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Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY TOM CLANCY
  3. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
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  40. 37
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  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

Bai was a pain in his rear end. The guy never left his side. But his explanation of the electronic lock on the USB ports of every Dalfan computer was useful. No USB drive could be loaded without the encryption code.

The only problem was that Paul didn’t have the encryption code.

That meant he couldn’t load Rhodes’s USB drive directly.

Which meant he couldn’t complete the mission.

Which meant that he was seriously and irrevocably cornholed.

Paul picked up Rhodes’s USB drive and examined it again. Was there something he was missing?

The only good news was that the Dalfan people didn’t do a full body search. It might, in fact, be possible to smuggle Rhodes’s drive into the facility by hiding it in one of his pant cuffs or a shoe. But even if he did that, what good would that do?

And just because Dalfan security hadn’t wanded him or patted him down last time didn’t mean they wouldn’t do so on his next visit. Getting caught trying to smuggle in a USB drive he couldn’t load anyway was a special kind of stupid.

He also couldn’t connect his laptop to a Dalfan computer or the mainframe—the same encryption code prevented it.

Paul took another sip of tea. He formulated a list of questions for himself.

How can I defeat the USB port encryption lock?

How can I distract or get rid of Bai?

How do I not get caught doing any of this stuff—and avoid getting thrown into a Singapore jail for espionage?

The only good news was that there were still four days to try and figure out these questions.

The bad news was that there were only four days left to try and figure out these questions.

Paul wondered if he should call Rhodes and tell him he just wasn’t up to the job. Tell him the security protocols were far more stringent than they had realized.

Wait. Didn’t Rhodes say he’d already been to Dalfan headquarters? If he had, then he would’ve known how strict the security protocols were. Why didn’t he tell Paul?

Maybe because Rhodes knew that he wouldn’t have agreed to do the assignment if he’d known how tough it was going to be.

Rhodes was a manipulator. That was part of his job. Or at least it was when Paul knew him back in Bulgaria in 1985. He also remembered that Rhodes didn’t tell him all the gory details in advance about that night so many years ago, either.

Rhodes had a high estimation of himself and his abilities, and a corresponding poor estimation of others. Both defaults were a function of his class and his breeding, his education and his training. So naturally he would believe he had to manipulate others around him in order to accomplish his objectives through them.