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Chapter 32

McClean, Virginia

CIA Annex Building, Undisclosed Address

Sunday

10:31 p.m. Eastern Time


Dr. Ginny Banks sat in her office with her feet propped up on her desk. She was leaning back in her ergonomic leather desk chair with her shoes off and taking a moment to close her eyes. For the last hour or more she had been scrambling to gather as much information together as she could. Everything she had tried up to this point to figure out what was going on with the stolen nukes had led her to nowhere. Ginny had a doctorate in Data Science and Mathematics from the University of the CIA and she had a Masters in Computer Science from Georgetown. She was good at taking large chunks of seemingly disconnected data and finding what actually connected them. But at the moment, she didn’t have a freaking clue.

The bad guys, whoever they were, had truly covered their tracks. Ginny was at the point where she had one more ace card to play, but it was a sensitive one. It was an ace card she could only ever call on if things got dire and she knew of no other way to turn. As things stood at the moment, she knew of no other way to turn or which direction to go.

She was dead tired and about to call it a night and she had to catch a very early military flight with Frank back to Tampa first thing. She wanted to have this done before she headed to her town-house apartment just down Highway 123 near Tyson’s Corner. Since what she was doing required classified printing, she didn’t want to wait until she got back to Tampa to finish it. She sat quietly, resting and listening to the paper feeding in the printer and spooling out once it was printed on. As far as she could tell, she was the only one other than the security guard at the front desk in the building, so it was quiet. The printer continued to whir along.

This time of night the drive home would only take ten minutes so she had no worries of falling asleep at the wheel. And it would only take her just a few minutes more over the drive time until she was parked, in her apartment, packed, and turned it. The classified laser printer continued spitting out the documents one after the other. It stopped, causing her to look over at it and then at her screen, which had locked her out already. She wiggled the mouse a bit and then typed her password into the system. Before the screen opened, she noticed the alert on the printer digital display. She needed to add more paper.

“Well, damn.” She willed her tired body to move. She rocked the chair forward and proceeded to reload the paper tray. “Might as well go ahead and write this up while it finishes.”

She pushed the tray closed and hit the RESUME button. Then she sat back down at her desk, but this time took out a pen and a few sheets of the blank printer paper. She shuffled the papers against her desk to even them and then sat them down with the intent to put her pen to the page. But what was she going to write there? It needed to be precise.

She was printing every picture, file, and report, along with everything the Task Force had uncovered about the missing nukes, Colonel Lytokov, Phillip Watkins, Thomas Sing, Keenan Ingersol, and the information and drawings that Dr. Grayson and Dr. Castelbaum had sent her over JWICS. The printer continued to churn out pages. She thought about the process she was about to undertake and knew from previous exercises that it had to be exact and clear. She started to write.


Case #: CIA2211AzF1024-TF-1


She looked at the last case number to make certain she had used the right algorithm and then copied the number on a separate very large empty file folder with a TOP SECRET/SCI cover on it as well as on a sticky note by her keyboard. She then returned to the original page and continued. The first thing she wrote beneath the case study number was a date—the date and time that the warheads were stolen. Then she added precise detail.


Where are these items currently located? Who took them? What are they doing with them?


She sat the pen down and thought about it for a moment. She decided that the questions were precise enough yet vague enough to get her what she wanted out of the exercise. But with this method, one was never certain. The printer finally stopped.

Ginny stood and gathered the empty classified file folder and took it with her the four steps across her office to the printer. She sat the folder on top of the printer while she collected and tapped the pages square with one another. She then placed them in the file folder and walked over to the very heavy-looking gray metal safe standing in the corner of her office. The drawer one from the bottom displayed a red magnet with the word OPEN in white letters written on it. She pulled the heavy drawer open and slid the file into the folder holders.

“Shit! Nearly forgot.” She snapped her fingers and turned to her desk to collect the page she had just written. She placed the page into the file folder and closed the safe cabinet drawer until it clicked. She spun the combination dial a few turns and then flipped the magnet over to the green side displaying the white letters CLOSED. She initialed the form on top of the safe before sitting back down at her desk.

Ginny opened her unclassified email and typed.


Paul,

Hope you are doing well. I would like this done with top priority and three sources repeated. Usual billing method. Here it is:


Case #: CIA2211AzF1024-TF-1


This is top priority and I need this by lunchtime tomorrow, if possible, COB at the latest. Standard analysis and include dowsing.

Regards,

Ginny


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Framed