Perspectives, An Intriguing Tale of an American Born Terrorist (28 page)

“Pretty frightening stuff,” said Mary.

“Yep, and my guess is that their inside connection is someone real close to me.”

“So, we can be anyone at the agency?” asked Mary, still not believing.

“Anyone?”

“With all their security access?”

“All their security access.”

“Then, William Reed of course,” returned Mary jokingly.

Jonathan pounded on the light induced keyboard and opened William Reed’s account without using a password, username or without passing through any of the security screening.

Mary stared in amazement.

“Let’s start with Reed’s email. We’ll check his inbox, sent messages and all his electronic files for any and all correspondence regarding the attack.

For the next 3 hours Jonathan and Mary were William Reed and combed through the databases of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The first thing they reviewed was the investigation files for the July 15th attack. The agency had several scenarios for the event and had arrested over 50 people. They studied each of the depositions from the suspects, and shook their heads in disbelief, when they saw that none had lawyers. Most of them seemed to be guilty by ethnicity, some college students, the rest professionals, all Arabs. They saved several of the testimonies on a memory stick and moved on. They also found Blue Herron’s replacement team now called
Operation Prevent
which had been sequestered in Alexandria.

They stumbled upon a folder that the Director had labeled
CE reports
and saw a list of about 30 files that contained reports, notes and letters that had been sent directly to the President. There were no responses from the President which would indicate that Reed’s orders were given to him verbally, a common practice to keep anything from being traced back to the President. Jonathan was sure that the administration would be furious if they knew that Reed was keeping a record of all the dialogue, especially on his computer, because sheer common sense would dictate shredding any Presidential correspondence after it was conveyed and then using the usual CIA practice of soaking the shreds in water until they were completely dissolved in the huge vats in the basement of Langley. This told Jonathan that Reed had an extreme amount of confidence in the security of the agency’s main frame. Jonathan and Mary reviewed the correspondence by date, looking at the latest files first. Reed had sent a CIA report to the President the day before that showed that about 1450 lbs of C4 explosives had been placed on or by at least six of the primary load bearing beams supporting the building. They believed that they were planted by someone associated with the daycare either an employee or a mother and could possibly have been brought in by six suicide bombers, detonating simultaneously once each reached their strategic position. They were unclear how they were able to bypass the security cameras, which showed no signs of the planting of the explosives. Also, they were perplexed at how the explosives made it through their elaborate security system which forced everyone through a metal detector and their belongings through a sophisticated machine that both X-Rayed the contents and sniffed for explosive residue. They were also miffed at how the explosives made their way past 55 Homeland Security employees. The report contained numerous opinions and speculation by specialists as to how the explosives had gotten into the building, including a report by Todd Hamilton that stated that the explosives could have been transported over a series of days or weeks in some of the children’s backpacks. The report was unclear on responsibility, but it was slanted towards an Al Qaeda cell with Iraqi operatives which would explain the collection of people that had been arrested. The most alarming portion of the report stated that one of the suspects confessed to another attack scheduled within one year of the first. After the confession, the suspect was given a polygraph test and a detailed examination and they concluded that the person was telling the truth. The suspect, under a new truth serum, only knew pieces of what was going to happen, but they determined it was going to be another demolition, but this time at an oil processing plant or refinery, because the suspect kept referring to Wild Catting and Economic Life Blood. However, they still had no clue about the location. After the examination the suspect was taken to Guantanamo Bay for further questioning.

Mary skipped to correspondence that had taken place just after and before the event. They could sense the stress in the Director’s written words on July 15th when he informed the President.
The Building is totally destroyed and so is the operation. Unconfirmed number of dead but it could be as high as 4000. No suspects, complete surprise, I’ll keep you informed
. But then Jonathan was confused by a note written at 8:05 a.m. on the morning of the attack.
We are all set, the operation will be complete today. There will be no one left to testify and all tracks will be erased
.

“Very odd, probably just a coincidence that it was on the same day,” thought Mary. “I wonder which operation he’s talking about.” Jonathan explained that at any one time there could be lots of operations going on and at any time, one might be coming to an end. They made a note to search out which other operation concluded on the 15th of July and they saved the file together with the rest of the Presidential files on the thumb drive and continued.

Mary followed Jonathan’s list and it took her to the human resource files where they looked for any trace of Jonathan, but there was none. They put his name into a general query on the CIA database. The system pulled up his personal profile and all his relevant identification such as Driver’s License number, Social Security number, all of his bank accounts and home and email addresses, but there weren’t any records that he had ever worked for the CIA.

“It’s 2 o’clock,” said Carly. “Time to go.”

Mary gave Jonathan a hard nudge, because he was so engrossed in the data that he didn’t hear her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, is it already time?”

He started to log off the computer.

“What are you doing?” asked Mary. “I can still work.”

“I don’t think that would be appropriate. I’ll be back a little after 6 and we can give it another go. Do you want me to pick up some chicken?”

Mary looked upset.

“What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking. What do you think, I just fell off the turnip truck, I’m a PhD for crying out loud and I’m used to working in large mainframes. Let me keep looking.”

“Mary there’s all sorts of pitfalls in there.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Daddy…..” moaned Carly.

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t want to get caught.”

“I’m not going to do anything that you wouldn’t do.”

Jonathan hesitated, “Okay, but I’m going to make a list of things that we are looking for and I want you to stay focused on these things. And please don’t go snooping around.”

“What do I do when I’m done?”

“Just shut it off.”

Jonathan came in on schedule with a big bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and several sides. Both his and Carly’s faces were bright red from the brisk February air. “What a day,” he said with a smile. “We wore that place out, didn’t we Carly?”

“They wouldn’t let me on the Texas Giant, because I wasn’t tall enough,” she pouted.

Mary laughed, “Would you go on that great big roller coaster?”

Carly ignored her mother.

“You would, wouldn’t you sweetie?” said Jonathan.

Carly nodded.

“I believe she would,” said Jonathan. “Shut down for a minute and let’s eat.

Mary couldn’t wait to share with Jonathan what she had found. “I was right, it’s the general consensus of the agency that they’re planning another attack.” Mary was sitting on the bed eating a piece of Kentucky Fried chicken and watching CNN. Carly was exhausted, fading in and out of consciousness, fighting to stay awake long enough to eat a cup of mashed potatoes and gravy, her favorite. She was wearing a pink Styrofoam cowboy hat that contrasted terribly with her red hair.

“Where’d you get that hat?” asked Mary.

“Daddy bought it for me,” answered Carly protectively.

“It helped with the sun,” interrupted Jonathan. “It was really bright out there today.”

“I love it sweetie,” said Mary.

Jonathan changed the channel back to cartoons. “Why would that surprise anyone? Of course they’re going to attack again. They got away with it once; they’ll keep doing it until they’re shut down.”

“I guess it’s just startling to see it in black and white.”

“I’m telling you Mary, don’t underestimate these people. You have to always think of the worst.”

Mary looked forlorn. “You know what bothers me more than anything? I took Carly and Matthew to that building every day and the security seemed pretty good. It was about the same as what you get at an airport.”

“Oklahoma City did that for us,” answered Jonathan.

“Then how could someone just slip 1450 lbs. of explosives right through the front door, and then attach them to specific columns without anyone, including the security cameras, which record every inch of that building, seeing them?”

“It doesn’t make any sense, unless?”

“Unless, what?”

“It had to be an inside job. I need to find the forensic report from the detonation experts and then we can start piecing it together, but first I’m going down to the business center and print out all the depositions and reports and we’ll make another run at the main-frame a little later.”

“Sure, but let’s get Carly to bed first.

Mary went to the business center and printed off the depositions and the emails and returned to the room in about an hour with a pile of paper about 2 feet thick.

Before they started going through the mountain of paper, Jonathan checked on Carly and found her lying on top of her comforter in a pink night shirt with a death grip on Bruiser. She turned over when he came in but didn’t wake. He heard

sobbing coming from the living room and went in to find Mary sitting on the couch crying with the stack of papers in her lap. He rushed over and sat beside her, putting his arm around her and trying to comfort her by pulling her close and whispering ‘shhhh’ in her ear.’”

“I hate them,” she cried as she turned to him with tears running down her cheeks. “Look at what they’ve done to us.”

“I know sweetie, I know,” returned Jonathan. “Pull yourself together.”

“Do you feel it? The hatred is like boiling sludge and it’s in me and I don’t how to get rid of it. I feel dirty and ugly.”

“Yes I do. Every waking moment, I think about it. The only thing that helps is that I imagine different ways that I can hurt them, just like they hurt us.”

“But Jonathan, look at the reality; we’re helpless. Let’s say we do figure this whole thing out and know exactly who is responsible for killing our son, then what? There’s only two of us and there’s an army of them. I’m not sure knowing is going to make it any better, especially if we can’t do anything about it.”

“I know honey, we’ll have to figure that out once we determine what we’re up against.”

“Jonathan, face it, you can’t beat the agency, you can’t beat the terrorists, they’re too big, too well organized.”

“Sweetie, I’m good at what I do. You just help me find them and let me take care of the rest, okay?”

“What I worry about is that you’re going to rush into something and get yourself killed. And then Carly and I will be alone. Jonathan, we won’t be able to stay hidden forever. What will they do to us when they catch us? They’ll put me on public display, won’t they? I’m not afraid of prison, but what I worry about the most is that they’ll take Carly away.”

Jonathan rubbed his forehead, “You’re right, we crossed the line. We have a small chance if we do something heroic and it’s recognized as being in the best interest of the country. I’ve seen them pardon people before. But from where we are right now, I don’t see them letting us off too easy, especially when they figure out that we have hacked into their system. And no matter what, it’s only a matter of time before they figure it all out.” She stopped crying and listened to the hard reality of Jonathan’s words. Jonathan put his hand under her chin and looked directly into her eyes. “Mary it’s time to be brave. I didn’t want you to come because I didn’t want you tangled up in this, but you did and here we are. So, we need to ask ourselves the question, ‘what choices do we have?’ We can sit idly by and wait for something to happen. Then, what if nothing ever happens and they never find them. Are we supposed to just turn the page of our lives and go on with living? The question that I have is what happens to the sludge, does it just eventually go away? Mary, I don’t know about you, but it’s getting worse inside me and not better. I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my head from racing. There’s no peace, none. I’m so twisted inside that there’s nothing left. But the thought of making things right calms the torment. Mary, I don’t know if finding Matthew’s killers is going to make me better, I just know that if I don’t try, I might as well put a gun to my head and end all this pain right now.”

Mary gave him a hug. “I feel the same. I guess when you lose something the way that we did, there’s just no rationalization. It rips whatever faith you have right out of your heart, wads it up and throws it into the garbage. You know, even Carly sees it.”

“She does?” returned Jonathan.

“She sees that I’m not the same person and that I can no longer go to God.”

“We’ve all been through a lot honey; we just have to believe that one day we’ll get back to normal.”

“You don’t understand Jonathan; in my religion some things are unforgivable.”

“Mary please don’t bring religion into this.”

“But you need to know Jonathan that I may be lost forever.”

“Mary, as far as I’m concerned, we are all lost and in my religion, everything is forgivable. You already told me I’m lost, right? So we’ll be lost together.” He stood up and snapped his fingers, “Hey, I’ve got it! We’ll both become born-again Christians and we can both be saved together.”