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As he approached Ke
"Yes, sir."
Hayes frowned. He doubted she was here to report good news. He continued up the slight slope and waved for her to join him.
Ke
Ke
"Fifteen minutes...uninterrupted."
Hayes nodded thoughtfully. Ke
"Yes, Mr. President."
Hayes came out from behind his desk and walked across the office. He unbuttoned his suit coat and sat on one of the couches by the fireplace. Looking up at the director of the Central Intelligence Agency he said, "Let's hear the bad news."
Ke
"What's the lag?" asked the president.
"The financial trends we usually have a pretty good handle on by the end of the business day, but Echelon intercepts can sometime take a week to decipher, and then up to a month to translate. Although if we're targeting a specific e-mail account or phone number, the information can be decrypted and translated in near real-time."
"So what have you noticed that has given you cause to worry?"
"It started at the end of Friday with the financials. The first trend we picked up on was the price of gold closing up four dollars and twenty-six cents. This by itself is nothing to get alarmed about, but the next trend we noticed was that the dollar closed down eight cents. The Dow was off by fifty-six and the Nasdaq closed down sixteen. None of this on the face of it is an unusual day in the financial markets, but when we began to look at the specific institutions that we think have ties to terrorism...some unsettling trends showed up."
Ke
The president studied the sheet of paper. "What are the chances that all five of these accounts are getting the same financial advice?"
"It is a remote possibility, but it assumes that there is a respected financial advisor out there who would suggest a wholesale conversion of assets at a time when there are no economic indicators that would necessitate such a drastic move. My people tell me the chance of this is extremely unlikely."
Hayes frowned at the sheet of paper. "So that gets us back to the fact that five flagged accounts all placed bets last Friday that the U.S. economy is about to take a hit."
"Correct," nodded Ke
Hayes stared at the sheet of paper, reading the various names and countries. "Anything else?"
"Yes." She cleared her throat. "Mitch has come across some very valuable intel." From her bag Ke
Ke
She turned the page again, to a satellite photo that showed a village of approximately one hundred dwellings plus outbuildings. The town was spread out along the base of the mountain with one main road leading in and several cutting across the axis. "The village has been watched day and night for the last five days. Yesterday this convoy pulled into town."
A new image appeared, showing eight pickup trucks and several SUVs. Four of the pickups had large antiaircraft guns mounted in the beds, and all of them were overflowing with heavily armed men. "Four hours ago we had a high-altitude reco
The president picked up the black-and-white photograph and stared at the three faces circled in red. These reco
"All of them had a hand in 9/11," Ke
The president took a second hard look at the photograph. "You're sure these are the same men?"
"Mitch has an asset in the region who told him this meeting would be taking place."
Hayes set the photo down and took off his reading glasses. "They're in this village right now?"
"Yes, sir."
The president gri
Ke
The president suddenly saw where she was going and his demeanor turned cautious. "Are you suggesting we handle thiswithout talking to the Pakistanis?"
"That's correct, sir."
"And what am I to tell General Musharraf when he calls to find out what American troops are doing conducting operations in his country without his permission?"
"I'm hoping it won't come to that, sir," answered Ke