The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda #1)(59)

“Just a second, I’ll check.” The phone clattered as Carl set down his receiver. A minute later, he returned. “I have you down for an appointment on February fourteenth.”

“Valentine’s Day? Those doctors over there are getting a little funny with their heart jokes, don’t you think?”

“It could be a coincidence.”

“Uh-huh. Carl, you don’t believe that for a second, and neither do I. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I want you to cancel it. With all that’s going on in the world right now, I don’t want to be out of the loop, even for a day.”

“Sir, do you really think that’s wise?” A note of concern sounded in Palmer's voice.

“Carl, I feel fine. Once things settle down, they can prod me to their hearts’ content. For right now, though, make the call.”

“Okay. I’ll do it this morning. Anything else, sir?”

“No. I think I’ve bothered you enough for one night. Go back to sleep, Carl.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Good night, sir.”

“Good night, Carl.”

As he clicked off his phone, the vice president leaned back in his chair, hearing the creak of soft leather as he settled all the way into it. You just couldn’t beat the feel of Italian leather.





Chapter 40





The sunlight streaming through the dirty attic window spotlighted a small cloud of dust specks that floated above the secure SATCOM link. That link to the NSA provided fax, voice, and data, all digitally encrypted. The attic provided a discrete office, exactly the type Jack wanted, complete with pull-down steps from the second-floor hallway below. It was why he had chosen to rent this house.

“Janet, what have you got for me?”

“Just what you’ve been looking for, Jacky boy.” Janet Price walked across the small attic space and dropped a small stack of papers on Jack’s desk. “Hot off the fax. The profile of our mole is on top since I knew you were hot for it,” she continued. “Next are the security clearance background investigations of every person assigned to the Rho Project.”

Jack leafed through the stack.

“Hmm. Heavy-duty mathematician. Real shocker there. Excellent computer programmer but inexperienced with top-level security systems. Good language skills but nonnative Russian speaker. Blah, blah, blah…” Jack tossed the top couple of pages in the shredder pile. “Exactly what we already thought. Why do they pay those folks?”

Jack continued through the rest of the background reports on Rho Project personnel. Now this was more like it. After several minutes, he looked across the small room to where Janet sat patiently awaiting his response.

“So let’s run through what we know and what we suspect. We know this person is a math wizard and really, really good with computers. We suspect they haven’t had much secure network experience. That last rules out a Special Forces or spy type.”

“Unless they’re trying to look amateurish.”

“No. That doesn’t feel right. This person's no spy.”

“So he or she is a scientist.”

“Yes. Number one or two in his class, Cal Tech type, doctorate by twenty-five, flat-out genius.”

“That describes about half the people on the project. Hell, Jack, a third of the physicists and mathematicians in Los Alamos fit that profile.”

“That’s okay. We can narrow it down. It has to be someone on the project, but we can eliminate the technicians. They don’t have the math background.”

Janet crossed her legs, leaning farther back in the chair. “So that’s our in.”

“You’ve got it. We don’t want to go after anyone who could be our man. He’d get suspicious. We want to start with someone on the project who we know can’t be the mole, but who has access.”

Jack shuffled the papers, finally pulling two sets.

“This one is perfect. A technician with a reputation for being able to build anything. Everyone uses him to build specialized equipment.”

Janet reached over to take the papers from Jack’s outstretched hand. “Gilbert McFarland? Looks boring enough. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“We did that last night.” Jack winked at her.

“Play your cards right and it might not be a one-time occurrence.” Janet’s wicked smile seemed to heat the room.

Jack shook off the thought. That would have to wait. “Did you notice that the McFarlands are regular churchgoers?”

“Lutherans. Sounds like we’re going to get a little religion, Mr. Johnson.”

“We could use it, Mrs. Johnson. By the way, how’d it go down at the school today?”

“No problems. I met with Principal Zumwalt. I told him we had just moved here and that I wanted to apply for a teaching job next year. He seemed impressed with my application and certifications and said I’d start getting substitute calls right away. It’s cold and flu season.”

“Good. We want you hopping around the classrooms. And anything let slip in front of a high school kid is guaranteed to slip further. Besides, we only need to spot little oddities.”

“How about you, Jack? How’d your day go?”

“As expected. I made the rounds of all the local government offices. Introduced myself as Jack Johnson, field agent for the Environmental Protection Agency.”