The tactics that they employed were pure Special Forces— large-scale SEAL stuff—which would point to an organisation more like the Texan Republican Army and not the Freedom Fighters.'
'Right.'
'But whoever did this left us a single tungsten-cored bullet-to point us toward the Freedom Fighters. If the Texans really did do this, don't you think it would make sense for them to throw us off the scent by framing their enemies—the Oklahoma Freedom Fighters?'
'Yeah…'
'What really scares me, though,' Demonaco said, 'is what they were after. Because if the Texans really have acquired doomsday tendencies, then this Supernova of yours is exactly the kind of thing they'd go for.'
'The other thing we have to think about,' Demonaco went on, 'is how they got in. They had someone on the inside, someone who knew the codes to, and who could get card- keys for, all the security locks. Do you have a record of the names of everyone working on the project?'
Mitchell pulled a sheet of computer paper from his breast pocket and handed it to Demonaco.
'That's a list of all the people working on the Supernova project, Navy and DARPA.'
Demonaco looked at the list.
PROJECT NAME: N23-657-K2 (SUPERNOVA)
CLASSIFICATION: RED (ABSOLUTE SECRET)
RELEVANT AGENCIES: NAVY / DARPA
PERSONNEL INVOLVED:
NAME POSITION HELD AGENCY SECURITY NO.
ROMANO, Julius M.
Nuclear physicist, NAVY N/1005A2
PROJECT LEADER
FISK, Howard K.
Theoretical physicist, DARPA D/154677A
DARPA PROJECT
LEADER
BOYLE, Jeesica D.
Nuclear physicist DARPA D/1788o82B
LABOWSKI, John A.
Delivery system NAVY N/7659C7
engineer
MAHER, Karen B.
Secondary systems DARPA D/620122C
NORTON, Henry J.
Technical support NAVY N/7632-Cl
RACE, Martin E.
Ignition system DARPA DI3279-97A
design engineer
SMITH, Martin W.
Weapons electronics DARPA D/590035B
ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL:
KAYSON, Simon F.
Project security NAVY N/1009A2
DEVEREUX, Edward G. Language specialist HARVARD N/A
Mitchell said, 'We've checked them all out. They're all clean, even Henry Norton, the guy whose security card and PIN codes were used to get in.'
'Where was he on the night of the break-in?' Demonaco asked.
'In the Arlington morgue,' Mitchell said simply. 'Paramedic records confirm that at 5:36 am on the night of the break-inmexactly fifteen minutes before the thieves stormed this building—Henry Norton and his wife, Sarah, were found shot to death at their home in Arlington.'
'5:36/Demonaco said. 'They got here quickly after they killed him. They knew his name would be flagged at the hospital.'
As both Demonaco and Mitchell knew, it was common for high-level government employees to have electronic flags attached to their names in the event that they unex pectedly arrived at a hospital. As soon as the
