Read Online The Cyclops Initiative by David Wellington - Free Book Online

software.”
    â€œLet’s not jump to conclusions yet,” Holman said.
    The map changed to just show the United States. Then almost at once it changed again, to just show the northeastern corridor. One by one the dots kept going out. The map changed a third time to show the greater Washington, D.C., area, with red dots clustered around the Pentagon and Fort Belvoir.
    Chapel took a deep breath. It looked like it was one of their own. The possibility had always been there. But at least now they knew, at least they could narrow down the list of possible culprits. And then Chapel could go and find the hijacker and put an end to this before things went too far. All right, that was acceptable. And he had to admit they couldn’t have done it without the NSA.
    â€œThis,” Chapel said as the lights continued to go out, “is some pretty impressive hacking.”
    â€œExcuse me?” Moulton said.
    â€œYou’re quite the hacker,” Chapel said, smiling.
    Moulton erupted out of his chair and jabbed a finger in Chapel’s face. “You take that back.”
    â€œWhat? Listen, I didn’t mean—­”
    â€œI am not a hacker,” Moulton insisted. “A hacker exploits weaknesses. They break into things. I’m using tools that were designed just for this purpose.”
    â€œI didn’t, uh—­hey, let’s just—­”
    Hollingshead cleared his throat, quite distinctly. “Gentlemen,” he said, “if you’ll put this disagreement on hold, you might wish to look at the map.”
    Chapel turned and looked at the screen. What he saw made him forget all about Moulton’s outburst.
    Only one dot remained on the map. It was on the Pentagon.
    Everyone in the room held their breath. They knew what that had to mean. The hijacking was an inside job. It wasn’t a debatable point anymore.
    â€œMilitary, then,” Holman said, walking toward the map as if she wanted to see it more clearly. “Military. Or maybe a civilian contractor working for a military organization. Can we get any more details?”
    â€œSure,” Moulton said. He glared at Chapel one last time and then returned to his seat. He glanced at his monitor for a moment, then tapped a key and the view on the screen disappeared, replaced with a block of code that Chapel couldn’t read. “Here we go. The IP address you requested. It doesn’t look like the other one because this is an IPv6 address, which is . . . oh,” Moulton said. “Oh, this is—­this is a little, um—­”
    â€œDelicate,” Holman said. “Rupert, I’m so sorry you had to find out like this, I assure you I had no idea—­”
    She stopped talking because Hollingshead had lifted his hands for peace. He had his eyes closed, and he looked like he was fighting to control himself.
    â€œIt’s us,” he said.
    â€œWhat?” Chapel asked. “What are you saying?”
    â€œThat IP address is one reserved for use by the Defense Intelligence Agency,” Hollingshead said very quietly. “The hijacker is one of ours.”
    Chapel was so stunned he had no idea what to say.
    Wilkes didn’t have the same problem. “Give me a name,” he said.
    Moulton did something that cleared his screen and then brought up a page of text—­numbers and words, but none Chapel could make any sense out of. The IP address was highlighted in one cell near the middle of the sheet. There was no name associated with the address, just a sixteen-­digit number.
    â€œThat’s a confidential employee identifier,” Holman said, pointing at the screen. “That’s the number for an operative who can’t be named, even in classified documents. Do you want me to look up who it belongs to?”
    â€œNo need,” Hollingshead said. “I recognize it. The person you’ve identified is known to me.” He opened his eyes.