After that they left the motel looking for a used-car lot. They entered the first used-car dealership they found. The salesman, dressed like a cowboy, greeted them with a false smile that displayed white even teeth, obviously the work of an orthodontist, as false as his smile. Nagib told him they were short of cash and needed to trade their new, expensive Toyota for a reliable, cheap car. The dealer exuded a few more smiles and made them an offer that would have been considered insulting under any other circumstances but they were in no position to refuse. Nagib managed to increase the price by a few hundred dollars but the dealer knew they were in trouble and refused to budge any further. He said he'd sweeten the deal by selling them a cheap Nissan. Nagib asked if there was a guarantee on the car, and the dealer assured him that he offered a "5-50 guarantee" on all the cars he sold. Nagib asked if he meant 5 years and 50 thousand miles and with a small smile the dealer replied that he meant 5 minutes and 50 yards after they drove off the lot. Nagib did not see anything funny in that, but signed the ownership transfer papers and left in cloud of smoke from the Nissan's exhaust.
The head of security at the Lab, Colonel Groovey, looked as if he was about to have a massive coronary. His face was crimson red, his blood pressure skyrocketed and an uncontrollable tremor of his hands indicated that he may not live through the day. The security guard, Albert Danillo, stood in front of him and could barely refrain from wetting himself. Albert had been too many ball games where the unruly fans uttered a never-ending stream of curses at the referee, his mother and his whole line of ancestors whenever he ruled against their home team, but until today he had never heard anything like it off the sports field. The Colonel's tirade went on and on and the expletives were literally and figuratively a masterpiece of the English language. Had someone bothered to record what was said in the Colonel's office, it certainly couldn't be described as a conversation, and used it as an example in a class on English literature, it would have certainly won the first prize in any contest. The intimidated guard tried to explain that he was convinced that no harm was done and that it was only a system error that triggered the alarm that someone had inserted a memory stick into Dr. Level's computer. He said that he intended to investigate the matter the next day when Dr. Level returned to work as no one told him that the good doctor was on his way to an extended vacation abroad. The Colonel called him a stupid, asinine, dumb idiot and added another few invectives unfit to print, and told him that he would stand trial for treason, no less, because his negligence had caused more harm to the national security than anyone since Klaus Fuchs passed the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviets during the Manhattan Project. Groovey picked up the phone and summoned two security guards to escort their former colleague to the local police station where he would be charged with a dozen different variations of breaking every law in the book.
After Albert was taken away, the Colonel started to prepare his own defense in view of his pending interrogation by the DHS, FBI, CIA, NNSA security division, local police and any other law enforcement agency that had jurisdiction at the Lab, or cause for investigation of the removal of highly classified information pertaining to national security from the Lab. The Colonel had already received a detailed report on the classified material that was downloaded from the files on Dr. Level's computer. He also knew that Dr. Level was questioned in Paris by the head of the local CIA office and described what had happened that afternoon in his office. Dr. Level was already forcibly placed on a plane that was on its way from Paris to Washington. What really concerned the Colonel was that the real culprit had been identified as Dr. Nagib Jaber — the very same person whom he had personally interrogated and judged to be "an honest, hard working, loyal American". There was no doubt that Nagib was responsible for the fiasco. This was based on Dr. Level's testimony and on the fact that Nagib and Alia had disappeared from their home and work without giving any explanation. Adding insult to injury, the Colonel recalled that on the very day the event occurred he had welcomed Nagib when he visited Alia at the security office. He was flabbergasted when he realized that at the very same time Nagib had the offending stick memory in his pocket. He murmured quietly "I should have shot the bastard on the spot" and seriously considered using his gun to shoot himself and avoid the embarrassment that was inevitable.
The extent of the damage was still being assessed by the NNSA but it was already obvious that the most advanced and detailed designs of nuclear weapons had been copied. Two task forces had been nominated by the President himself. One team was in charge of locating and arresting Dr. Nagib Jaber and his wife Alia and recovering the sensitive files before they were distributed. This task force included representatives of the FBI, DHS and the NNSA. They had a directive signed by the President that allowed them to enlist support from any local police force they saw fit, but at the present time they had no idea of the whereabouts of the culprits so they did not know whose help they would need. The second task force included representatives from the NNSA, NSA, DHS, CIA and other agencies that could help in finding the motives and objectives of Nagib. While the first task force had to focus on physical evidence to find the culprits the second task force had to rely mainly on intelligence and psychology.
The first task force convened in Los Alamos. They used one of the rooms in the Bradbury Science Museum as they expected they would have to question people who could did have the necessary security clearance and access to the Lab. The representatives had arrived from Washington that morning or the previous night and after having a light lunch got down to business. Despite the objection of the DHS, the FBI was put in charge of the task force and its representative, Penny Grant, was a no-nonsense former field agent who had risen through the ranks by a combination of intelligence, intuition and ruthlessness. Her first order of the day was to post an all-points-bulletin with the names, photos and description of Nagib and Alia. This was immediately distributed to FBI and police forces nationwide. In addition all border crossings were alerted, especially those that were close to Los Alamos, like the point between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The task force members were aware of the fact that it would take only five or six hours to reach that crossing from Los Alamos but wanted to cover that point because it was the closest crossing.
Colonel Groovey was brought into the conference room and was asked to provide as much background information as possible of Nagib and Alia. The Colonel knew that the only way he could redeem himself, at least partly, was by full cooperation with the task force. He was very frank about the fact that Alia was employed in his own office and that he had been grossly mistaken to trust her. He reiterated the two interrogations of Nagib — first the polygraph examination that he had passed with flying colors and next the session with Eugene Powers where Nagib had impressed him as a loyal patriot. The Colonel admitted that he had been negligent and did not notice any signs that there was a renegade in their midst. He said that he had believed that Nagib and Alia would be grateful to the US for giving them a real opportunity to lead a better life than their parents had in the old country, and was therefore surprised that they had turned into traitors. The main impression he left on the members of the task force was that he was totally unfit for his position as head of security in a sensitive facility like the Lab. Penny expressed the general feeling by designating the Colonel as "a stupid, narrow minded bureaucrat" who was suitable, at best, for "marching up and down the square" as in the memorable Monty Python film.