Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
“Sir, I might have found something!”
Leroux glanced up at Randy Child as he rushed into the operations center, waving a tablet. “What have you got?”
Child reached Leroux’s station. “I was at my desk, pulling footage on those bodies we found at the Port of Baltimore, and I might have something.”
Leroux’s eyebrows shot up, a wave of guilt washing over him. “Shit, I forgot about that. What did you find?”
Child tapped at his tablet then handed it to Leroux.
“What am I looking at?”
“Security camera footage showing how they were killed.”
Leroux watched in awe as a woman, dressed as Nadja Katz had been, swung across the dockyards on top of a shipping container, leaping to another, before blasting the doors open as she continued through the air.
His heart leaped. “Is that—?” He hesitated to say it as two women slid down a rope to the ground with Katz.
“I believe it’s Agent White and Lee Fang.”
Leroux gasped as he saw Fang drop hard to the ground, gripping her side. “She’s been hit!”
“Yes, sir, I believe so.”
The three women ran out of frame. Leroux handed the tablet back. “Were you able to track them?”
Child nodded, bringing up another video showing a box van leaving the docks. “I believe they’re in this vehicle. It came from the general vicinity of where they were running toward, and…” He pulled up a frame capture of the main gate. “…Katz is clearly behind the wheel a short while before.”
Leroux sucked in a quick breath, some hope returning. “Were you able to trace it?”
“I caught it on a few video cameras, and I’m pretty sure it was heading south, out of the city. They could be anywhere, but my money’s on DC.”
“Why?”
Child shrugged. “Hunch, I guess. If you look at the time it would take for her to get to DC, then to here, it roughly coincides with when she turned herself in.”
Leroux nodded. “See what you can find.”
“You got it.”
Child headed for the door when Morrison rushed into the room.
“I’ve confirmed with the President that Croft’s company was given the contract, and the system is rolling out nationwide as we speak.”
Child turned toward them, one hand holding open the door. “They’re here already.”
Morrison froze and Leroux spun in his chair. “What?”
“Croft Technologies, right? I saw about a dozen of them in the lobby earlier.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Child shrugged. “I didn’t know you were looking. I’ve been at my desk.” His eyes narrowed. “Why?”
Nobody answered, Leroux already grabbing his desk phone. “Get me security. It’s urgent!”
“One moment, please.” He heard the call transferred then picked up a moment later.
“Security desk.”
“Hold for Director Morrison.” He handed the phone to his boss.
“This is Director Morrison. Immediately arrest all Croft Technologies staff and contractors on site. Shoot them if they try to touch a computer. Understood?”
Apparently they did, Morrison handing the phone back.
Leroux hung it up. “I hope we get to them in time.”
Morrison shook his head. “Who the hell knows? The President is ordering the immediate halt and detention now, but it’s been nearly a full day. If they were after a specific system, they would have prioritized it so they’d install there first. We may already be too late.”
Tong stepped over. “They had to know they’d be caught, right?”
Leroux nodded. “Eventually, I guess. But would they be? If it weren’t for Katz, we would never have found out about Croft.”
“Right, but if their system is installed, wouldn’t we get suspicious when the hacks continued?”
“I’d hope so.” Leroux stood, staring at the displays still showing news reports from across the nation. He spun toward Morrison. “Whatever they’re going to do, it has to be soon. Very soon.”
Morrison nodded. “We need to find Croft.”
Tong sighed. “If only we had a starting point.”
Morrison’s head swiveled toward her. “We do! The President said he met with him and the Vice President in the Oval Office last night.”
Tong and Leroux exchanged excited glances.
“Security protocols would have been in place because of the crisis,” said Leroux.
“Which means they’d have done an IMSI capture of his phone when he arrived.”
“And scanners would have been activated all over DC.”
“Which means we can track him anywhere in the city!”
“Run with it!”
Tong grinned and rushed back to her terminal, leaving a lost Morrison standing in front of an excited Leroux.
“What the hell is an imzee?”
“I-M-S-I. International Mobile Subscriber Identity-catcher. They basically pretend to be a cellphone tower and scan for signals. We can pull phone numbers, text messages, intercept calls, listen in on calls, pretty much the works depending on the phone. They’re illegal and can only be used with a warrant. But in times of national emergencies, they’re automatically enabled so that we can track the movements of terrorists if they had their phones turned on during an attack.”
Morrison nodded. “Right, I read about those, I just never heard IMSI said out loud. So you can trace him with this?”
“If we can get our hands on the White House scan, we’ll know what device to look for, then see what scanners he triggered in the city, so we can see where he went, what calls he made, anything.”
“Can you just trace his cellphone?”
“Yes, once we have the number, assuming it’s on and has a signal.”
Morrison jabbed a finger at Leroux’s station. “Then get on it. I want to know the second you have him.” He headed for the door. “Now, I need to see what damage those Croft bastards did. Maybe we can get one of them to talk.”
“Do you really think they know what they’re doing?”
Morrison paused. “I did until you asked.”
Leroux stepped toward him. “That company has tens of thousands of employees. To install nationwide, they’re using most of them. There’s no way they’re all involved in a criminal conspiracy. At least not knowingly.”
Morrison frowned. “So we could be arresting patsies?”
“I’m willing to bet that the only ones that actually know what they’re doing, are the ones installing on the system the Assembly actually cares about.”
“And we have no idea which one that is.”
Leroux shook his head. “Not a damn clue.”