accident, or a terrorist attack—is a critical component to solving engineering problems. Failure analysis is the other face of engineering.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Engineering is the science of figuring out how to do or make something. But that’s only half the challenge. The other half is analyzing all possible modes of failure—in order to avoid them. EES does both. We solve very difficult engineering problems. And we dissect failures. In both these tasks, we have never failed. Ever . With one minor exception, which we’re still working on.” He flicked his hand as if waving away a bothersome fly. “Those two things, engineering and failure analysis, form our primary business. Our visible business. But they are also our cover . Because behind our public façade, we use these same facilities to carry out, from time to time, highly unusual and confidential projects for special clients. Very special clients. We need you for one of these projects.”
“Why me?”
“I’ll get to that in a moment. First, the details. A Chinese scientist is on his way to the United States. We believe the man is carrying the plans for a new, high-technology weapon. We’re not certain, but we have reason to hope he may be defecting.”
Gideon was about to make a sarcastic quip, but the look in Glinn’s eye deterred him.
“For two years,” Glinn went on, “US intelligence has been aware of a mysterious project going on in an underground compound inside the Lop Nor nuclear testing zone in far western China. Staggering amounts of money and scientific talent have been devoted to this effort. The CIA believes they’re developing a new weapon, a kind of Chinese Manhattan Project, something that would change the balance of power completely.”
Gideon stared. “More destructive than the H-Bomb?”
“Yes, that’s the information we have. But now, one of the project’s chief scientists seems to have stolen the plans and is on his way to the United States. Why? We don’t know. We hope he might be defecting to the US with the plans for that weapon, but we can’t be sure.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Apparently, he was the victim of a successful honey trap at a scientific convention in Hong Kong.”
“Honey trap?”
“Surely you’ve heard the term. An attractive woman is employed to get the target in a compromising position, pictures are taken, pressure is then applied…But this honey trap went awry and triggered the man’s panicked flight from China.”
“Right. I get it. So when is this scientist supposed to arrive?”
“He’s on his way now. The man’s on a Japan Airlines flight to New York from Hong Kong. He changed planes in Tokyo nine hours ago and will land at JFK at eleven ten PM —that’s in four hours.”
“Jesus. Okay.”
“Your assignment is simple: tail the man from the airport and, as soon as possible, take those plans away from him and bring them here.”
“How?”
“That’s for you to figure out.”
“In four hours?”
Glinn nodded. “We don’t know what format the plans are in or where they’re hidden. They could be computer code in his laptop, hidden in a steganographic image, on a flash drive in his suitcase, or on an old-fashioned roll of film, for all we know.”
“This is a crazy assignment. Nobody could pull this off.”
“It is true that few could do this. That’s why we’ve reached out to you, Dr. Crew.”
“You’re kidding—right? I’ve never done anything like this before. My work at Los Alamos is in HE. No doubt you’ve got dozens of better-qualified people downstairs.”
“As it happens, you are uniquely suited to this assignment. For two reasons. First is your former career.”
“What career would that be?”
“As a thief. Robbing art museums.”
There was a sudden, freezing silence.
“Not the bigger museums, of course. The small private ones, generally, with less sophisticated intrusion-detection systems and lower-profile
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Engineering is the science of figuring out how to do or make something. But that’s only half the challenge. The other half is analyzing all possible modes of failure—in order to avoid them. EES does both. We solve very difficult engineering problems. And we dissect failures. In both these tasks, we have never failed. Ever . With one minor exception, which we’re still working on.” He flicked his hand as if waving away a bothersome fly. “Those two things, engineering and failure analysis, form our primary business. Our visible business. But they are also our cover . Because behind our public façade, we use these same facilities to carry out, from time to time, highly unusual and confidential projects for special clients. Very special clients. We need you for one of these projects.”
“Why me?”
“I’ll get to that in a moment. First, the details. A Chinese scientist is on his way to the United States. We believe the man is carrying the plans for a new, high-technology weapon. We’re not certain, but we have reason to hope he may be defecting.”
Gideon was about to make a sarcastic quip, but the look in Glinn’s eye deterred him.
“For two years,” Glinn went on, “US intelligence has been aware of a mysterious project going on in an underground compound inside the Lop Nor nuclear testing zone in far western China. Staggering amounts of money and scientific talent have been devoted to this effort. The CIA believes they’re developing a new weapon, a kind of Chinese Manhattan Project, something that would change the balance of power completely.”
Gideon stared. “More destructive than the H-Bomb?”
“Yes, that’s the information we have. But now, one of the project’s chief scientists seems to have stolen the plans and is on his way to the United States. Why? We don’t know. We hope he might be defecting to the US with the plans for that weapon, but we can’t be sure.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Apparently, he was the victim of a successful honey trap at a scientific convention in Hong Kong.”
“Honey trap?”
“Surely you’ve heard the term. An attractive woman is employed to get the target in a compromising position, pictures are taken, pressure is then applied…But this honey trap went awry and triggered the man’s panicked flight from China.”
“Right. I get it. So when is this scientist supposed to arrive?”
“He’s on his way now. The man’s on a Japan Airlines flight to New York from Hong Kong. He changed planes in Tokyo nine hours ago and will land at JFK at eleven ten PM —that’s in four hours.”
“Jesus. Okay.”
“Your assignment is simple: tail the man from the airport and, as soon as possible, take those plans away from him and bring them here.”
“How?”
“That’s for you to figure out.”
“In four hours?”
Glinn nodded. “We don’t know what format the plans are in or where they’re hidden. They could be computer code in his laptop, hidden in a steganographic image, on a flash drive in his suitcase, or on an old-fashioned roll of film, for all we know.”
“This is a crazy assignment. Nobody could pull this off.”
“It is true that few could do this. That’s why we’ve reached out to you, Dr. Crew.”
“You’re kidding—right? I’ve never done anything like this before. My work at Los Alamos is in HE. No doubt you’ve got dozens of better-qualified people downstairs.”
“As it happens, you are uniquely suited to this assignment. For two reasons. First is your former career.”
“What career would that be?”
“As a thief. Robbing art museums.”
There was a sudden, freezing silence.
“Not the bigger museums, of course. The small private ones, generally, with less sophisticated intrusion-detection systems and lower-profile
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