“Jake?” one of the FBI agents asked. “What are you doin’?”
“Come on, Jake, pick on someone your own size,” another agent said.
“Yeah,” another added. “For Christ sakes, Jake, don’t embarrass yourself by doing this.”
Jake bounced around, loosening up. “I’ll take it easy on you.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“I’ve mastered Krav Maga, and Tae Kwon Do. Almost there on two others.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said calmly.
At six-two and one-hundred-ninety-eight pounds of muscle, Jake towered over her by thirteen inches and outweighed her by a hundred pounds. She looked more like a child standing in front of him.
“I’ll be nice. You can make the first move.”
“With all of the disciplines you have learned, there’s something important they neglected to teach you,” she said.
By now every agent in the gym had circled the mats.
“Yeah, what’s that?”
All he saw was a momentary blur and everything went black. When he opened his eyes, he was flat on his back on the mat. The few fellow agents that remained were laughing and walking away, shaking their heads.
“Wha… what happened?”
“That thing they neglected to teach you about all those fancy moves?” she said softly as she knelt over him.
“Yeah?”
“You have to be conscious in order to use them.”
Jake started to get up when a wave of nausea forced him back onto the mat.
“Ahhh…God.”
“Just lie still. It’ll pass in about fifteen minutes.”
This is why Deputy Director Ellington had told her to be nice, Jake realized. A little too late for that to sink in. “Was I out cold?”
“Yep.”
“For how long?”
“About three minutes.”
“What the hell did you do to me?”
“I gave you an opportunity to replace some of your arrogance with a little bit of humility.”
Jake breathed out slowly. If I want her to be nice to me, I have to be really nice to her, don’t I? he thought.
“I was being arrogant, wasn’t I?”
“Yes. And while you’re recovering, you can practice being humble.”
“I’m sorry, Agent Badger, I was being rude and disrespectful. I apologize.”
“Apology accepted, Agent Hunter.”
“So where did you learn to do…what you did to me?”
“I spent part of my childhood and early teenage years in Hong Kong, the rest in Tokyo. My dad worked in the intelligence community. I loved martial arts, and because of my dad’s connections, I got to study with some very talented masters.”
He tried to move and the nausea returned.
“Just relax,” she reminded him.
“But what did you do to me? All I saw was a slight blur.”
She smiled. “It’s a Chinese system. There are twelve master meridian points on the body. Force isn’t required — only speed. All you have to do is tap five of the twelve master meridian points in less than a half second, and the body systems all shut down. I tapped six on you, that’s why it’ll take fifteen minutes for you to be able to move again. With seven points, you’d be down for half an hour.”
“Is it possible to hit all twelve points within that half second?”
“Yes. I can do that.”
“And then what?”
“Then, you die.”
CHAPTER 3
Peter Steinmetz studied the results of the latest test of the solar weapon on the private computer network he had installed in his home. He would normally be at his office, but with his position came a little bit of latitude in his work responsibilities. He had only one person above him at this point, and that person was extraordinarily busy by any standard. So flexibility was the rule of the day.
His wife of twenty-nine years, Ileana, was out shopping. Their two grown children were out on their own and doing well. The boy, Robert, was a commodity trader in Manhattan and the girl, Gwen, was an attorney in the Justice Department.
The solar weapon was on target, but there were variations to take into consideration: the more powerful the CME was, the faster it moved through space, thus impacting the arrival time and placement of the target. Since the surface of the sun and the target were both in constant motion, the mathematical calculations were complex. The saving grace was: the larger the CME, the smaller the target became by comparison.
Honi decided that despite Jake’s propensity for wandering into remote and arcane pieces of science, he had actually stumbled onto a major international money laundering operation. That and the attitude adjustment she’d administered earned him a second chance. She just needed to bring him up to speed on what the NSA could add to the investigation.
“I’ve got a dozen words that appeared in a contrived context from the phone on the International Funds Transfer Desk,” she said as she handed the list to Jake. “I don’t know what they mean or represent at this point. You have any ideas?”
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean, maybe?”
“Phoenix is on your list. In what context was it used?”
“It could have been a group of people, an organization, or a company, something like that.”
“It’s an organization.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s a working hypothesis at this point, not an established fact.” Jake said.
“So what other words have you figured out?”
“That’s it, so far. You?”
“My hope is that we can find the same words in connecting phone conversations and add to the context. That may lead us to the hidden meanings.”
They arrived at the NSA building just before noon. The building was constructed of a double glass outer wall made with reflective and filtering material embedded in the glass. That combination prevented outside surveillance by any known technology. She walked Jake through the scanning devices and into the security supervisor’s office.
“This is FBI Special Agent Hunter,” she said. “He’s the one I told you about. This is Sebastian Pettigrew, head of building security.”
“Agent Hunter,” Sebastian Pettigrew said as he stood. They shook hands.
“I need his security level upgraded,” Honi said.
“I’m already cleared for all top level security issues.”
“I know. That’s the only reason they let you in the front door. Everything else in here starts at that level and goes up from there.”
“So what do you need?” Pettigrew asked.
“I need him moved up to code word Gargoyle.”
Pettigrew raised his eyebrows and typed on his computer. His eyes scanned the screen. He typed some more and studied the screen. “I’ve contacted the FBI. They’ll approve the upgrade as soon as the director signs off on it.”
“Can you call him now?” she asked.
“It’s that important?”
“Yeah. It’s that important.”
He picked up the phone and punched in the number. Ten minutes later a woman walked in carrying a plastic card on a lanyard. The light blue card had Jake’s photo and name on it with VISITOR in red letters and a black square on the bottom surrounding a large letter ‘G’. Jake put the lanyard around his neck.
“Thanks, Sebastian.”
Pettigrew nodded.
Honi led Jake out the door, down the hall to the elevators and pushed the down button. They waited until the door closed. She swiped her ID card past the sensor.
“Name?” came a female voice from the speaker.
“Honika Badger,” she replied.
“Voice print confirmed. Level?”
“B6,” Honi said.
“Agent Hunter will be allowed only in area 4 of basement level six,” the voice said. The elevator began descending.