The Broken Window (Lincoln Rhyme 8)

Pulaski nodded at the sales brochure Mel Cooper had downloaded. "Four hundred million people?"

"That's right. And growing."

"And it's updated hourly?" Rhyme asked.

"Often in real time."

"So your government agency, Whitcomb, this Compliance Division . . . it isn't about guarding the data; you're using it, right? To find terrorists?"

Whitcomb paused. But since he'd already sent the dossier to somebody who didn't have an A-18 clearance, whatever the hell that was, he must have figured that sharing a bit more wasn't going to make the consequences any worse. "That's right. And it's not just terrorists. It's other criminals too. SSD uses predictive software to figure out who's going to commit crimes and when and how. A lot of the tips that go to police officials and intelligence departments come from what look like anonymous concerned citizens. They're actually avatars. Fictions. Created by Watchtower and innerCircle. Sometimes they even collect the rewards, which are then sent back to the government to be used again."

It was Mel Cooper who asked, "But if you're a government agency, why are you giving the job to a private company? Why not do it yourself?"

"We have to use a private company. The Defense Department tried to do something like this themselves after nine-eleven: the Total Information Awareness program. It was run by former National Security Adviser John Poindexter and an executive from SAIC. But it got closed down--violations of the Priv

acy Act. And the public thought it was too Big Brother. But SSD isn't subject to the same legal restrictions that the government is."

Whitcomb gave a cynical laugh. "Also, with all respect to my employer, Washington wasn't very talented. SSD is. The two main words in Andrew Sterling's vocabulary are 'knowledge' and 'efficiency.' And nobody combines those better than him."

"It's not illegal?" Mel Cooper asked.

"We're in some gray areas," Whitcomb conceded.

"Well, can it help us? That's all I want to know."

"Maybe."

"How?"

Whitcomb explained, "We'll run Detective Sachs's geographic-positioning profile for today. I'll take over the keyboarding." He began to type. "You'll see what I do on your screen in the box at the bottom."

"How long will that take?"

A laugh, muted thanks to the broken nose. "Not very long. It's pretty speedy."

He hadn't finished speaking before text filled the screen.

GEOGRAPHIC POSITIONING PROFILE SUBJECT 7303-4490-7831-3478

Time parameters: Past four hours.

* 1632 hours. Phone call. From subject's mobile phone to landline of Subject 5732-4887-3360-4759 (Lincoln Henry Rhyme) (tethered individual). 52 seconds. Subject was in her Brooklyn, NY, residence.

* 1723 hours. Biometric hit. CCTV, NYPD 84th Precinct, Brooklyn, NY. 95% probability match.

* 1723 hours. Biometric hit. Subject 3865-6453-9902-7221 (Pamela D. Willoughby) (tethered individual). CCTV, NYPD 84th Precinct, Brooklyn, NY. 92.4% probability match.

* 1740 hours. Phone call. From subject's mobile phone to landline of Subject 5732-4887-3360-4759 (Lincoln Henry Rhyme) (tethered Individual). 12 seconds.

* 1827 hours. RFID scan. Manhattan Style Boutique credit card, 9 West Eighth Street. No purchases.

* 1841 hours. Biometric hit. CCTV, Presco Discount Gas and Oil, 546 W. 14th Street, Pump 7, 2001 Honda Civic, NY License Number MDH459, registered to 3865-6453-9902-7221 (Pamela D. Willoughby) (tethered individual).

* 1846 hours. Credit card purchase. Presco Discount Gas and Oil, 546 W. 14th Street. Pump 7. Purchase of 14.6 gallons, regular grade. $43.86 US.

* 1901 hours. License plate scan. CCTV, Avenue of the Americas and 23rd Street, Honda Civic MDH459 northbound.

* 1903 hours. Phone call. From subject's mobile phone to landline of Subject 5732-4887-3360-4759 (Lincoln Henry Rhyme) (tethered individual). Subject was at Avenue of the Americas and 28th Street. 14 seconds.