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Back Line of Control Save as PDF
Chapters (73)
  1. LINE Of CONTROL
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. PROLOGUE.
  4. CHAPTER ONE.
  5. CHAPTER TWO.
  6. CHAPTER THREE.
  7. CHAPTER FOUR.
  8. CHAPTER FIVE.
  9. CHAPTER SIX.
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN.
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT.
  12. CHAPTER NINE.
  13. CHAPTER TEN.
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN.
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE.
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN.
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY.
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY.
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX.
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN.
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT.
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE.
  43. CHAPTER FORTY.
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE.
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO.
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE.
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR.
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE.
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX.
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN.
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT.
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE.
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY.
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE.
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO.
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE.
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR.
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE.
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX.
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN.
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT.
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE.
  63. CHAPTER SIXTY.
  64. CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE.
  65. CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO.
  66. CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE.
  67. CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR.
  68. CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE.
  69. CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX.
  70. CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN.
  71. CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT.
  72. CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE.
  73. CHAPTER SEVENTY.

Maybe he was a new driver. It was possible; they all wore the same jackets. Then he noticed something else. The clerk who was loading bags into the rack was being very careful with them. Friday had not gotten a very good look at the clerk. The exiting passengers had blocked his view. He could not tell if this were the same man.

The bus was still two hundred yards away. The American quickened his pace.

Suddenly the world to Friday's left vanished, swallowed in a flash of bright white light, infernal white heat, and deafening white noise.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Washington, D. C. Wednesday, 7:10 a. m.

Paul Hood sat alone in his office. Mike Rodgers and Striker were on their way and nothing else was pressing.

Hood's door was shut and a file labeled "Working OCIS" was open on his computer. The "working" part of the heading indicated that this was not the original draft but a copy.

The OCIS was a click able chart of Op-Center's internal structure.

Under each division was a list of the departments and personnel.

Attached to each name was a sub file These were logs that were filed each day by every employee. They outlined the activities of the individual. Only Hood, Rodgers, and Herbert had access to the files.

They were maintained to allow the Op-Center directors to track and cross-reference personnel activities with phone records, e-mail lists, and other logs. If anyone were working at cross-purposes with the rest of the team-cooperating with another agency or even another government-this was the first line of security.

The computer automatically flagged any activity that did not have a log entry ordering or corroborating it.

Right now Paul Hood was not looking for moles. He was looking for lambs.

The sacrificial kind. If Senator Fox and the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee wanted cutbacks he had to be prepared to make them.

The question was where?

Hood clicked on Bob Herbert's intelligence department.

He scrolled through the names. Could Herbert get by with just daytime surveillance of e-mail communications in Europe?

Not likely. Spies worked around the clock. What about a single liaison with the CIA and the FBI instead of one for each? Probably.

He would ask Herbert which one he wanted to lose. Hood moved the cursor to the tech division. What about Matt Stoll? Could he survive without a satellite interface officer or a computer resources upgrade manager?

Matt could out source the work he needed whenever they had to eavesdrop on foreign communications satellites or change hardware or software. It would be inconvenient but it would not be debilitating.

He double-clicked on the upgrade manager and the position disappeared.

Hood's heart sped up as he checked the next department.

It was the office of the press liaison. Did Op-Center really need someone to issue news releases and organize press conferences?