Conspiracy

76

None of the houses in the subdivision looked any smaller than four thousand square feet, and if there was a single blade of grass out of place on any of the lawns, Lia couldn’t see it through the high-powered night vision glasses.

“This doesn’t look too good,” she told Mandarin.

“Yeah. But you never know.” Mandarin cruised past Meadowview Court, slowing to get a view of the front yard.

It was a little before 5:00 a.m.; even the early birds hadn’t gotten up yet.

“They have a wireless network without any security,” said Lia. She held up her handheld computer; the screen showed that she had just successfully signed on. “Anybody could have used the network.”

“Probably.

Doesn’t explain the gun questions and the chat rooms, though.”

“I bet there’s a teenage boy inside,” said Lia. “One who plays basketball and is thinking he’d like to hunt.” She’d seen a basketball net and was guessing the rest.

“Maybe,” admitted Mandarin. He jabbed his thumb toward the roof of the car. The he li cop ters delivering the tactical team were nearly overhead. “We’ll know in a few minutes.” twenty federal agents, backed up by six state troopers and their cars, had been assigned to raid the Hennemman residence, the origin of the latest e-mail threat — a vow to “finish what’s been started”—against Senator McSweeney. The government had been granted a search warrant to seize the Hennemmans’ computers and other papers and material possibly related to the threat. The evidence was not just the e-mailed threat but also inquiries from a computer on the same home network in several public forums about weapons, rifles in particular.

Two members of a special DEA team took down the door; Mandarin and Lia came in right behind them. Within ninety seconds, the house had been searched and the three occupants of the house found themselves pinned in their beds by agents.

Lia helped secure the basement — nothing more threatening there than a dehumidifier — then came upstairs to find Mandarin holding his credentials out to Mrs. Hennemman, explaining what they were doing there. Her husband lay next to her, blinking up as if he wasn’t sure whether this was part of a dream or not.

“Where are the computers?” Mandarin asked.

There were four in the house, including one that was packed away in a box.

“We want our lawyer,” said Mrs. Hennemman belatedly.

“Give him a call,” said Mandarin, handing her his cell phone. “We’ll be downstairs.”

“Do you know whether your wireless network is secure?” Lia asked.

“What’s that?” said Mrs. Hennemman.