14

 

Josh listened, for the most part, noting how Kate carefully, brilliantly answered the Canadian police officers’ questions, while avoiding information the FBI might not want to divulge at this point.

Once the Mounties were satisfied that Whistler and its citizens were secure, the questions stopped. Maybe they were being respectful of the sensitive subject matter, waiting to let the FBI probe more deeply.

What troubled Josh most was that somehow the man and woman had eluded the police and gotten away from Whistler Mountain. Though he and Kate gave the Mounties descriptions of the two, the police had not seen the man or the woman since the brief gun battle. Furthermore, a search of room 207 at the Pinnacle Hotel turned up no computers, only some clothing the two had left behind. Was there a third terrorist in Whistler?

After the questions ended, the police left Kate and him alone in an interrogation room with a guard at the door, while they waited for Peterson to arrive.

Kate opened her purse, pulled out her netbook, and opened it.

“What have you got in mind, Kate?”

“Well, we’ve got some time to kill, and I see three wireless routers in the area. One is unsecured. I’m going to do a little research.”

“You’re not going to get us into more trouble, are you? Peterson wouldn’t like that.”

She flashed him a disapproving look. “That’s right, you two are buddies now. You both abandoned Katie. Fed her to the wolves.” Her voice had a sharp edge to it.

Though it wasn’t true, her accusation still stung. “I would never abandon you, Kate.” The words flew from his mouth, surprising him with their intensity. Where had all those emotions come from?

Kate’s fingers stopped moving on the keyboard. She laid her hand over his. “I know you wouldn’t.” She moved her hand back to typing position.

Josh slid his chair beside hers and tried to focus on the matter at hand. But their touch, a few words, and a dozen other little things clearly indicated the growing intimacy between Kate and him. This was a first in the life of Joshua West, and he didn’t want to blow it by doing anything wrong or stupid.

Kate’s browser was pointed at a search engine. She typed in three search terms, terrorist, threat, fire.

“You really think that’s going to tell us anything?” Josh looked down at her knowing his face held a questioning frown.

“It’s worth a try.” Kate pressed enter.

A page of links popped up on her screen. She drew a sharp breath when she saw the link titles.

Josh put a hand on her shoulder. “Not good. Not good at all.”

Kate read slowly, “Al-Qaeda encourages forest fire arson. State officials prepare against terrorist fire threats. Al-Qaeda touts forest arson as terror.” She paused and pushed the page down key. The list continued for another full page. “What do you think now, Josh?”

So this fire attack hadn’t come out of the blue. “I think you’ve got something to tell Agent Peterson. Can you imagine how easy it would be to start a devastating forest fire with a radio-controlled plane carrying a fire bomb?”

Kate stared at the screen for a moment, and then met his gaze. “What if it wasn’t just one plane, but thirty or forty, all aimed at the driest forests in the western states? What if they launched the attacks simultaneously in mid-August?”

Visions of wildfires he had seen in Montana played through Josh’s mind. “Let’s pray they don’t.”

 

****

 

From her chair in the interrogation room, Katie heard the rapid staccato of a helicopter rotor. Her heart shifted into a higher gear. “I hope this goes well. For the first time, I don’t know how to handle Peterson or what to expect from him.”

Josh sat beside her, his big hand on her shoulder. “Just tell him what you found, Kate. He can’t come down too hard on us after he hears—”

“But I can’t disclose all of it here in front of a foreign country’s police. This is sensitive information.”

“Then tell him how sensitive your information is and let him decide where you brief him.” Josh paused. “Kate?”

She looked up at him.

He grinned as if something amused him. “Despite everything that happened, I’m glad I came up here with you.”

She returned his grin with a smile, then felt it fade away as images of Josh’s body falling from the gondola, or riddled with bullets, played in her mind. “And I’m glad I didn’t get you killed. What was I thinking, endangering you…”

Peterson’s booming voice sounded somewhere outside the interrogation room.

Josh took her hand, squeezed it, and gave her a tight-lipped smile.

The door swung open and a tall figure filled the doorway.

Katie gripped Josh’s hand as she met Peterson’s gaze.

“Katie Brandt, tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t arrest you right now.” He stared at her, hands on hips.

She tried to grin, but didn’t know what expression her face actually held. “Uh… Because, if you do, I won’t tell you certain information.”

“We’re not playing games here.” He closed the door behind him, pulled up a chair, and sat beside the table. “Keep your voice down and answer my questions. I’ll stop you if we need to move to a more secure location.”

She studied the tall agent’s eyes. “So my arrest is no longer imminent?”

His look softened and once again, he appeared as the man who was her adopted godfather and mentor. “Not if you cooperate and behave. Now, you mentioned fires and terrorists. Before I can even consider your information, I need to know how you obtained it.”

“I tracked them down using their Internet communications by identifying patterns of collaboration.”

“That’s what Jennifer used to do, but she had access to NSA’s classified database. Katie, you don’t even have a clearance.”

She met Peterson’s gaze, trying to portray confidence. “But I have my own database.”

“Please tell me that you didn’t borrow it.”

“No. I extended Jennifer’s doctoral work. You know, the work she never finished because she went to work for NSA and got married.”

“Extended it? So you created your own database from your own research?”

“I didn’t have any other option if I was going to prove my work could deter real threats.”

“Where is this database?” His voice became demanding. The softness was gone from his eyes.

Katie looked down at the floor. “Don’t worry. It’s encrypted and in a safe place.”

“Katie, you’re in way too deep.”

Josh cut in. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her.”

“At least your boyfriend has common sense.”

Her head popped back up. “Who said he was my boyfriend?”

“I have some evidence to that effect.” Josh squeezed her hand.

She pulled her hand from his. “Be quiet, Josh. That’s not fair, not even real.”

“We’re getting off track here.” Peterson looked from Josh to her. “You two can discuss your personal issues later. Right now, Katie, I need you to tell me everything you’ve learned about this conspiracy. And if you’ve drawn conclusions, I need to know your justification.”

“Justification?”

“Yes. You’ve taken some rather extreme measures. Risked your life by coming up here. Josh’s life, too. I want to know what was so compelling that you would do that.”

Katie drew a deep breath and blew it back out. She wasn’t at all sure this was the appropriate place to have this discussion. “I’ll need to start at the beginning. Are you sure you want me to do that here?”

“Yes. I’ll stop you if I think that’s necessary.”

At best, this would not paint her in a good light. At worst—she wasn’t ready to go there yet, and she prayed Peterson wouldn’t actually put her there. “OK. I enhanced Jennifer’s software that detects collaboration on the Internet. In parallel, I built my own database of terrorists, starting with IP addresses of known terrorist organizations at various locations, initially IP addresses I could easily scavenge from the Internet. The communication patterns I found identified more terrorist locations. Once I had what looked like the complete set of conspirators, I needed to know what they were plotting. So…I hacked a mail server and examined some of their email.”

“You knew that was illegal.” He shook his head at her.

She would not be shamed or intimidated. “Not illegal here. Illegal in Iran, maybe. But not in the United States.”

“Iran? Katie, you are playing with fire. And the legality, that’s a matter of interpretation.”

“And who’s going to interpret what I did as being illegal?”

Peterson’s body stiffened. “The people who are trying to kill you.”

“He’s got a point,” Josh said.

She shot him a frown. “Whose side are you on, Josh?”

“Yours.” Josh blew out a blast of air. “Somebody needs to be or you won’t live very long, Kate.”

Katie glared at Josh. “And who saved your life when you almost fell off the gondola?”

Peterson pounded on the table. “You two are both lucky to be alive. I don’t think I want to hear what happened on the gondola. But what I need to hear is a complete debriefing back at the Seattle field office, followed by a promise from both of you to stop hacking terrorist websites.”

Peterson still didn’t understand the scope of the danger. Katie shook her head. “There’s a lot more to this conspiracy than starting a forest fire, than even starting thirty or forty forest fires. Give me a little more time. I know I can prove it.”

“You’re not getting any more time, young lady. You’re going to give all of your information to me and let the FBI handle this.”

She feared this is how this conversation might end. She nodded her assent, but mentally ran through her remaining options. This threat was too serious to let Peterson stop her. The FBI would probably run out of time before they could spin up on this.

Josh looked from her to Peterson, and then sighed. “Kate, it’s best that you give this to the FBI. I’m glad you won’t be taking any more risks like—”

“But, Josh, you said…” She didn’t finish. Maybe Josh hadn’t really meant all of the things he said earlier. He had some explaining to do.

Peterson stood. Their meeting here was obviously over. “I want to return both of you safely to Seattle. Agent Ruska will drive Josh’s car back. Katie, you and Josh will fly back to Seattle with me and we’ll debrief there.” He gave her his stern look. “Then you will turn over all of your findings and your database to the FBI.”

Again, Katie nodded her compliance, but deep inside she knew the FBI, even with all of its resources, could not flesh out the conspirators and their plans as quickly as she could. Despite her incomplete traffic data and limited database, the tools she used were an order of magnitude more powerful, and would be more productive than what the FBI or NSA were using. She didn’t intend to have any more “Whistler” incidents. But she couldn’t just drop this. Josh could bail if he wanted to, but Katie would continue her work until she knew the full scope of this conspiracy.