EVENT GROUP COMPLEX,
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA

Pete Golding had been working eighteen straight hours. He had been back and forth with Europa since the security lockdown was initiated. Several technicians were still inside the darkened computer center, but three of the six were dozing; the soft drone of Pete’s voice trying to be as patient as possible with the supercomputer had lulled them to sleep. Once more, he went at Europa.

“Okay, let’s try this again. Let us assume that a security breach from outside the complex occurred at the same moment the breach message was initiated. Is it possible you missed a back door in your programming, perhaps designed by your original program team at Cray?”

“Not possible, Dr. Golding. The internal algorithm ciphering my security program would have been disturbed, thus setting off my shutdown protocols.”

Pete rubbed a hand over his balding head. “So, what you’re saying is that it would have been impossible to have received the message without a door being left open from inside the complex, with the validation of a departmental manager?”

“Correct”

With the recent call in from Captain Everett, Niles knew the people who had sent the message had been tipped off that the FBI was lying in wait for them. That meant that someone here had to have communicated with the terrorists at some point after the security shutdown. Europa had indeed shut down all systems of communication. No one used any of the phones, and it would be impossible to get a cell phone call out of the complex. Europa closed all e-mail access, so that was eliminated. The director even cut Everett short when he wanted to explain who they had recovered from the meeting. Security at the moment was just so porous, he didn’t chance anything.

“Shutdown was ordered at oh-nine-fifty-five this A.M. Was there any computer access just before I ordered you to close all internal loops?”

“One.”

Pete shook his head in exasperation. “Well, do you want to share that with me?”

“Terminal is located in office forty-five-seventy-six, sublevel seven, and logged at oh-nine-fifty-three from the office of Assistant Director Virginia Pollock.”

The blood in Pete’s face drained. “No, Virginia doesn’t have it in her.” Still, Golding was scared.

Pete moved to his desk on the main floor, picked up the phone, and started punching numbers. He didn’t hear anything. He flicked the disconnect a few times and then listened.

“Europa, did you shut down communication for the comp center?”

When he didn’t get a response, Pete turned and looked at the large center screen monitor he was using for Europa’s typed-out responses. It, too, was blank.

“Europa, respond.”

Golding slapped the shoulder of one of the dozing men and woke him.

“Europa’s down. See if you can make keyboard contact,” he said as he started for the risers that led to the doors two stories above the main floor.

The other technicians awoke and looked around as the main lights flickered, steadied, and then went out. Pete reached the top and pulled the door handle. The door had locked, automatically he assumed, when Europa went down.

“What in the hell is going on here?”

Sarah McIntire had arrived two hours earlier from Arkansas. She was sitting alone in the cafeteria drinking a cup of coffee after she found she had no desire for sleep. Her aching arm held firmly to her chest with a sling, she realized it wasn’t just the plane ride back, but the fact that Carl, Jason, and Will were all off base, making her feel her homecoming was put on hold.

She spied Alice Hamilton off in the far corner of the room, and was shocked to see former director and retired senator Garrison Lee sitting with her. They had files stacked to right, left, and center of their table. She thought about saying hi, but they looked engrossed in what they were doing—reading, arguing, nodding, and then arguing some more.

Sarah decided to try sleep again. As she stood to leave, she saw Virginia Pollock walking past the double doors of the cafeteria. She called out, but the assistant director kept walking. Strange, because Sarah knew she had heard her call out.

“This place isn’t right somehow,” she said as she left for her room, just as the overhead lights started to flicker.