The Einstein Papers

CHAPTER 6

To anyone driving past on the road, the three-story office building on the outskirts of Bethesda, Maryland, appeared innocuous, bland, uninspiring. An eight-by-six-foot sign set atop a brick planter that read CAPCO MINING was the only indication as to the nature of the business inside. Anyone stopping and wandering into the building would never notice the advanced security measures the building featured.

Visitors were under surveillance by video cameras hidden in the trees from the time they turned off the main road until they reached the parking lot. The video surveillance continued once they left their car and approached the building. Once inside the lobby, few would notice the tinted, bulletproof glass, and no one but an expert in security would recognize that the entire lobby had reinforced walls and support beams that could withstand all but the most powerful bomb blast.

If a threat were detected, the security guards stationed at the lobby desk could seal off the lobby with a push of a button. A few seconds later, after the guards had placed gas masks over their faces, the entire lobby would be misted with a gas that rendered anyone in the lobby unconscious in less than three seconds.

There was little that could be done to the outside of the building to defend against a suicide bomber driving a vehicle loaded with explosives. However, the grounds outside the building, numerous locations on the street, as well as the parking lot were outfitted with hidden barriers that rose hydraulically when activated. Designed to shred the tires and hook the rims of any vehicle that posed a threat, it made the building impervious to anything short of an assault by tank.

The security measures might seem extreme for an ordinary business concern, but Capco Mining was a mining company in name only. The Capco building outside Bethesda housed the National Intelligence Agency, the smallest of the United States intelligence organizations. The NIA reported directly to the National Security Council, and its primary mandate was antiterrorist activities.

The NIA was comprised of several autonomous divisions, including the Technology Department, the Transportation Division, the Infrastructure Division, the Foreign Terrorism Division, and the Special Security Service, which handled operations requiring the use of human agents.

The large budget for the NIA was buried inside the budget of the National Security Agency to hide the agency from the prying eyes of congressmen and reporters. The agency had remained small and discreet since its founding in the early nineteen-eighties. On the third floor of the NIA building Larry Martinez was scanning a computer database when his telephone rang. Martinez was of medium height, just over five feet ten inches, and lean from his weekly regime of running. His face was classically handsome, with the high, well-defined cheekbones, strong chin, and jet black hair that indicated the influence of Spanish blood in his native Mexican race. But it was his eyes that most people noticed — they were a pale brown dotted with flecks of gold and green, and when he spoke, they looked directly into your soul.

Martinez was a man at peace with himself and the world, and little over the years had changed that.

"Just thought you'd like an update," Deputy Director Richard Allbright announced to Martinez over the phone. "Your partner got inside and has the subject in his custody."

"That's good news, but he still has a long way to go," Martinez noted, his voice showing the concern he felt.

"That's true — we can only hope for the best," Allbright noted. "But as luck would have it, Taft's plan to trigger a seismic disturbance seemed to have worked. The Earthquake Center in Colorado reports it as a five on the Richter scale. Our satellites report communications into Qinghai as limited, but that could change at any moment."

"You'll keep me posted?" Martinez asked.

"You can be assured of it," Allbright said. And then, changing the subject, he asked,

"How are you coming on the Einstein-Choi connection?"

"I've compiled a list of items to investigate. I'll be out in the field today doing research. Do you want field reports as I progress or just a standard daily log?"

"Call if you're onto something big," Allbright said. "Otherwise, a standard report."

"Very good, sir," Martinez said.

"That's all, then, Larry. Know that we're all pulling for your partner and his safe return," Allbright said as the telephone went dead.

Martinez entered a command into his computer, then waited as the information printed. Swallowing the last of his coffee, he gathered the papers, slid them into a file folder, and then called down to the security desk to inform them he would be leaving the building.