Brad Thor - Full Black

“Yes, sir,” replied Nicholas as he set down his cup and pulled up another image on the closest screen. “As I was explaining, the Chinese had created a sophisticated Islamic terror network as part of their unrestricted warfare plan for the United States, but this network was stolen from them.

“In fact, as best we can tell, it wasn’t just the network that was stolen, it was everything.”

“Everything? What do you mean, everything?” asked Harvath.

Nicholas brought up a satellite photo. “The Chinese military’s unrestricted warfare planning took place exclusively at this outpost in Mongolia. The project was so classified, the base didn’t even have a name. They referred to it with a three-digit number, Site 243.

“As we’ve learned, the sole purpose of this base was to allow the Chinese to study America and plan their unrestricted warfare package. The operatives there spoke only English, ate only American foods, read American books, watched American TV, played American video games, studied American politics and financial markets, and surfed nothing but American and Western websites. It was as close to America as you could be without leaving China’s umbrella.

“The operatives there were steeped in American culture and the American way of thinking. Most of them had previously worked or studied abroad in the U.S. Their job at Site 243 was to study America and to find its weaknesses. Under the supervision of their military handlers, they were then charged with developing the most unusual and devastating attacks they could come up with.”

“Attacks from the side,” said Harvath.

“Yes,” replied Nicholas as he put up another image. “Someone discovered what the Chinese were up to and hired an extremely adept hacker to steal the unrestricted warfare plans. Then they launched an attack on Site 243, making sure no one was left alive and no copy of the plans was left behind. But they didn’t stop there.

“Any Chinese military or intelligence officer who had any knowledge of the program, regardless of where he was, was hunted down and killed. Whoever stole the plans wanted to make sure that they had the only copy and that they were the only ones who could activate it.”

“But we don’t have any idea who stole it or why, do we?” asked Harvath.

Nicholas shook his head. “At this point, no. We have the hacker who helped steal the unrestricted warfare plans. She has been interrogated and is still being held at an offshore site. She claims she never knew the identity of the person or persons who hired her. The interrogators believe she is telling the truth.

“What we were able to get from her, though, is that despite her clients’ warning against it, she opened the package she stole. What’s more, she copied some of the data onto a separate drive.”

“Which you were able to recover,” said Harvath.

“And which you tried to sell back to the United States government rather than doing the right thing and turning it over,” added Carlton.

Nicholas put up his hands. “I eventually saw the error of my ways and delivered the drive to this organization.”

“What was on it?” asked Harvath.

“As you’ll recall, you and I spoke while you were in Yemen. Just before-”

Harvath held up his hand. He didn’t need to be reminded. The call had come in just before his car and Aazim Aleem had been hit by the RPG.

“What I had shared with you,” continued Nicholas, “was that there was some pretty interesting information on that drive. That was how we learned that Aazim had a nephew in London who was a digital courier for him. I also discovered that the drive held some highly encrypted data. From it, we began to get a better handle on what unrestricted warfare was. The problem, though, was there weren’t any specifics. I was able to figure out that the recent attacks we had seen in Europe and in Chicago were only a small wave preceding a giant tsunami, and that the tsunami was meant to crush the United States, but that was all. At least I thought it was all, until I came at the encryption from a different angle and found this.”

Harvath watched as Nicholas pushed a key and all the screens showed the same image, a map of the United States. A black dot popped up in Chicago, followed by one in New York and one in Los Angeles.

“What are we looking at?”

“Based on what Chase learned inside Aazim’s network, we believe we are looking at-”

“Target cities?” interrupted Harvath.

“Exactly. We know Aazim had been in Chicago and that he wanted Chase to handle an attack in New York while he went to oversee one in L.A. We think these represented the first wave.”

“First out of how many?”

Nicholas looked at Carlton, who nodded. “See for yourself,” said the little man as he pressed another button on his keyboard.

Instantly a dot appeared in Dallas, followed by Houston and Miami. Then Philadelphia had a dot and then Newark and San Francisco. Next came Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, and Denver. The dots were multiplying so fast, Harvath couldn’t keep track. Some cities had more than one dot.

In addition to major American cities, there were smaller ones, ones not immediately thought of when considering potential terrorist targets. There were dots next to Madison, Wisconsin; Casper, Wyoming; and Wichita, Kansas. Bloomington, Indiana; Hartford, Connecticut; Johnson City, Tennessee; Springfield, Missouri; and Billings, Montana, had also been marked.

“My God,” Harvath said. “How many are there?”

“Over two hundred,” replied Nicholas.

“Cells?”

“That’s what we think. The scope is amazing. But now watch this.”

Nicholas pressed another button and Harvath watched as all of the dots changed color.

“Why are they doing that?”

“We think the colors represent the style of attack,” said the little man. “You can see Chicago is lit up red, blue, orange, silver, and brown.”

“You mean there may have been five different kinds of attacks planned for Chicago?”

“Yes.”

“And we only disrupted two?”

“Unfortunately.”

Harvath studied the map, looking at the different colors. “Chase was inside the Chicago cell and he only uncovered the suicide bomb and active shooter plots. You think they kept things that compartmentalized? Aazim Aleem had three other types of attack planned for Chicago that Chase never learned about?”

“It’s very possible,” replied Carlton. “Especially if the actors were working alone and didn’t need the support of the overall network. It’s the way I’d do it.”

Five different attacks was a large number to throw at one city like Chicago, but there were plenty of cities on the map that appeared to have been targeted for multiple attacks. Harvath was looking for some sort of pattern. “Orange dots seem to be pretty randomly dispersed. Any idea what those represent?”

Nicholas leaned back in his chair, took a sip from his cup, and studied the map. “No idea.”

“Not even a guess?”

“Guesses are something I’ve got plenty of. Honestly, orange could be anything. There are orange dots in New York City, San Jose, Dallas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and a bunch of other locations. Silver and gold seem to be just as random.”

“What about purple? I’m only seeing those in a few places. All of them port cities. New York again, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle.”

“We noticed that, too,” replied Nicholas, “but those are also major urban centers with large populations, and there might be another factor they have in common that we’re not seeing. That’s the problem. There’s just so much we don’t know.”

Harvath looked back at the Old Man. “Any other thoughts, if you were behind this?”

Carlton was studying the monitors. “I’ve been looking at this map until my eyes bleed. Without some additional piece of information, it’s nearly impossible to unlock.”