These numbers, frequencies, and encryption codes were then run through programs. They were compared with those of known terrorists or foreign agents. If there were any possible 'watchdogs or impediments' in the region, as mission planners referred to them, these scans helped to find and identify them. The last thing American intelligence chiefs wanted was to have undercover operatives photographed or their methods observed by foreign governments. Not only could that information be sold to a third party, but the United States never knew which friendly governments might one day be intelligence targets.
'Think Iran,' Colonel August reminded them whenever they went on a joint mission with allies.
Honda had brought along a Striker laptop. The computer was equipped with a wireless, high-speed modem to download data Stoll was still collecting. Honda would memorize any relevant data. When Striker reached India, the computer would be left on the transport and returned to the base. Colonel August would keep his laptop to download data.
Where they were going, the less Corporal Honda had to carry the happier he would be.
As the new intelligence was dumped into Honda's computer, an audio prompt pinged. It was alerting him to an anomaly that Stoll's program had picked up at Op-Center.
Honda accessed the flagged data.
The Bellhop program on the air force's 'Sanctity' satellite continually scanned the cell phones and radios that used police bands. Op-Center and the other U. S. intelligence agencies had these numbers for their own communications with foreign offices. It was a simple matter to hack the computers and look for other incoming calls.
The Bellhop had picked up a series of point-to-point calls made on a police-registered cell phone. It was coded 'field phone' in the Bellhop lexicon. Most of the calls were placed over a five-month period from Kargil to the district police headquarters in Jammu, coded 'home phone.' During that time there was only one call to that field phone from the home phone. Stoll's program, which integrated Op-Center intel with NRO data, indicated that the call was placed less than one second before the Kashmir-focused Cluster Star3 satellite recorded an explosion in a bazaar in Srinagar.
'Damn,' Honda muttered.
Honda wondered if Colonel August or General Rodgers had been informed about a possible terrorist attack. The fact that a police cell phone made a call to the site an instant before the explosion could be a coincidence. Perhaps someone was phoning a security guard. On the other hand there might be a connection between the two. Honda unbuckled himself from the uncomfortable seat and went forward to inform his commanding officers. He had to walk slowly, carefully, to keep from being bucked against his teammates by the aircraft's movements in the turbulent air.
August and Rodgers were huddled together over the general's laptop when he arrived.
'Excuse me, sirs,' Honda said. He had to shout to be heard over the screaming engines.
August looked up.
'What have you got, Corporal?' Honda told the two officers about the explosion. August informed Honda that they were just reading an e-mail from Bob Herbert about the blast. It provided what few details anyone had about the attack. Then Honda informed his superiors about the phone calls. That seemed to grab General Rodgers's interest.
'There were two calls a day for five months, always at the same time,' Honda said.
'Like a routine check-in,' Rodgers said.
'Exactly, sir,' Honda replied.
'Except for today. There was just one call and it was made to the field phone. It was placed a moment before the explosion that took out the temple.'
Rodgers sat back.
'Corporal, would you go through the data file and see if this calling pattern is repeated, probably from field phones with different code numbers? Outgoing calls to one home phone and one or none coming back?'
'Yes, sir,' Honda replied.
Honda crouched on the cold, rumbling floor and raised one knee. He put the laptop upon it. He was not sure what the officers were looking for exactly and it was not his place to ask. He input the code number of the home phone and asked for a Bellhop search. Colonel August's hunch was correct.
He told them that in addition to this series there were seven weeks of calls from another field phone in Kargil.
They were made twice a day at the same times. Before that there were six weeks of calls from another field phone, also two times daily.
Thirteen weeks was as far back as these Bellhop records went.
'New Delhi must have had civilian agents tracking a terrorist cell,' Rodgers said.
'How do you know that?' August asked.
'The calls may just have been field ops reporting in.'
'I don't think so,' Rodgers told him.
'First of all, only one of the calls on Corporal Honda's list was made from the home phone to the field phone.'
'That was the one made at the time of the explosion,' August said.
'Correct,' Rodgers replied.
'That would suggest the officers in charge of the recon did not want field phones ringing at inopportune moments.'
