6
Thursday morning, Katie caught the early bus to the U. It was only 7:10 AM when she keyed in the cipher and entered the lab.
Josh sat at a UNIX workstation, fingers flying on the keyboard.
“I didn’t expect to see you here so early.” She felt a smile growing.
“After accepting that offer I couldn’t refuse, I was afraid you might put out a contract on me if I wasn’t here bright and early.”
“So, you’re afraid of me? I’ve got you at a disadvantage. Right where I want Joshua West.”
He stood and stepped away from the workstation. “Kate, you have everyone in the department at a disadvantage. Everyone but old Prof Bergmeier cringes when you start barraging them with questions.”
“No they don’t. I’m not—”
“But they do, because they know you have the answers and they usually don’t.”
“Can we change the subject to something more pleasant?” She frowned.
“I thought the subject was extremely pleasant.” He studied her frown and grinned. Josh was trying to flirt. That wasn’t like him.
“I’m the flirtatious one in this relationship and you—” Relationship? The word had slipped out. Jumped from her heart and flew out of her mouth.
Josh’s face showed surprise.
And that look in his eyes…she needed to get focused. “The work we’ll be doing is normally done by people with high security clearances, the compartmentalized kind.”
“You mean people who work for NSA, the FBI, or CIA, and maybe DHS?”
“Exactly. But if we just push forward in our work, our lack of clearances shouldn’t matter.”
“Push forward to what, Kate?”
“To findings that, when presented to the authorities, will probably get classified…top secret, or higher.”
The door to the lab opened. An undergraduate student stepped in with a huge backpack hanging from his shoulders.
“Josh, do you have time to go somewhere private to talk?”
“I accepted your offer. Didn’t I promise you all my time for the next two months?”
Kate studied his face and eager eyes. Josh was the nicest guy she knew in the computer science department and handsome beyond belief. But she knew very little about what he believed, about his worldview. Before this relationship she had mentioned grew any further, she needed to know what he believed. What she discovered might even save his life, or his dignity on Saturday evening when Lee’s and Granddad’s questions shredded any incoherence in Josh’s worldview. “Come on. Let’s walk over to the little coffee shop on 15th. Order anything you want. My treat.”
Josh’s gaze immediately sought her face. “Anything I want and you’re treating me?” He grinned. “Now, that’s an offer I really can’t refuse.”
The day was warm and sunny by Seattle standards. Fifteen minutes later Kate and Josh sat outside the coffee shop huddled around a small table in the sun, holding steaming drinks in their hands.
Josh took a sip of his caramel macchiato, a sweet salty drink, sighed, and then focused his gaze squarely on her lips. Though he hadn’t said a word, this was beyond flirting.
“Josh, how would you like a karate jab?”
“I wasn’t flirting, Kate. Honest. Just…wondering.”
“More like wandering.”
“Yeah. Guess my mind was wandering. Where were we? Something about Internet topology and routing?”
“Yes. And using our knowledge of them, you can constrain the class of problems we’re dealing with to one that is computable in something less than polynomial time.”
“But, Kate, that will vary from location to location on the Internet. And the net itself is constantly changing.”
“Just focus on the backbone, Josh.”
“OK. I can handle that.”
“Great.”
Now for the stickler…
“Josh…” She studied his face, his eyes.
Josh’s face turned red and he averted his gaze. Some flirt he was.
“Josh, look at me. I need you to listen carefully and consider everything before you answer me.”
“OK.”
“What we’re doing has so much potential for good by thwarting evil. It’s good for our nation. It’s good for our families. But there is potential danger for you and me.”
Josh nodded. “Yeah. After Tuesday, I can see that.”
Now for the bombshell. “There’s one more thing, and you’ve got to promise me you’ll tell no one about it until we both decide it’s the right time.”
“What if we can’t agree about that?”
“Then we don’t tell anyone until we do.”
“I guess I can agree to that.”
She took Josh’s hand and squeezed it. “Something really big is being planned by multiple jihadist groups. They have found a way to hide their collaboration. Well, it was hidden until I found the shooter.”
“Before I commit to the dangerous stuff, can you tell me who you think is involved?”
“You must not mention even these, my suspicions, to anyone. Do you understand?”
“I promise, Kate.”
“Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, part of the Muslim brotherhood, Hamas, and Boko Haram.”
“I don’t know much about that last group, but this sounds scary. Remember what Peterson said about being cautious?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“When do you think you’ll go to the authorities with this?”
“When we agree the time is right. But the things I told you are only my suspicions. I have no hard evidence.” She wrapped both of her hands around Josh’s. “Classes at the University end this week. As summer break starts, the servers in the lab will be mostly ours. In the evenings, we’ll have the whole lab to ourselves. In a week or two, we can probably flush out the participants, possibly determine who’s funding them, and find out what they’re planning to do.”
“And how will we do all of this?”
“First, are you in, Josh?”
“What’s the biggest danger to us, Kate?”
“That our probing leaves evidence which they can track back to us, if they’ve got the talent available. If they do, they’ll probably kill us.”
“Is that all?” He paused. “You’ve already trusted me with a lot of information. Why did you do that?”
“You are avoiding answering me.”
“Answer me first, then I’ll give you my answer.”
“I…uh…checked you out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I ran a background check on you through an agency that I trust. They gave me a lot of information. Stuff like Joshua West, tight end on a state champion football team. Your impressive GPA. You cost me fifty bucks, Josh. But you came out squeaky clean.”
****
Kate had carefully selected him. A young woman like Kate trusted him and, in a sense, needed him. He looked at her wide, excited blue eyes. At that moment, he would’ve marched into hell for Kate Brandt, in the figurative sense. Heaven and hell were not real places, but he suspected Kate believed differently. Would that become a problem? Probably, at some point. But maybe a problem they could work through. Kate’s attraction was so strong that he had to get to know her better, and he loved his country. Helping Kate would help—
“Josh? I need an answer.” Her eyes had turned to penetrating, blue steel.
“I’m in, Kate.”
Her eyes softened to sky-blue.
Was he going to regret this? He scanned Kate’s beautiful, smiling face.
No regrets. None at all.