Payback

39

On his second day as a “permanent consultant” to the NSA, Hernes Jackson found that his biometric identity had been programmed into the agency’s security system. Not only could the computer confirm who he was by checking his retinas; it could also use face recognition and body-shape software to make sure it wasn’t being fooled.

He was allowed to make his way to OPS 2/B Level Black (the official name of the subbasement where the Art Room was) without an escort, but that didn’t mean he was proceeding unwatched; the walls were embedded with sensors, and video cameras along the hallway ceiling swung around as he passed.

A woman met him at the door of the second elevator.

“I’m Marie Telach. I’m the Art Room supervisor,” she told him. “You’re Ambassador Jackson.”

“Yes. You could call me Hernes.”

“Thank you. I’m Marie. I’m going to take you to our library room. I’m afraid it’s not the most comfortable working environment, but it’s only temporary.”

Jackson followed her down the hall to a small, window-less room. There was nothing on the whitewashed Sheetrock walls or the tile floor. Two computers sat on a simple table in front of a secretary’s sideless swivel chair. One looked little different from the small Dell unit Jackson owned, with a seventeen-inch flat screen as its display. The other had a larger keyboard and a screen that measured thirty inches. There was a phone at the edge of the desk, but nothing else.

“This computer can access SpyNet, and all of the secure databases and systems you’ll have access to,” said Telach, pointing at the larger screen and keyboard. “There’s also a segregated version of most of the DoD archives as well as our own, and—”

“Excuse me,” said Jackson. “What do you mean by segregated?”

“I mean that we have our own copies, so that our access can’t be monitored and there are no unguarded back doors into our system. DoD, the Department of Defense, and SpyNet — you know what that is?”

“Sure. It’s our government intelligence web network. I used it at the State Department.”

“Good. The Dell computer connects to the Internet through a dedicated line. It uses a series of anonymous servers so it can’t be traced. The data you can send out is very limited, and it’s also monitored for security reasons. You can’t buy anything,” she added lightly, “so no shopping at Amazon.com on your lunch hour.”

“I get a lunch hour?”

“Mr. Rubens runs a very tight ship, but it’s not that tight. We have our own lounge down the hall. It’s small, but you’re probably better off eating there today. It’ll save you some of the hassles of going back upstairs. You place an order and it will be delivered.”

Jackson nodded. Montblanc had told him that there were very nice cafeterias — more like small commercial cafés or restaurants — upstairs, but he had no idea where they were. This would be fine.

“Someone from our analysis section is coming down to show you how to use the systems,” Telach added. “I assume you don’t know how.”

“I can use the Internet and e-mail.”

“Good. This is a little different, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly simple.”

“What exactly am I looking for?”

Telach gave him an odd smile. “Mr. Rubens didn’t tell me.”

Jackson already knew his way around SpyNet, an internal “intranet” service used by American intelligence agencies to access and share information. It was very similar to a commercial intranet, the internal Web-like systems used by many companies to allow different departments to share data easily.

The other databases he had access to were simply mind-boggling. He could, for example, look through the government’s entire archives on World War II — the military as well as diplomatic records not only had been digitized but also were indexed and could be searched in a variety of ways. Jackson, who’d always been interested in history, felt a bit like a schoolkid introduced to the library for the first time.

The only question was what he was supposed to do with all this information. Rubens didn’t seem to know, either — or if he did, he wasn’t telling.

For want of a better idea, Jackson decided to start where he had left off the day before, looking at Iron Heart. The report was skimpy, but that was all right — the more things that were left out, the more places there were to look next.