NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
FORT MEADE, MARYLAND
Mark Schreiber dropped the printout onto Joseph Stanton’s already overcrowded desk and said, “That makes three now:Transcon, Geneva Diamond, and the Strong Box beneath the Lincoln Tunnel. Are you still going to sit there and tell me we don’t have a problem on our hands?”
“Take it easy,” replied Stanton as he looked over the printout. “Even if we wanted to, there’s nobody we can call for help now anyway.”
“There’s got to be somebody.”
“There isn’t.”
“Are you serious? We don’t have a contingency for this?”
“For what, Mark? We still don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
Schreiber looked at his boss like he was nuts. “We’ve got three substations that are unresponsive.”
“Unresponsive, but still processing as far as we can tell,” clarified Stanton. “ New York has been overwhelmed. Give it a little more time.”
“That’s what you said the last time I came in here.”
“And as the director of this program that’s going to be my answer no matter how many times you come in here and ask.”
“What if the sites have been compromised?” ventured Schreiber.
“Then we wouldn’t be seeing any processing at all. You know how the systems work, Mark. You also know what the communication protocols are. Listen, we’re all angry with what’s happened today and we’re all concerned about the people we know and work with in New York, but I’m only going to tell you this one more time. Stay focused on your job.”
“But what if we-” began Schreiber, but he was cut off by the ringing of Stanton ’s phone.
“It’s from upstairs,” he said as he pointed toward the ceiling and reached for the receiver. “I need to take this in private.”
Once Schreiber had left the room and closed the door behind him, Stanton said, “Why the hell are you contacting me on this line?”
“Because you haven’t exactly been answering your cell phone,” said the caller.
“If you turned on your television set once in a while, you’d see we’ve got our hands pretty full today.”
“Fuller than you think.”
“What are you talking about?” replied Stanton.
“Not over the phone. We need to meet.”
“That’s impossible. Not today.”
“Yes, today,” said the caller. “And I want you there in a half hour.”
“That’s insane,” said Stanton. “Do you know what the traffic is like between here and there?”
“Use one of the company helos.”
“We’ve got a major national crisis going on. Helicopters are for emergency use only at this point.”
“This is an emergency. Somebody knows about Athena.”