She stood completely still. Every pause seemed to signify the importance of what she was saying.

“Secrecy is not our only priority. We want the work here to be the very best quality. It must be. You have authority from the highest levels of our government to share any and all knowledge of your prior work experience in order to ensure that we take every possible consideration into account on this project. You will all be free to discuss anything with each other, regardless of classification level, to achieve our ultimate goal of protecting the United States.”

David noticed some of the people sitting in the seats around the classroom raise their heads a little higher. They were proud to be chosen for something that was deemed so important. A few squirmed at the idea of sharing classified information in an unfamiliar setting.

“My name,” the woman said, “is Lena Chou. I am normally one of the CIA’s clandestine operations officers. Here on this island, however, I represent a joint task force that includes, among others, the NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, all branches of the military, and several other agencies...even DARPA. That’s right, the geeks that invented the Internet.”

Lena gave a bright smile that lit up the room. There were nervous chuckles in the audience.

“I will be the supervisor of this Red Cell for the next three weeks. I’ve done this twice before. In past Red Cells, we’ve used people like you from very creative and diverse fields to help build mock attack scenarios. We have even used authors of techno thrillers to help us create fictional terrorist attack plots. While we don’t have any authors here this time, we are trying something new. Natesh Chaudry is the CEO of a consulting firm located in Silicon Valley. Natesh would you like to say anything?”

A young man that couldn’t have been past his late twenties stood up from his seat in the back row. He wore stylish jeans and a collared Lacoste shirt. David thought he looked like he was from India or Pakistan.

He said, “Hello guys, I’m Natesh. I am glad to meet all of you. I just arrived here today like you. Also like you, I didn’t know where I was going or what this exactly was about. Lena gave me a little bit of a preview about 30 minutes ago. Needless to say, I’m still in shock. Probably like a lot of you. But I’m glad that I’m getting the opportunity to contribute to something so important.”

David thought this young man looked like he was out of his league. He seemed nervous. David didn’t blame him. Still, he spoke with an easy-going tone that made him instantly trustworthy.

Natesh continued, “Like Lena said, my team and I work in California with a variety of companies. We help some of the top firms in the world increase their level of innovation in new products and services. Normally I bring members of my team with me. Due to the sensitive nature of this project, it’s just me here this time. To put it simply, I’m an idea guy. I’ve built my company by helping other companies create winning ideas. I have been brought in to act as a moderator during the sessions. I plan to break us up into teams for much of the time, and I’ll float between stations. Sometimes, if the conversation goes to one of my areas of expertise, I’ll offer insights. Honestly, while I don’t have much expertise in the invasion department...” Natesh was half-laughing in disbelief as he said that. “...I’m a strategist at my core. I think you’ll find that I can help connect some of your insights in ways that will make our overarching ideas more powerful.” The classroom smiled with a tense politeness. David could tell that from the expressions that people were just beginning to wrap their minds around what was going on.