Chapter 2 - Project Nightglass
The secure door opened three inches.
Rebecca moved before anyone else.
“Lock the floor.”
Ellis hit the security control.
Nothing happened.
“System isn't responding.”
Briggs stood.
The door opened wider.
A man stepped through.
He appeared to be in his late fifties, with silver hair and a charcoal suit. No coat despite the snow outside.
He held both hands where they could be seen.
“Colonel Vance.”
Rebecca recognized him.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Thomas Hale.
Every person in the room immediately straightened.
Hale looked exhausted.
“Sir,” Rebecca said.
“We need to talk.”
Rebecca held up the printed page.
“About this?”
Hale's expression answered before he did.
“Yes.”
Rebecca pointed toward the secure conference room.
“Inside.”
They entered.
Rebecca closed the door.
“What is Project Nightglass?”
Hale didn't sit.
“An intelligence continuity program developed twelve years ago.”
“That's not an answer.”
“It was designed to protect certain technologies from foreign acquisition.”
“What technologies?”
“Autonomous navigation. Satellite redundancy. Emergency command routing.”
Rebecca thought of Daniel's company.
Navigation components.
Her stomach tightened.
“What does Daniel have?”
Hale looked through the glass wall toward the operations floor.
“Eleven years ago, Daniel discovered that a subcontractor working with his company had altered firmware used in a prototype defense guidance system.”
Rebecca listened.
“The alteration created a hidden access route,” Hale continued. “Someone could potentially manipulate navigation data without triggering normal security warnings.”
“A back door.”
“Yes.”
“Foreign intelligence?”
“We didn't know.”
“And Daniel reported it?”
“He tried.”
Rebecca understood immediately.
“Someone buried the report.”
Hale nodded.
“Daniel became frightened.”
“Why?”
“Because the people burying it weren't outsiders.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“They were inside Defense.”
Hale said nothing.
That was confirmation.
Rebecca paced once across the small room.
“What does this have to do with me?”
“You were assigned to the command architecture team connected to the same prototype.”
Rebecca remembered the deployment.
Long nights.
Endless technical briefings.
She had believed it routine.
“You were getting close to discovering the same anomaly Daniel found.”
“So you sent me overseas.”
“I didn't.”
“Who did?”
Hale hesitated.
“General Warren Pike.”
Rebecca knew the name.
Everyone did.
Pike had retired five years earlier as one of the most respected strategic commanders in Washington.
He had also been Rebecca's mentor.
The man who had recommended her for promotion.
The man who had attended her father's funeral.
“No.”
“Rebecca—”
“No.”
Hale removed a flash drive.
“Daniel kept evidence.”
Rebecca didn't take it.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“Because Pike threatened Emily.”
Everything inside Rebecca stopped.
“What?”
“Emily was fifteen.”
Rebecca remembered.
Braces.
Soccer practice.
A bedroom covered with band posters.
Hale continued quietly.
“Daniel was told that if he spoke to you, your daughter would become collateral damage in an investigation manufactured against him.”
Rebecca felt physically sick.
“So he stayed silent.”
“For eleven years.”
“And tonight?”
“Someone accessed the dormant Nightglass network.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
“Why contact Daniel?”
“Because his original evidence may identify the person who created the back door.”
Rebecca thought of Emily crying.
“Where is my daughter now?”
“Protected.”
“I want confirmation.”
Hale nodded.
Rebecca called Cole through a secure line.
Emily answered.
“Mom?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where's Dad?”
“With the agents.”
“Lauren?”
“She's here.”
Rebecca closed her eyes briefly.
“Stay with Agent Cole.”
“Mom, what's happening?”
“I'll explain when I understand it.”
“You always say that.”
The words hurt.
Rebecca had said them during Emily's childhood whenever duty pulled her away.
This time Rebecca answered differently.
“You're right.”
Emily became quiet.
“I promise you something,” Rebecca said. “I'm not disappearing this time.”
After the call, Hale handed her the flash drive.
“This was delivered to the Pentagon tonight.”
“By whom?”
“Anonymous courier.”
Rebecca inserted it into an isolated terminal.
One file.
A video.
Daniel appeared on screen.
The timestamp showed eleven years earlier.
He looked younger.
Terrified.
“If you're watching this, Rebecca found out.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
Daniel continued.
“I wanted to tell you. Pike made sure I couldn't.”
He held up a circuit module.
“This is the original Nightglass prototype. The code inside it can prove someone deliberately compromised the defense network.”
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“But the code isn't the most dangerous thing.”
Rebecca felt Hale stiffen.
Daniel continued.
“I found the authorization.”
The video distorted.
Then returned.
“The person who approved the hidden access wasn't Pike.”
Rebecca glanced at Hale.
Daniel said:
“Pike was protecting someone.”
The recording abruptly ended.
Rebecca stared at the blank screen.
“Who?”
Hale looked troubled.
“We never knew.”
Briggs suddenly knocked.
“Colonel?”
Rebecca opened the door.
“What?”
“We've got another transmission.”
“Source?”
“Unknown.”
Rebecca followed him.
A message filled the center monitor.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.
Rebecca felt every eye turn toward her.
A second line appeared.
DANIEL KEPT ONE COPY.
A third.
ASK YOUR DAUGHTER WHERE HE HID IT.
Rebecca immediately called Emily.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Rebecca looked at Hale.
“Get Cole.”
Hale called.
Nothing.
Then Rebecca's phone vibrated.
A photograph arrived from Emily's number.
It showed Daniel's house.
The upstairs bedroom window was open.
Under the photograph were four words:
SHE FOUND THE BOX.
Rebecca stared at the message.
Then another arrived.
May you like
It contained only a name.
LAUREN.
