The Enemy Within

“Not entirely,” Thorn said stiffly. “What about the Bulgarian virus? Where would a bunch of racist fanatics get the kind of money and connections they’d need to buy something like that? And what about the practically identical language all these supposedly separate terrorist groups are using to claim responsibility for their attacks? Is that just a coincidence?”

Flynn heard him out impassively, just standing there with his arms crossed. “I’ve already talked to Agent Gray about that, Colonel. You’ve raised some intriguing points. But I’ve spent too many years in this business to dive headfirst at the first plausible theory I hear.”

Thorn gritted his teeth, biting down an angry retort.

In the absent, he could understand the agent’s skepticism. He HAS making a lot of assumptions about the contents of that intercepted electronic mail. More important, both of Flynn’s superiors, the FBI Director and the Attorney General, had already invested a lot of their political prestige backing the notion that American neo-Nazis and radical black extremists were the driving forces behind the wave of terror. Convincing them that they had been wrong would certainly take a lot more evidence than a few indecipherable computer messages.

Appearing more curious than anything else, Flynn watched him struggle to hold his temper in check.

“So you’re not interested in pursuing this angle further unless the NSA can crack those messages?” Thorn asked finally, instantly aware of the bitterness apparent in his voice.

The FBI agent snorted and shook his head. “That is not what I said.” He smiled wryly at the surprise on Thorn’s face. “I may be a skeptic, Colonel. But I’m not an idiot. And I’ve never turned my back on a promising lead in my life.”

He nodded toward the E-mail intercepts spread out across his conference table. “We’ll check with CompuNet’s managers to see what they can tell us about this stuff.” He looked up at Thorn. “In the meantime, Colonel, I suggest you try to light a fire under those folks at the NSA. See if you can get ‘em to crank those supercomputers along a little faster.”

Flynn smiled humorlessly. “I’d feel a lot safer telling the Attorney General she’s been a Grade A idiot if I had a few more aces up my sleeve.”

Thorn felt his spirits lift. Helen had been right. He had been misjudging the head of the FBI task force. Mike Flynn was one of the good guys after all.

The Pentagon The telephone call Thorn had been expecting came shortly after noon.

“Any more luck on those codes, Colonel?” Flynn asked.

“Not yet, sir,” Thorn admitted. “The NSA is still stumped. They say the system used to encrypt these messages is definitely better than anything they’ve ever seen in private use. It’s more sophisticated than many of the data encryption systems used by other governments.”

“I see,” the FBI agent said quietly. “Then we may have to do this the hard way.”

“You mean, you’ll have to work in from the other end,” Thorn reasoned out loud. “Find out who these users are first before we get a read on the kind of data they’re sending and receiving.”

“Right on the money, Colonel. I talked to CompuNet’s operations director after you left this morning,” Flynn explained. “Once I put the fear of God, or more precisely, a Presidential National Security Directive, into him, he agreed to release the billing information for your mystery E-mail users. More important, he also agreed to let us trace any future calls they make to CompuNet.”

Thorn nodded to himself. By itself the billing information would have been nearly useless. Once you were signed up with one of the computer networks, you could dial in from anywhere in the world. Permission to trace their incoming calls was the key to pinpointing the people sending and receiving these messages.

Zahedan, Iran

(D MINUS 12)

The order reached the headquarters of the 12th Infantry Division shortly before midnight.

General Karim Taleghani roused slowly at his orderly’s shaking. He had been driving his division hard, retraining both it and himself according to Amir Taleh’s new directives. The old, easy patterns of garrison life had been completely disrupted. Now he and his troops were up well before dawn and asleep only when their work was done.

“Sir, please, you must wake up. We have movement orders for the division.”

The orderly’s frantic words finally penetrated the fog and Taleghani came fully awake. “Give the message to me,” he mumbled.

“Sir.” The orderly passed him the message form and reported, “Colonel Beheshti has already the staff to assemble.”

Taleghani frowned slightly but then nodded. Beheshti was an efficient officer, if sometimes a little too willing to assume authority not fully his. “Inform the colonel I will be there in five minutes.”

The orderly vanished.