Spyder Web

40

The flight arrived at Dulles on schedule, and Mosley and Kilkenny were met outside the arrival area by a CIA driver, who then collected their bags and drove them out into the Virginia countryside. After clearing security and outfitting Kilkenny with visitor’s credentials, Mosley guided him through the CIA’s labyrinth. The office building was packed like a beehive, with every inch of available space occupied by a desk or work surface. Mosley explained that most of this wing’s activities revolved around information analysis, the molding of raw data into something intelligible. The James Bond side of the business, Operations, was located elsewhere in the sprawling campus.

After an elevator ride to the seventh floor, they entered a conference room that was nearly full of guests and sat down near FBI agents Harbke, Ullrich, and Harmon. The conference room buzzed with the sound of several conversations going on simultaneously — a sense of urgency building among the participants. A well-dressed man with graying hair entered the room, flanked by a woman furiously scribbling notes, and they took their places at the head of the table.

‘Let me run down the list of players for you,’ Mosley offered, starting with the two who had just arrived.’That’s the DCI, Jackson Barnett, and his right hand, Sally Kirsch. Next to Kirsch is Phillip Moy, the founder of Moy Electronics, and Bill Iverson, whom you met last week. Seated on Barnett’s left is Kyle Lewis, the President’s national security adviser, and FBI director Bob Metcalf.’

‘A room full of heavy hitters. I guess I’d better watch my step.’

‘You got that right. It’s on my recommendation that Barnett asked you to be here, so don’t make me look stupid. It might mess up my next raise.’ The strained smile on Mosley’s face left Kilkenny wondering if he was serious.

Barnett stood and waited for the conversations in the room to die down. Under his steady gaze, the meeting quickly came to order. ‘Thank you all for coming. The topic, as most of you already know, is a serious breach of national security by an employee of this agency. Now we’ll discuss the steps that need to be taken to rectify the situation. The first slide, please.’

The lights dimmed and Barnett walked over to a lighted podium in the corner, where he could reference his notes as he spoke. The image that appeared on the large-screen wall monitor was a photograph of Michael Cole.

‘This is the late CIA computer specialist Michael Cole. During his Caribbean vacation last Christmas, Cole was the victim of an apparent diving accident.’

Barnett’s next slide showed a nautical map detailing the southern coast of Hispaniola. Scrawled on the map was a circle and an exact latitude and longitude. ‘A sportfishing boat recovered Cole’s body approximately three hours before he allegedly disappeared. Since that time, we have discovered that the circumstances surrounding his death pose a serious threat to our nation’s security.’

Barnett’s delivery carried all the presence of his days as a prosecutor.With a little imagination, Kilkenny could easily envision Barnett making his case before a jury in a court of law.

‘Two things immediately troubled us about Cole’s death. First, he acquired a large sum of money shortly before his death from a source as yet unknown. The second quandary revolves around Cole’s murder and the subsequent cover-up of that murder. What was Cole involved in that led to his death? To answer those questions, Cal Mosley of the CIA and Daniel Harmon of the FBI have been assigned to trace Cole’s activities in the weeks prior to his death. Cal, would you please continue?’

Mosley handed some slides to the technician running the projector, then took Barnett’s place at the podium. He quickly checked his notes while waiting for the next slide. ‘I believe that everyone in this room now has some familiarity with this device, the Moy Gatekeeper. Last year, the CIA assigned Michael Cole to work with Moy engineers in developing a modified version of this device for the CIA’s use in future covert operations. This new device is called the Spyder.’

Mosley asked for the next slide, and the new image showed a Gatekeeper and a Spyder side by side. ‘As you can see, the Gatekeeper and the Spyder are outwardly identical. Each device offers the same defensive capabilities to its host computer, but that’s where the similarity ends. The Spyder is an intelligence-gathering device designed to be planted inside the computer networks of a hostile nation.’

‘I would like to add something, Cal,’ Barnett interjected.’ The Spyder device is still considered experimental and the Agency currently has no plans to deploy one.’

The DCI nodded and Mosley continued his presentation.’ Until his death last December, Michael Cole was an integral part of the Spyder development team. His responsibilities included designing how the Spyder would operate once in place, the methods by which it would protect itself, and how it would deliver information to its controllers. Following the completion of this work, Cole went on vacation and was killed.’

Mosley took a drink of water. The next slide that came up was the Spanhaur photograph. ‘In piecing together the last months of Cole’s life, we found a connection to the two people highlighted on this picture, which was taken on the morning following Cole’s murder. The woman is a freelance writer named Alex Roe. We know very little about her, other than that she’s a highly respected journalist. The other person, British business consultant Ian Parnell, is another matter.

‘Now at this point in the investigation, we’ve uncovered a pair of suspects, but no clear motive. Help in establishing motive arrived on two separate fronts. Last February, we received information indicating the latest supercomputer designs from Moy Electronics had found their way to the People’s Republic of China via Hong Kong. Further investigation by British Intelligence has traced the illegal technology transfer back to Ian Parnell. Based on the evidence uncovered thus far, we believe that Cole was engaged in industrial espionage with Parnell and Roe against Moy Electronics. Somewhere along the way, their arrangement soured and Cole was killed. It was at this point that our investigation took an unexpected turn and Nolan Kilkenny entered the picture.’

Kilkenny nodded to the others at the table as Barnett made the introduction. ‘Nolan Kilkenny is a remarkable young man who recently left the navy to pursue a doctorate at the University of Michigan. Mr Kilkenny, the floor is yours.’

Nolan rose and walked to the podium. He asked for the previous slide, that of the Gatekeeper and the Spyder. The twinge of nervousness in the pit of his stomach surprised him. He’d given mission briefings before, but never one where half the audience reported directly to the President.

‘Earlier this year, the Michigan Applied Research Consortium received a Moy Gatekeeper for use with the optical processor that we are developing. Shortly after we connected the processor to our computer network, we discovered some unusual signals on our communication lines. Since we’re using a lot of new equipment, we didn’t know quite what to make of the signals until we isolated one and discovered that a hacker was working through our network. When we discovered that the hacker was trying to steal information from companies tied into our network, we called in the FBI. With the help of Special Agents Ullrich and Harbke, we tracked the hacker back to our own facility. Our search ended when we reached this device.’ Kilkenny held his hand up against the image on the screen. ‘Last Friday, engineers from Moy Electronics verified that our Gatekeeper is, in reality, a Spyder.’

Barnett returned to the podium and thanked Kilkenny. He waited until Kilkenny seated himself beside Mosley before continuing. ‘Mr Kilkenny’s discovery has added yet another element to the mystery surrounding Michael Cole’s death. Cole was our resident expert on this device. If anyone could have made use of a Spyder for illegal purposes, it would have been Cole. Now, unlike our human spies, who can operate on their own, a Spyder is completely lost without a controller. If it receives no new instructions from a controller, it will just sit there and operate like a Gatekeeper. As Mr Kilkenny has pointed out, the Spyder inside his computer was installed after Cole’s death and it is very active. Someone else is directing this Spyder’s actions. We are now certain that the MARC Spyder is being run by Parnell and Roe.’

Barnett paused for a moment while the slides were being changed. Kilkenny refilled his cup of coffee from one of the pots on the conference table. A large cloud of steam rolled from his cup as he poured; the brew was hot and black. On the screen was a grainy photograph that had been taken with a telephoto lens through an office window. The picture showed two men and a woman seated around a conference table; one of the men was seated with his back to the camera.

‘Two of the people seated here are Parnell and Roe. A new concern has arisen regarding this third person, a Chinese intelligence officer named Kang Fa.’

Kilkenny’s coffee was still hot and the steam floated around his eyes as he sipped from the cup. The flash of the changing slide caught his attention, and he looked over the rim of his cup to the screen. The new image, clouded by a thin veil of steam from the coffee, was somehow familiar.

‘This photograph of Kang was taken by British Intelligence at Heathrow Airport. Background assessments on Kang indicate that he is highly intelligent, skillful, and ruthless. The British have attributed the deaths of several operatives, both in China and Hong Kong, directly to Kang Fa.’

Kilkenny sipped at his coffee again, still puzzling over why this man looked familiar. Once again, the steam from the coffee formed a light haze against his eyes. Kilkenny wiped the mist from his eyes and suddenly remembered.What he had thought was a shadowy illusion in the smoke and haze of the highway attack had been real. Kilkenny slammed his fist down on the table and brought the conference to a stunned halt.

Barnett glared over at the source of the disturbance. ‘Mr Kilkenny, do you have something to offer?’

‘Nolan,’Mosley whispered out in a low growl, ‘what the hell do you think you’re doing? This is the top brass here.’

Mosley’s reprimand and firm hand on his shoulder brought Kilkenny out of his anger and back to what was going on in the conference room.

‘I’m okay, Cal.’ Kilkenny stood at ease and faced Barnett. ‘Sir, I’d like to apologize to everyone for my outburst. It was unacceptable behavior on my part. I would like to add, however, that I have recently seen this man. He was there last Sunday, when I was attacked.’

‘You didn’t say anything about this before,’ Mosley said, questioning the revelation.

‘That’s because I didn’t believe what I’d seen was real. Right after I killed the assassin, I thought I saw a man standing in the road, glaring at me. The look of hate I saw in his eyes was something I’ve seen only once before. I didn’t mention it because I honestly thought I was hallucinating.My face was smeared with blood and sweat at the time, and, after he disappeared, I had more important things to worry about.’

‘You sure about this?’ Mosley asked.

‘Absolutely. That man was there.’

‘Cal, I’m inclined to believe him,’ Barnett announced from the podium. ‘For Kang Fa to be present during a killing is completely consistent with his psych profile. It is also very likely that Kang is responsible for the bodies you found in the burned-out van. This further confirms our theory that Kang, Parnell, and Roe are in control of the stolen Spyder. Parnell and Roe originally planned to use the Spyder for industrial espionage, but now we’ve finally discovered what Kang Fa has in mind.’

Barnett then described Kang Fa’s visit to Phillip Moy and the price that he had demanded for the release of Moy’s uncle. As with most computer crimes, this one still lacked the evidence needed to arrest anyone. Even Cole’s murder and the attack on Kilkenny lacked enough physical evidence to prove a conspiracy. The only crime they could prove was attempted extortion by Kang Fa, and his arrest now would endanger the life of Moy’s uncle.

‘Jackson, I appreciate how difficult an investigation like this is to pursue,’ the President’s national security adviser began,’but, other than a lot of theory and circumstantial evidence, we’ve got nothing we can use legally to shut these people down.This situation has to be terminated, and I am willing to run any suggestions you may have to reach that goal past the President for his approval.’

‘Thank you, Kyle, but I think I have a solution that is both legal and expedient.’