Perspectives, An Intriguing Tale of an American Born Terrorist (27 page)

“But Jonathan, how could you have known or why would you have suspected that they were planning to hit your building?”

“I should’ve known! It was my job for God’s sake! I’ll promise you one thing Mary. One way or another I’m going to make each of those bastards pay for what they did to us.”

“Do you really think that is the best way Jonathan? What about all the other innocent people that died. You can’t avenge them all!”

“We have to stop them Mary, I don’t think they’re done.”

Mary perked up, “What do you mean?”

“Whoever was behind this is pretty good. They left fewer tracks than 9/11 and there were a lot more diversions. So my thinking is that this time, they’re smarter, better organized and a whole lot more capable. The funny thing is that I was so close. If I had intercepted those emails one day earlier, even an hour earlier, we could have stopped it.”

“Maybe you didn’t intercept them and they wanted you to find those emails when you found them. If they let you know, without giving you enough time to do anything about it, then they could set you up like they did with the agency,” answered Mary.

“That would be very scary and pretty sadistic, and if that’s the case, there’s probably no use even trying to stop them, but I don’t think anyone’s that smart. Besides it doesn’t make sense. If they were going to set me up, they would have waited until I was out of the building before they destroyed it. The chances of my surviving were too small.”

“Don’t underestimate them Jonathan, don’t ever underestimate them. They’re the ones who blew up the building and killed our baby. Isn’t it funny that the agency still doesn’t have any clues? What interests me is that you think that there are people in the agency who are part of them.”

“There has to be. For example that email I received afterward had to be from someone on the inside, because they seemed to know what was going to happen to me before it happened. And then to encrypt and erase all the evidence so that it couldn’t be traced, I don’t know anyone who can do that. And with everything else that I’ve seen, I’m betting that there is someone in human resources, or legal, who knows what’s going on and someone in programming, but I’m not sure. Also the person who set me up by hacking into my id, I would be really surprised if that wasn’t somebody also on the inside. Terrorists just aren’t that good, especially with the high tech stuff that I’ve only seen at the agency. And then the memory and the QX-4, only someone on the inside would have access to all that stuff.”

“You don’t think it could all be one person?”

“Who did all this? Impossible!”

William Reed paced back and forth in his office. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me! How could he disappear? You were assigned to watch him.”

“We did or at least we tried,” answered Harvey Breaux, a veteran agent in his mid-fifties who sat nervously on the Director’s couch. He was unshaven and his suit looked like he had slept in it in his car. “We did everything by the book. The only problem is that he’s read the book.”

“And you’re telling me that you have no idea where he is. How can that be?”

“Sir, we put 21 bugs and a camera in his apartment and we put a transmitter in his back, but he found them all. To throw us off track he didn’t destroy any of the bugs, left the camera operative and put the transmitter in between the cushions of a taxi cab, which we tracked on the computer for six hours until it became evident that we had been duped. And then, we thought we had found him when his credit card charges showed up at the Washington Marriot and we had a confirmed sighting by four different people. Our agents watched him for three days before we noticed that his behavior was erratic, and we approached him only to find out that it wasn’t Anderson after all and that Anderson had checked this guy into the hotel as himself and disguised him to look just like him. The stooge turned out to be just a street bum named Andrew Dockery and he had no idea that Jonathan was ex-CIA and what Jonathan was up to or where he was going. He did say that Jonathan took a caste of his face and that Mary and their 7 year old daughter were with him, but he didn’t know much more because he went to sleep and they were gone when he woke up.”

Reed returned, “He’s making us look like a bunch of God Damn idiots! And you checked the airport?”

“That’s where they went, but of course we were almost four days late and they didn’t use their names or the names of any of the aliases that were assigned to him. Apparently he has a sack full of people that he created when he was here. We finally found them on the 6:47 a.m. security video, so we know for certain that he was on Delta flight 733 to Atlanta under the names of Malcolm, Dorothy and John Kohn, but once they arrived we have no idea what happened to them, because they didn’t have to pass through security again to connect with another flight and there’s no record of the Kohns on any of the flight rosters or rental agencies or hotels.”

“I thought he had a daughter.”

“He disguised her as a little boy, sir.”

“Let me see the security video,” said Reed. The Director studied the video and Harvey had to point out which people were Jonathan, Mary and Carly. “It’s remarkable; it doesn’t look anything like them!” said the Director scratching his chin. “This stuff always amazes me. He looks just like a completely different person, and I would never recognize Mary. And he changed his daughter into a son! What else does this guy know how to do?”

“He’s an expert in just about everything we do around here. He’s going to be tough to catch, especially with this much of a head start. Our guess is that they purchased a new set of tickets, using different identification and jumped on another plane and now have become someone else. And unless he does something really stupid, it’s not very likely we’ll find him.”

“Did you look at the airline records for one-

way tickets purchased in Atlanta, around the time that his plane landed?”

“We did, but there were several hundred and I’m guessing that he probably purchased a round trip out of Atlanta. We think he also changed airlines.”

There was a long hesitation and the Director’s face turned bright red as the pressure built up inside him. Finally, he erupted and pounded his desk, “You’ll find him, Breaux, and you’ll find him in the next 24 hours, or you’re done, do you understand.”

“Yes sir.”

“And let me tell you how you’re going to do it. You’ll find him because he’s mad, and angry people get careless. Watch our firewall, he’ll try to break into our computer. His son has been murdered and we own the only way he can find the tracks of those responsible and it’s the road that will lead us to him. Bait him, catch him and then gut him, do you understand.”

Reed closed the door and nearly fell over. He supported himself by leaning heavily on his desk. He started to hyperventilate and used a technique he had learned in a stress management course to get his breathing under control. He felt a tightening in his chest and his arm started to hurt, but he ignored them both and hit his intercom, “Janice, get me Davidson and Burton. I need them in here yesterday!”

“I’ll page them sir.”

The Director sat down and stared around the room wildly. He eyeballed his bottle of Scotch. It was only 10 a.m. and he’d been starting earlier every day.

In 15 minutes, Davidson burst in followed by Burton. The Director had just finished his second glass and was feeling better.

Before they sat down, he started to speak, “Anderson has left the city and our idiot staff has no idea where he is. This guy is becoming a huge liability. The last thing we need is a vigilante out there hunting terrorists and getting the terrorists and the American people nervous, do you understand. I was hoping that he would just back away from it all, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We’re going to have to end this, do you hear what I’m saying?”

“We’ll take care of it,” answered Burton.

“It needs to be a permanent stop.

“It will be,” said Davidson.

The Director walked down the hall to PD’s office and burst in unannounced. PD was on the phone but immediately hung up. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“Yes, it’s worse than I thought. They’ve disappeared.”

“What are the odds that she’ll come around?”

“Impossible to predict, but we can’t chance it. It’s all up to her and right now she’s pretty unstable,” answered the Director. “If she doesn’t report in the next 24 hours, we’re going to have to take them both down.”

“Do you think she’ll pull herself together?”

“God only knows.”

“Okay, we need to go in under one of the agency’s employees, who do you think we should be?” asked Jonathan sarcastically. He had the QX-4 set up in their Worthington hotel room in Ft. Worth, Texas, with the screen projecting onto a flat wall and the keyboard projecting down onto the desk.

“Daddy, when are we going to Six Flags?” asked Carly as she sat on the bed watching Dora the Explorer with Bruiser by her side. Jonathan had changed her appearance back to a little girl only now she had carrot red hair and freckles. Carly kept flicking her hair with her hand and had strategically positioned herself so she could catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror whenever she wanted. She was very happy that she was no longer a boy.

“It’s okay sweetie, we’ll be going in a little while,” answered Jonathan.

Carly pouted.

Jonathan glanced over at the clock and saw that it was 11 a.m. “Sweetie, we’ll go at 2 o’clock, okay.”

“Mommy, why don’t you pray anymore?” asked Carly. She had rolled onto her side and propped her head up with her elbow and stared directly at her mother.

Mary ignored her as she concentrated on the screen.

“You used to pray all the time.”

Mary caught the end of her second sentence and was stunned. She slid back and tried to rub Carly’s back, but Carly retreated. “Mommy has been real busy lately, honey.”

Carly scratched her head with a confused look on her face, “You were busy before; is it because of what happened?”

Mary had to stop a tear because of the tenderness of Carly’s words. “Yes dear, it’s because of what happened.”

“You need to pray for Matthew,” she scolded. “He needs us all to pray for him. I do every day.”

“Yes, you’re right darling, I should be praying for Matthew.”

“And you too, Daddy!”

Content with her mother’s explanation, she rolled back over and continued watching Dora the Explorer.

Jonathan, oblivious to the conversation, walked behind Mary and stared at the projection. He, too, looked completely different. He had removed the Andrew Dockery latex mask and replaced it with a black wig that he had pulled back into a pony tail. He had a 5 day start on a goatee and had somehow managed to pock his face so that it looked as if he had won a battle with acne, but lost the war with its effects. He wore a black Harley Davidson t-shirt he had purchased from Cowtown Custom, a Harley Davidson shop on 25th Street. It hung loosely over the waist of a new pair of Wrangler jeans and he had a series of new tattoos. He looked hard and unapproachable.

“Jonathan, are you telling me that you can get us into the agency’s mainframe under anyone’s id?” asked Mary.

Mary’s hair was now spiked brunette with yellow streaks. In spite of her objection, Jonathan had pierced her nose and she now sported a gold spike.

He answered without hesitation, “Yes.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Jonathan gave her a hard look, “Mary, please watch your mouth! She hears everything. You shouldn’t be surprised that I know how to hack, I’m a scientist. Remember who helped you at Tech. I studied programming my whole life and I’m good with these things, you know that. Trust me. Now just pretend we’re playing dress-up, who do you want to be?”

“I want to play dress-up,” yelled Carly.

“I was only kidding sweetie, we’re going to Six Flags, remember?” answered Jonathan.

“Oh yeah,” answered Carly.

Mary asked, “Will they be able to trace it back to us?”

Jonathan gave her an insulted look, “Are you insane? Do you think I’d write a program that would lead the people who are trying to kill me back to us? I’ve written a dust mining script that erases its tracks instantaneously. If they’re quick enough to realize that we’re even there, I’ve attached our source code to a random username in Minnesota, which will change every 5 seconds to a different username in a different state. Satisfied? The only way they’ll find us if we do something stupid.”

Mary nodded.

“So who do you think we should go in under? You look nervous.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Of course I am!” answered Mary. “You’re one click away from making me an accomplice to treason by breaking into the most powerful computer in this country.”

“Second most powerful.”

“Who has the first?”

“I can’t talk about that, but the military always has the first, because that’s where all the money is.”

“Have you tried your programs on the agency’s computer?”

“This is the first time, never had a reason.”

Mary looked a little embarrassed, “A little different than the Tech mainframe?”

“A whole lot different.”

“Obviously I underestimated you.”

“That’s what I’m counting on. Let’s hope that the people on the inside do the same. And I think we have to be careful not to underestimate the people we’re dealing with and get so focused on the agency we forget the third part of the equation.”

“Third?”

“Yes, the agency or our government is 1/3; the terrorists make up 1/3.”

“And who’s the other one-third?”

“You and me.”

Mary was curious, “How have we underestimated them?”

“Mary, all you need to do is to look at what has happened. They were smart enough to blow up a building right under our noses without leaving any tracks and then they hacked into our computer and set me up. Don’t you think everything is going exactly the way they want it to go? They wanted me to get fired and they knew that we would run.”

“Now you’ve crossed back into the scary category.”

Jonathan continued, “For some reason I’m important to them. Obviously they want me away from the resources at the agency, because they’re afraid that I almost caught them once and that maybe I’ll catch them the next time. I’m sure it’s all a diversion just to get me out of the way.”