Free Fall (20 page)

Forty-Three

Linthicum, Maryland

“D
amn. So close,” Keith Dorling whispered to himself, his chair creaking as he leaned back to think in the subdued light of his workstation.

He'd shifted his focus from his three monitors to the faces of his wife, Eve, and their little girls, Hayley and Ariel, smiling back from the framed photo beside his keyboard, taken during last summer's trip to Cape Cod.

What I do here keeps them safe.

Dorling worked at the Defense Cyber Crime Center. Known as DC3, it operated under the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He was a civilian analyst, an expert in cyber crime, and he held top secret security clearance with DC3's Analytical Group.

The group was a member agency of the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force and was helping the FBI. Dorling, regarded as one of the center's best investigators, had been tasked to help investigate the Zarathustra emails.

For the past several days, he'd been attempting to track the source of the potential threat arising from emails sent to Newslead, a news agency in New York, and the Kuwaiti Embassy in London. This case was unlike any he'd pursued. The subject was remarkably skilled. Dorling had marveled at the beauty of the encryption work that the sender, Zarathustra, had employed. It reflected a level of sophistication and understanding that Dorling had rarely encountered in his work. His target had used rented servers in Thailand and Romania. Dorling had been tight on the trail, discovering that Zarathustra's path then went to Sweden, and then to servers in Estonia.

With the Kuwaiti email, he'd found a glimmer of something that took the trail to the United States, suggesting that the end point—or source—was here.

But it had vanished.

That's where I lost it. I can't find the source. Not yet.

Dorling exhaled, reviewed the logs and dates, then rechecked all the notes supplied by analysts in the UK who were also pursuing Zarathustra.

I must've missed something. Okay, back to square one.

He shook his head and resumed working.

Forty-Four

Manhattan, New York

S
loane F. Parkman's polygraph results were consistent with the truth.

“It's unlikely he's responsible for creating and sending the Zarathustra emails,” Nick Varner wrote at his desk.

Varner was updating his case notes with everything he, Special Agent Leonard Brock, Karl Steiger and Ted Malone of the NYPD had so far.

The United States Attorney was reviewing their evidence against Sloane concerning the passing of information to a private investigation agency for the purpose of surveilling Kate Page. Probably not much of a case there, Varner thought.

Then he consulted status reports from Scotland Yard in London.

Little news had emerged.

No progress had been made by British investigators on the origin of the emails. To date, authorities in the United States, the UK and Kuwait had failed to uncover any evidence suggesting the Shikra crash was a criminal action, or linked to the EastCloud flight.

Varner turned to the latest from Ron Sanchez with Cyber Crimes and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. While Ron and the task force had reported that they'd gotten close to the source of the email, their investigation was ongoing.

Still untraceable.

Varner shook his head.

The task force had experts from something like twenty intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the best from the industry, yet Zarathustra had thwarted them all so far. If this person was that good, then was it possible that their claims that they could remotely control aircraft were true?

We need a break here.

A knock sounded at his workstation.

“Ready for the call, Nick?” Leonard Brock asked.

“Yup.” Varner gathered his notes.

* * *

Varner and Brock were joined by Trent Hollis, their supervisory agent, Steiger, Malone, Sanchez and a few others in a boardroom for a short teleconference call on the case with the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Joanne Foley of the BAU led the call from Quantico, Virginia.

After a round of introductions, Foley, an analyst who'd studied the Zarathustra emails and the known case facts, presented her findings.

“I have to tell you—” her voice crackled on the line “—there's not a lot here, so put whatever BAU offers into that context.”

“Of course,” Varner said. “We're interested in anything you can provide or recommend.”

“All right. Again, it's pretty thin, and much of it is obvious.”

Varner's pen was poised over his yellow pad as Foley began.

“For our purposes, I'll refer to your subject as Z. Your subject is on a mission. Z is clearly egocentric and craves attention for their mission. The reference to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suggests an above-average intelligence, someone with maybe one or two degrees.”

“What about the threat?” Hollis asked. “How do you weigh that?”

“With some difficulty. There is no technical information, nothing specific that would give it credibility. And, based on what I can deduce from the information you sent me, there's no evidence that links Z's messages to the cases at issue. Still, I would not rule out the potential. Again, you have nothing concrete on which to act.”

“Do you have any recommendations?” Varner asked.

“Publish the emails.”

“Really?” Hollis asked. “Wouldn't that create problems, inspire copycats and invite unstable people to make demands for attention?”

“Yes, you would run that risk. However, with this case, even with these short messages, the syntax, the language, the content and subject are rather distinctive. Putting it out to the public creates the possibility that the nature of the content could be identified by someone who could point you to your subject.”

Soft murmuring rippled around the table before Foley continued.

“I'm suggesting you go to the press and request they publish an excerpt, but with a story that is framed in a way that limits panic in the airline industry. You could present it as an FBI appeal to the public for help locating a person of interest. The advantage is that you appear to be meeting Z's demand for attention while turning the table on them. It's not without risks, though.”

“Yes, we could anger Z,” Varner said, “or open the floodgates to false leads, dead ends and other unstable people. Or, by feeding Z's ego, we could inspire more threats and demands.”

“Correct on all fronts.”

“And there's no guarantee the press would agree to such a request,” Steiger said. “That could be a challenge.”

“Correct again,” Foley said. “But I could help you with points on how to frame it and how to pitch it to the media. Also, you could hold some information back in order to help you quickly eliminate any false claims or leads.”

Varner looked to Hollis, who was deep in thought.

“Unless you've got other avenues of investigation, or are absolutely certain Z is not a danger to commercial air travel,” Foley said, “this is one strategy to consider. Honestly, it appears to be your best option.”

“I agree,” Hollis said. “Let me talk to some people.”

* * *

Within two and a half hours, Varner and Hollis, with Foley on the line, were at Newslead's headquarters in the same boardroom where they'd met earlier.

Graham Lincoln, Chuck Laneer and Kate Page listened as Varner provided updates.

Because of Newslead's involvement, the FBI was sharing more information than they normally would on the status of the investigation. They updated them on Sloane, and on how they'd yet to identify the origin of the emails. Once they'd outlined the full context, they requested that Newslead publish Zarathustra's email.

The request was met with silent, sober concern until finally, Lincoln responded.

“This raises significant ethical issues,” he said. “We need to give this very careful consideration. Give us some time to think this through and we'll get back to you.”

Forty-Five

Manhattan, New York

E
yeglasses were repositioned, pens were tapped and sections of text underlined as Newslead's senior editors studied the three Zarathustra emails and the FBI's request to publish them.

Everything was on one page, provided by the FBI.

The FBI had also given Newslead a short timeline of events and the edited email text they'd wanted published. Additionally, they'd provided notes on the hold-back information that would help authenticate any tips, should people call the news service.

“Absolutely nothing leaves this room,” Lincoln began. For the next several minutes he, Chuck and Kate recounted all Newslead had uncovered on the London and New York incidents.

“You have the facts as we know them,” Lincoln said. “Since we received the first email, we've been mindful of our journalistic duty and respectful of the roles of law enforcement and federal aviation investigators. But the story has intensified with the latest email. The FBI's request raises ethical concerns. The question we need to answer is do we publish or not. Let's go around the table. Jerry?”

“I say no,” Jerry Lemothe, deputy national editor and a perpetual gum chewer, said. “This is meant more for this Zarathustra than the FBI, but nobody should dictate what we write. We can't allow stories to be extorted from us. If we did this, we'd set a precedent, and we'd open the floodgates to every malcontented crazy out there.”

National features editor Ellen Markon pushed her glasses to the top of her head and turned to Lemothe.

“But Jerry, it's our job to inform the public,” she said. “And to protect the public's right to know.”

“True,” Howard Kehoe said, “but we'd run the risk of being perceived as a branch of the police, an investigative tool. It's not our job to aid police. We shouldn't do it.”

“What about when we publish most-wanted info for police?” Marisa McDougal asked. “We certainly aided police last month in their search for the convicts who'd escaped from prison in Texas, and last week when that mother and her child were abducted in Los Angeles. I don't see how this is much different.”

“Marisa makes a good point,” Markon said. “There's an overriding safety concern, a real possibility this person can do what they claim.”

“Is there?” Lemothe asked. “So far the NTSB and the FAA have not indicated any such thing.”

“Jerry's right,” Kehoe said. “Nothing's been proven to show this disturbed person has the resources to control airplanes. We shouldn't rush to cede editorial control. If we feed this nut job's ego, then we'll run the risk of copycats and more demands.”

Ellen Markon shook her head.

“No, I say we publish it. We have an obligation to do all we can to help identify this person,” she said. “I'm concerned about what we've seen here—the EastCloud incident, the Shikra tragedy with fifteen deaths. Look at Sloane, his ties to Richlon-Titan and the unbelievable aspect of Kate being followed. There's so much we don't know, so much at risk.”

“That's right,” Marisa added.

“No, the more I think of it,” Ellen said, “the more I believe we need to expose the facts and see where they take us.”

“Chuck, what do you think?” Lincoln asked.

“Everyone's made solid arguments,” he said. “But we have to look at the bigger picture. Newslead knows more about what's at stake than any other news outlet. We're not bending to the will of Zarathustra. We're not publishing a manifesto, and the FBI isn't asking for editorial control. They want us to agree to use the portion of the Zarathustra email they've edited so as not to alarm the public.

“The FBI needs to identify Zarathustra to assess the validity of the threat. At the same time, to the best of our knowledge, aviation experts have yet to report anything that would confirm, or even suggest, that a cyber hijack was behind the two incidents. We've told the FBI how we would frame the story, and it is our story. Remember, we went to them first and since then the relationship on this has been respectful. But if we say no to publishing this excerpt, there's nothing to stop the FBI from arranging some deal with a news competitor.”

Chuck waited for his comments to sink in.

“So far, this information is exclusive to us. It could yield a tip that would be exclusive to us. A reader may recognize the writing, the phraseology. The peculiarity of the sentence construction of the message might ring a bell that leads to an arrest, or something more.”

“Chuck, are you leaning toward publishing?” Lincoln asked.

“Yes, I say publish.”

“And you, Kate?”

“Publish.”

Lincoln removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.

“Well, I think we should publish and it appears we have a consensus to do so. Kate, pull a story together, go as long as you like with it, and we'll get this thing moving. Chuck, when we're ready I'll take a look at it. Then we'll alert subscribers to what's coming.

* * *

Kate grabbed a coffee, returned to her desk, got into her zone and began writing.

Within five minutes, she'd crafted her lede:

A potential puzzle piece has emerged in the mystery surrounding the horrific crash of a jetliner at London's Heathrow airport and the near-tragic incident experienced by a New York–bound commuter plane.

She then drafted what was known in journalism as “nut grafs”—a few tight paragraphs containing the news facts and background details of Shikra Flight 418 and EastCloud Flight 4990. She followed them with:

But in a new twist, Newslead has learned that the FBI is examining cryptic communications made by someone claiming to have knowledge of what is behind both events.

Assertions of responsibility are not uncommon during the course of an investigation. And while American and British investigators have stated that nothing has yet surfaced to suggest terrorism or even criminality is behind the incidents, the FBI is attempting to locate “a person or persons of interest.”

She provided a timeline on the two cases, interspersing the section with comments she'd obtained from aviation experts, and referencing the emails sent to Newslead and the Kuwaiti Embassy in London by a person using the name Zarathustra.

Using the section of Zarathustra's email that had been edited by the FBI, Kate wrote that in one message, the sender had said:

“...tell the ordinary masses that we are extraordinary people destined to soon achieve a monumental victory of a colossal scale, the likes of which the world has never seen. We will take civilization to unprecedented heights, lighting the way forward for all of human existence. We are Zarathustra, Lord of the Heavens.”

Kate had called a professor of literature at Columbia University, requesting his thoughts concerning Zarathustra, and the connection to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Kate then quoted official spokespeople from the NTSB, the FAA, and British and Kuwaiti agencies, who'd stated that their investigations were ongoing and that they could not elaborate or comment on the Zarathustra emails.

She ended the story with a closing quote from an aviation expert.

“It's not possible to hack into a system and take remote control of a commercial airliner, a so-called cyber hijack,” he said. “In the end you'll find the boasts and wild claims made in the cryptic messages stem from a troubled and fantasy-driven mind. It's a sad fact that disturbed individuals who have such delusions create this sort of widespread, groundless fear.”

After polishing her story, she proofread it, then sent it to Chuck.

Kate then finished her coffee and texted Grace and Vanessa. She needed to hear from them.

All was fine.

Then, to cope with her anxiety, she went to Chuck's office, where he'd just finished reviewing her article. He'd passed it along to Lincoln, who would send it to the news desk to handle and send out.

“It's going global,” Chuck said. “Good job, Kate. Good storytelling.”

“Yeah, well, I don't feel good about it.”

“Why's that?”

“It leaves me wondering if we've eroded the line between a free press and the police, and in the process, have we just given a criminal the world stage that they'd craved?”

“Time will tell, Kate. Time will tell.”