The dead man was named Tom Connolly. Once a CIA agent, then a private contractor, and then a traitor to his country. He had been working for Jinshan for a little over a year now. This was his final assignment. He would receive no payment.
Behind the smoke, Lisa trudged into the sea wearing a tight black wetsuit. Before submerging, she looked up at the sky. Up there, somewhere, was an American drone. Or perhaps a satellite. She wondered if their network link was still operational, or if the cyberattacks had rendered them useless.
She blew a kiss to the sky.
Then she pulled a scuba mask over her face and unlatched the fins from her belt. She threw them over her feet, twisted open the oxygen valve of the thirty-minute container that was strapped to her back, and dove into the warm waters of the Arabian Gulf.
Chapter 13
Elliot and Chase stood looking at blank screens. The last thing anyone in the room had seen of the Bandar Abbas attack was the roadside bomb going off and destroying the troop transport.
“What in the hell is going on?” Elliot was fuming.
The screen was black. A small bit of text read: Satellite Signal Error 33948.29.2
Chase noticed that the other screens around the room all had similar error messages. Even the tactical displays seemed off. The main tactical display on the big screen, front and center of the room, was showing double the number of tracks it had a minute earlier. They weren’t syncing up with the datalink.
One of the enlisted Air Force men at the console said, “Sir, the system’s shit the bed.”
Chase frowned. It seemed odd that the tactical display, which used a different datalink than the drone, would fail at the same time. He looked around the room and saw just about everyone was troubleshooting some type of error.
The commotion in the room was getting louder. Someone said, “Use the radios.”
“Satcom radios are down, but we’ve got line-of-sight comms like VHF and UHF.”
Elliot said, “Well, that’s not going to get that video stream over Bandar Abbas back up, is it?”
“No, sir.”
One of the women manning a tactical display screen said to no one in particular, “All the links are down. The instant messengers are down. What the hell is going on?”
Chase felt a chill. This reminded him of 9/11. He had only been in high school. But the way multiple problems were occurring all at the same time… this had to be a coordinated attack.
Elliot sounded exasperated. He held a red phone to his ear and shook his head, looking at Chase. “Nothing.”
One of the men who had been talking on a radio headset called to the duty officer, “The next pass for surveillance in that area will be an EP-3, but they’re troubleshooting on the ground. They’re experiencing systems problems too.”
Elliot walked over to the Air Force officer who had been controlling the drone over Bandar Abbas. “Does that thing record video to its own hard drive?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is it going to crash somewhere over there if it doesn’t have a network link-up?”
“No, sir. It should automatically go back to its emergency landing field and make an instrument landing.”
Elliot said, “Okay, let me ask a real easy question.” He looked at the duty officer. “When this thing lands, how soon can you get me the video that it recorded on its hard drive?”
The duty officer said, “We’ll look into it, sir. It will probably be at least twelve hours or so.”
Elliot said, “Understand that this”—he motioned to the blank screens around the room—“and this”—he picked up the red phone without a dial tone—“is an attack. Someone has just attacked us.”
The room was quiet as they all listened to Elliot’s rant.
“Get me that freaking video as soon as possible. I need to know who was responsible for this attack.”
“Yes, sir.”
The room came alive as everyone scrambled to troubleshoot the communications and link problems they were having.
Chase noticed that the only screen still showing anything of value was the Fox News channel. The volume was off. It was on a small screen in the corner of the room, but to Chase, it may as well have been a billboard. He walked up underneath it.
His brother David’s face was being broadcast to the world. Underneath it was the headline: Manhunt in Australia Underway. A subheadline read: US men suspected of selling cybertechnology to Iran.
Chase looked over at Elliot to see if he had seen it. He was looking right at him.
They went to an office around the corner from the Tactical Operations Center, where they had been talking before. The door was closed. A small TV in the room showed CNN. The news channel was flipping between coverage of the two Americans on the run in Australia and the Iranian attacks at Bandar Abbas. They had the volume on low.
“We can now provide you the names of the two American men that are considered armed and dangerous. David Manning and Henry Glickstein are believed to be somewhere in Australia or the Philippines. A global police manhunt is underway. Authorities say they have recordings of the men claiming responsibility for stealing US military cybertechnology secrets and selling them to Iran. They also participated in planning attacks against the United States. No word yet on whether any of this is related to the other major news coming out of Iran today.
“And a breaking news update on that other major Iran story — the violent attack that has killed a top Iranian politician and his wife, who we have now learned is the niece of the Iranian Supreme Leader. The Iranian government has stated that they now have indisputable DNA evidence linking the American government to the attack. They have provided a name — Tom Connolly — a man who Iran claims was the CIA operative who was behind the gruesome attack that left over two dozen dead. The US State Department has condemned the attack but has yet to put out a formal statement regarding this new DNA evidence. Another report coming out of Tehran cites a second American CIA operative by the name of Lisa Parker who was involved in the operation. Thus far the CIA has declined to comment.”
Chase spoke in a quiet voice. “There’s something you should know. I just checked my email and voice mail. David called me today.” Chase was conflicted. He knew what he wanted to do and he needed Elliot’s help, but he wasn’t sure that he’d go for it.
Elliot raised an eyebrow. “Now, you listen very carefully, Chase. I know he is your brother. But if you have any idea about where he is, if you know his whereabouts, then you need to let me know. Let’s hear the message.”
“I understand. But listen for a minute. Let’s think about this. You know my family. You have known my dad for years. Do you really think someone in my family would do something like this?”
Elliot breathed in through his nose and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he said, “No, I do not. But I have seen enough screwed-up things lately that I can’t tell up from down.”
Chase put his phone on speaker and played the voice mail.
“Chase, it’s David. I… I’m okay. Please tell Lindsay that I love her. I couldn’t get in touch with her and… I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me yet, so just please let her know that you heard from me and that I’m okay and that I love her. Listen, I’m in trouble. Some pretty bad things are going on. Some people may be after me and I… I’ll call you soon.”