air Marshal who brought down the Chicago group is due in today. I’ll bring him. I may have the agent who was following Kabandha, too. I’ll see.”

  The both hurried out.

  Nate -THE SEARCH –

  Dorothy May Mercer

  Chapter 18 A Little After Nine AM

  T he little group had expanded. In addition to Caroline Douglas and her exec. assistant John, FBI’s Shapiro had brought Harold Brown Jr. and Sally, and TSA’s Bell h
ad brought photographs of Kabandha Ghana, along with her ID, address and description. Everyone gathered around the table, taking their seats, and began to examine the documents.

  Caroline Douglas opened the meeting, “Thank you for coming. I know you had to hurry. We are here to discuss the terrorist group we refer to as the Lobby Group. Since we broke up a half hour ago, more information has come out regarding this Kabandha Ghana. I believe that Bell has something to say.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Douglas.”

  “Call me Caroline, please.”

  “Yes, well, Caroline, after you left the room we discovered a possible connection between this Kabandha person and the guidance system breakdowns that have been reported. And so, I called our supplier in Chicago, and confirmed that Kabandha has been one of the chief software engineers on the design team. Also, she was present when the prototype of the new ACAS-Xu guidance system was field tested over Lake Superior. At that time six drones were lost because of failure in the system. On the next test, over land, this time, Kabandha was also present. Two drones were lost on that test. Those drones were recovered. At this point they have not been able to find the cause of the failure. I asked the CEO if it was possible that an external source could have disrupted the guidance system. He said that the test area was too remote. Any type of interference would have to be close, within a few miles.”

  “Maybe this is a dumb question,” said John, “but could interference have come from an airplane or a nearby boat?”

  “Not dumb at all. In fact that is the big question. It seems that if interference of some sort caused the failures, it had to come from one of the aircraft already in the test, or from a nearby boat. The no-fly zone was quite large.

  “In addition to these facts, we also learned that Kabandha happened to be in two different airports at the exact time as three incidents of guidance failure have been reported in the last few days.”

  Caroline summed it up, “So now we know of seven separate incidents of guidance failure when Kabandha was present. What more do we need to know?”

  “Is she a terrorist?”

  “What are her plans or plots or motives?”

  “Who is she connected with?”

  “That’s good,” said Caroline. “What else?”

  Everyone thought.

  “What else?” she repeated.

  “How close are they?” said a small voice.

  “That’s exactly right, Sally. You nailed it. Okay folks how much time do we have?”

  The room was silent. No one knew the answer.

  Caroline glanced at her watch as if to make the point. Time was passing.

  Just then. Mason, the head of the Federal Air Marshal service walked in, with another gentleman. They found two places at the end.

  “Welcome to our group discussion,” said Caroline. “You’re late,” she scowled.

  “I apologize for disrupting your discussion, Ms. Douglas and distinguished people,” said Mason with a slight tip of his head.

  She waved off his apology. “Never mind that, just please introduce your guest,” she said. “We need to move on.”

  “I tried to get the agent who has been following Kabandha. That’s why we were late. Maybe he will be in later.

  “My other guest today is one of our very best Federal Air Marshals, the hero of the take-down of terrorist George F. George, and many others, Mr. Nate Goodrich.”

  There was polite applause.

  “Thank you Mr. Goodrich for your service,” said Caroline. “You were instrumental in exposing the Chicago cell, headed by an unidentified woman.”

  Nate acknowledge it by a nod of his head.

  “We have since identified that woman, Mr. Goodrich, and have followed her here to Washington DC. The woman, Kabandha Ghana is a brilliant scientist and has her doctorate in Computer Software Science. We suspect she has discovered a system to interfere with the guidance systems of aircraft and has successfully tried it out in at least seven different instances.

  “We also know of a lobbying firm in DC which we suspect is working undercover as a terrorist organization dedicated to taking down an American domestic flight, or many flights. What we don’t know, is whether Kabandha is part of that organization. If so, she could be in DC to report her findings and set up a plot.”

  Caroline paused. “Here is her picture and description. Have you ever seen her, Mr. Goodrich?” Nate shook his head.

  “I have more photos to pass around,” said Shapiro. He started handing out photos one by one. People looked at them and passed them on. “This is a lineup of suspects mixed in with employees and models. The suspects are photos we’ve obtained of the lobbyist organization that may, or may not be involved in working for terrorists. Bear in mind, we have yet to prove anything against them.” The pictures were going around the table. “Please speak up if any of these faces look familiar to you.”

  John started laughing and quickly passed a picture on.

  “John?” asked Caroline. “What did you see?”

  He shook his head.

  “C’mon John.” Caroline urged.

  “Well, I hesitate to say as I’m pretty sure it is against company policy.”

  “I see.”

  “It’s just that that girl works here. I’ve dated her.”

  Everyone laughed, except Caroline. “Then, I assume you can vouch for her character.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said John sheepishly.

  “Please remove that photo from the lot,” said Caroline.

  Just then, Sally gasped, holding a picture. Her hand came to her mouth. “That’s Edward!”

  “May I see that?” asked Shapiro. Sally handed it over.

  “Can you say more about Edward?” asked Caroline, gently.

  “Edward is my contact … well, my main contact. There is also a teen age girl, but so far, I haven’t seen her picture.”

  “Thank you Sally. That could be a really important clue. Let’s keep the pictures moving,” said Caroline.

  No others were recognized.

  “Well, we have a start,” said Caroline, tapping a manicured fingernail on a picture. “Shapiro, can you share with us just which of these pictures are your suspects?”

  “Yes, I can do that.” He sorted out a half dozen, plus the shot of Edward. “These are all people we have identified as being part of the lobbying group. This one here is believed to be the head of the cell, whereas this other man is actually a registered lobbyist. All the others are employees. Edward is thought to be a small-time player or maybe just an employee hired to deliver messages.”

  “With the addition of Edward, it looks as if we have the unbroken connection between the terrorist cell and our Mr. Brown, whom they believe to be the spy they hired to infiltrate the aircraft manufacturer.” She gestured toward Hal Brown.

  Everyone nodded.

  “I think we should hear from Sally as to just what this Edward person did,” said Bell.

  Caroline looked at Sally. “Yes, please tell us,” she said.

  All eyes turned toward Sally. Without hesitation she relayed the story of how, for months they had her scouting the first-class passengers on those special flights, until one day they told her they had selected Mr. Brown and she would now be promoted to Brown’s contact.

  Hal broke in, “My job would be long term. They would help me write a code that could be hidden in the millions of lines of code which will control the new autopilot ACAS system. We knew it would take a long time and be difficult, but the hope was that this worm could remain hidden for years until the plane was operational.

  “And then a terrorist with the right commands and an SDR could activate the worm and bring down a plane.

  “SDR stands for Software Defined Radio. Put in layman’s terms this radio could broadcast commands that would interfere with the planes ACAS system,” Hal added.

  Sally was looking at Hal open-mouthed.

  “Understand this system could take years, and maybe wouldn’t work at all. It is
basically a harebrained idea, but… who knows?” asked Hal.

  “I’m just glad they recruited a crack FBI agent,” said Caroline.

  “Well, thanks, but we don’t know who else they have recruited,” said Hal.

  “And now we know that they had more than one plot going,” said Mason.

  “Supposing that we arrest these people. What laws have they broken?”

  “John, you’re the lawyer,” said Caroline, looking to her assistant for an answer.

  “Oh my, yes, Title 18 allows twenty years in prison for conspiracy to destroy an airplane.”

  “That’s true, but has the law caught up with 21st Century methods?”

  “Good question. You’re right that most of the laws involve explosives, guns, bombs and so on. I don’t believe it speaks specifically about destroying an airplane with software.”

  There was tittering around the table.

  “Like maybe somebody is going to throw software at an airplane.”

  “Well, I think the last paragraph, number seven is thrown in there to cover everything else not mentioned above,” John explained. “Like it prohibits communicating information, knowing the information to be false and under circumstances in which such information may reasonably be believed to endanger the safety of any such aircraft in flight.”

  “Doesn’t it say anything about interfering with an airplane’s controls or software?”

  “Mostly about bombs.”

  “Boy, oh boy, we need to update those laws.”

  “Yup, and when are you planning to run for Congress?” quipped Mason.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Well, for now, until it expires, we can do a lot of snooping. Most of these conspirators have been caught by snooping into their emails and bank records.”

  “I think we have already gathered a lot of evidence that way,” said Shapiro. “That’s how we became suspicious of this lobbying outfit, in the first place. Of course, the terrorists have gotten a lot smarter about that, too. I mean they have lawyers on the staff who study how we have caught people before by watching what they say on emails. And so, they are a lot more careful about what they say, where and how they say it. Nothing beats real evidence, good old face to face testimony and tape recordings.”