monitored twenty-four seven You said the poems don't seem very profound.
I disagree.'
'She could have emphasized words that gave information to someone,' Nazir said.
'Right,' Friday said.
'Doesn't the SFF maintain a group of volunteers from the general population? Civilian Network Operatives?'
'Yes.' 'How does that system work?' Friday asked.
'Operatives are recruited in sensitive regions or businesses and visited on a regular basis, either at their place of employment or at home,' Captain Nazir said.
'They report unusual activities or provide other information they may have collected.'
'What if an operative were to miss an appointment?' Friday asked.
'What if Nanda failed to show up at the marketplace?'
Nazir nodded.
'I see what you mean,' he said.
'The SFF would come looking for her.' 'Exactly,' Friday said.
'Suppose at some point this woman, Nanda, had been recruited by the SFF. Maybe when the Pakistanis held Kargil, maybe after. If someone showed up with her cart in the bazaar, her SFF contact would have known that something was wrong. They might have arranged to drop a field phone off in the barn where she was sure to find it.' 'Yes, it's starting to come together,' Nazir said.
'The SFF sponsors the woman. She feeds them information about the cell and they decide to let the terrorists make their attack on the police station. At the same time the SFF enlarges the scope of that attack so the Pakistanis will take the blame for striking at religious targets.
The SFF also seals off the site to clean up any evidence that might connect them to the other two explosions.' 'But the job isn't finished,' Friday said.
'The terrorists realize they've been set up and are probably trying to get to Pakistan. They take Nanda with them in case they need a hostage.'
'More likely a witness,' Nazir pointed out.
'The terrorists claimed responsibility for the explosion, probably before they knew the full extent of the damage. Nanda knows they were not responsible for the temple bombing. They need her to say that.' 'Good point,' Friday said.
'Meanwhile, if she still has her cell phone with her, she may be signaling the SFF, telling them where to find them.'
Nazir was silent for a moment.
'If that is true, they probably haven't caught up with the terrorists yet,' he said.
'I would have heard about it. Which means we've got to get to them first.
If the SFF executes the terrorists before they can be heard it will turn nearly one billion Hindus against Pakistan. There will be a war and it will be an all-out war, a holy war, with flame from the nostrils of Shiva.' 'Shiva--the destroyer,' Friday said.
'A nuclear war.'
'Provoked by the SFF and its radical allies in the cabinet and the military before Pakistan is equipped to respond,' Nazir said.
Friday started running toward the Kamov.
'I'm going to get in touch with Op-Center and see if they know more than they're telling,' he said.
'You'd better grab Mr. Kumar and bring him to the chopper. We may need someone to help convince Nanda she's on the wrong side of this thing.'
As Friday hurried across the field he realized one thing more.
Something that gave him a little satisfaction, a little boost.
Captain Nazir was not as smart as he had pretended to be back at the inn.
CHAPTER TWENTY.
Washington, D. C. Wednesday, 8:17 p. m.
For most of its history, the shadowy National Reconnaissance Office was the least known of all the government agencies.
The spur for the formation of the NRO was the downing of Gary Powers's U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in May of that year. President Eisenhower ordered Defense Secretary Thomas Gates to head a panel to look into the application of satellites to undertake photographic reconnaissance.
That would minimize the likelihood that the United States would suffer another humiliation like the Powers affair.
From the start there was furious debate between the White House, the air force, the Department of Defense, and the CIA over who should be responsible for administering the agency.
By the time the NRO was established on August 25, 1960, it was agreed that the air force would provide the launch capabilities for spy satellites, the Department of Defense would develop technology for spying from space,
