Brad Taylor - The Polaris Protocol

“Where is this transfer? How was Carlos going to sell it?”

Booth’s eyes grew wet, and his head lolled to the side in defeat. “I don’t know. Please, I don’t know. All I did was bring the protocol. Carlos was supposed to pay me outright, but you killed him. He was going to sell it to someone else, but he knew all that, and he’s dead. Please, please, don’t kill me. I don’t know… .”

Waste of time. But the sicario hesitated still. He had hunted men who had taken great care to survive, and he had always proven the precautions they took were worthless. He had been given hard targets with nothing more to go on than a photograph and had brought the head home dripping from the neck. All of those men had been Mexican. People who understood the terrain and how to hide. People who knew they needed to hide. Not like the three foreigners. He had a great deal of information from the meeting with Carlos, and he knew he could find them again.

The sicario put away his razor. “You will show me how to work this protocol. You will give me the keys to unlock it. Understand?”

Booth nodded over and over again. “Yes, of course. It’s all yours. I’ll show you everything about it … then you’ll let me go?”

“Perhaps. But, to maintain our relationship of honesty, I’ll most likely kill you tomorrow.”

47

Kurt said, “We’re going to need the entire council for a decision. I’ve got a thread to work, but it’s unorthodox, to say the least.”

Alexander Palmer said, “Look, give us what you have and I’ll determine if it’s worth bringing the president and everyone else back into a room.”

Kurt had already sent a report on the safe rescue of Jack, along with a preliminary analysis of what he knew. Since then, Pike had done a thorough debrief and the Taskforce had translated what was on the digital recorder that Jack’s kidnapper had taken.

Kurt said, “Here’s what I know right now: Jack went with the kidnapper—we’re calling him Baldy—on two separate occasions to the Mexico City international airport. His purpose was to identify a Caucasian man who was bringing some software package down to Mexico to sell to the Sinaloa cartel. Both times he was unable to complete the identification. On the second visit, Jack’s original kidnapper—a man named Carlos—showed up at the airport and met three men. When the Caucasian smuggler didn’t show for reasons unknown, Baldy decided to follow Carlos and recorded a meeting in a park with the three unknown subjects. They discussed something called the POLARIS protocol, which is apparently an undetermined method to defeat our GPS constellation. Some time later Baldy took Jack back to the airport, where he was able to identify the Caucasian smuggler. Baldy followed him to a meeting with Carlos, where he was apparently going to transfer the protocol. Baldy interrupted the meeting, killed Carlos, and took the Caucasian with the protocol. Pike managed to track their location and rescue Jack, but lost Baldy and the man with the protocol. These are the facts that we know right now.”

The director of the CIA said, “So it’s a real thing? Someone has the ability to interdict our GPS constellation?”

“Yes, apparently. Unfortunately, he’s still loose in Mexico, in the hands of the Zetas drug cartel, either willingly or as a captive.”

“Who were the three men Carlos met in the park? Who’s trying to get it? Another drug cartel?”

Kurt shook his head. “No. It’s much worse than that.”

The secretary of defense leaned back and rubbed his face, saying, “I don’t think I want to hear this.”

Kurt said, “I guarantee you don’t. Baldy took a recording of the meeting with Carlos using a directional microphone, and it came in crystal clear. Most of the conversation is in English, discussing monetary terms for transfer. Some time during the meeting Carlos left, and the three men began discussing the purchase of the protocol. In Arabic.”

The D/CIA said, “Are you telling me it’s the Hezbollah crew? They’re tied into this?”

“I can’t confirm one way or the other, but the Arabic translation indicates that, yes, they’re working for Hezbollah. They discuss bringing another man in. A money guy, and they talk about him as if he’s from a different organization. They say he’s coming from Waziristan, Pakistan, which indicates al-Qaeda. Because they mention the organization being different from theirs, it means they aren’t al-Qaeda. Which, understandably, could mean a hundred other Arabic terrorist organizations, but given the Hezbollah team movement the CIA tracked, I’m betting it’s them.”

The SECDEF exclaimed, “Are you saying we have a Hezbollah crew that’s working with al-Qaeda? And they’re both going to get this protocol?”

“Whoa,” said Palmer, “Hezbollah is Shiite. AQ is Sunni. Why would they cooperate? They’re on the opposite sides of the fight in Syria, so why would they be on the same side here?”

Kurt said, “Well, they have cooperated in the past, but in this case, it looks like the usual animosity is still in play. Apparently, the guy coming is a moneyman for AQ, and he thinks he’s getting the protocol for use against our drones in Pakistan. Hezbollah wants his bankroll, but on the tape they talk about using him to buy the protocol, then killing him because they want to keep the protocol for themselves. They know we’ll figure out how to defeat it given enough time, and they don’t want some backwoods Taliban bullshit triggering it too early. They want it for their Iranian masters in case we strike them. To give them an edge in the fight.”

The principals committee sat in stunned silence for a moment, then began talking among themselves, ignoring Kurt, the chatter rising as the implications settled in. The secretary of defense, arguing with the secretary of state, finally exclaimed, “You don’t get it! It gives them more than an edge. It’ll even up the fight at any time. They don’t have the reliance on GPS that we do. Our systems depend on it, and losing it means much more to us than them. It’ll put our force back to Vietnam. Maybe worse, because we’ve ditched all the Vietnam-era equipment.”

The secretary of state said, “But surely we can find it. Get rid of it like a computer virus at home. Right? I mean, we know it’s there now.”

“I hope we can. But hope is not a method. It’s just that: hope. We don’t know how it works, so we’re having trouble finding it. Boeing and Second SOPS have been going around the clock since this started and found nothing. The software upgrades are all clean. Nothing’s standing out, and we might have to wait until it’s triggered to find out how it works. Because of that, we’ll have to take the damn thing into account for any military operation. Prepare for not being able to access GPS in every OPLAN we have.”

The D/CIA said, “Operation Gimlet. What do we do about that? We only get one shot, and if the GPS is disrupted, it won’t work.”

Kurt said, “What’s Gimlet?”

Palmer held up his hand. “Nothing. Not Taskforce business.”

“Screw it,” said the SECDEF, “read him on. He deserves to know what’s at stake.”

Palmer looked at the D/CIA, who nodded. He said, “We have an asset deep in the Syrian army. He’s tasked with placing a beacon on the chemical-weapons stockpiles hidden around the country. Gimlet is the operation to take them out. We need to have precise locational data because some of the munitions are hidden in urban areas. Others are in hardened underground bunkers, requiring a precision strike with massive ordnance.”

Jesus. So that’s why they were pushing so hard. Why they’re willing to risk the cover. Hezbollah gets POLARIS, and Gimlet ends up in disaster. Kurt said, “What’s the timeline?”