Revolutionary in design and concept, SWAMI would also capture sensitive economic and financial data from foreign governments and multinational corporations. That capacity virtually guaranteed long-term continued American domination of technological intelligence gathering.
Ingram watched the videotape of Sara Brannon's arrival at Kerney's house, caught on camera by a transmitter placed on a neighboring house.
He watched Kerney's cautious approach and entry. He listened to the tape recordings of their conversations, including their after-dinner exchange in Kerney's truck that had been picked up by a mobile unit trailing a kilometer behind the vehicle.
Tim shook his head at the thought of Sara Brannon's involvement in the case.
With her army credentials and contacts, she just might be able to break through the Trade Source and APT Per forma corporate shields. While that wouldn't get her to the SWAMI secrets, it was unacceptable nonetheless.
Ingram knew Brannon personally. A recent blurb in the West Point alumni magazine had reported she'd been the first in their class to make lieutenant colonel and earn the highly coveted Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious service while serving in Korea.
Elaine Cornell, aka Special Agent Applewhite, was a member of the same graduating class. He wondered how Applewhite would react to the news of Brannon's arrival.
He went to a SWAMI console, where one of the operators had locked into Sara's Internet server. The screen rolled data in from Saras laptop.
Information about Cornell from the West Point Association of Graduates Web site scrolled across the screen. It confirmed her cover as a resigned officer now serving as a special agent with the FBI. The next name Sara entered was his own.
Ingram clamped his mouth shut. How in the hell had she got onto him?
He was supposed to be embedded deep enough to be under anyone's radar.
Who had made him, and how? He had to report the breach.
Tim ran over the current body count in his mind. Too many had died in an operation that was supposed to be bloodless. Kevin Kerney they and Charlie Perry would soon join them. Would the brass be willing to neutralize Sara Brannon, too, one of their own?
Under the guise of national security it had been done to others before, quietly and away from public scrutiny. There were any number of ways to wind up accidentally dead in the military: training exercise disasters, chopper crashes, getting washed off the deck of a ship in choppy seas.
He wanted to call Sara, a woman he liked and respected, and tell her to get her butt on a plane back to Fort Leavenworth right away. But that wasn't possible.
He watched as names he didn't recognize got entered into government Web-site search engines from Sara's laptop.
"Who the hell are those people?" he asked the operator.
"One moment, sir," the operator said, switching his attention to a computer keyboard.
"I'll add them in as SWAMI key words."
He typed in the names and SWAMI answered back.
"People who attended Mrs. Terrell's funeral," the operator said.
Ingram pulled up a chair.
"Let's see where else she goes."
It was after midnight when Kerney knocked on Sara's hotel room door.
She opened up wearing shorts and a sleeveless tank top. She had a ballpoint pen clenched in her teeth.
Kerney resisted an impulse to take her in his arms. He leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek. She pulled back.
"You called?" he asked.
"Do you really want to hear my take on this?"
"I do."
Sara walked barefooted to the large writing desk in the nicely furnished sitting room, and picked up a notepad.
"First, Trade Source and APT Performa are legitimate companies with solid performance records as military subcontractors, and as far as I can tell SWAMI isn't being treated like some big secret government project. Instead, it's being touted as a private-sector technological breakthrough."
"I'm aware of that," Kerney said.
"But private outfits have been fronts for intelligence agencies before.
The CIA used both private companies and nonprofit aid agencies to run covert operations in Vietnam."
"True, and more recently they've done the same in Latin America. But that's the CIA. I've never heard of the military going outside their sphere of authority."
"Would it be possible?"
Sara moved to the couch and sat.
"Possible, but not likely."
Kerney took the easy chair.. "We have Thayer on tape referring to Ingram as 'major' and telling him the commanding general of INS COM-army intelligence-had ordered something done."
"It could simply be a matter of Thayer using military etiquette. I did some Internet surfing. Ingram and Cornell-that's Applewhite's real name-are West Point graduates. In fact, they were members of my class.
I was able to easily identify them from the photographs you gave me.
According to their alumni biographies they resigned their commissions as captains. But Ingram may be serving in the reserves as a major. I haven't checked that out yet."
"How well did you know them?" Kerney asked.
"Not well. They were in the middle of the class academically and both were hard-core jocks. Ingram seemed nice enough, Cornell was the competitive type who hated to lose."
"What were their service branches?"
"Both were in military intelligence before resigning and joining the FBI."
"That doesn't ring any bells for you?"
"Not in and of itself," Sara said.
"On the federal level its not difficult to transition between law enforcement and intelligence work. Stay with me, Kerney.
As I mentioned, APT Performa is an army subcontractor. It could be that Thayer was talking about a procurement fulfillment order for INS COM "Placed by the commanding general?"
"It's common practice to reference the highest authority for a procurement.
Especially one that has priority."
"That's a stretch, Sara, and you know it."
"It's within the bounds of possibility."
"I think you're seeing things the way you want to see them."
Sara gave him a withering glance.
"Let me finish, before you accuse me of shortsightedness. If Ingram and Applewhite are military intelligence, they could have a legitimate assignment that's connected to APT Performa's contract with INS COM "Like meddling in a civilian criminal investigation and posing as FBI?"
"You've heard of undercover work, haven't you?" Sara snapped. She tossed the notepad on the cushion.
"But since you brought it up, let's deal with it. You were told right at the top of the investigation that national security was involved and your role was to offer support. That's not meddling, to my way of thinking."
"The feds didn't play it that straight with me." Sara sighed in frustration.
"Because, if it's a national security matter, you don't have a need to know."
"What about Terrell's murder, Mitchell's murder, Stewart's murder? The disappearance of Terjo and Browning? I have a need to know about all of that."
"Do you have even one remotely credible homicide suspect?"
"No, but that doesn't address the fact that Charlie Perry and Applewhite took Terjo into custody and lied to me about it."
Sara shook her head.
"That's a guess you've made. Which means you're down to one missing person, Browning."
"That's right, I'm guessing. But I'm not guessing that Perry faked the lab results that turned Scott Gatlin into a murderer."
"Gatlin may well have been the murderer in spite of the faked physical evidence," Sara said.
"Granted, Randall Stewart had sex with Phyllis Terrell the night she was killed, and that does cast suspicion in his direction. But it proves neither Stewart's guilt nor Gatlin's innocence."
"Stop giving me the party line, Sara," Kerney said.
"I can get that from Charlie Perry or Agent Applewhite."