The ELINT Stoll had gathered was composed of everything from fax messages and e-mail to phone numbers and radio frequencies. Everything that came to or went from official sources or known resistance and opposition forces.

These numbers, frequencies, and encryption codes were then run through programs. They were compared with those of known terrorists or foreign agents. If there were any possible "watchdogs or impediments" in the region, as mission planners referred to them, these scans helped to find and identify them. The last thing American intelligence chiefs wanted was to have undercover operatives photographed or their methods observed by foreign governments. Not only could that information be sold to a third party, but the United States never knew which friendly governments might one day be intelligence targets.

"Think Iran," Colonel August reminded them whenever they went on a joint mission with allies.

Honda had brought along a Striker laptop. The computer was equipped with a wireless, high-speed modem to download data Stoll was still collecting. Honda would memorize any relevant data. When Striker reached India, the computer would be left on the transport and returned to the base. Colonel August would keep his laptop to download data.

Where they were going, the less Corporal Honda had to carry the happier he would be.

As the new intelligence was dumped into Honda's computer, an audio prompt pinged. It was alerting him to an anomaly that Stoll's program had picked up at Op-Center.

Honda accessed the flagged data.

The Bellhop program on the air force's "Sanctity" satellite continually scanned the cell phones and radios that used police bands. Op-Center and the other U. S. intelligence agencies had these numbers for their own communications with foreign offices. It was a simple matter to hack the computers and look for other incoming calls.

The Bellhop had picked up a series of point-to-point calls made on a police-registered cell phone. It was coded "field phone" in the Bellhop lexicon. Most of the calls were placed over a five-month period from Kargil to the district police headquarters in Jammu, coded "home phone."

During that time there was only one call to that field phone from the home phone. Stoll's program, which integrated Op-Center intel with NRO data, indicated that the call was placed less than one second before the Kashmir-focused Cluster Star3 satellite recorded an explosion in a bazaar in Srinagar.

"Damn," Honda muttered.

Honda wondered if Colonel August or General Rodgers had been informed about a possible terrorist attack. The fact that a police cell phone made a call to the site an instant before the explosion could be a coincidence. Perhaps someone was phoning a security guard. On the other hand there might be a connection between the two. Honda unbuckled himself from the uncomfortable seat and went forward to inform his commanding officers. He had to walk slowly, carefully, to keep from being bucked against his teammates by the aircraft's movements in the turbulent air.