Spyder Web

24

It had been another long day at the office for Phillip Moy and, unfortunately, the duties were ones that he abhorred. Since receiving Barnett’s warning about a security problem, Moy had his internal security staff searching for the leak. It made him feel as though he couldn’t trust the very people who worked for him — the people who had made Moy Electronics an industry giant.

He had spent the better part of his afternoon with his director of Security, reviewing their in-house investigation. The findings were essentially inconclusive. None of the employees with access to the new supercomputer’s design showed any of the warning signs that would make them receptive to an outside offer. Other than one troubled marriage, all of the potential candidates were in good health and their families were fine and financially untroubled. In short, no hardship motives that could make an employee sell out to a competitor were found.

The director of Security also looked at any outside contractors working with the firm over the time period covering the development of the stolen computer-system design. A cross-reference of network log-ins by outside contractors against the computer’s internal logs revealed two curious discrepancies, both of which were attributed to Michael Cole.

The director of Security found part of her answer on the mainframe’s internal activity logs. On both occasions when Cole was apparently running a diagnostic program, other areas of the computer system were engaged. All other users on the system at that time could be accounted for, yet the mainframe’s internal register of processing time did not agree with the system administrator’s logs for both nights. The internal register reset itself each day and was in agreement with the system administrator’s logs until Cole accessed the system.After he logged off, the two records of processing time used no longer matched.

Admittedly, the evidence was circumstantial, but it pointed to some unusual activity by the CIA’s liaison on their computer system. Unfortunately, Cole’s death prevented them from talking with the one person who knew what he was doing on those nights.

Moy thanked the director of Security for her efforts and waited until she had left before conferring with the director of the CIA. He dialed the direct line to Barnett’s office, bypassing Langley’s main switchboard, and his call was received by Sally Kirsch.

As the call came through, a computer read the incoming caller’s phone number and cross-referenced it against Kirsch’s phone database. By the second ring, she knew that the caller was Phillip Moy.

‘Good evening, Phillip,’ Kirsch answered, ‘working a little late, aren’t we?’

‘I could say the same for you,’ he replied.

‘I’m just tidying up a few things before I leave. Jackson’s still in his office, I’ll buzz him for you.’

The line clicked as Moy’s call went on hold for the transfer. A few seconds later, the deep, rich southern voice of Jackson Barnett filled the receiver. ‘Phillip, what can I do for you tonight?’

‘I just received the results of our in-house investigation, and we’ve turned up some interesting, and disturbing, information. The only questionable activity we’ve been able to locate has been attributed to an employee of yours who was working with us, Michael Cole.’

Barnett glanced over at the Cole file on the corner of his desk. ‘What do you have on Cole?’

‘Not much really, nothing that conclusively points to him as the leak.’ Moy skimmed the report summary for highlights. ‘All we actually have is some strange computer activity on his part, coupled with some possible computerlog tampering. It’s coincidental, Jackson; there’s no smoking gun. I just thought that I would pass our suspicions on to you.’

Barnett made some notes about Cole for discussion with Cal Mosley. ‘I appreciate that. Could you send a copy of that report to me?’

‘It’s already on the way. Have you found out anything more regarding Cole’s death?’

‘Nothing solid. Cole was obviously involved with something that resulted in his death, but we haven’t been able to determine just what that something was. If Cole was selling your secrets, he may have gotten greedy and paid a higher price than he bargained for. Your report may shed some light on the situation. Thank you for your help.’

Like Barnett, Moy wanted to know how his secrets had been stolen and who was responsible. ‘My pleasure, though I prefer working with you on more pleasant tasks.’

‘I completely agree. Say hello to Cynthia for me.’

‘I’ll do that,’ Moy replied.

The line went dead and Barnett cradled the receiver. This new information gave him three possible scenarios for Michael Cole’s death. A high-level source working for British Intelligence had verified that the Yakushev files were genuine; was Cole blackmailing one of the moles named inside those files? Phillip Moy believed that Michael Cole was doing something unusual on his computer system; was Cole committing industrial espionage? Cole had spent a year working on the Spyder; could that have something to do with his death? The circumstances of Cole’s murder still posed more questions than answers.

As the director of Central Intelligence, Barnett knew that industrial espionage was a national problem that far exceeded the damage caused by spying against the U.S. government. Industrial espionage was part of the global economic war, where industries clashed instead of armies and victory was measured in terms of market share. If Cole was the leak at Moy, the next logical step would be to find the connection between him and the recipient of the information in Hong Kong.