Protocol One_A Thriller

by Nathan Goodman

  “Typically, yes. But don’t worry about that right now. In fact, it would be best if you didn’t mention your work to them. They might get the wrong idea. In fact, Miss Baker, what we’re doing, these investments, everything is to be treated with utmost confidentiality. If the information about what we’re investing in gets leaked, the Securities and Exchange Commission might construe it as passing corporate secrets, insider trading, okay? I’d hate to see you get into trouble. It’s critical that we not break the trust.”

  “It’s not a problem, sir.”

  “That will be all, Miss Baker.”

  Jana retreated toward her desk and shut the door as she left. Keep this information confidential? Not break the trust? The first thing I’m going to do is break the trust. She went to the women’s room, found the first open stall, and sent a text to Agent Stone.

  10

  Billions at Stake

  Stone’s reply to Jana’s text message informing him of Petrolsoft’s planned investments was brief.

  There’s a J. C. Penney inside Manhattan Mall, two blocks north on W. Thirty-Second at Avenue of the Americas. Look for me. There, you’ll receive further instructions.

  Meet the FBI guy at Penney’s? Sure, she thought. Pass information that violates insider trading laws? Lose my Series 7 license, be barred from working in finance ever again? Just an average day in Manhattan.

  Later that day when Jana arrived at the mall, she walked into the wide entrance of J. C. Penney but had no idea what to do next.

  “This guy is going to give me a nervous breakdown. There’s too many things to keep up with,” she said, and then recalled some of the advice Stone had given her. “Don’t be followed, don’t let anyone know you are snooping the corporate network.” She put her hands on her hips. “Don’t get killed by the nice terrorists.”

  From across the store, Jana saw Agent Stone standing on the far side of the makeup counter. He made eye contact, then turned away and walked deeper into the store. Jana followed and found him in the men’s department looking at dress shirts.

  “Don’t come too close,” he warned. “Don’t make eye contact. Just stay on the other side of this display and we can talk. So what have you learned?”

  “In a day?” Jana said. “Stone, this isn’t a game of Monopoly. You’ve got to give me more time.”

  “The clock is ticking, Miss Baker.”

  “Ticking? Ticking to what?”

  “That’s just it, we don’t know. That’s where you come in. You are our eyes.” He glanced at her ever so briefly. “The director sends his regards, by the way.”

  “The director of the FBI? You must be joking. Why would he know about me?”

  “Jana, I don’t want to scare you—”

  “Now you are scaring me. What are you talking about?”

  Stone exhaled and pulled a shirt off the shelf, then held it up to his chest. “Chatter has escalated, exponentially. NSA, Miss Baker. The National Security Agency is tracking a number of communication threads. Apparently, bin Laden has Al-Jawary on the move. There’s a huge influx in the number of communications going back and forth between terror cell members.”

  Jana shook her head. “Stone, pretend for a moment I don’t know anything about terror cells, which shouldn’t be hard for you to imagine, and spell it out for me. What does that mean?”

  “It means Al-Jawary’s terror cell is talking to each other with greater and greater frequency. That only happens as a terror group gets close to launching whatever strike they have planned. Think of it this way. Did you ever plan to go on a weekend trip with a friend? And in the days that lead up to the trip, you two talk several times, then there’s several more phone calls back and forth to work out the last-minute details? The terrorists are no different. The timetable is closing, Jana. We have to move.”

  “I don’t even have log-in access to anything on the network that could help. But, I’ll say this, the CEO is acting strangely.”

  “How so?”

  “Well,” Jana said, “he and that prick CFO of his.”

  “Prick? Very nice. Go on.”

  “They’ve been together behind closed doors a lot. Got me researching a bunch of hedge funds.”

  “Hedge funds? What kind of hedge funds?”

  “That’s just it. Everything we were taught about investing at Georgetown always pointed to diversification of a portfolio. But these idiots are having me identify the top hedge funds globally that invest with a heavy weighting in oil-related stocks.”

  “We thought the amount of investing was strange. Well,” Stone replied, “the company builds software for the oil and gas industry—maybe they’re just investing in their segment.”

  “It’s idiotic from an investment-portfolio standpoint. They’re committing massive resources to it. After I get done, they’ll have over sixty-two percent of their liquidity tied up in the same sector.”

  “Wait, how much money are we talking about here?”

  “About forty-five billion dollars out of a sixty-billion-dollar portfolio. It’s a bad idea.”

  “Unless . . . unless they have insider information. Insider information that tells them the oil market is going to go up.”

  “Is that why we’re here? To arrest them on some Insider Trading Sanctions Act violation?”

  “Of course not. The SEC would do that. But if Petrolsoft is making a forty-five-billion-dollar bet on the oil market, something is wrong. Let’s think this through. We can assume your bosses, Rune and Jeffrey Dima, wouldn’t make a bet that big unless they were sure. They’d have to have insider information, something about the oil futures market. I’m betting he—”

  “Stone,” Jana interrupted. “We need to consider the tie-in to Al-Qaeda’s own Abu Adim Al-Jawary.”

  Agent Stone grinned.

  “What are you laughing at?” Jana said.

  “You. Listen to yourself. When we first talked, you were a million miles away from the idea of being involved in breaking this terror cell. And now you sound like me. You sound like a fed.”

  “All right, so maybe it excites me. Maybe I didn’t count on the adrenaline rush. But you’re changing the subject.”

  “By all means,” Stone said as he laughed, “please continue, Agent Baker.”

  “Oh, shut up. And that’s another thing. I figured out why I find you so easy to talk to.”

  “I’m easy to talk to? Tell that to my ex-wife. But tell me, why am I easy to talk to?”

  “Because you remind me of my grandfather.”

  “Now I’m offended,” Stone said, but his grin said he didn’t mean it.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Jana continued. “To consider this investment and the possible payoff as being tied in to Al-Qaeda. Look, Stone, if they make a pile of money, doesn’t that mean they could fund terror operations or something?”

  “Yes it does, Miss Baker. But I think I’ve created a monster.”

  “They’re going to have me transfer more money and make more investments, so this thing is growing. But there’s something I need from you. I want the background on the CFO. I’m getting increasingly nervous around him.”

  “Jeffrey Dima, yes. I’m not surprised by that.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Lady killer, a real slimeball. Our workup suggests he sees himself as a playboy, thinks every woman is interested in him.”

  “Yeah, well not me,” Jana said. “He’s good looking, yes, but he makes me sick. Every time I look up, he’s staring at me. Thinks he’s so clever too. He makes a habit of walking right up to my desk to tell me something when all he’s really trying to do is look down my blouse. He’s in this investment scheme up to his eyeballs. He and Rune are plotting this together.”

  “I do have one other piece of bad news to deliver,” Stone said.

  “Which is?”

  “The wire you’re wearing, we’re not picking anything up from it.”

  “It’s broken?”

  “No, it’s working fine
. But whenever you’re inside your office, there’s interference and it prevents us from hearing anything. It’s when you go down into the lobby or leave the office that we can hear clearly. We’ve got some electronics experts coming in to discuss it. There may be eavesdropping countermeasure devices in place in the building. Don’t let it bother you right now, just focus on your job.”

  “Easy for you to say,” she said.

  Agent Stone looked at his watch. “We’ve spent too much time talking already. You need to get back. Bring me a list of all the hedge funds they want to invest in. And make a copy of all the investments you make and through which financial institutions. We need account numbers.”

  “I can do better than that,” Jana replied. “They’re setting me up as a signatory on the accounts so I can move funds and make the purchases myself. I’ll have log-in access to those accounts, so I can give you those.”

  “Here,” he said as he handed a USB thumb drive across the display rack. “Download the data onto this. Attached to the side is Velcro. Tomorrow at lunch, come to the food court here in the mall. I’ll be at a table. Look around until you find me, but don’t approach me. Order something to eat and when you see me get up to leave, sit at that table. Underneath the table you’ll be able to feel the other side of the Velcro. Press the thumb drive to it. One of my guys will retrieve it after you’ve gone. And Jana, the stakes are getting higher. Watch your ass.”

  She smirked. “Won’t have to. Jeffrey Dima is watching it for me.”

  11

  The Time is Now

  As the days ticked by, Jana grew warier of Jeffrey Dima. His advances were becoming less subtle. And with the workaholic culture of the company, the hours were exhausting. Jana had been able to supply Stone with log-in information to each hedge fund she was directing investments toward, and the FBI was pleased. It gave them unfettered access into the accounts to see the exact transactions and balances. The evidence was piling up. However, nothing criminal had yet been detected. The Securities and Exchange Commission was wired in tightly to the case. The assumption was that Petrolsoft, and more specifically, Jeffrey and Rune Dima, were involved in insider trading; hardly the type of felony Agent Stone was looking for. But thus far not even the SEC had been able to ascertain the source of insider information, nor specifically what information they had in the first place. And that was no surprise. The SEC, a highly underfunded branch of the federal government, had just a single resource that was even aware of the potential issue, an investigator named John Cameron.

  Jana herself began to worry that if this investigation did not pan out, she’d eventually be caught and fired for her actions. Or worse, they might kill her. Still, Agent Stone knew more was happening than they were able to yet see. The communication from Al-Qaeda leader, Abu Adim Al-Jawary, was cryptic to say the least. The NSA decoded the transmission with a decryption hash that was originally written by Section Chief William “Uncle Bill” Tarleton. The man had become a legend at NSA. Even the current director of the FBI, Steven Latent, who himself was being kept apprised of the Petrolsoft investigation, had vouched on more than one occasion for Uncle Bill. “I’ve known him since undergrad,” Director Latent had said. “If he says he intercepted a transmission from a known terror cell, then the threat is real.” And now, Agent Stone was getting daily threat assessments from Uncle Bill himself. Director Latent had told him, “If Bill is involved directly, this is more than a big deal. Find the missing pieces to this puzzle, Stone, or we’re going to have a problem on our hands.”

  What was still puzzling to Stone was the content of the original encrypted message that NSA had intercepted. The communication included nothing but coordinates to points on a map. To Agent Stone’s pleasure, at least he knew they were on the right track. The coordinates pointed to the exact locations of oil and gas refineries scattered throughout the Middle East. Why Al-Qaeda would want to point to those locations was anyone’s guess. But, Stone was not going to give up until he found out. He was very concerned for Jana’s safety, but she was the only person in the world that could gain access into the Petrolsoft corporate network.

  Jana too, had grown fond of him. When they communicated, Stone felt like he was listening to his daughter. To his thinking, she was as bright a young woman as he had ever known. And she had that edge to her, the kind of edge that enabled her to see details others missed. It was a dogged determination that reminded him of his trainee days at the FBI’s training facility on the Marine Corps base at Quantico. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized Jana had what it took to do his job. She was uncanny. And the one thing she had that so many other FBI applicants did not was that slight edge of a thrill-seeker. She was exhilarated by what she was doing as an undercover informant and it was obvious. But, she was going to have to take it to the next level. She was going to have to steal the log-in for either Rune or Jeffrey Dima’s personal laptop, and she was going to have to do it right now.

  12

  Access Required

  Jana’s phone vibrated with an incoming text message. She lowered it to her lap so that the phone’s screen could not be seen by anyone else in the office.

  Must get access to one of their laptops. We’re running out of time. Delete this message immediately.

  “Yeah, no kidding,” Jana mumbled as she deleted the message. Then a voice startled her.

  “Your boyfriend?” Jeffrey Dima said as he walked closer and leaned over Jana’s desk.

  “What? Oh, no. I don’t have a boyfriend.” But as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted divulging that fact to Jeffrey.

  “No boyfriend? A beautiful girl like you? What a shame. And you’re new in town, right? Well, I can show you around, if you know what I mean.”

  The smell of his aftershave was enough to curl her stomach and Jana wanted to vomit. Several questions went through her mind. Was he attractive? Certainly. Did he dress well? Definitely. Was he a slimeball? Without a doubt.

  “Yes, I know exactly what you mean.” Her tone had been more abrupt than she’d intended

  “So hostile, Miss Baker. Really, you should give me a chance. I’m an acquired taste.”

  A taste of what? Jana thought. “Sorry, Mr. Dima. I didn’t mean to be so short with you. I just—”

  “You were just about to say that since you hurt my feelings, you’d be glad to join me for a drink after work today. After all, it’s Friday.”

  “Ah, I don’t know about that.”

  “I’ll show you the big city.”

  Jana sized him up a moment and came to the realization that if she were to steal log-in access to his laptop, she’d better get close to him. “I’m not the young fawn you think I am, Mr. Dima.”

  “Jeffrey. Please, call me Jeffrey. And not the young fawn? Good, I like that.”

  Jana’s mind raced forward. What are you? Like, thirty-eight years old? You are sixteen years older than I am. Not to mention that I can see you coming from a mile away, and I know exactly what that look in your eye means. So keep your fly zipped, asshole. But still, this might be the one chance she had at stealing his passcode.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said with a little grin.

  “She’ll think about it,” Jeffrey said as he leaned away from the desk and walked toward his office. As he got to the door, he turned back and flashed his freshly whitened teeth at her. Set against the coal black of his hair and eyes, they looked fluorescent.

  As Jana got back to work, she logged into another hedge fund account and began inputting wire transfer instructions for another large investment in an oil-heavy portfolio. The phone vibrated again. It was Stone.

  Meet at usual place—priority is escalating.

  Priority is escalating? Jana thought. What now? They want me to scale the outside of the building with suction cups attached to my hands and feet? But she knew that if Agent Stone thought the situation was worsening, it was serious.

  13

  A Shocking Revelation

 
“No,” Stone said to Jana. “Absolutely not. I don’t want you within ten feet of that thug.”

  “Why?” Jana said. “Look, Stone, you know I can’t stand the guy. But it might be my only way to find out what his username and password are. If I go out with him, I might be able to get a look at his files.”

  “It’s out of the question.”

  Jana looked across the wide-open expanse of the J. C. Penney men’s section. “What’s wrong?”

  Stone looked down, then leveled serious eyes at her and shook his head.

  “Come on, Stone. Spit it out. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

  “Background check on Jeffrey Dima.”

  “What about it?”

  “I didn’t want to say anything earlier. I thought that even with what we found in his past, you were safe because you were just working in the same office as him. But going out with him? Even with my team close by, it’s not safe.”

  “What about his background check?”

  “He’s been accused on three separate occasions of using Rohypnol on young women. Never convicted, but the pattern is there. It’s not safe for you to be with him, Jana. You are my responsibility.”

  Jana knew what Rohypnol was, a prescription drug often used to perpetrate sexual assaults on women. But the fact remained, no one knew what the terrorists were truly up to and she was the only person that was in a position to find out. Someone has to stop this attack, whatever it might be. Someone has to stand in the gap—the gap between us and them. “Aren’t you getting a little bit too fatherly?”

  “Too . . . oh give me a break. I’m looking out for the safety of my number one witness. I’ve been a federal agent for longer than you’ve been alive. I know what I’m talking about.”

  “I’m a big girl and can take care of myself. But thanks, Dad.”