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Chase climbed the stairs to his daughter’s bedroom and knocked. When he didn’t hear a response, he knocked again and opened the door. She was at her desk hunched over her laptop, large headphones covering her ears. When she saw him, she pulled them free and he caught a storm of guitars.
“You know Mom doesn’t like shop talk at the table, so give me the headlines,” he said.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing. There was zero evidence of an outside cyber intrusion. I even took the Echelon apart and sifted through every chip like I was panning for gold. No physical tampering either. And the operator didn’t do it, I can tell you that. Poor guy had a panic attack just talking to me.”
Chase thought back to his time in the OPCEN. When he arrived, the system had already been compromised. The only two people he saw touch it then were the operator and Daniels. Daniels may be a prick, but he didn’t seem the type to self-immolate his career.
“Could someone else from the OPCEN have inserted something into the Echelon and then removed it? A flash drive loaded with malware? Something?”
“I mean… it’s possible?” Madison made a face. “But someone slipping a drive into a terminal in the middle of a busy operations center? That’d be some serious sleight of hand. And again, no evidence of malware after the fact.”
Damn,thought Chase, but he forced a smile.
“Well, that’s not nothing. It’s something. A deeply unsatisfying something, but something. Things we can check off the list. Let’s keep doing backgrounds on everyone in the OPCEN. In the meantime, I have a new assignment for you. The Avalon plant in DC.”
“I saw the news. Bad couple of days for Avalon.”
“I want you to put eyes on it.”
“Did Gillen expand our remit?”
“You leave that to me.”
Shay called from the kitchen, “Dinner!”
Madison was out the door before Chase, but she spun on her heel. She wore a wide grin and had a mad gleam in her eye. “Can I bring the drone?”
“First, it’s not a drone. It’s a two-thousand-dollar unmanned aerial system. Second, it’s not a toy.”
“You’re the one who named itAir FIRST One.”
“I’m trying to establish a brand. Need I remind you what happened when you borrowed my car last year?”
“Ah, but the drone has obstacle avoidance software…”
“Nice try. No, I want you inside the plant and all over its industrial control system like you were on the Echelon.”
“Fine, but your official brand is No Fun. What are you going to do?”
Self-immolate my career,he thought.
CHAPTER 10
CHASE WAS WIDE awake, trying to figure a failsafe against fulfilling his own dire prophecy.
The Voice echoed in his head.
The unspoken threat.
I hope your daughter feels better.
The broad warning.
The evening commute will be a real gas.
