“On the way to my office with Jasmine’s laptop and phone.”
“Why are you panting?”
“Because I’m running. Don’t expect me back there tonight.”
“I understand.” He told her about Dino’s black box.
“Brilliant! I’m going to order dozens! Gotta go.” She hung up and ran up to the door of her building. The security guard recognized her and buzzed her in. “Where’s the duty officer?” she asked the man.
“In the ops room, two floors down,” he replied.
She pressed the elevator button, then rode down.
—
An hour and a half later, the NSA tech called Holly in her office. “Got it all,” she said. “The files were encoded, but it was no match for our computer.”
“E-mail me the pages now,” Holly said. She hung up and turned to the commissioner, who was sitting on her sofa, drinking coffee. “We’re into her computer,” she said. “They’re sending me what they found.”
“Good news!”
“We’re due for some,” Holly said. She opened her mail program and printed out two copies of the files, then handed the commissioner a stack of papers.
He scanned the pages quickly. “I don’t believe our luck,” he said. “There’s contact information for each of the other four cells in the other cities.”
“We’re going to need the FBI for this,” Holly said. “They’re the only ones who have people on the ground in these cities.”
“You want to call them, or should I?”
“I think that should be done director to director,” Holly said, then called the White House switchboard and asked for Kate Lee.
“Holly? What’s going on in New York with Jasmine’s computer?”
“We’ve broken into her laptop. We have locations for the four al Qaeda cells in the other cities, and I think you should get them to the FBI.”
“I’ll call the director,” Kate said.
“I’ll e-mail you both the pages. Please tell him it’s important they all be hit at the same time.”
“I’ll do that and call you back.” She hung up.
“Kate’s on it,” she said to the commissioner. She e-mailed the files from the laptop and the phone to both directors.
“I’ve already told my deputy for public affairs to keep a lid on this until he gets my order.”
“Then all we can do for now is wait,” Holly said. “By the way, it was Viv DeCarlo who put Jasmine down. Check the ballistics. You should be proud of her.”
“I’ve always been proud of her,” the commissioner said, “and I hate to lose her. She retired today.”
“I know, we had dinner together earlier this evening.”
“I just thought of something,” the commissioner said.
“What?”
“Never mind. Let me check it out before I break it to you.” He got out his phone and walked down to the other end of the room.
Holly looked at her watch: it was two A.M. Her phone rang. “Holly Barker.”