Brad Thor - Takedown

“So people weren’t responding to your e-mails,” stated Caldwell. “So what? You don’t think people were focused on the attacks?”

The young NSA employee looked right at him. “That’s the problem. According to the information we were receiving, our people weren’t focused on anything but their computers. Everyone was working. Everyone was processing data just like they should be, but nobody was on the e-mail system.”

“So what did you do?” asked Lawlor.

“Nothing. Not until the third location went unresponsive and Stanton blew me off about it again. I had pinged all the servers and everything seemed normal, but it didn’t make sense.”

“And that’s when you violated the security protocols?”

Schreiber nodded his head. “I ran a series of remote diagnostics over an unsecured channel.”

“What did you find?”

“I didn’t find anything. I wanted to talk to Stanton about it, but he’d left the building. Somebody told me he’d gone somewhere via helicopter and that was the last I heard of him until security came down to my office, asked for my ID, and took me to the polygraphs.”

“Did you test the fourth location?”

“Of course I did. It came up the same as the other three-the servers appeared to be working, but I couldn’t establish any human contact.”

“And that’s all you did?” asked Lawlor.

“Yes, that’s all I did. I swear to God.”

Gary gave Schreiber a long, hard stare and then signaled Caldwell to pick up the file and follow him out of the room.

A few minutes later, Director Maxwell exited the monitoring station across the hall and said, “So what do you think?”

Lawlor handed the polygraph transcripts back to Caldwell and replied, “I think your polygraphs are inconclusive.”

“What are you talking about? We asked all the right questions.”

“Sure, but you asked them in all the wrong ways. Mark Schreiber is guilty, but not of treason.”

“Then who released those locations?” demanded Maxwell. “ Stanton?”

“It would explain why he wanted to silence Forrester and then tried to take me down.”

“I don’t believe it. Stanton ’s been with the agency a long time.”

“Believe it,” responded Caldwell. “I think we should have one of our polygraphers out here to retest Schreiber, but if I were you, I’d put my money on him passing. What do you think, Gary?”

Lawlor nodded his head. “I’d have to agree. If he’s conning us, then he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. His story makes sense, and it also better explains Stanton ’s behavior.”

Caldwell looked at the NSA director and said, “I think your leak plugged itself, Dick.”

Maxwell didn’t know who or what to believe. “Until your people polygraph him, I want to keep Schreiber isolated.”

“That’s fine by me. I can think of about a hundred provisions under the Patriot Act that’ll back you up. You can put some of your own people on him or have him transferred to the base stockade. It’s your call.”

The director thought about it for a moment and then said, “Until I’m absolutely sure he’s not a security risk, I don’t want him in the building.”

“Then the stockade it is.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” broke in Lawlor as he thought of something. “But I’d like to talk to Schreiber one last time, if I could.”

Caldwell shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know what good it’ll do you, but I’ve got no problem with it. What about you, Dick?”

“No problem here,” replied Maxwell, “as long as Deputy Director Caldwell accompanies you. I want this done by the book, just in case. As long as that works with you, then be my guest. I’m going to go back to my office and get ahold of the base CO to arrange for Schreiber’s transfer. If you learn anything new, I want to know about it.”

“Of course,” said Gary as he thanked the director for his time, reluctantly shook his hand, and watched with relief as he disappeared down the hallway.

Back in the conference room and with Stan Caldwell’s permission, Gary shifted from interrogation mode to questioning what might be the only witness they had.

“Mr. Schreiber, I’d like to ask you a few more questions about Joseph Stanton.”

“Am I under arrest?” the young man asked.

“No,” replied Lawlor. “You’re not.”

“So I’m free to leave this room and return to my office, then?”

“Not exactly,” stated Caldwell. “Listen, as far as we’re concerned, your story seems to make sense. Director Maxwell, though, needs to be absolutely certain before he reinstates you. I am sure you can appreciate that.”

“I guess so,” said Schreiber.

“Good,” replied Lawlor as he continued. “The first thing I need to tell you is that Joseph Stanton is dead.”

The young man couldn’t believe it. “Dead? How? What happened?”

“I shot him this afternoon.”

Schreiber couldn’t believe it.

“Was there anything unusual about him? Anything that someone could use as leverage against him? For instance did he gamble? Did he like women a bit too much? Drinking? Drugs?”

“Wait a second,” responded the young man as he put two and two together. “You think it was Joe Stanton who exposed the New York locations?”

“It’s a possibility we’re considering. Is there anything you saw or heard in the office which might be relevant?”

Schreiber was quiet as he thought about the question.

“Anything at all,” said Gary. “Anything that might put us on the trail of who he could have been working with. It doesn’t matter how small or inconsequential you think the detail might be.”

The young man glanced at his watch.

“Are we keeping you from something?” asked Caldwell.

“No, sir,” replied Schreiber. “I’m just trying to get a fix on the date.”

“What date?” said Gary.

“A few weeks ago, Stanton gave me a pretty weird assignment. He said it was a loose string the NSA was running down. He dropped it on my desk, told me to get on it right away and not to talk about it with anyone else.”

“What was it?”

“He wanted me to track all sales over the last few months of a very high-end dialysis machine.”

“Did he tell you why, or what it was in reference to?”

“No, just that it had to do with a case involving national security, and then he reminded me again not to talk about it with anyone.”

“What did you find out?”

“I found out that the machine was one of the most expensive of its kind anywhere in the world and that it was the number one choice for the premier hospitals involved with treating very particular forms of advanced kidney disease.”

“Why the hell would he want information like that?” asked Caldwell.

“I don’t know,” responded Schreiber. “He wouldn’t say. He wanted me to provide him with a list of individuals or organizations who had taken delivery of the machine in the last three months.”

“And what did you find out?” asked Lawlor.

“Nothing at first. The company that makes the machines is called Nova Medical Systems. They’re extremely tight-lipped about everything they do.”

Lawlor paused. There was something about that company name that he recognized, but couldn’t place. Synapses were firing all across his brain as he tried to connect the dots and jump ahead to some sort of conclusion. Why was the company name so familiar?

Hoping the young analyst could knock the answer loose, Lawlor beckoned Schreiber to keep going.

“I was finally able to hack their private sales information and discovered that they’d sold only one of these super-high-end machines in the last three months,” the young man said.