True to form the Secretary of Defense arrived at the basement room where Heath was living and doing much of his work five minutes before the scheduled eight o’clock briefing with the President. When the Secretary received an all clear signal, he advanced and quickly shut the door behind him. Then he said good morning to the President before offering a slight nod of acknowledgement toward Christopher Westin and Agent Bishop.

The President looked at the Secretary and stated, “I’m afraid that my time throughout the day is rather tight, so please begin the briefing without delay.”

After a quick glance toward Heath, he replied, “Yes sir Mr. President, but I believe that Agent Bishop should take the point on this briefing.”

“And why do you say that Mr. Secretary?”

“Because the most recent information we have obtained builds upon what he previously uncovered. Therefore I will gladly yield the floor.”

With a nod the President turned slightly to his right and said, “Alright Heath. Why don’t you start things off today?”

“Yes sir.”

Heath began by stating to President Harwell that Ambassador Pearson had continued to place calls at irregular intervals to the same three numbers in Texas, but no others. Two of those numbers were within the 737 area code, which meant that their origin was in Austin, while the third was located in the area code of 936. On the surface the first two numbers would appear to be quite normal, as number eleven could have been behaving in the role of Ambassador by contacting various personnel in the capital city of his republic. Although that could be interpreted as a plausible cover, for anyone who was paying attention it would be easily recognized as false. The most glaring problem in that interpretation of cover, which raised an immediate red flag, was why the Ambassador would need to place the calls from a secretive location in Washington D.C. as opposed to making them from within his offices. Beyond that obvious detail, the practice raised the additional questions of who he was speaking with and why he would need to refer to those individuals as numbers three and twenty-three.

Heath then informed the President that a tracking of both numbers within the 737 area code had been initiated, which in turn led to significant discoveries. The location of the first and most often used of number twenty-three was at a private residence in Austin. He added that there was currently no proof to establish the owner as the mysterious number twenty-three, or simply as someone who is unaware that the phone is hidden within the residence. The phone in question had not moved from the dwelling at any time since the tracking began, so no pattern could be established as to the everyday habits of the person who used it. However based on several bits of recorded conversation between that woman and the Ambassador, Heath theorized that the location of the phone would remain constant.

When the President asked why he assumed that, Heath replied, “Well sir, I believe that number twenty-three is the person who passes along the majority of information between the various operatives for the organization. If true, it would coincide with what Lieutenant Royce suggested. From what we have heard, it appears that number twenty-three receives a call from an operative who provides her with information. Then she places a separate call, or perhaps several, to forward that on to the applicable personnel. Managing a task of such scale would be difficult to accomplish on a continuing basis without unlimited access to the phone, which would logically include the property as well. Therefore if the woman is not the owner of the residence, then perhaps she works for the owner in the capacity of something like a maid, cook, or nurse. Whatever the case may be, I think of the woman known as number twenty-three to be their distribution hub sir.”

After a few seconds of thought, the President replied, “Well I suppose that all makes sense Heath. And it could be a significant breakthrough.”

“Yes sir, I agree. And based on that belief, the Secretary has employed voice recognition software to chew away on the exchanged dialog of various calls made to her by number eleven. If we can identify who the woman is, and then tap into the phone lines and bug the Austin residence, then the opportunity for intelligence gathering could be limitless.”

Nodding his head positively, the President responded, “Well that all sounds good in theory Heath, but you are talking about doing that to a civilian who lives in a foreign country. Although that has been done with frequency by our government in the past, I’m afraid that’s not quite as easy as how we can randomly tap into John Doe here in the United States.”

“Yes sir. I understand that sir. And I know that it could be difficult to both implement and justify. However if you will allow me, I don’t consider this number twenty-three person to be a civilian. If she is a major player in what we in this room believe the organization to be, then she could easily be defined by you as a soldier!”

“I see your point Heath, and admire your passion to see this through. Now I don’t think you would make such a statement without the ability to at least partially validate it. So if I’m reading the situation correctly, then you might have additional information which could solidify your position on her status.”

“Yes Mr. President, I do.”

Heath continued by adding that the second phone with a 737 area code, that of number three within the organization, had also been tracked. It too remained in a constant location, and when Heath revealed exactly where that was, it noticeably shocked the President.

The Secretary of Defense was unfazed as he had known for a short time the information that Agent Bishop conveyed, and it was partially why he wanted Heath to lead this particular briefing. However like President Harwell, Christopher Westin was stunned to learn of it.

Quickly rising from the couch, the Chief of Staff moved toward Heath and asked, “Will you please repeat that location Agent Bishop?”

Turning toward the man he replied, “Yes sir Mr. Westin. I said that the location of the phone for number three has been pinpointed. It is currently within the Capitol Building of Austin, and to be more specific sir, that would be in the private office of Texas President Marcus Stoddard.”