Ice Station

'I've heard the name?'

'Sergeant Major Charles R. Kozlowski is Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Do you know what the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is, Mr. Cameron?'

'What?'

'The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer in the Corps. An enlisted man, Mr. Cameron, the highest-ranking enlisted man. Chuck Kozlowski has been a Marine for thirty-three years. He's one of the most decorated soldiers in the country.'

Trent paused. 'He's also ICG.'

Cameron stared at Trent for a long moment, then he wrote down the name.

Chuck Kozlowski.

Trent said, 'He's the guardian angel of every crooked soldier in the Corps. Someone told me he even came down to Peru after my incident and personally escorted the surviving Marines?the traitors, all of them senior enlisted men?back home. He reassigned them without even a blink. I'm told he even recommended one for a fucking medal.'

'Jesus....'

'That's your network, Mr. Cameron. A network that has infiltrated the enlisted ranks of the United States Marine Corps all the way to the very top?to the extent that it even determines which units its men are assigned to. But it doesn't stop there. Like I said before, compromising elite military units is only one part of the ICG's overall program. The ICG compromises a whole lot more than just the military.'

'Like what?'

'Like other sources of breakthrough technology,' Trent said.

'Such as?'

'Well, for one thing, business.'

'Business? You mean private companies?'

Trent nodded.

'You're telling me that the government of the United States has planted people inside private corporations to spy on them?'

'Microsoft. IBM. Boeing. Lockheed,' Trent said, deadpan. 'Plus, of course, all of the other major Navy, Army, and Air Force contractors, especially if they have contracts with other countries.'

'Holy shit,' Cameron said.

'There are other places, too.'

'Like...'

'Like universities,' Trent said. 'Universities are high on the list of ICG-compromised organizations. Cloning sheep? ICG knew about in 1993. Cloning humans?ICG knew about it last year.' Trent shrugged. 'It makes sense. Universities are the cutting edge. If you want to find out what's in the pipeline, it's best to put your people in the pipe.'

Cameron didn't say anything for a full minute.

The sheer concept of an America-wide intelligence-gathering conspiracy made his spine tingle. An octopus- like network, with its tentacles stretching out from a small boardroom in the Pentagon to all the corners of the country, penetrating every major business and university. It was worth checking out some more.

Andrew Trent interrupted his thoughts.

'Mr. Cameron,' he said seriously. 'The ICG is a dangerous organization. A very dangerous organization. It owes its allegiance to one thing and one thing only. The United States of America. So long as America wins, the ICG doesn't care what it has to do. It will kill to achieve that goal. It will kill you and it will kill me. Mr. Cameron, patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. An organization that is prepared to infiltrate its own armed forces and kill its own men to keep this country's secrets safe is not one you want to mess with lightly.'

Cameron nodded solemnly. Then he said, 'Mr. Trent, do you have anything, anything at all, with names or something that I could?'

Trent grabbed a sheet of A4 paper from the table beside him.

'The results of my search so far,' he said. 'Names, positions held, and rank, if any.' He handed the sheet to Cameron.

Cameron took it, scanned it quickly. It read:

TRANSMIT MO. 767-9808-09001

 REF NO. KOS-4622

 SUBJECT: THE FOLLOWING IS AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONNEL AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE SECURE TRANSMISSIONS.

NAME

LOCATION

FIELD/RANK

ADAMS, WALTER K.

LVRMRE LAB

NCLR PHYSCS

ATKINS, SAMANTHA E.

GSTETNR

CMPTR SFTWRE

BAILEY, KEITH H.

BRKLY

AERONTL ENGNR

BARNES, SEAN M. N.

SEALS

LTCMMDR

BROOKES, ARLIN F. A.

RNGRS

CPTN

CARVER, ELIZABETH R

CLMBIA

CMPTR SCI

CHRISTIE, MARGARET V.

HRVRD

IDSTRL CHMST

DAWSON, RICHARD K.

MCROSFT

CMPTR SFTWRE

DELANEY, MARK M.

IBM

CMPTR HRDWRE

DOUGLAS, KENNETH A.

CRAY

CMPTR HRDWRE

DOWD, ROGER F.

USMC

CPRL

EDWARDS, STEPHEN R.

BOEING