The Ajax Protocol

CHAPTER 56

Hood had someone from the Agency waiting for Elizabeth and Stephanie at Andrews. He gave them the keys to a black suburban, Ashley if there was anything else he could do for them and left them to it.

They stopped on the way and retrieved Burps from the cat boarding house. They parked in front of Project HQ. When they went into the building, they both stopped short. Stephanie set the cat down. He seemed nervous and uncertain. It was easy to see why.

Elizabeth looked at the mess left behind by the Homeland Security agents sent by Edmonds and swore under her breath. She tried to tell herself that they were under orders, doing their job. She wondered if that's what people said in Germany in the 30s, when they saw thugs destroying shops and breaking into homes.

"Those bastards," Stephanie said. "They didn't have to do this."

Elizabeth's office looked like it had been looted. The desk drawers had been pulled out and dumped on the floor. The desk itself had been tipped on its side. The locked drawers had been smashed open. Her computer monitor was trashed. Her chair was slashed, the guts of the cushion spilling out where someone had cut it open, searching for God knew what. Half a dozen plants in pots had been ripped out and strewn around the room.

The rest of the floor wasn't much better. Stephanie's office had been searched, but her monitor still functioned. Downstairs, the room where Lamont had been staying was torn apart.

The armory was still locked. It took serious electronic savvy to breach the security for that room. The computers were untouched. They were big, taking up an entire room, not the kind of thing you could throw in the back of a truck.

"Do you think they got into them?" Elizabeth asked. She stood with Stephanie looking at the Crays.

"I doubt it," Stephanie said. "My firewalls are better than NSA's or the Pentagon's. There aren't more than two or three people in the world who might be able to get past them. None of them work for the government."

"Edmonds really makes me angry," Elizabeth said. "I knew he was an ass, but I didn't think he'd do something like this."

"Do you think he's part of the plot?"

"I don't know, but somehow I don't think so. Would you trust a man like that to keep a secret?"

"Not a chance," Stephanie said.

"I think it will turn out that Westlake manipulated him, had him thinking we were a threat to national security, something like that."

"I don't think Edmonds will be a problem in the future. The President will force him to resign."

"At least Rice is all right. I'm worried about Lamont."

"So am I," Stephanie said.

"I talked to his doctor earlier, while you were asleep on the plane. He has a staph infection. They haven't got it under control. He's weak, barely hanging on."

Stephanie sighed. "When do Nick and the others get back?"

"Later today," Elizabeth said.

They went back upstairs to Elizabeth's office.

"Ajax was developed by DARPA under Westlake's oversight," Elizabeth said. "I want you to look at everything else he did with them. See if you can find anything besides Ajax with a Greek name."

"That's a long shot."

"I know, but we have to figure out what Westlake has in mind. It could be something DARPA developed. Whatever it is, it can't be good. While you're doing that, I'm going to call Vysotsky. He needs to know about Korov."

"Better you than me," Stephanie said.

"Let's get this desk up," Elizabeth said.

They set the desk back on its feet.

"I'll get started," Stephanie said. She went to her office while Elizabeth called Vysotsky.

Rice had talked with Harker and given her access to the Pentagon's computers. If only they knew, Stephanie thought as she entered the access codes. She couldn't remember how many times she'd hacked into the Pentagon servers to find out something the Pentagon or DARPA didn't want anyone to know about. It felt strange to go in with official blessings.

She gained entry to the DARPA servers. She began looking at weapons recently developed or under development, anything with a Greek code name. She'd found Ajax. If there was anything there, she'd find it.

The heart of DARPA was a hundred of the most brilliant technological minds in America. Originally conceived by Eisenhower as a brain tank and technological development group for both civilian and military projects, DARPA's mission had been subverted in the 70s. Now it focused only on the military applications.

Stephanie worked her way through a list of current and past projects that read like scenes from a Terminator movie or pages from an H.G. Wells novel. An hour later, she still hadn't found anything with a Greek name or the suggestion of one. Something nagged at her about the list. She couldn't pin it down. What was it?

Stephanie got up and made a fresh pot of coffee. She pored a cup and sat back down at her computer. Then she realized what was bothering her. Ajax wasn't on the list. Where was it? Why not there with the others?

Ajax was a hero in Homer's poem about the siege of Troy, she thought. Maybe Westlake used another name like that. She tried to remember what she'd learned about Homer's Iliad in school. It wasn't much.

The Greek hero was Achilles.

She entered a new command path combining Westlake's name and Achilles. The screen gave her a familiar message:

Yes! So much for official access codes and Pentagon co-operation, she thought.

As she'd done with Ajax, she called up the program she'd written to get through encrypted firewalls. While she waited for the computer to sort through possibilities, she thought about Lamont. He'd survived enemy fire and years of combat, only to finally be brought down by a lousy bug. Sometimes Stephanie wondered how anyone could think they knew what the day would bring.

It made her think of Lucas. She was looking forward to seeing him later. If she could get away. If there wasn't another damn crisis.

The screen cleared. She'd expected to find a single file. Instead, she'd accessed a list.

Plenty of Greek names, each from Homer's Iliad. She clicked on Achilles and began reading. It was the code name for an EMP weapon that wiped out the grid in an entire country without the need for a messy nuclear explosion. Stephanie made a note. Maybe Westlake was planning on taking down the American grid. That would create chaos, as Ajax would have. But how would that help him now? The Ajax plot was blown. She'd bring it to Elizabeth and the others.

The Ajax file told her what she already knew, that there was a satellite with a weapon capable of disrupting human brainwaves and sending people into frenzied rage. There were technical drawings and specifications. She moved to Cyclops.

Cyclops was an extensive upgrade to the satellite surveillance programs already in place. It didn't seem like Westlake would be concerned about that as a backup. She went to the next name on the list.

Prometheus was a satellite, like Ajax. As she read, she shivered. Prometheus was armed with six 20 megaton hydrogen bombs on the tips of missiles packed with experimental evasion technology that made them all but impossible to intercept. Without thinking, Steph glanced up at the ceiling. Somewhere high overhead, Prometheus circled the globe. If this was Westlake's backup…she left the thought unfinished.

What else is on this damn list? she thought.

Siren was a sonic weapon that vibrated solids at a high frequency, causing the molecular bonding to break down. Structures like bridges and buildings would literally disintegrate. Siren could be used on people, with unpleasant effects.

Last on the list was Zeus. Zeus was an ongoing development of the SATWEP program, with the goal of creating super storms at will over an enemy's homeland.

Her coffee was cold. Stephanie got up and headed for Elizabeth's office.