There’s a host of options available to me but first on my list is getting a readout of all surveillance cameras in and around Kingstowne, including those at service stations (like our friendly Sunoco from down the way), ATMs, drugstores, malls, banks, private homes, private businesses, and anywhere else with a view of the busy streets of Fairfax County. That program is called TANGO TRAPPER.

Once I “caught” the carpet-cleaning van going down our street, I saved the blurry photo, then repeated the process when it exited. And then I caught it one more time, just as it was heading onto exit 169A north on I-95.

Three catches.

Enough.

I go to another program, feed in the three blurry photos. Wait.

Wait some more.

Deep in some heavily guarded and secure server farm out there somewhere, things are hard at work.

Do I know exactly what is going on?

Nope.

But I’m not worried.

I take a moment and look around the pretty and safe library. A number of kids sitting at the tables, or gliding past the crowded shelves. Seeing a blond girl working at a round table stabs at me so hard that I have to turn around and look elsewhere.

Once upon a time, places like these that contained books and knowledge were stored in heavily fortified monasteries in Europe, to protect them from the barbarians.

Now the barbarians are no longer at the gates. Thanks to the wonders of this century, the barbarians could reach across half the globe and give you a deadly tap on the shoulder with a digital finger. Viruses, malware, phishing…

I go back to the screen, using the program called BORAX.

There’s my target van, sharpened up, clean, and looking fine.

ABLE CAREPT CLEANERS, ALEXANDRIA.

With a local phone number painted below.

The van looks legit.

Stolen?

Probably.

I’ll look into that later.

With the sharpened photo of the van in my digital grasp, I send it along to another complicated tracking program that uses algorithms, predictive software, traffic analysis programs, and other cool stuff to watch vehicle traffic on the nation’s roads, from highways to dirt paths, as long as there is a surveillance camera in the area. This one is called CYCLOPS. I imagine some bored bureaucrat somewhere in Crystal City, whose job it is, all day long, to assign code names to various programs.

Do I know the intricacies of the CYCLOPS program?

No.

Just like the sweet kids wandering around out in the safe confines of this library don’t know how their handheld devices work.

Just a tool.

That’s all.

I go back to the screen.

The spinning little doohickey, spinning away.

Look away once more.

Ah, damn it!

Out in the general area of the library is Sue Judson, an assistant librarian who’s taken a shine to Denise, helping her find books about whatever obsession my daughter is exploring that month: astronomy, genealogy, the history of Victorian fashion…my smart, tough, and sweet little girl.

Now Sue is looking this way, and I turn, hoping I’m not spotted.