Six Seconds

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Indian Head, Maryland

Immediately after the test, Takayasu assigned team members to alert specialists in an array of fields with federal security agencies.

Calls from Takayasu’s unit were rare, but when they came, they were given priority status. Today, they were deemed an “extremely urgent matter of national secu rity.” No effort was spared to contact the experts, who were reached at offices, homes, labs, airports, funerals and vacation resorts.

Encrypted password-coded files containing calcula tions, formulas and findings of the incidents at Pysht, Malmstrom and the test at Indian Head were instantly e-mailed and a teleconference call was convened from the lab’s meeting room.

A quick round of introductions showed that the tech nical expertise on the line came from the highest levels of national security, such as the National Security Agency, the Central Security Service, Army Intelli gence, NASA security, the Naval Security Group,

Six Seconds 441 members of the Computer Network Defense Red Team and others from Fleet Information Warfare Center. Before Takayasu led the call, a question was put to him.

“Is this for real?” a man from the NSA asked.

“This is real and we have to move fast. We need to jam the signal, or hijack it with a disabling protocol. Can it be done?”

“We could do something with SDI technology, or, NSA or NASA satellites,” another caller said.

“What’s the target zone?”

“We believe the target zone is Lone Tree County, Montana,” Takayasu said.

“That’s where the pope’s just landed. We’re watching it live!” said one expert. “Didn’t they already arrest some hysterical woman who breached security?”

“We’re cutting this close! Just cancel the event,” the Army Intelligence chief said.

“We’ve tried. The Vatican refused,” a supervisor from the Secret Service Intelligence Division said. “The threat is not confirmed. And yesterday, in Seattle, we had two incidents we thought involved assassination attempts. Both were false alarms. The Vatican almost never cancels an event, even when a threat emerges. As we speak, the pope’s got one hundred thousand people waiting for him in Montana.”

“We think this new weapon’s in play right now against the pope in Montana?” the CSS caller asked.

“Or his next stop in Chicago,” the Secret Service caller said. “We’re concerned about all the dots: the intel from Issa al-Issa, the intel about a ship, the material found on the coast and at Malmstrom. We can’t risk this. We’re down to minutes.”

Everyone heard the clicking of a computer keyboard.

“Lone Tree County is two thousand two hundred twenty feet above sea level. Longitudinal and latitudi nal position is- Hang on.” One of the satellite experts on the line was doing the math. “Our best chance at this stage is to send a pulse. But we have to program the nearest bird.”

“How long?” Takayasu said.

“Not sure, twenty minutes at least.”

“This is going to be close.”

“It might not work. And if it does, there’s a huge risk that goes with it,” the satellite expert said.