Infinite Exposure (10 page)

A lot of pain and effort had gone into working Nedim. While there were still some doubters on the team, he had been a treasure
trove of information about al-Qaeda's on-going activities. The flow of email and the ping server had allowed them to put tracking
teams on 27 different cells in just a few short weeks. With the notable exception of the Lutton cell, all of the highly active
cells were about to be taken down. Some would be arrested and interrogated, others were to simply be killed. A 10 member cell
had a senior bomb maker coming to its location to train newbies in how to make bombs. It seemed like a waste to arrest that
cell when you only needed a small blast to set off a bigger blast. One small grenade launched through a window once they started
blending the components would take care of everybody in the house without leveling the block.

Finally, someone in the room said the one question others were thinking: “How could they have found us?”

“They didn't find us,” responded Hans. “They found what they believe is a weak link.”

“Do we have a leak?” asked the man in the suit.

“No,” responded Hans. “We have reporters.”

Everybody turned to look at Hans once he dropped that bomb.

Somehow the BBC got a lead that Pakistani intelligence had turned an al-Qaeda operative and was now exploiting him. They had
been working every connection they have trying to get further information.

“Don't look at me,” said the Brit.

“Relax, it wasn't you,” Hans continued. They got this lead in America, which leads me to believe someone in an American intelligence
agency was feeling unloved. They pointed them at Pakistani intelligence and gave them a vague story because that is all they
had. We are clean — for now — but we need to make sure all of the arrest paperwork is filed and doesn't have any of our names
on it. They are just about a week away from forcing this story to break.”

“I thought we only had to worry about CNN,” the Brit asked.

“CNN hasn't hired a journalist in 20 years,” the man in the suit retorted. “They take what we give them and only ask for enough
to fill the space between commercials. We should have paid more attention to what the BBC was doing here.”

“Doesn't matter now,” said Hans. “We can follow the courier and once the cell raids happen we will have more computers to
search. Another communications center will turn up. We knew this well would be pumped dry at some point. It has been a long
time since we found a courier though.”

“Agreed,” responded the man in the suit. “I will take care of the paperwork filing. You three take care of obtaining a document
bag. You two take care of bringing in mechanics for a tail. Odds are this will be a multi-drop transfer. We probably won't
be able to get much, if anything from the first leg of the journey. Once the journey is complete, or we lose the trail, we
can round up the various mules for interrogation.”

Hans knew exactly what that last statement meant.
We
were going to round them up so they could go to the camp. He had received word from the party that the second camp had been
activated, but to make it fully operational they needed a few women. A courier-nabbing operation was bound to put at least
one woman in the second camp. Most of the couriers wouldn't spend more than a day or two at the first camp. Al-Qaeda couriers
worked on the “next hop” principle. They only knew the person they got the information from and the person who got it next.
Usually, they didn't even know a name, just a location and a description of something the person would be wearing. You only
found out where the information was going if you caught the last courier in the chain.

Islamic extremists were outright stupid in Hans' mind. It didn't matter how much college education they had or how many infidels
they killed, they would always remain stupid. This stupidity stood out predominantly in their treatment and views of women.
The extremists treated women as little more than cum receptacles. They were supposed to remain illiterate, quiet, and out
of sight. They were a necessary evil for producing sons, and nothing more. Lo be the woman whose first child was a girl.

These very same people had no problem whatsoever with letting pregnant women strap bombs to themselves and blow up buses.
Besides becoming martyrs, women were habitually used as links in a courier chain. Because women were not allowed to go out
alone, they tended to have their daughters or other women with them when they were carrying messages. This was probably one
of the reasons women were to remain illiterate, so they couldn't read the messages they carried.

Hans tried to picture someone telling one of the German women he knew to be subservient. That was just asking to die a slow
and painful death, assuming you weren't lucky enough to piss her off so much she killed you instantly.

No, al-Qaeda was little more than the scum that grew under the rim of a public toilet and it was long past time to scrub the
toilet.

***

Margret sat around work after 6 PM. She had received an email telling her the Data Storage & Recovery team wanted to meet
at 7:30. Since it was a four-star place, Margret decided to tolerate the inconvenience. She had finished the last of the work
she wanted to do around 5:30 and was now debating about going home and changing. Margret had eaten at that restaurant once
before. Her normal business attire was probably not going to go unnoticed. True, she had on a suit, and a good suit, but it
was a suit. This place traditionally wanted women in evening dresses. She did have several she hadn't yet worn. There was
time to go home and change prior to the meeting. She knew her companion for the evening would be changing now. With that,
she logged off and left for home.

Yes, Big Four Consulting was going to be buying two meals tonight, and the second meal was going to be a real bitch slap,
literally. Margret had called Carol and told her to read up on FDIC regulations, then to meet her at the restaurant at 7 PM
so they could talk at the bar for a while. Carol might have been the only female lawyer the bank currently had. Well, had
before consuming all of the other banks. Margret didn't know any of the other lawyers at the other divisions around the world.
Carol had been given the gist of what Margret had dropped on Big Four Consulting and Carol chuckled at hearing it. She had
never eaten at the restaurant, but heard it was incredible. She said she might have a surprise for Margret when they met.

As Margret changed, she wondered what kind of surprise Carol was talking about. She and Carol hadn't really socialized. They
chatted from time to time, but never stopped for drinks after work. Carol had been a key player when it came to contracts
for the IT department and she was typically well versed in whatever federal regulation they might be about to bump into. “Bump,”
laughed Margret.
We don't “bump” into regulations, we simply choose to ignore them and avoid creating a document trail
saying we broke the law.
In any event, Margret was dressing to the nines and willing to let whatever happened happen tonight.

Margret arrived at the restaurant roughly the same time Carol got there. She assumed this because Carol was still poking around
the bar looking for her when she walked in. No doubt about it, Carol looked hot. It had been a long time since Margret had
sampled anything looking that good. They saw each other and Carol came over to Marget.

“You look great!” Carol exclaimed.

“Figured it was time to bring out the big guns on this one,” responded Margret.

“They are definitely some serious artillery,” Carol spoke without thinking.

Margret laughed. “I'm glad you like them. Let's find a table around here so you can fill me in on what you have found.”

They quickly found a table out of earshot of the other patrons and ordered a round of drinks. Once the waitress left Margret
looked at Carol and said: “So, tell me what you found.”

“Your interpretation on the FDIC requirements was pretty accurate when they are taken strictly. Many feel they are more of
a guideline, but I have a few contacts who love putting the hurt on big consulting firms.”

The waitress returned with their drinks and Margret opened a tab with her credit card. Once the waitress left Carol opened
her leather folder and pulled out a fax from an inspector for the FDIC. It came complete with their letterhead. In a nutshell
it stated while they had been somewhat understanding in the interpretation of this requirement when large scale disasters
such as floods and multi-state power outages had struck, they (the FDIC) had no intention of looking the other way when a
recovery plan required 14 hours of flight time during good weather just to get the backup media.

“Well, well, well” said Margret. “Won't this be a major knife in the back if they try to play it down.”

“Yes it should,” responded Carol, “But it isn't the best part. According to regulations, everyone with access to the data
center or an account that can complete transactions must be fingerprinted and have a notarized Securities and Exchange Commission
pledge on file with their signature.”

“I wasn't aware of that requirement,” Margret said.

“Most people aren't. It was lightly enforced prior to 9/11, but now they are stepping up the drive to get all paperwork in
order. Do you want to hear the best part?”

Margret simply smiled and looked Carol directly in the eye. Carol reached into her leather folder and pulled out another document
with the heading “Proposed Rule Change 86113B.” It was definitely written in lawyer-ease, but the gist of it was they were
going to make it a requirement for banks receiving FDIC insurance coverage to only use U.S. citizens in their data centers.

“When is this taking affect?” queried Margret.

“Still has to be commented and voted on by the regulatory board. It could be a full-fledged regulation within a year though.
A lot of international banks are lobbying against it, but the FDIC is waving around some documents from the NSA and Congress
is talking about expanding the Patriot Act if the FDIC doesn't enact this regulation. Within 12 months it will either be a
regulation or a law. A regulation will just cost you a fine and your insurance, a law will send people to jail.”

“Well, no need for either Kent or Kathryn to know about this little tidbit,” Margret chimed. “His signature and those of the
board are the ones on the contract.”

Carol got an evil grin on her face and said, “Now
that
is a power play!”

They clinked glasses, finished the drinks, and ordered another round.

“Well, you have handed me quite a surprise tonight Carol.”

“Oh, that wasn't the surprise I was talking about on the phone,” responded Carol.

“Oh?”

“Hubby is watching the kids tonight. I told him we were going to try to drink the consulting budget dry tonight and crash
either at your place or a hotel, whichever was close enough to reach by crawling.”

Margret laughed, “That's a plan, not a surprise.”

Carol looked Margret intently in the eyes and said, “He doesn't know. He probably never will know. But, I think I read you
right, and I think you are OK with the rest of the plan.”

The waitress showed up with their new drinks. Once she had left, Margret looked Carol in the eyes, raised her glass and said,
“That definitely sounds like a plan.” They clinked their glasses, drank, and made idle chat while waiting for the consulting
firm to arrive.

About half an hour later they were all seated at their table. Kathryn had walked in with a spring in her step and her hair
out of place from driving her new Mercedes with the top down. Her spring died quickly when she saw Margret and her companion.
Kathryn was still in her business suit which wasn't showing a lot of leg and the top wasn't see through. She knew right then
not one of the guys she had brought would be able to tell what color the other ladies' eyes were at the end of the evening.

Kathryn tried to be pleasant and upbeat. Once the meals were ordered, her companions went right into the story about how they
had partnered with an off-shore version of Iron Mountain providing secure archiving services for documents and backup media.
They even tossed out the second lowest fee for the service and wrote it into the contract before Kathryn could begin to cut
them off. These guys were thinking with their penises. They didn't even try to put up a fight, which was how they were going
to get the higher fee.

Margret informed the consulting firm that Kent would have to sign the contract since it would require renegotiating with Iron
Mountain and transferring of all existing backup media pertaining to the migrated data centers. Carol chimed in that the closing
of the deal and the transferring of media would have to occur quickly since the FDIC was in the process of cracking down on
this very issue. When Kathryn inquired how Carol knew this, she pulled out the fax on the FDIC letterhead and let Kathryn
read it. The second communication regarding the proposed regulation change was left in the folder.

The wind was really out of Kathryn's sails at this point. She meekly agreed that she would have to make an appointment with
Kent next week, when he returns from his work abroad, to get the deal closed. Margret volunteered she would get everything
ready for the shipment, but wait to actually give the go ahead on shipping until the contract was signed. She also told Margret
she needed to be at her meeting with Kent to ensure he fully grasped the situation.

One of the men asked what the ladies plans were for the rest of the evening. Margret responded, “We planned on spending another
hour or two at the bar before going home. It isn't often Carol gets to spend a night out like this away from her mom duties.”
Several of the guys offered to ply them with drinks after the meal ended and Kathryn resigned herself to another defeat at
the hands of Margret. She still couldn't tell which way that woman's door swung, and the business suit didn't have any man
in the place checking her out. They were all checking out Carol and Margret.