THE TWO MEN were not referring to the translucent form of quartz, but the signals intelligence service of the Swiss government. A scaled-down version of the National Security Agency’s Echelon program, Onyx had the capability to intercept global communications and cellular traffic, as well as activity on the World Wide Web. Shortly after its completion in 2005, Onyx discovered one of the world’s most explosive secrets when a ground station high in the Swiss Alps intercepted a fax between the Egyptian foreign minister and his ambassador in London. The fax would eventually help lead to the revelation of the CIA’s secret black site prisons for suspected al-Qaeda terrorists. Despite the circumstances, Ulrich Müller couldn’t help but marvel at the irony of the situation. Onyx had been conceived and built in order to steal the secrets of Switzerland’s adversaries. Now it appeared the system had inadvertently stumbled upon the secrets of the country’s most prominent businessman.

“How did Onyx find it?” Müller asked.

“The computers found it. The computers find everything.”

“When?”

“Shortly after Martin’s hard drive went up on the satellites, the Onyx filtering system hit on several keywords. The material was automatically flagged and delivered to an analyst at Zimmerwald for further investigation. After a few hours of poking around, the analyst discovered that Martin’s phone was hot as well. My office was just notified, but Onyx has been monitoring the feed for several days. And the material is being shipped to the DAP for further investigation.”

Müller closed his eyes. It was a disaster in the making.

“How long has the phone been compromised?”

“Hard to say.” Huber shrugged. “At least a week. Maybe longer.”

“And the computer?”

“The staff at Onyx thinks they were hit at the same time.”

“What were the keywords that triggered the auto flagging?”

“Keywords having to do with certain goods being shipped to a certain country on the eastern side of the Persian Gulf. Keywords having to do with a certain Chinese company based in Shenzhen called XTE Hardware and Equipment.” Huber paused, then asked, “Ever heard of it?”

“No,” Müller said.

“Does Landesmann have any connection to it?”

Müller raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize this was an official visit, Karl.”

“It isn’t.”

Müller cleared his throat. “As far as I know, Mr. Landesmann has no interest whatsoever in XTE Hardware and Equipment of Shenzhen, China.”

“That’s good to hear. But I’m afraid the DAP suspects otherwise.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s just say there’s pressure on the chief to order a full investigation.”

“Can you stop it?”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder, Karl. This firm pays you exceedingly well to make sure things like this don’t happen to our clients, let alone the boss.”