Aim And Fire

See me soonest regarding your sewage threat analysis.

Brian

“Fantastic, this is exactly what I need right now,” she muttered. Tracy had been analyzing unconventional attacks on metropolitan areas, and had come to the conclusion that there could be a risk—small, but definitely a possibility—that terrorists could attempt to contaminate water supplies of major cities using waste products. The companies that handled raw sewage were often even more poorly guarded than chemical plants, and the waste material could be released into aquifers with relative ease. She had worked up a solid list of facts to support her case, including three known plots that had been foiled in the past five years. She included lists of various treatment plants that were most vulnerable, and their proximity to major supplies of freshwater resources. It wasn’t a glamorous job, but that’s what she was paid to do, and Tracy thought she did it pretty damn well. At least, until her boss came in and crapped all over her carefully researched analysis.

She pulled the leather holder and hair stick from a tight bun, letting her glossy black hair cascade down to the middle of her back. She wasn’t a fool. She figured Gilliam let her do the reports primarily because she made him look good in his interdepartmental progress reports. And every so often he actually sent one up the chain, where it usually died a slow, painful death in one of the various committees that had to approve it. The fact that she was both a woman and part Mexican—her father was a blue-blooded Bostonian, hence her last name—didn’t hurt, either, given the DHS’s dismal record on both minority and gender-equitable hiring. Just what you wanted to be when you got into intelligence analysis—a good-looking figurehead.

She rose and stretched her back, feeling the kinks pop out, then smoothed her skirt. Across from her, Mark Whitney raised a quizzical eyebrow. “You just got back. Now where you off to?”

Tracy nodded at her supervisor’s office. “I’m about to go zero-for-three with Gilliam. Bet you a grande latte he’s going to flush my sewage-contamination report down the toilet.”

“What? I thought that was a great piece of work. You sure? He just sent one of mine on securing the Canadian border up the chain.”

“Yes, but you’re his fair-haired boy, remember?” Tracy said this without a trace of rancor. She knew Mark was a very good analyst. Tracy strongly suspected her boss was sexist, but he had never given any proof of it, other than the strange priority he gave some reports and not others—coincidentally the reports turned in by the men in the department, in particular. The fact that Mark was gay—and that Brian had never noticed—was a private joke shared between the two of them.

“Here goes. Wish me luck,” she said.

“Tracy, you work for the government—if they’d wanted you to have any luck, they’d have sent you a memo assigning you some,” Mark said with a grin.

“Ain’t that the truth?” Unable to delay any longer, she began the trek to Gilliam’s office at the end of the long, cubicle-filled room, each one manned by an analyst busily crunching the never-ending avalanche of data that poured into the DHS every day. She knocked on the door, and a terse voice called, “Come in.”

Tracy opened the door and slipped inside. Unlike the rest of the stark, gray-walled cubicles, which were only personalized with whatever an employee brought from home, Gilliam’s office was furnished well, if not plushly. Tracy always felt as if she were entering a bank officer’s workplace. The caramel-colored carpet was thick enough that she barely felt the concrete floor under her leather pumps, and the walls were actually paneled with a light-colored wood. His desk wasn’t a standard-issue metal-and-partical-board affair, either, but also made of wood—cherry, she thought. The surface was spotless, not even a piece of paper on it, only a flat-screen monitor attached by a sleek swivel arm so it could be pushed out of the way when necessary. Gilliam claimed that he had inherited the furnishings from his predecessor, but Tracy knew differently; she had seen the order invoices. Yet another efficient use of the company budget. Executives never learn that they can’t hide anything from a computer geek, she thought.

“Ah, Tracy, thanks for dropping by.”

When she had first met Gilliam, Tracy had searched for the one word that described him best, and had come up with unctuous, since it sounded slightly better than oily. Dressed in a pinstriped shirt with coordinated suspenders, and sporting gelled, dark brown hair that was never out of place, with gold, wire-rimmed glasses on his pale, round face, Gilliam was the epitome of middle-management bureaucracy.

“My pleasure, sir. You wanted to discuss my latest report?” Tracy knew from long experience that it was best to keep her boss focused on the task at hand, the better to get it over with as soon as possible. If she didn’t, he might make an attempt at small talk, which would be a punishment worse than receiving bad news in the first place.

“Yes, the waste-contamination analysis. First, I’m pleased to say that it was very good work—I really liked what I saw there.”

“Sir?” The curveball threw Tracy. Normally Gilliam was bluntly dismissive of anything that he didn’t automatically jump all over. The hair on the back of her neck rose; something was up, but she didn’t know what.

“Unfortunately, your threat-assessment estimate is too low at this time to forward this through the proper channels. However, I’d like to table it for a revisit in about three months. I’ll just hang on to this version, and we’ll see about further consideration when the proper time comes up,” he said.

Well, a partial victory was better than none at all, Tracy thought as she nodded. “Thank you, sir. I’m glad to hear that. Is there anything else?”

“No, you’re free to go.” Having summarily dismissed her, his attention had already returned to the computer monitor. Tracy knew that this was as good as it was going to get. She rose to leave, and was halfway to the door when he spoke again.

“Oh, there is one more thing.”

She turned and waited for him to speak.

“Your application for one of the next fusion centers that is about to open—I thought you’d like to know it’s coming up for review in the next few days.”

The fusion centers were a new program, the DHS’s version of boots on the ground. In effect, they were localized offices in each of seventeen sectors across the country, where staff would work local law enforcement and private-sector companies in a more closely coordinated joint effort. Tracy had been working toward a position in one of them from the moment she’d heard about the plan. The way Gilliam had brought it up was just like him—wait until she’d thought the meeting was over, and then spring this bit of news as a surprise.

“Yes, sir?” she said, waiting.

“I was wondering if you’d given any thought as to where you’d like to be posted. Although I’d hate to see you leave my team, I could put in a good word if you had a particular assignment venue in mind.”

Tracy’s instincts screamed at her to proceed with care. He’s never this nice. What’s going on? “Thank you, sir. I understand that an office will be opening in Virginia at some point, and I was hoping that could I transfer there.”

Gilliam removed his glasses and polished them, then did something Tracy couldn’t remember seeing since she had come to work for him—he smiled. Instead of reassuring her, the expression filled her with a vague sense of unease, especially since he looked like a cat that had just eaten a dozen canaries. She resisted looking down to see if there were any yellow feathers on her lapel.

“Well, I’ll see what I can do—pending HR’s approval, of course.”

“Of course, sir. Thanks again.” She walked to the door and let herself out, all the while wondering what trap she may have inadvertently stepped into.

6

Kate Cochran pushed up her viewscreen glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She had just logged out of a quickly convened meeting with the members of the International Intelligence Agency, the governing body that had set up and now oversaw Room 59’s operations. The shadowy figures—literally faceless silhouettes in a virtual, heavily secured conference room, which was all Kate or anyone else who worked in Room 59 ever saw of them—met to deliver assignments, or, in this case, to discuss a potential mission that any sector director brought to the table.

Kate had conferenced in Pai Kun for support, and the diminutive Chinese head of Asian operations had performed with his usual spotless efficiency. Kate had also done well, opening a continuing surveillance file on Kryukov to find out what he knew about the suitcase nuke, and to try to track it down. The board, as concerned as the two directors were about missing nuclear weapons, voted both missions green with no opposition.

Kate had gotten what she wanted; now the only problem was trying to find a nuclear needle among the world’s haystacks. But that was why she had the world’s best analysts on her payroll. At least, I hope that’s the case, she told herself. She was about to slip the viewscreen glasses back on and dive back into the virtual world to see what her Web scourers had brought up when there was a knock at the door.

“Kate, you really need to take a break.” The slip of a girl who peeked into the room was Arminda Todd, Kate’s live-in housekeeper and, she often half joked, her link to both the outside world and sanity. Dressed in a red-and-black-plaid pleated skirt and a white boys’-cut button-down shirt, with her normally dark blond hair accented with streaks of black this month, she looked exactly like the moonlighting college student she was.

“Hi, Mindy. Come on in. I assume it’s lunchtime?” Kate asked.

“Do you ever look out those fabulous windows of yours? Try about three hours past dinnertime. I made you a plate.” She set a tray down with a heaped plate that gave off a spicy, heavenly aroma. “I was cooking with Grandmama, and of course, anything she makes will feed twenty, with leftovers.”

The main course, what looked like zucchini halves stuffed with ground lamb and baked in tomato sauce, didn’t look all that appetizing, but the smell was irresistible. It was accompanied by a small green salad and still-warm flatbread. Once Kate dug in, the first bite awakened a ravenous hunger. “Thanks,” she mumbled around a mouthful.

“Oh, I should warn you—” Mindy began just as Kate’s eyes widened, and she grabbed the glass of ice water, downing half of it in huge gulps “—Grandmama likes things spicy.”

“If that’s ‘spicy,’ I’d hate to see what she considers hot.” Kate paused, took another drink and eyed the plate dubiously. “It is good, once my tongue recovers from, what was that, a pound of paprika?”

Mindy shook her head, making her long pigtails swing back and forth. “Grandmama’s secret recipe. She says she will give it to me only on her deathbed, and that I can never write it down, but can pass it on to my own daughter when the time comes.”

“That sounds like her, all right.” Kate tried another bite, and was pleased to find that her mouth had grown accustomed to the pungent blend of spices. “Delicious.”

A soft chime from her computer brought Kate’s head up. “That’s what I’ve been waiting for. Give me a minute to see if I’m right, and I’ll quit for the night, I promise.”

Mindy scrunched up her face in what passed as a stern expression, but only made her young face and china-blue eyes look even more adorable. “All right, five minutes, but that’s all. Otherwise I’m coming in here to drag you out.”

“Deal, cross my heart.” Kate wolfed another bite while sliding the glasses down over her eyes. With precise movements, she navigated to the new message and opened it.

Hey K,

This slid into a DHS server twenty minutes ago. It isn’t much, but it’s the best lead so far. With the Rio Grande still leaking illegals like a sieve every day, maybe some homies from a bit farther east—like Mideast, if you know what I mean—are making a run for the border, too, before it really gets closed up?

Let me know if you need follow-up or anything else, okay?

B2S

Kate smiled. She’d figured that Born2Slyde, as the hacker called herself online, would come up with what looked like a solid lead first. The eighteen-year-old girl could whiz in and out of supposedly secure mainframes and security systems with unparalleled ease.