Whiplash

6

Danny Freah found his excitement growing as he made the arrangements to take the new Whiplash assignment. It had been quite a while since he had been involved in a “black” or secret project, and he’d forgotten just how quickly things could move once they had that imprimatur. Breanna assigned one of her assistants as a facilitator, taking care of the paperwork and everything else necessary, even finding him a condo to rent.

“It won’t be much,” she warned, “but you won’t be there very much anyway.”

Actually, the apartment had its own terrace and a view of the river. The bedroom was about twice the size of the living room he had been renting in Kentucky. Best of all, he could afford the rent.

The only problem was that the moving company he’d hired to cart his furniture couldn’t arrange to pick up everything and deliver it for several weeks. Danny spent the weekend packing and taking care of last minute arrangements. After a Sunday afternoon good-bye party that stretched well into Monday morning, he hopped in his rental car and drove straight back to Washington, D.C., stopping at a McDonald’s to shave and change into his uniform. Parking at the Pentagon without a permit these days was a fool’s errand, so instead he returned the car to a rental agency at Reagan Airport and took the Metro. As the train reached the stop, he thought of the prim and proper woman he’d seen the last time he was there. He couldn’t help wondering if he’d run into her again.

As it happened, he did run into her — and a lot sooner than he’d thought. For when he reported to Breanna Stockard’s office as directed, he found her manning the secretary’s desk.

“You’re Mary Clair Bennett?” he asked, extending his hand.

“Colonel Freah. Prompt. Very good,” said Ms. Bennett, who did not take his hand.

“I, um — we met,” he told her.

“I am sorry. I do not recall.”

“On the train.”

“Train?”

“It’s not important. That’s a great apartment you found me. It’s fantastic.”

“Naturally.”

“I want to thank you for all your help with these arrangements. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”

“It is my job, Colonel.”

“Ah, Danny, I see you’ve met Ms. Bennett,” said Breanna, coming in from the hall.

“Me and M.C. go way back,” said Danny.

Breanna had never heard anyone, including Ms. Bennett herself, refer to her as anything other than Ms. Bennett. She glanced at the secretary, who was glaring at Danny.

He didn’t notice, and wouldn’t have let on if he did.

“Let’s get you situated,” Breanna said. “Ms. Bennett, you can reach me via text. I’ll be gone for most of the day.”

“Yes, Ms. Stockard. Of course.”

“Where’d you dig her up?” Danny asked as they waited for the elevator.

“She’s wonderfully efficient, if a little stuffy.”

“That’s like saying the North Pole is a little cold.”

“I don’t need a friend,” said Breanna. “What was with the M.C. bit? I think you better lay off that.”

“I’ll get her to thaw. You’ll see,” said Danny. He was already planning to send her flowers as a thank-you for the apartment and everything else. “How long do you think it will take to get a Pentagon parking permit?”

“You won’t need one. You’re not going to be working here. You won’t even have an office here.”

“Oh?”

Forty minutes later Breanna presented Danny to a plainclothes CIA security detail at the entrance pavilion of the CIA’s campus in McLean, Virginia. Known as Langley, the headquarters complex was among the most closely watched and guarded area in the world. Despite the fact that he already possessed a high-level military clearance, the CIA security people had him sit in a special biometric chair that “read” 114 different biometric aspects, measuring everything from his weight to the size of his ankles. While this was going on, a machine in the corner analyzed the DNA from a scraping in his cheek, and another machine took stock of his saliva.

“So am I who I think I am?” Danny asked when the technician in charge of the measurements told him they were done.

“You are Daniel Freah, according to the computer,” replied the technician. “Though I have no idea if that’s who you are.”

A woman in the next room gave Danny a small bluish-red ring to wear on his right pinky. It fit perfectly.

“That has all your biometric data in it,” she told him. “You don’t need any other ID while you’re here.”

The ring had other functions, as Breanna explained while they walked back to her waiting car. An integrated circuit allowed it to be used as an encryption device in a dedicated communication system. It could also be tracked via the same satellites, allowing it to be used as a backup locator. The system would also recognize if it was removed from his body, or if his pulse stopped; while it could still be tracked in that case, it would no longer function as an active ID.

“Basically, we’ll know where you are at all times,” said Breanna. “There’s no escape.”

She meant it as a joke, but already Danny was feeling as if he’d gotten into a little more than he’d expected. They drove past the main CIA building, continuing around to a nondescript office building at the far corner of the complex. The building looked as if it dated from the 1950s or perhaps early 1960s, but in fact was only three years old. A single story structure, it had no external markings or any other identification. This was not unique at Langley; anyone who didn’t know where he or she was going didn’t belong there.

After Breanna and Danny passed through an automated security system in the lobby, Breanna led him to an office diagonally across from the reception area. The guard standing at the door nodded but didn’t step aside until the door, operated by its own sensor, swung open behind him.

Danny was expecting to find a standard office inside — his office, he thought. But instead he found an empty room with a narrow staircase to one side. Breanna led him to the staircase, gesturing that he should descend. He did, and found himself staring at a steel door.

“State your name,” said a mechanical voice from somewhere behind the door.

“Danny Freah.”

“Rank?”

“Colonel.”

“What is your favorite color?”

Danny thought of answering that he didn’t have a favorite color, but decided he had better play it straight.

“Blue,” he said, and the door opened.

“Are you going to ask my favorite color?” Breanna asked, following him inside.

“Just thought I’d lighten things up for the colonel,” said a short woman dressed in a black pantsuit as she stepped out from behind the security station opposite the door. It was her voice that Danny had heard. “I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail last night. I could have asked you what the aerial velocity of a swallow carrying a coconut was,” she added, pushing the mike of her headset away. “But I was afraid you’d get it wrong. Then I’d have to kill you.”

“This is Sergeant Mercer,” said Breanna. “She’s going to do a weapons check on you, even though that door wouldn’t have opened if you’d had a gun.”

“Procedure,” said Mercer. “Lighten up, Colonel. I promise not to hurt.”

Mercer took what looked like a lipstick holder from her pants pocket and waved it around Danny.

“He’s clean. Likes the Yankees, though. Might be a problem.”

“Your little wand told you that?” said Danny.

“We have our ways, Colonel. Welcome aboard.”

The room they had entered was a long, rectangular space that held a security station and an elevator to a lower level. The elevator had no visible controls, nor did it work by voice command. You simply entered and were whisked downward. Danny found that mildly annoying.

“What if I changed my mind?” he asked Breanna.

“Then you get out at the bottom and get back in,” she said as the door opened on the lower level. “But I don’t believe anyone has ever changed their mind. Come on.”

Danny had expected a hallway similar to the laboratory areas at Dreamland, most of which were also located in underground bunkers. Instead the door opened on a wide, open space that looked more like a parking garage than a science lab. Thick steel girders ran overhead, supporting a network of beams and pipes. The floor was cement. Girders punctuated the space at regular intervals.

Cabinets were clustered around the girders at the far end. These were computers, most working as massively parallel units in so-called “cloud” arrangements. Thick cables snaked across the floor, connecting them to different peripherals and in some cases to each other.

Overhead lights came on as Breanna and Danny walked, then faded behind them. Finally a set of spots came up on a black wall. There were no doors or windows in it; no visible opening of any kind. Breanna strode toward it. Danny followed, expecting at any second that the panel would move upward or back, that some hidden opening would appear to allow them to enter. But it didn’t.

He stopped a foot from the wall.

Breanna passed through it.

Danny had seen many incredible things at Dreamland — aircraft that flew themselves, blimps that could disappear, controllers that could be manipulated by thought. But disappearing walls was beyond anything there.

He put his hand forward, touching the surface of the wall. It felt solid, as solid as any of the walls in his house. He tapped his fingernails against it, made a drumming sound.

I’m losing my mind, he thought.

“Danny?”

Convinced he was about to wake up from the most involved dream he’d ever had, he took a short step to his left, aligning himself with the exact spot Breanna had used to go through the wall. Then he took a short breath and stepped forward.

Into a well-furnished reception area.

He turned back around. The wall was a solid, a darkish beige color on this side.

“It’s nanotechnology,” said Breanna. She was standing near him. “It is a wall. And an opening.”

“Is it really there?”

“Absolutely. Touch it.”

“I did,” said Danny. He did again, drumming his knuckles this time.

“But you can move through it, if you move deliberately,” she said. “And if it recognizes you. Like this.”

Breanna put her entire arm through, then turned and smiled at Danny, half in, half out.

“Parlor games are difficult to resist,” said a familiar voice.

Danny turned and found Ray Rubeo frowning at him.

“Doc!” said Danny. “You’re here?”

“Apparently,” said Rubeo. There was a slight bit of gray around the temples, but otherwise very little about him had changed in the past fifteen years, including his frown. “Though in this place you never really know.”

Rubeo was no longer a government employee. But several of his companies were under contract to the Office of Technology, and when Breanna had offered him the opportunity to brief Danny Freah on Whiplash, he had decided to take her up on it. Rubeo had always liked Freah and the Whiplash people personally, though he found many of their security procedures annoying. The pinkie rings had been his idea, an easy way of eliminating many of the delays imposed by the security checks and constant surveillance. Like everyone admitted to Room 4—the code name for the basement facility on the CIA campus — he, too, wore one.

“I suppose you want an explanation about the nano wall,” said Rubeo.

“Well, yeah.”

“Very well. It’s a parlor trick.”

The wall worked by arranging energy within certain frequencies; to put it crudely, it was as if molecules were iron shavings in a child’s Etch A Sketch game, and used to draw a wall. The field could be broken by movement at certain speeds, but not others; the wall could not be penetrated by bullets, for example.

“So it could protect against a missile?” asked Danny.

“Concrete is just as effective.” Rubeo waved his hand. “There are perhaps some uses for camouflage, that sort of thing. Or very expensive walls.”

It also made a high-quality projection screen.

“Have a seat,” said Breanna, gesturing to one of the nearby club chairs. “And I’ll show you what it can do.”

The wall morphed into a crisp video display, the sharpest Danny had ever seen, demonstrating its prowess with a scene from last year’s Super Bowl.

“Another parlor trick,” said Rubeo, this time with a touch of pride.

The video ended abruptly, replaced by the seals of the CIA and the Department of Defense.

“The Office of Technology is involved in a lot of projects,” said Breanna. “We work very closely with a number of government agencies. Some of us work for the Defense Department, and some of us for the CIA. You might say our responsibilities are intramural.”

The CIA still had its own technology department, separate from Breanna’s operation. The Wizards of Langley were responsible for a host of innovations, everything from supersonic spy planes to microscopic bugs. But changes in the organizational structure of the intelligence and military communities, along with severe budget cuts, had moved a great deal of their work over to the Defense Department. Some research had always been outsourced in any event, and many of the changes simply meant that the scientists, engineers, and other technical experts simply had a different paymaster.

Whether directly funded by the CIA or through the Defense Department, the problem wasn’t coming up with new technology. It was getting it out of the developmental labs and into the hands of field agents. Breanna, with her Dreamland background, had been picked to make that happen. One solution was to simply eliminate much of the bureaucratic infrastructure. Where once layers of liaisons and department managers had fought over turf in both Defense and Intelligence, now a handful of people worked with her and the scientists directly.

“Is Whiplash going to be a CIA command?” asked Danny. “Or military?”

“Neither,” said Breanna. “It’s more like a hybrid.”

“How?”

“We’re going to work that out. You’re going to help.”

“OK.”

Breanna glanced at her watch. Reid and Nuri Lupo were due to meet them in a half hour.

“Let’s introduce him to MY-PID,” she told Rubeo. “We have a meeting soon and I’d like him to be familiar with some of the technology.”

Rubeo closed his eyes. He hated the nickname; it was very 1984. “Very well. Come with us, Colonel. And please don’t touch anything. It may blow up.”

Rubeo was so deadpan that Freah didn’t know whether that had been a joke or not.

The scientist led the way down the hallway — more nano walls — to a small room set up like a library. Small armchairs were clustered around a large cube at the center of the room. The cube that was a display unit for MY-PID. Breanna took one of the chairs and pulled it close to the cube. Danny did the same.

“Ray Rubeo, 13–13–13,” said Rubeo.

“Acknowledged,” said a disembodied voice.

“I need the weather in Moscow. Display it please.”

A graphic showing a sun covered by a cloud appeared on the center screen. The temperature, in Celsius and Fahrenheit, appeared under it.

“The weather tomorrow, in Moscow,” said Rubeo.

Rain.

Rubeo made a number of other requests for data, all instantly answered by the computer. Danny was used to computers and their ability to quickly produce data from their memory banks. While the cube and its graphics appeared very slick, the system didn’t seem to be anything unusual. Even the voice command interface was familiar from Dreamland.

Rubeo produced a small button from his pocket and placed it on top of the cube.

“Locate Colonel Freah and project his image,” said the scientist.

Danny’s image — captured by the tiny video bug — was displayed on the screen.

“How does it know it’s me?” asked Danny.

“Produce positive identification of subject,” said Rubeo. The computer complied, displaying a skeletal biometric image next to Danny’s face.

Danny still wasn’t impressed.

Rubeo took a set of earphones and a small, iPodlike device from his other pocket and handed it to him. Danny put on the device, and heard the computer’s voice ask him to identify himself.

“Danny Freah.”

“Identity confirmed. Please calibrate voice level.”

“It wants to get a feel for how loud you’re going to talk to it,” explained Breanna. “There are microphones in the wire.”

“How loud should I talk?”

“Whatever level you’re comfortable with,” Breanna said.

“Testing, testing,” said Danny.

“Ask it any question you wish,” said Rubeo.

“Who won the World Series?” asked Danny.

“Which year?” asked the Voice.

“Last year.”

“The Boston Red Sox, four games to two, over the Chicago Cubs.”

“Who’s going to win this year?”

“Insufficient data.”

Rubeo rolled his eyes. He glanced at Breanna, then left the room.

“Locate Dr. Rubeo,” said Breanna after he was gone.

The screen moved its schematic, showing Rubeo in the maze of rooms about fifty meters away. He was in a lounge area, making himself a cup of tea.

“It’s tied into a satellite system that can be used to track individuals all over the world,” Breanna explained. “The system uses biomarkers that can be picked up by the satellites. There are some limitations, but as long as a subject is aboveground, the system can find him. Down here, a separate system is used. The rings. The Voice can plug into a number of different systems, not just its central core here. It’s like an automated assistant. The idea is that it will help CIA officers in the field. And Whiplash.”

“How close to going operational is it?” asked Danny.

“We’ve been using it for a little over two months on a special project. You’re going to hear about that project in about twenty minutes.”

“Where is this MY-PID?”

“It’s not in a specific place.” Breanna always had trouble explaining exactly how the system worked. “Think of it as a cloud, or even the Internet. The computers you just passed are part of it, but they’re not the sum total. The network is scattered around the world, and then there are the different sensors. Different video bugs can be plugged in, and the system can ask to be admitted to some databases and other intelligence systems.”

“Who controls it?”

“No one. The Voice is completely automated. It’s on its own — just like your laptop would be. Because, that’s what it is: a personal computer for field operators.”

Danny wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that — a computer system that had no one running it? The parallel to personal computers didn’t reassure him.

“All right. How does Whiplash fit into this?”

“MY-PID will be one of its tools. The unit itself will work on different projects. We want you to support Nuri on Jasmine — he’ll explain that.”

“Support?”

“Yes. The whole idea is to get technology onto the front lines. Whiplash is part of that.”

“Are we testing, or doing?”

“Both. Just like we were at Dreamland. Whiplash and all of us.”

Danny felt comfortable with the parallel to Dreamland, but using a computer system that had no human supervisor sounded impractical. There had been a few automated systems at Dreamland — the robot Ospreys, for example, which were part of his security at the base. But even there, someone on watch was always supervising them, prepared to jump in and override if necessary. Here, there was no supervision.

“I was hoping that we would have more time to build things up, but this situation seems more serious than we thought.”

“So what else is new?” said Danny.