“I want to do some target discovery—maybe use contact chaining or voice intercepts to get us to the pirate leader—basic SIGINT analytics.”

“‘SIGINT analytics’?” Pickens said derisively.

Jake stopped typing and looked up.

“It means ‘signals intelligence.’ Didn’t you intercept Morse code when you were in the OSS? This is the same idea, just for this century . . .”

Pickens laughed. “Fine, wiseass, but human sources are where the real intel is.”

He returned from his bedroom a few minutes later holding a sheet of paper with half a dozen phone numbers on it. His mood was decidedly cool as Jake started entering them into the computer.

“Look, John, I know we need to work our way up, but these street thugs don’t fit the profile of our pirates.”

“What profile is that?”

“Funny hats, parrots, maybe a few eye patches.”

“Peg legs?”

“Maybe,” said Jake. “I’ll run it by headquarters. In the meantime, we should be looking for skilled operators.”

“Skilled operators don’t advertise.”

Jake sent the encrypted request back to headquarters.

“I agree, but we need to use every resource available. It’s just you and me on this one.”

“Which is another mystery,” Pickens said as he scratched the stubble on his chin. “I figured Graves would’ve sent a team down here.”

“Ted doesn’t like to leave a big footprint.”

“He’s a paranoid sonofabitch, isn’t he?”

“His view is that with your contacts, and my technical skills, we should be able to find out who’s running the show.”

“And his ass is less exposed if we end up dead.” Pickens pointed at the laptop. “I need to grab a workout. How long till the nerds get back to you?”

“That depends on how hard it is to access the local phone company’s records.”

—

IT TOOK NINETY minutes.

Pickens was still lifting weights in the basement when the data came back.

A regional network exploitation team working with the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations group had delivered exactly what Jake requested. He cross-referenced the mobile phone records against the dates of recent pirate attacks and discovered that each phone had been onshore and actively used during the attacks. He did the same with the commonly called numbers for each of the phones and arrived at the same conclusion.

Not a single man they’d met with was involved in the pirate attacks.

Jake stared blankly at the screen, hoping for a pattern to emerge from the data.

And then he started typing.

Furiously.

TWELVE

KITADRA.