CHAPTER 19
WEDNESDAY
Langley, Virginia
“In about twenty minutes he’ll be in the Virginia and then it’s maybe an hour until he’s on the coast. So far we are on time.” Anderson was in control of the Command Room. It was similar to a small college auditorium, with many desks facing a screen. On that screen was a live feed from Tom’s helmet camera. On it a darkening sky sat above while below the ground was floating by. Analysts sat at desks with computers, each assigned a task. One analyst’s job was to watch for incoming satellite imagery and read it for any changes. Matt was at one of the desks. His job was to be the contact point with the military. Sara’s job would come when Tom was inside North Korea. She had to analyze everything that came in through the video feed – such as where Tom was or what he was seeing. Anderson had a headset with a microphone that would connect directly to Tom once he activated it. Anderson was overseeing everything. Mr. Park was standing in the back, quietly observing.
Since Sara did not have any tasks while Tom was en route, she decided to run to her office quickly. She wanted another coffee and some water. She rose and left the Command Room. As she walked through SAD’s offices she could see the parking lot outside through the windows. It was just starting to fill up. Most of the agency was getting to work but her group had just launched an operation. That was a typical SAD move, she thought.
When she arrived at her office, she looked for her cup, which she had left on her desk earlier. When she found it, she noticed it was sitting next to a stack of business cards she kept. Her eyebrows came closer together. Then she shoved the palm of her hand into her head.
How could I not have thought of that?
She suddenly remembered that she had attended an interagency training session almost six months ago. She forgot what the training was about. But at that session she had sat next to a man who was friendly. A bit too friendly, actually, she thought. They started talking, casually at first. Soon he ended up wanting to talk more than she did. She just wanted to get back to the CIA. They exchanged business cards and he asked if she would be interested in grabbing drinks sometime, to which she answered with a placeholder of “sure, yeah, let’s do it sometime.” She did not like being phony but what were you supposed to do with guys who could not catch a hint? On the way to the office, when she had looked at his business card, her head jumped back at what it said:
Mike Castel
National Security Agency
She did not know anyone at the NSA and never thought she would need to either. But now she realized she had been a fool for not realizing earlier. If she was suspicious that Matt’s message had been hacked, maybe she could call someone at the NSA and ask if they had seen anything strange coming from China. It had a half-chance of leading somewhere, so she decided to pick up the phone and call.
She dialed the numbers and then heard a ring. After another ring, a voice answered, “This is Mike.”
“Mike. Hi. This is Sara Hayward. I’m not sure if you remember but we met at a training session a few months ago.”
“Hey, Sara. Yeah I remember. How are you?”
“Good. Actually, Mike, I’m calling about something specific. Do you know anyone over there at the NSA who deals with foreign government hacking issues?” She felt that she was making up words. She did not know what to call it.
Mike paused. “You mean Cyberwarfare?”
“Yes.”
His voice went into a lower tone, as if he were disappointed “Yeah actually I do. I can give you someone’s name and number if you just hang on for a second.”
“Thank so much, Mike.”
In a few seconds he was ready. “The guy you want is Mark Aubrey. Very smart guy. Young too. He was a math prodigy or something. I met him only once. He is a team leader in the Cyberwarfare group.” Mike gave Sara the number.
“Great”
“No problem. Hey, let’s get that drink sometime?”
“Yeah sure. Bye.”
Sara hung up and immediately started dialing the number she got. She sat at the edge of her seat as she listened to the phone ring on the other end. It rang four times. Then somebody picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Hi. Is this Mark Aubrey?”
“Yes. Can I help you?”
“Hi, Mark. My name is Sara Hayward. I am an analyst at the CIA. I work in the Special Activities Division. Do you have a quick second now? I just wanted to ask you something, if its OK with you.”
“Oh. Uh – sure. What’s your question?” he suddenly sounded troubled.
“I just wanted to ask if you have seen any hacking attempts from China on your systems. I’m just asking because another analyst and I sent a message yesterday to a military asset and we – saw something weird.” And she sounded weird now too, she thought.
“Was it a Mandarin Chinese character?”
Sara’s heart dropped. “Uh. Yeah.”
“We were actually about to call you. We need to come to your offices and talk. Here, I’ll leave now.”
“Wait – what is it? Can you tell me quickly now?”
“I don’t want to say it over the phone. We’ll be there soon.”