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Right now.
He tensed to stand up, when Riley said, “You both know how the NSO works, correct?”
And he untensed and sat back. Black looked at him, then back at Riley. But that look was enough to quell Pierce. He was here for a job, not to drool over a woman. No matter how pretty she was.
“I think we’ve got a handle on it,” Black said, and Riley nodded.
“Yeah,” Nikolai said.
“The NSO has 248 satellites.”
They blinked. A sign of utter astonishment from three former SEALs.
“I thought—” Black began, and she smiled.
“Yeah, you thought there were something like thirty?”
He nodded.
“Nope. A lot of them are stealth and don’t show up on radar. But that’s not the point. The point is that the NSO basically covers the earth, and the photos the NSO shows the public are deliberately slightly out of focus. We’ve made great strides and our photos allow you to read a newspaper at 35,000 miles. And like I said, they cover most of the earth. We all are assigned various areas, and for a long while I was assigned the Chinese military, particularly the PLA on maneuvers. I studied them so carefully that I got to know some of the major players. This, for example, is Captain Chao Feng.”
A face showed on her screen. Pierce glanced at Black. “Isn’t that—”
“You have a good eye.” Riley split the screen and showed the image that was making the rounds of the world press. Chinese soldiers mowing down American scientists, one officer screaming at the sky. He had a distinct face, very broad, with a scar near his eye. Captain Chao Feng. “Captain Chao happened to be in Sichuan province when the attack took place. We have dated video proving this. So whoever did this, made the deepfaked video, took facial maps of Chinese soldiers, and we have a million images of them, and transposed them on to the Sommers Group soldiers. But the thing is, the million images of them are all in-house. Inside the NSO. I don’t think there is any other photo or video archive as rich in images of Chinese soldiers than the one the NSO has. So, much as I hate to think it, I suspect that the person or persons who made the deepfakes had access to the NSO archives.”
“Or worked at the NSO.” Pierce drew the obvious conclusion.
“Or worked at the NSO.” Riley’s voice was sad. “I hate that thought, but what can I say? It’s inevitable. It was someone who had access to the archives, or worked at the NSO and who was very good. And it wasn’t me.”
“I imagine that the traces of whoever accessed the archives are long gone.”
“If it was someone who was good enough to create these deepfakes, they were good enough to cover their traces, yeah. I hate that thought. NSO officers are nerdy and weird, but harmless and loyal. Or so I thought.” She sighed. “I also have no idea at all why the Chinese aren’t publicizing the absence of Captain Chao from Africa.”
“It suits them,” Black said. “This happened at a moment in which hawks have the upper hand in the State Council, and President Liu is weak. They are going to push boundaries, see how far they can go. If it gets dangerous, and escapes their control, they can always back down, prove he wasn’t there.”
“China wants to see if they can blackmail us and then overrun Taiwan,” Riley said.
Silence. It was true. Pierce realized how dangerous the situation was, how easily it could get out of hand. And how very easily these huge forces could crush this beautiful woman.
“I know some people in the Pentagon,” Black said. Which was an understatement. He was very well-known in the Pentagon. And the White House. And Congress. “I’ll take this to them and stop this. And see that Sommers is brought to justice. That massacre is horrific. And trying to get a war going as a cover-up, like he did, is treason. They’ll throw the book at him.”
“Not yet.” Riley held up a finger and Black, who was halfway to his feet, sat back down again. Once again, Pierce was struck by Riley’s self-possession. “What I showed you is not completely corroborated. I’m going to need my software and I’m going to need the version stored on my computer.”
Pierce frowned. On her computer? She’d carried nothing with her other than a small purse. He had a bad feeling about this. “So where’s your computer?”
“In my apartment. We need to go get it, now.”
Pierce and Black and Nikolai spoke at the exact same moment.
“Absolutely not.”
“Don’t even think it.”
“No way in hell.”
5
It was almost comical. If it wasn’t so awful, so very dangerous, she’d have laughed. Three grown men, three men used to command, speaking in unison. Black and Nikolai spoke in a low, even tone. Pierce growled.
