Walking back to the barn, he pulled the phone from his bag in back of the Suburban and turned it on. Now all he could do was wait.
CHAPTER 64
WASHINGTON, D.C.
When Bremmer had dangled Kurt Schroeder as a means to get to Craig Middleton, a million things had gone through Harvath’s mind—one of which was that Bremmer was a pretty devious son of a bitch. Another was that Harvath didn’t fully speak the language of a man like Schroeder, but he did have someone on his team who could—Nicholas.
It was a risk, a big one, taking him from the Strieber’s farm in Texas and bringing him to D.C., but no one knew technology and data the way Nicholas did. He not only wanted him to be part of debriefing Schroeder but also close by in the event ATS launched its digital Pearl Harbor.
When they had cut loose the stunned and visibly shaken Bremmer at his daughter’s field hockey game, Harvath used one of Casey’s clean cell phones to reach out to Strieber. Despite the fact that the man had landed back in Texas only a handful of hours before, he told Harvath not to worry and that he’d have Nicholas on the next Strieber Airlines flight to Manassas.
When he landed at the airport, he texted Harvath who dispatched Rhodes in the Suburban to pick everyone up and bring them back to the loft. Because they had left Schroeder’s vehicle around the corner from the dominatrix’s house, they were able to come and go via the building’s underground parking structure and park in his full-size spot.
Elizabeth, the dominatrix, had been another problem. They had brought her from her town house at gunpoint and she now sat bound and gagged in Schroeder’s master bedroom. Rhodes and Casey had taken turns supervising her bathroom breaks, but he was going to need them to help go after Middleton. It was a good thing he had called Strieber, and he was thankful that Strieber would be arriving with extra manpower.
When Rhodes, Strieber, Nicholas, Nina, and the dogs poured out of the elevator, it looked like the circus had come to town. But judging by the equipment cases they were lugging, this circus had brought a little slice of hell with them.
Harvath, who didn’t want Schroeder left alone for a second, again Flex-Cuffed his hands behind his back, and when the crew arrived, dragged him out of his computer room. Schroeder didn’t say anything to Nina, but the way he looked at her was enough to set Nicholas off. Literally going toe-to-toe with him and actually kicking the larger man’s shoe to get his attention, Nicholas looked up at him with the ultimate don’t-fuck-with-me expression and proclaimed, “Back off. She’s mine.”
Schroeder was so surprised he didn’t know what to say. He simply nodded.
Not wanting to undermine his friend, Harvath swallowed his grin, handed over custody of Schroeder to Casey, and motioned for the little man to follow him into the computer room so they could debrief.
Harvath kept it as short and as simple as possible, bringing him up to speed on Bremmer, Schroeder, and Middleton. Nicholas chose not to sit down and instead listened as he examined all of the room’s equipment.
When Harvath had finished filling him in, Nicholas’s first question was about Caroline. “Was one of Bremmer’s kill teams responsible for her death?”
“No. Schroeder says that on the day she died, ATS had its own people pursuing her. She ran into traffic and was struck by a car.”
Nicholas didn’t like the answer, but it seemed to satisfy him for the time being. “Does Schroeder know Nina is Caroline’s sister?”
Harvath shook his head.
“Good. Let’s keep it that way. What about the attack?”
“Bremmer knows nothing about it and Schroeder seems to have been kept out of the loop as well. Middleton and the people around him are playing this very tight.”
“Maybe not tight enough.”
Harvath looked at him. “Did you find something else on that drive?”
Nicholas nodded. “Something called the Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center.”
“What the hell is that?”
“I think it’s the answer to the ‘why now’ question we’ve been asking, the trigger for a digital Pearl Harbor.”
“I don’t understand.”
Nicholas held up his index finger and explained. “The Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center is known by its acronym, CNCI, or better yet by its nickname, Spy Center. The cover story is that the NSA had amassed so much data and drew so much power to cull, analyze, and house that data, it outgrew its capacity at Fort Meade. Therefore, a new facility needed to be built.”
“Wait a second,” said Harvath. “A whole new facility needed to be built? What was the point of the server farms they’ve been building, like down in San Antonio?”
Nicholas winked at him. “You’re a little too informed for your own good and should know better than to ask questions like that. The thing is, you’re right. The NSA, or more importantly ATS
“They assembled a list of thirty-seven possible locations, giving each a code name. Camp Williams, in the high mountain desert outside Salt Lake City, was code-named Site Blue.”
“Blue Sand!” Harvath said.
Nicholas nodded. “And guess which location ended up being selected?”
“Camp Williams. Also known as Site Blue.”
“Precisely. There, the NSA began its two-billion-dollar construction project. Spy Center covers more than one million square feet of data storage, technical support, and administrative space—five times the size of the U.S. Capitol. It includes its own power stations, backup generators, and massive stores of fuel and water.
“But here’s the most dramatic feature. According to Caroline’s notes, the Comprehensive National Cyber- security Data Center isn’t just about collecting and storing data. Its real purpose is to be the nucleus of the brand- new, government-controlled Internet. So, in answer to your question,
“Is a crisis,” Harvath said, finishing his sentence for him, “explosive enough to justify it.”
CHAPTER 65
When the Internet was collapsed, it was going to be deadly—airplanes and trains would collide, the power grid would shut down, banks and financial services would fail, utilities and emergency services would grind to a halt and so would the delivery of fuel, food, and medicine. Tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions, would die. And while society crumbled, Craig Middleton and the board of directors from ATS would sit on their secure, well-stocked 200-acre estate in Virginia and ride out the storm. Harvath, though, wasn’t about to let that happen.
Even if he stopped the attack from happening, the political fallout would be off the charts. The board of directors at ATS read like a who’s who of the most powerful in government. Politicking and diplomacy had never been his thing. That was an area in which the Old Man excelled. Which reminded him of something.
Turning to Nicholas, he pointed at the wall of screens and asked, “Can you open up a connection to the Net
