Frank hesitated. He hated misleading a colleague, but so much more was at stake.
“He disappeared, Nick. He may turn up, I don’t know,” he added.
Nick was silent on the other end of the line. Had he guessed that Frank had been holding back?
“I guess we’ll just take our place in line for the chance to interrogate him,” Nick finally said. “I appreciate the call, Frank. My team will be happy to know that we may be able to wrap this up soon. Let me know if you hear anything else.”
Holden ended the call and let out a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad that’s over,” he thought as he continued driving down the streets of Washington. It was his next responsibility that he was dreading most. He headed over the river and into Virginia making his way through heavy traffic towards the headquarters of MWS Industries. When he pulled up to the curb, he was met by two of his deputies who had arrived only moments before.
“Gentlemen. Are we ready?”
“Yes, sir,” one of them replied. “We called ahead, and he’s in. Actually, he said we saved him from having to call us.”
“Oh?” Holden asked.
“That’s what he said,” the deputy replied.
“You have the warrant?”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right. Let’s do it.”
The men walked up the sidewalk and into the grand lobby of the building. They got into the elevator and rode up to the top floor, where Holden and his men approached the receptionist.
“Frank Holden to see Mr. Schlegal,” he addressed the woman.
Looking up and grabbing the phone, she responded.
“Yes, Agent Holden. He’s expecting you.”
She announced the agents to her boss and then directed them to enter.
Max Schlegal rose to meet the agents as they entered his office. Holden noted that Max’s tastes were very expensive. He enjoyed surrounding himself with a collection of items, apparently designed to give the magnet the least stressful environment.
“Welcome, gentlemen. I assume that since there are the three of you that this is not a social visit,” Max said, a little edge in his voice.
“No,” Holden responded, “It’s not a social visit, Mr. Schlegal. We need you to come with us. We have some questions that need to be answered.”
“Perhaps I could save us all some time, agent Holden,” he continued, focusing his attention on Frank. “Last week the Chinese tested a laser weapon, capable of blinding reconnaissance satellites and completely rendering useless innumerable commercial models. Since my company was deeply involved in developing this technology for the defense department, it seems obvious to me that somehow this highly classified material fell into China’s hands. And, since I’m the President of MWS Industries, you’re here to hold me responsible. Am I close?”
Somewhat taken aback by his candor, Holden replied.
“I think that that pretty well sums it up.”
Max continued.
“If you are here to arrest me, there’s not a lot I can do. My lawyers will do their job, I’ll be released and we’ll all start dancing our dance in the courts. I would prefer that it wouldn’t come to that. Perhaps, we could work together to find those responsible. That way we both win.”
Max paused and looked at Holden, searching for a response.
“I’m listening,” Holden said.
Max pushed a button on his phone. The door to his office opened abruptly and two men walked in. The sudden movement caught the three men off guard, startling them. Max noted their response.
“My apologies, gentlemen. I didn’t mean to startle you. I would like to introduce you to my chief of security,” the man nodded to the three agents, “and my chief counsel.”
Noticing their apprehension, he added.
“He’s only here to keep me from getting myself into trouble, inadvertently of course.”
Nodding to his chief of security, Max said, “Why don’t you start. I think they’ll find what you have to say most interesting.”
Holden was amazed at the speed and skill at which Max had changed the terms of the conversation. He was either a master manipulator or he really meant what he was saying. Holden would hold back his judgement on that matter, for now.
The chief security officer stepped forward and handed each of the men a folder.
“Everything I am about to divulge is in the files I have just given you. I’ll start with a little background. Back in late 1995, some Chinese manufacturers started copying and selling some of our non-defense related commercial products. We already had a man in place over there, so when this started happening, we shifted all of his focus into tracing who was responsible. Appendix A in your report is a synopsis of his findings. We started getting regular reports as he progressed in his investigation. However, around mid-1996, he had apparently uncovered more than he had bargained for and was alarmed enough that he needed to leave China and come here to see us himself. We weren’t really sure why at the time, but in light of what has just unfolded, our guess is that he didn’t trust someone in the chain of command. Anyway, if I may continue. He met with his immediate superior in Atlanta during the Olympics. That night, both men died, one from a drug overdose and the other apparently from natural causes. While we were suspicious, the initial coroner’s reports didn’t indicate any foul play. We found out later, after our own investigation, that there probably had been.”
Holden wanted to interject and reveal who had been responsible for their deaths, but thought better of it. The security chief continued.
“After our men died, we inserted several agents into China. We had seen enough in his reports to warrant a thorough investigation. That’s when we became suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his death. When we examined his living quarters, we found it had been ransacked and his computer hard drive had been wiped clean. Our technicians were able to retrieve some of the data, but not enough to really help. Based on the information he had sent us; we took up the investigation again. It took several months, but we finally found out who controlled the company who had stolen our technology. If you’ll turn to Appendix B, you can see a photo of the individual and what information we have been able to construct on him.”
Holden sat straight up in his chair when he read the name. “General Li Pin”. Max and the security officer exchanged glances, both having noted Holden’s reaction. The chief of security went on.
“One of the problems we run into over there is that many of the industries are controlled by the military or high-ranking officials in the military. Tracking down who owns or controls which company is difficult, as I’m sure our government intelligence agencies can attest. Appendix C is a flow chart showing all of the industries we have been able to link to General Pin. The ones marked with asterisks are those that we are pretty certain he controls but cannot confirm one hundred percent.”
The three agents were poring over the information presented in the folders. Holden had to wonder to himself if even the CIA had this much information on the general. His attention almost immediately focused on the oil companies in the flow chart, remembering the subject of his meeting only days before. The chief security officer continued.
“Now, General Pin, from what we have been able to ascertain, is a hard liner who wants the Chinese to expand their influence. He’s from the northeastern provinces, near what is now known as Kazakstan, and was involved as a younger man in the conscription of Tibet into China. There are rumors that he has been trying to convince others to expand territory again, but we haven’t been able to confirm those rumors.”
The security chief closed his folder and looked up at the agents.
“I believe that what I have just told you, is what our agent was killed for. He may have had more information; we just don’t know. Our investigation is ongoing and we are more than willing to share whatever we have, or get in t
he future, with you.”
Holden sat in silence with his two deputies, momentarily. Addressing both Max and his security chief, he responded.
“I must admit that I find all of this both fascinating and informative and we are willing take you up on your offer. However, none of this goes to the issue of who has been leaking the information.”
“We’re coming to that,” was the response. It was Max. “I apologize, but it’s not comfortable knowing that one of your senior people has sold you out.”
Max opened his drawer and pulled out another file. He looked at it, and reluctantly tossed it on his desk towards Holden.
“There are only a few of our top managers who have had access to the information that has been leaking. Neither your investigations, nor our internal investigations of these men and women, turned up any leads. They all came out clean. After I called you a few weeks ago, I went to my sister’s house for dinner. It was actually my nephew who ended up solving this for me. He’s a computer systems manager for a company here in the D.C area and started telling me about one of his people he had to fire, all because he was caught reading another of the other employee’s internal e-mail. Apparently, a married employee was having an affair with another unknown employee and my nephew’s underling had stumbled upon it, became interested, and had been ‘spying’ for quite some time.”
Max continued.
“Now, some companies will monitor the internal e-mail of its employees, but some don’t. His company policy only allowed it with authorization from the president, the senior VP, or the chief of security and none of them had given it.”
Max paused for a moment allowing what he had just said to sink in.
“His comments started me thinking. All of our senior people have secured mail. When I told my nephew that no one could read our mail without passwords, he laughed. He told me that all depended on the system we had and how imaginative the employees were when they defined their passwords. Most passwords, he said, were obtainable through personnel files, which are easily perused by unscrupulous systems managers. When I left my sister’s that night, I called my security chief, here”, he said motioning to his man in the room, “and we discussed it. We had completed thorough investigations on all those who had access to the information, but our systems manager nor his staff had been factored into the equation.”
“If I may take it from here, sir.” It was the security chief and the attention of the three agents shifted to him. “All of the staff on our systems management team had been given a thorough background check before they were hired. All of them passed without incident. In addition, the system we use here does not even allow the systems manager himself to access certain levels of secured communications. So, like Mr. Schlagle indicated to you moments ago, someone would have had to break a password to gain access. We had just finished our preliminary review of each of the staff members, none of who had given any indication of wrongdoing, when we received word of the laser testing in China. That incident led us to one of our staff, our assistant systems manager.”
“Why was that?” Holden inquired.
“Because of who he roomed with in school,” was the response.
Holden and his associates traded looks of confusion between themselves.
“Would you mind explaining yourselves?” he asked.
The security chief glanced at his boss, an uncomfortable look on his face. Max fidgeted in his chair and spoke.
“Let me explain, agent Holden,” he said standing and starting to pace the room. “While it is true that our company developed the laser technology which has evidently fallen into Chinese hands, not all of the equipment involved was constructed by us. You see, the chip set that controls the system was developed by the military and we were allowed to utilize it during development. However, it was never in our possession.”
“I don’t understand. How could you utilize it if it weren’t in your possession?” Holden asked.
“Because the defense department sent their own staff to safeguard the chip set. It was encased in a ‘black box’ type of setup and no one here knew how it worked. So, you see, agent Holden, no one here could have sent all of the information to the Chinese. We quite simply did not have it.”
“I see. So how did they get the technology?”
“We don’t want to jump to any conclusions. But, while in college, our assistant systems manager roomed with someone who at this time could have access to information on the chip design. If you look to the last page of that file, I believe the relevant information is hi-lighted.”
Holden flipped to the last page of the file and read the hi-lighted paragraph. His eyes widened when he read the name of the college roommate. When he finished, he passed the file to his associates and let them read. Holden now understood why Max had been squirming in his chair.
“Do you have anything other than this to implicate either of these men or both?” he asked, addressing both Max and his security chief.
The security chief was the first to answer.
“Once we had this information, we went to our systems manager and had him trace any e-mail access by any of our top people from terminals other than their own. Someone was using one of the common terminals in the computer room, but almost always early in the morning. Whoever it was, had cracked one of my senior VP’s passwords. We cross-referenced the time involved with those who had checked through security and we found that our man had been inside the complex in every case. All of the others, with access to the terminal, had been missing during the times involved, at least once. We have no direct proof, but we do have this pretty strong circumstantial evidence.”
Holden looked back and forth between the two men.
Max addressed the agents sitting before him.
“We’ll cooperate in any way you deem necessary. We’ve already taken the necessary steps to set up a dummy mailbox for him to break into. Considering the possible involvement of his old roommate, we felt it necessary not to alert him at this time.”
Holden had re-gathered his composure now and spoke.
“You did the right thing, gentlemen. We need some time to develop a strategy. In the meantime, keep feeding him some technical and strategic information. We don’t want to alert him. I assume these are ours to keep?” he asked, referring to the files.
“Yes of course.” It was the attorney who responded. “Any additional requests for information can come through me in the future.”
Holden nodded in affirmation and stood along with his associates. He extended his hand to the others.
“We appreciate your help in these matters. We’ll be in touch.”
Frank and the others left the room and headed down the elevator to the lobby. His search for the leaks, which he had been involved with for several years, was finally coming to an end. They had their suspects. Now it was a matter of gathering enough evidence to make a strong case. Considering who was involved, it was going to take some irrefutable evidence to bring the case, and an abundance of it.
CHAPTER
TWENTY ONE
The flight from Paris to Hong Kong had been long, but uneventful for Garrett. The jet landed at the new airport, which had just recently opened several miles outside the city. He watched out the window of his first-class seat and rather missed the excitement of dropping between the hi-rise buildings on approach to the old airport. The plane taxied to the gate and Garrett rose to leave, repeating the same procedures Kit had performed only an hour or so earlier. Now he had to get to the jetfoil station in Wan Chai harbor and then take about an hour or so boat ride to Macau.
As his taxi headed into the city, Garrett thought about what he and Kit had gone over earlier that day. He really didn’t like her taking the chance that she was taking. She may have infiltrated Simon’s organization, but that didn’t make it safe to approach these people. Garrett suddenly realized he was falling back into the sam
e trap into which he had fallen all those years ago. The very thing that attracted him to her also made him feel he needed to protect her. The irony was, that if she allowed him to have his way, she wouldn’t be doing what she was doing, and then he would probably eventually lose interest.
Garrett gathered his things as the taxi pulled up to the jetfoil depot. The pungent smell of Wan Chai harbor was there to greet him as he stepped out of the car. He made his way to the ticket counter and purchased a pass for the boat ride to Macau. He had never been on a hydrofoil before, so the first half of the trip intrigued him. After that, the newness of the experience wore off and it became just another mundane trip. His approach to Macau was nothing short of magnificent though. Skyscrapers towered above the water as they got closer. This one-time Portuguese territory is now a modern Chinese city that attracts tourists from all over the region, primarily to its casinos.
It was a short ride from the jetfoil depot to the entrance of his hotel. They had decided that he would stay across the street from the Hotel Lisboa where she was staying. It had been assumed this was where this Hung character would be since this was the only casino hotel with anything similar to a Lis in it. It had four floors devoted to gambling and would be someplace Garrett would choose if he were in Hung’s shoes. He checked in and went up to his room. While the bell captain waited, Garrett checked the view from the window.
“Good”, he thought to himself as he looked across the street at the other hotel, “I got the view I wanted.”
“This will be fine,” he said, peeling off some bills from his money clip. “Just put everything on the bed.”
The bell captain left and Garrett started to unpack. He would rendezvous with Kit in about one hour. Since she was still undercover, Interpol had to arrange for her weapons to be shipped to her in Hong Kong. It was up to her to get them to Macau. Had they chosen to inspect her luggage closely, they would have wondered why she needed everything she had packed. She and Garrett were to meet so he could get his things from her. A little while later, he finished unpacking, checked his watch, and left the room.
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