Triple Threat (7 page)

“Not one second longer than I have to. There. The files are coming across now. Another minute and they can have their unpatched server back.”

“Would their server administrators really be that sloppy? This is a terrorist group. If they slip up, bad things could happen.”

“You'd be surprised how many servers go unpatched for years. Somebody goes on vacation, a patch doesn't get installed, soon, it's forgotten. Or they just become complacent and lazy until it's too late. I'll bet you I can hack our own UNIX server.”

“I know one professor you could really tick off if you did.”

“We've got better things to do with our time. The files are all here and I've spooled them to the printer. Would you grab the printouts please, Josh, while I back out of my session on the server?”

Josh flipped through the stack of papers he pulled from the printer. “You ripped off at least thirty email messages.”

“All from the suspected collaborators. Now the tedious part begins. Do you ever play those cryptographic games they print in the newspaper?”

“Yeah. When I was a kid. Wasn't too shabby at it, either.”

“Good. You take these.” She handed him a third of the pages and took the rest.

Obviously Kate realized how much brighter she was than many of the genius-level students in the department. She didn't try to rub it in, but was clearly aware of it, and sometimes, that rubbed him the wrong way.

He took a long look at Kate's face and bright blue eyes.
Everybody needs a little wrong-way rubbing sometime.
“What should we try first?”

“The same thing I saw in the shooter's email. Word spacing patterns. There's open source software for embedding messages inside images, audio files, videos. But it appears that these guys prefer to hide in plain sight. Just circle the words in the message that look forced. Then we'll go back and check for patterns.”

He was on his fifth page, marking words and searching for some pattern that eluded him, when Kate grabbed his arm. “I think I've got it. I wondered why these messages were so much longer than the others I've seen.”

“OK, genius, what's the pattern?”

“19—19—19.”

“That's a lot of separation between words.”

“But it hides messages much better.”

“Why nineteen, Kate?”

“Nineteen is significant in the Quran. You'll find suras consisting of nineteen ayaats, multiples of nineteen for words and letters. Many other things are multiples of nineteen, too. Let me see what you marked so far.” She scanned his five pages. “That confirms the pattern.”

“Kate, you can't count that fast—”

“You don't count them. You just calibrate your vision for nineteen.”

“Yeah, sure. Twist my pupil a quarter turn to the right and it automatically skips the next eighteen words.”

“Doesn't everybody—” She stopped, her lips forming a circle. “You mean, you don't—”

“No, Kate. I
can't
.”

She shrugged. “Well now that we know the pattern…” She divided the remaining pages in half. “Come on. Let's see how these gentlefolk are planning to improve our world.”

He wasn't measuring up to Kate's expectations. Could she really respect him and like him for who he was? He needed to get focused on their work. The relational stuff would have to wait. Josh sighed and scanned a series of evenly spaced words. “Listen to this, Kate. Western, operations, control, Whistler. Funds, transferred, BOC.”

Kate leaned close to him to examine his findings. Waves of citrus-scented hair lay across his neck and arm. He couldn't resist slipping an arm around her.

She tensed for a second when his hand curled around her arm, then relaxed as she read. “This message was sent from somewhere in Tehran. Probably from the big kahuna with the money. But that would mean Shiites are funding Sunnis. They wouldn't do that. At least, I don't think they would.”

Josh flipped the page. “Then this message came in from Whistler. It could be referencing locations in the Western US, but the wording is strange, certainly ambiguous.”

“That's probably by design. Josh, we've got to figure out where all these US locations are and find out what they have in common, then maybe we can determine what they're planning. But if…” She stopped.

He waited. “It scares me when you do that, Kate. But if what?”

“If we could find the person in Canada, maybe the whole operation can be stopped. Cut off the viper's poisonous little head.” Kate turned and looked at him.

Her face so close to his completely destroyed his concentration.

“Josh, you take the US sites. I'll take Whistler.”

“I've got more sites than you. Are you feeling generous? Trying to make me feel needed?”

“Needed?” Kate sat up and clamped a hand on his shoulder.

Her grip was strong. Like Kate, the woman, lithe, beautiful, but deceptively strong and athletic.

She showed him a serious frown. “We're a team, and that's the only way we can pull this off, by working together. I picked you because you're the person I needed.”

“What you needed at the Key was an offense of lineman to open a path for you to get you where you needed to go. Is that what I am to you, a big, obtuse—”

“No.” There was hurt in her eyes. “But did you know that some of the brightest guys in football are offensive lineman. Not all of them, but some.”

“If that was a compliment—”

“Take it for what it's worth. You know I
did
ask you to dinner Saturday…to meet my family.”

“Yeah. For your protection,” he said in a grumpy growl.

“Partly.” Kate's coy smile showed, then faded. “It's time for me to check out the Whistler connection while you figure out what's happening on our side of the border.”

Kate could be completely exasperating. She liked him, but allowed things to go only so far, and then she put on the brakes to their budding relationship. But as he had already determined, relational issues would have to wait.

Josh returned his attention to his stack of messages, but found nothing conclusive. “These all sound like vacation plans to visit some national parks and some of the larger cities where a lot of tourists go, New York, Chicago, Seattle.”

“Population centers. That sounds ominous. But I found the SSID of the router in Whistler.”

Kate opened a window and pasted something into it, then clicked with her mouse. “It's the Pinnacle Hotel in Whistler Village. This Whistler guy could be the director of operations. But the messages seem to use benign sounding words as code words. Or maybe there is another layer of encryption. There's not nearly enough evidence here to call the police or the FBI. I don't think they can get a search warrant for a place in Canada. Arresting him isn't going to be a simple matter. If I'm going to identify him, I need to be in the building while he's online. I'll sniff his computer to locate the room, then we can go—”

“That's going too far, Kate. It's risky enough just walking through the building. But going into his room…”

“He, or she, doesn't have a clue who we are. We could…” Kate's eyebrows rose and her blue eyes lit up. “We need a cover story. Let's see…it's June. We can pretend to be there on our honeymoon. It's the perfect cover because you're…well…and I'm, uh—”

“You must really want me dead. Even if we survive Whistler, your granddad will find out about our honeymoon and kick my head off. Then your mom will shoot me. Or so you've told me.”

“Shoot you? Probably not. Mom is a karate expert, too.”

“So I noticed out behind Key Arena. Will you tell them about us going to Whistler?”

“So you
are
coming?”

“Yeah. I'm coming.” He let out a blast of air. “Kate…you know, no girl…uh, woman has ever talked me into as many things I didn't want to do as you have in the last couple of days.”

“Consider it good preparation for marriage.” Kate's grin morphed to a smile, a smile that highlighted the beautiful features on an incredibly beautiful face.

She didn't seem to be the devious, manipulative type, nevertheless he felt manipulated. Probably by his own right brain. “Kate this
is
a pretend honeymoon, isn't it?”

Kate burst out laughing. “What do
you
think?”

“Doggone it, Kate. You throw so much baloney at me I'm never sure what you really mean.”

“The baloney isn't the wurst.” Kate's crooked smile gave her an impish look.

Bad puns and all, life with Kate Brandt, no matter how long or short it turned out to be, would
never
be dull.

She hooked his arm with hers. “Come on, Josh, we've got a honeymoon to plan.”

 

 

 

 

9

 

Katie became lost in her plans to gain access to the terrorist's computer. Her netbook computer would fit inside her mid-sized purse. She could leave her laptop in the car for a backup.

Josh put his hand on her arm, ending her musings. “What about hacking this guy's machine
without
going into his room?”

She took his hand. “If he's online, I can probably do that. The main unanswered question is how long will it take for me to hack in?”

“Kate, now that we know our technical approach, how do we pull off this honeymoon charade?”

“You just dress casual, but nice. A nice pair shorts and the most expensive sport shirt you own. I'll make myself look like a blushing bride. It will be fun. Oh, if you'll drive, I'll pay for the gas.”

“What time should I pick you up in the morning? And remember, we're having dinner at your house tomorrow evening, Saturday night at the inquisition.”

“Pick me up at 5:00 AM. We can easily get home by 6:00.”

“5:00. That will put us up there around 8:30 AM.”

“According to the messages we intercepted, that's about the time our operational commander corresponds with the big kahuna in Iran. And, Josh?”

“Should I be worried?”

“I was only going to say, that if things go smoothly, I'll have a surprise for you.”

“You rented the honeymoon suite?”

Her face grew warm, probably red. “Fat chance of that.” At least Josh was beginning to tease her, too. All in all, it was a good sign. But… “No. I'll go online and get tickets for us to ride to the top of Whistler peak. You can't go to Whistler without riding to the top of the mountain.”

“This is the second or third time you mentioned spending a good chunk of cash. Aren't grad students supposed to be poor as church mice? What gives?”

“Can you keep a secret?”

He gave her the lip zipping sign.

“I'm doing a little moonlighting, two small contracts with DHS. Now they want to give me a clearance and a job.”

“But you won't take it, will you?”

“I told Peterson five years ago I wanted to work for the FBI, at least part of the time in the field, maybe on the Seattle Division Computer Analysis Response Team.”

“But you couldn't have been more than fifteen or sixteen back then.”

“I was fifteen. That's when Jenn and Lee rescued me from the traffickers.”

“Was that in the papers?”

“Most of them.”

“I think I remember reading about that. Three girls were rescued.”

“It was the first time I had to—” she pictured the man with the automatic trained on Lee. Katie flinched as she recalled the burst of shots that split the silence of the night.

“Kate, what's wrong?” Josh's hands squeezed her shoulders.

“I…I shot a man with an AK-47 to save my dad's life.”

“Whoa, dude. You really—but you said the
first
time.” Josh's mouth clamped shut. He obviously was reluctant to intrude further.

“A few weeks later, the international trafficking syndicate captured Jenn. When I moved in too close, they caught me. I may have killed one of their guys. At least I knocked him out, then the explosion…” The noise, the flames, and the pain of the bullets hitting her back were vivid memories.

“Are you sure you want to be an FBI agent?”

“Hurting or killing people aren't things you ever want to do. But I can do the job. I
want
to do the job.”

Josh's arms slid from her shoulders around her back and he drew her into a gentle embrace.

She laid her head on his shoulder and let it rest there until the memories faded, replaced by an acute awareness of Josh's arms around her and the comfort they provided.

Katie raised her head, brushing Josh's cheek with her lips. She took a step back. “Thanks, Josh.”

Josh studied her face. His gaze darted between her eyes and the vicinity of her lips. He didn't move any closer, but what was on his mind was crystal clear.

“So now you know all about me, killer Katie.”

“You're no killer, Kate. You're a brave, good woman. If I was Peterson, I'd have the FBI flooding your mailbox with job offers.”

She smiled at Josh's words. Then she smiled because her gaze rested on Josh's face. She reached out and squeezed his well-developed biceps. “The FBI could use a few geeks, too, you know.”

He chuckled. “We can do geek work, but you know something?”

“Yes.” Kate burst into belly-shaking laughter. “Neither of us fit the geek mold. I played on a national championship softball team, and you played on a state championship football team.”

“I thought jocks and geeks didn't mix.” He grinned and shook his head.

But maybe two jocks who did geek work could mix. She looked up into Josh's smiling face. “Would you mind taking me home? I rode the bus in today.”

He squeezed her hand. “I'd like that.”

“Me, too. We've got a few more honeymoon details to work out.”