With that, Ross got up and walked away from the table, seeing Shen’s stunned face reflected in a nearby mirror as he left.
Chapter 15: // Political Inversion
“Dr. Philips, you’ve seen the news. The economy is in shambles. Getting a five-year guaranteed contract with built-in cost-of-living adjustments would secure your future. And you could still work within the national intelligence apparatus. A lot of your colleagues have already made the jump.”
Natalie Philips looked across the table at two sharply attired recruiters from Weyburn Labs. They were sitting in the agency cafeteria. It had been months since the incident at Merritt’s funeral, and she had already been folded back into the NSA’s Crypto division—albeit stripped of decision-making authority.
“You’re wasting your time, gentlemen. And I don’t appreciate being ambushed like this. ”
“Look, the public sector is a great place for backbenchers, but someone of your prodigious intellect could have a bright future.” He leaned forward. “You could still finish your current project—”
The second executive finished for him. “But at a substantially higher salary.”
“And performance bonuses.”
Philips betrayed no emotion. “But I’d be working for Weyburn Labs. There are potential conflict-of-interest issues that I don’t think help the mission.”
“National security is everyone’s goal, Doctor.”
“There was a time when I believed that.”
They looked at each other, affecting hurt feelings.
“Weyburn Labs has a long and fruitful partnership with the U.S. government. Our current CEO was a four-star general.”
She nodded as she poked at her salad. “That may be, but I’m not leaving the NSA.”
“And you really think your career here can advance after that fiasco with the Daemon Task Force?”
She glared at him.
Apparently sensing that things were going downhill, the other recruiter leaned in again and spoke softy. “You’re not the only bright person working on the Daemon. Big things are afoot, Doctor. Things not even you know about.”
“We shouldn’t be discussing this here.”
He edged even closer. “Building from your work, we’ve started to gain access to the darknet.”
She stopped eating.
“This is top secret information, of course.”
Philips eyed them both closely. “Who is doing this?”
“Come join the Weyburn Labs team and find out. . . .”
Just then a uniformed Central security officer walked up to the table. “Dr. Philips?”
“Yes?”
“You need to come with me, ma’am. Deputy Director Fulbright needs you in the Ops Center, ASAP.”
Philips shot one last look at the recruiters, then stood with her tray.
The security officer grabbed it from her. “I’ll get that, ma’am. Please just proceed to the CSS vehicle waiting curbside.”
“Gentlemen. If you’ll excuse me.”
“Think about what we said, Doctor.”
Ops Center 1 was a dimly lit digital front line of uniformed military personnel manning rows of computer monitors. They were there to categorize and prioritize America’s various raw intelligence feeds, but today Ops Center 1 was also thick with Department of Defense brass and men in nicely tailored suits. They stared at Philips and whispered among themselves as she was ushered by two air force officers into a nearby conference room where the door was immediately closed behind her.
Inside the darkened conference room, more military officers and suited executives stared up at a large video screen, which displayed what looked to be live footage of a foreign city—somewhere in China, judging by the street signage.
The moment Philips walked in, Deputy Director Chris Fulbright grabbed her by the elbow and escorted her toward the center of the room. Normally soft-spoken and reserved, Fulbright was keyed up and edgy. Something serious was going on. And if they called her in, then that could only mean it involved the Daemon.
“It looks like Jon Ross has surfaced again.”
A wave of surprise hit her—and then worry. “Where?”
“Shenzhen, China.”
“China?” She was about to ask how he’d managed to get there, but that was, of course, a ridiculous question. Jon Ross was an identity thief and hacker—he could be anyone he wanted to be. And if Loki was to be believed, Ross was now a Daemon operative to boot. She just nodded. “A world-class manufacturing hub. High-end electronics.”
“That makes sense then. Our intelligence shows the Daemon has become increasingly embedded in the high-tech manufacturing supply chain of Asia—and that the Chinese know there’s some new force exerting influence domestically. They still don’t seem to know what it is. They think it has something to do with the Falun Gong—or other political opposition groups.”
“Who found Jon?” She braced herself for the answer.
“PLA Cyber warfare unit. Someone connected with General Zhang Zi Min—head of the MSS. They’re carrying out an op to grab Ross right now. . . .” Fulbright gestured to the central screen, which even as he spoke showed shaky video of heavily armed SWAT teams lying in wait around building corners. There were scores of them. A low-flying chopper passed momentarily in front of the frame, occluding the view. “We got word of it in unencrypted intercepts. I don’t need to remind you that—aside from you—no one knows more about the Daemon’s architecture than Jon Ross. If the Chinese grab him—”
“The Ragnorok module. They’d be able to use the Daemon against us.”
Fulbright nodded. “We don’t think the Chinese have even detected—much less decrypted—the IP beacon the Daemon is broadcasting. At least not yet. But capturing Ross might give them access to both. In particular, the Destroy function. That would give the Chinese the ability to destroy individual corporate data on demand—and from there who knows where that knowledge goes. If word got out, it could cause a global stock market panic.”
“But the Chinese are co-invested with America, they wouldn’t—”
“General Zhang is the wild card here. We think his people were responsible for the illicit back doors in corporate routers. It appears the Daemon is closing them, and it’s made Zhang increasingly desperate for something to justify his existence.”
“What do you need me to do?”
Fulbright gestured to several men in suits who were already eyeing her from their place among the generals. “These men want you to identify Ross in that crowd. Before the Chinese get to him.”
Philips looked around the room, suddenly noticing just how many people here were wearing visitor badges.
“Natalie, please . . .” He nodded toward the screen.
She looked up at the video image, now zooming in to scan the patrons of a martini bar. It looked like a sniper’s perspective from a distant rooftop. “They’re going to kill him.”
Fulbright gripped her shoulder. “You don’t know that. We simply need to identify him in that crowd, Doctor.”
“Who are all these men?” She was eyeing the contractors who were even now staring back at her.
“Doctor, we’ve been given a simple directive. We need to provide information.”
“To whom?”
“Natalie, Jon Ross escaped our custody and fled to a foreign power. He’s a serious danger to national security.”
“But—”
“This isn’t a debate. You worked alongside him for months. He may have changed his appearance since then, but you have an eye for detail. Help us identify him in that crowd.”
Philips felt her pulse quickening as she looked up at the screen. There was no way she could do this. And yet, what Director Fulbright said was true. Ross did possess information that the Chinese would be desperate to have—information that they were likely to torture him to get. They might kill him in the process. But if she pointed him out to these men—what then? She tried to remain poker-faced as her mind kept rejecting the cold facts.