Cipher (14 page)

A
tragic accident today in the sky – Two planes collided over the Atlantic
Ocean off the coast of Long Island, New York … 621 Passengers are feared to be
lost. In other news, massive power outages in Istanbul and New York City have
crippled services and communications. Authorities are searching for a motive in
the attacks. Financial markets have been sent plummeting today. The Dow,
S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were in a free-fall before trading was halted in
New York on news that terrorist attacks have been leading to the recent
problems reported in major cities around the world. Air Traffic Control Systems
in the United States and other parts of the world have been infiltrated in what
the police are calling ‘another sophisticated cyber attack.’

Jonathan and Jennifer watched the TV screen in the heavily
fortified underground bunker. They stared at it in disbelief. Agents Steiner
and Jenkins stood in the room where a slew of joint security personnel were
present to debrief the doctor and the detective.

“Mr. Grace, Dr. Cobalt, it’s nice to meet you. I’m NSA
Director Peter Edwards.” The dark haired colonel reached out his hand and
greeted the two civilians. “I’m sorry you’ve had to hear the news here first.”

“This is terrible,” Jonathan said.

“Oh my God,” Jennifer followed with a hand over her mouth.
“All of those people. Was this…
”

“Yes, it was Medviek. We have reason to believe that he
infiltrated several secure systems early this morning local time,” said the
Director.

“This is absolutely terrible,” Jenkins said. Steiner nodded
in agreement. “We really have to catch this bastard.”

“He’s proven to be very elusive,” the Director said. He
looked at everyone in the room as he spoke. “But, it’s now or never. He has
that list and we need to make sure the data isn’t passed off. We know he’s here
on the yacht in port. We need to infiltrate that yacht now and we need to do it
fast, but we need to do it with tact. We know that he’s most likely planned for
whatever contingencies he’s setup to evade us. We don’t want to capture him
then find that the list or the cipher drive has changed hands.”

“That’s why we need to send in these two,” Steiner said.

“What’s our angle?” asked the Director.

“Jenkins and I have been discussing that. We have a plan.”

“Well, let’s get to work before more bad stuff happens. We
need to get that cipher drive and we need to get it fast. Have you debriefed
Dr. Cobalt yet on everything she knows?” asked the Director.

“Not formally,” Jenkins said.

“Okay, let’s get setup in the room. I want to know
everything and we don’t have much time,” said the Director.

Jonathan and Jennifer looked at one another again. They
wondered if they had made the right decision. They wondered what would happen
to them if they didn’t cooperate, and worse, what would happen if they did
cooperate and something went wrong. They gave each other nervous glances as
they were led to an interrogation room for debriefing. They had more vested in
each other than ever before.

“Please take a seat,” Jenkins said. She pointed to the two
chairs that were directly opposite one another at a small table in a room with
a single one-way mirror. The Director of the NSA sat in an observatory room
where he could listen and watch from the outside looking in.

“I’m going to start the video camera here,” Steiner said as
he made his way over to a video camera that had been positioned at the side of
the table with a full view of all four parties involved in the interrogation.

“I don’t understand why we need to be interrogated,”
Jonathan said. “We told you that we would cooperate.”

“Detective Grace… err… Mr. Grace, you have to understand
that this is now a matter of national security. More than just your lives are
at stake here. As you saw and heard with the news update with what’s going on
around the world, many lives are at risk,” Steiner said still standing after
having turned on the camera to record.

“I understand. I guess this has gotten blown up much larger
than it started out to be,” Jonathan said.

“You can say that again. For the record, could you please
both state your names?” Jenkins said.

“Jonathan Grace.”

“Jennifer Cobalt.”

“Thank you. Mr. Grace, could you please tell me how you came
about meeting Ms. Cobalt for the record?” Jenkins asked.

Jonathan looked at Jennifer with a certain degree of
concern. She nodded her head at him as if to tell him it was okay, and that he
should speak freely.

“I hadn’t met Ms. Cobalt before I arrived in Istanbul. We
met only a short while ago, but it feels like since we met, we’ve been to hell
and back together.”

“And why did you come to Istanbul?” Jenkins asked.

“I was supposed to retrieve the cipher drive.”

“And you were told that Ms. Cobalt had it?”

“Not exactly,” Jonathan said.

“Okay? What were you told exactly and by whom?” Jenkins
asked. She stood up this time and paced the room. She looked agitated.
Something was bothering her. Jonathan and Jennifer both watched her pacing back
and forth.

“Is something wrong?” Jonathan asked.

“Just answer the question,” Steiner said, who’s once
pleasant demeanor had now turned sour.

“Well, I was hired to find the cipher drive for a client.”

“By whom?” Jenkins asked.

“Joe Cicerone,” Jonathan said, looking down at the table as
if he was embarrassed to say it.

“Don Cicerone of the Italian Mob Family?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your connection to their syndicated criminal
network?” Jenkins asked.

Jonathan certainly felt like he was being interrogated. He
just wanted to run out of that room as fast as he could, grab Jennifer by the
arm, and never look back. “What do you mean?”

“Why would an Italian Mob Boss want to hire you to do a job
for them?”

“I’ve done work for them in the past,” Jonathan said,
mawkishly.

“What kind of work?” Steiner asked this time.

“Investigative work.”

“What
kind of
investigate work?”
It was Jenkins asking this time. Jonathan wished just
one of them would talk instead of having them alternating the questions. Plus,
Jenkins was still pacing the room, which further put Jonathan on edge.

“The kind of work that involves finding people or uncovering
dirt on people. I’m an investigator,” he said. “That’s my job. That’s what I
do.”

“We know your background Mr. Grace. We know the type of work
you’ve done, but we also know that you haven’t taken on new business in over
two years. So,
out of the blue
, you get a call from
Don Cicerone and you decide to take the job? Something doesn’t add up here.”
Jenkins said, her face turning red.

“Why am I feeling like I’ve done something wrong here?”
Jonathan asked. He looked at Jennifer nervously.

“Answer the question,” Steiner said.

“What was the question?”

“Why did you take the job after two years on the lam?”

“Why do I have to even answer that question? What does that
even have to do with anything? I don’t get it,” Jonathan said. “I didn’t do
anything wrong here. We’re wasting our time on this when we should be going
after Medviek.”

“We’ll get to that Mr. Grace. For the time being, we need
you to cooperate with us. We’re not asking you; we’re telling you,” Jenkins
said.

It was strange watching them turn from two mild-mannered
individuals, into irate government agents. But, Jonathan did as he was told. He
answered their questions to the best of his knowledge. Jennifer reached under
the table and squeezed his hand out of sight, as if to tell him it was going to
be okay.

“Fine. So you want to know why I took the
job?
”

“Yes,” Jenkins said, still pacing the room. Jonathan’s eyes
followed her back and forth, as she walked from one end of the room to the
other.

“I needed the money.”

“You needed the money?” Jenkins asked.

“Yeah. I needed the money.”

“But, why would Don Cicerone call you of all people?
Especially considering you hadn’t had contact with him in over two years. Why
you Mr. Grace?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him that question,”
Jonathan said, feeling combative all of a sudden.

“Please, Mr. Grace. We need you to cooperate with us,”
Steiner said. They were playing some weird rendition of good cop, bad cop for
no apparent reason.

“I am cooperating.”

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Jenkins barked back.

“What else do you want me to say? What else do you want me
to tell you? You want to know about the alcoholism? You want to know about how
shitty my life has been these past two
years?
You want
to know why I contemplated suicide dozens of times after my wife
died?
What do you want to know? What!” Jonathan was done
being a lap dog; he was tired of being verbally abused and feeling like he had
done something wrong. All he wanted to do was do the job he was paid for until
he had met Jennifer. All he wanted to do now was make sure she was safe.

Jenkins sat back down after that verbal tirade by Jonathan.
She hadn’t realized the severity of his situation. She was an expert at
analyzing body language. She could tell when someone was lying to her. She sat
down and stared at Jonathan. She was going to watch him like a hawk.

“I’m sorry about your ex-wife, Mr. Grace,” Jenkins said. “I
really am.”

Jonathan looked down at the table, and quickly glanced at
Jennifer. Was she going to dislike him now that he had blown up at the two
agents? He didn’t want her thinking poorly of him.

“I know. It’s okay. I’m sorry that I yelled,” Jonathan said.

Agent Jenkins put her hands in front of her and clasped them
together on the table underneath the white fluorescent lights of the room.
Jonathan felt like the room was sucking the energy out of him.

“When was the last time you took a job for Don Cicerone?”
she asked.

“A little over two years ago. Before my wife passed.”

“What type of job was it?”

“Missing person,” Jonathan said.

“Which person?” Jenkins asked.

“I don’t see why I have to answer these questions,” Jonathan
replied.

“Please just answer the question,” Steiner said.

“Jonathan, please… the sooner we finish this, the sooner we
can get out of here,” Jennifer said. She looked at him in the eyes and it made
his heart melt.

“Tyler Walker.”

“The mob informant that turned state’s evidence?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said. He looked back down at the table as if
he was embarrassed by his own response.

“The one that was killed two days before trial?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said.

“Do you feel at all personally guilty for his death?”
Jenkins asked. She was completely calm, cool, and collected this time.

“I was just doing my job.”

“And it seems that you’re quite good at your job, aren’t
you?” Jenkins asked.

“I guess you could say so. I haven’t been much good at
anything for the past couple of years.”

“But didn’t you quit investigative work after the death of
Mr. Walker? It had nothing to do with your wife, did it?” Jenkins asked.

“There were a lot of reasons as to why I quit. The pressure
was just too much. And, yes, after the whole thing with Tyler, I began to doubt
myself. I began to question my own morals. I didn’t know who he was or why they
wanted to locate him, I just did my job. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I felt
like I had,” Jonathan said. A single solitary tear fell from his eye and he quickly
wiped it away. Jennifer’s demeanor suddenly changed and it looked like she had
closed herself off. It was as if someone had turned off a switch inside her.

“What’s Don Cicerone’s connection to the cipher drive? How
does he know about it?” Jenkins asked.

“All I know is that he hired me to get it back for him. I
assumed that it was his in the first place and that it was taken from him,”
Jonathan said.

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Jenkins said. “How could he
have had it first? Dr. Cobalt, what do you know about this man, Don Cicerone?”
she asked.

“I don’t know who he is,” Jennifer said.

They had shifted their attention away from Jonathan and now
directed it to Jennifer. Her faced turned bright red as if she had done
something very wrong as well. She got the sinking feeling in her stomach that
the two agents weren’t on their side.

“You mean to tell me that you’ve never heard that name
before?
” Steiner asked.

Jennifer looked down at the table. She didn’t answer the
question. “Dr. Cobalt?”

“Yes?”

“Please answer the question,” Jenkins said.

“I mean I’ve heard that name before. Sure. Who hasn’t?”

“We want to know what your connection to him is.”

“I don’t have a connection to him,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Jenkins asked. She got up and started pacing
again and Jennifer’s face turned bright red.

“Yes.”

“I think you’re lying to me, Dr. Cobalt.”

“I’m not lying to you. I don’t have any connection to him,”
Jennifer barked back. Jonathan realized that they weren’t just singling him
out; they were also making Jennifer feel like she had done something wrong as
well. He reached over and squeezed her hand to offer some moral support.

“We have reason to believe that you do,” Jenkins said.
Jonathan turned and looked at Jennifer, and she looked down at the table. “We
have reason to believe that he’s the one that contracted you to perform the
work in the first place. We have reason to believe that he’s the one was behind
the scenes in the Arlington, Virginia lab project. He’s the private donor isn’t
he?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.