May 3
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza, 23rd Floor
New York City
3:14 P.M. EDT
“So where the hell is she?” Jeffrey Connor demanded.
“Maybe over at the Israeli consulate, watching the President’s wake on TV,” the representative from Homeland Security said. “Or down at the cathedral, walking past the coffin, having a good cry. Count your blessings. I am. I just hope she plans to skip on us again tomorrow; attend the funeral, maybe. That is one pain-in-the-ass woman, you ask me. Something goddamn creepy about her, too.”
Connor agreed on both counts, might have said so aloud in other circumstances, was not sure why he kept silent in this one.
Nonetheless, it offended him mightily, both personally and professionally, to have the representative of Shin Bet sulk in her tent like an irritating Achilles. Tavah Duhahi had missed the morning meeting of the joint task force, was not present in this reconvened afternoon session. In fact, Connor had no word from her since their less-than-placid difference of opinion following the Abu Khaled phone trace and subsequent BOLO. The Israeli consulate denied knowledge of her whereabouts, and Connor’s repeated calls to Tavah’s cellphone went immediately to voicemail.
“Fuck her,” said the representative from the Justice Department. “What’s the next order of business here?”
“Something probably not relevant to us,” said Homeland Security. “But we’ve asked for everything new to be copied to our task force, and this one is definitely new. Came out of your shop, Agent Connor, forwarded to Homeland as a confidential national security advisory. Seems FBI’s working a possible new terrorism case.”
Connor’s head snapped up.
“Is it linked to Ahmad Abu Khaled?”
“Can’t see how. Their theory is that some terror group or another is using computers to entice American kids to join the glorious fight against us infidels. That shooting in Kansas, the mall thing, six dead shoppers—seems the dead shooter was in contact with ’em on his damn computer. Same with some other kid in Illinois, though he got himself shot dead before he could do any damage. Most likely trying to copycat.”
“But no connection to our case?”
“Nothing obvious, except apparent involvement by Islamics.”
“Like there’s a shortage of that in the world today.” Justice was a habitual skeptic, quite likely reflecting the oft-stated philosophy of his own boss. “Toss a rock in any direction, you hit a different ‘plot’ by a different bunch of so-called Islamic radicals.”
Homeland protested. “Only other reason I mention it is that they think there’s a Jersey connection. FBI Cyber Crimes has a broad area trace to the state where a militant website—I dunno, some kind of chat room thing, it says here—anyway, that’s where the site appears to originate. Case itself originated in the Kansas City field office, but they’re using resources out of the Newark division for support.”
Justice chuckled. “There’s a cyber team based in Newark, specialists, and they’re attached to Financial Crimes. I bet those accountant geeks are pissed as hell at having to work this instead of concentrating on sexy stuff like those flash-traders. Well, cry me a river. Do them good to try some real hardcore investigation for a change, eh?”
“Where in New Jersey?” Connor asked. “This website, or chat room, or whatever it is.”
Homeland frowned, scanned down the report.
“Close as the cyber guys can place it, Essex County. That’s over the river, not too far from the city.”
“Essex. That’s Newark, isn’t it?” The emphasis was obvious, and the meeting’s participants exchanged glances. “Our trace put Abu Khaled’s last-known near Milburn. I just moved here from D.C. What county is Milburn in?”
“Morris County. Logically enough, Milburn is near Morristown.”
“How close to Essex County?”
“West. They share a border, Agent Connor.” Homeland paused. “You thinking what I am?”
“I’m speculating what I think you’re speculating.”
“You think this computer thing is part of Abu Khaled’s operations?” Justice scoffed. “A guy who nukes Washington D.C. is going to waste his time exposing himself, figuratively speaking, to some damned kids?”
“What I’m thinking,” Connor said, “is that a man with a cellphone and a car might not find it too inconvenient to make a call from a neighboring county. Maybe on the way from, probably more likely back to, whatever he’s calling ‘home base.’”
Justice frowned. “Okay. So what? How does that add anything to the picture?”
“Tavah Duhahi says Abu Khaled phones his son after Friday religious services. He wouldn’t want to surface in public too close to wherever he’s hiding, even to go to a mosque. But he wouldn’t want to be on the road too long either. Every second he’s outside is a risk, even disguised, even in a car.”
“Speculate away, Agent Connor. Let’s assume he was heading back from a mosque to—I don’t know, somewhere—to sign into Facebook or Instagram or whatever the hell gullible kids use for social media these days. How does that help us find where the son-of-a-bitch is hiding?”
“We take a map of New Jersey, draw—say, a twenty-mile radius around Milburn,” Connor said. “Determine what mosques are inside the circle. If nothing else, that gives us a few places to stake out next Friday night. Set up facial-recognition cameras, have a flying squad of FBI Hostage Rescue and local SWAT on stand-by. Meanwhile, we also get the cyber experts looking at computer usage inside that radius. Try to match up connections with whatever Kansas City has as known-contact times from their two shooters.”
“Needle in a haystack,” Justice clichéd. “That area is computer-rich. Hell, a lot of it is just plain rich. Multiple computers in every household. Every kid and his parent is on the damn Internet twenty-four seven.”
“Can you think of a better place to hide a computer-based op?” Connor asked.
“Fuck me,” Homeland said. “You’ve made me a convert, Agent Connor. I mean, even a run-of-the-mill terrorist can walk and chew gum at the same time. Why couldn’t a guy like Abu Khaled multi-task as a computer Svengali?”
“Screw it,” Justice said. “All we’d waste is a little overtime, I guess. Maybe risk a few hurt feelings in Kansas City.” He brightened. “But hey—I mean, it’s only Kansas City.”
Homeland Security joined in the laughter. “That’s what I’m thinking too. Clearly a long shot, but I’m thinking we take it over. Any other thoughts, gentlemen?”
“There’s the question of what happens if this new little plot turns out to be in no way connected to Abu Khaled,” Justice said. “Were that to prove a fact somewhere down the road, it could be a little awkward to have rustled it away from Kansas City.”
“In that case we hand it back with an apology,” Homeland Security said. “Rather, our FBI man here will apologize to their FBI men; an intra-agency misunderstanding, that’s all. Any egg on the face will have to land—and I’m sure Agent Connor agrees with me on this—on his face. What do you think, Agent Connor?”
“I’m no good at politics, internal or otherwise.”
“Operationally, then.”
“What do I think? I think that we damn well better get our own cyber team to look at what Kansas City found,” Connor said. “See if we can do a little better. And damn sure do it a hell of a lot faster, because next Friday is a long time to wait on a speculation. We don’t know what Abu Khaled has next on his list.”