Game Changer (29 page)

Rachel
snorted. “I have to give you credit, Eyal,” she said, “that’s your first lie
since agreeing to be straight with us.
Of
course
you can coerce me. Just force me to undergo your Matrix Learning
procedure multiple times. The equivalent of injecting me with a poison so I’ll
be motivated to find the antidote, even if only to save my own sanity.”

“Yes,”
said Regev with a sigh. “I guess we
could
coerce you. But we
wouldn’t
. That’s
not our way.”

“Easy
to say that now,” she pointed out. “But high-minded ethics have a way of disappearing
under utter desperation.”

Regev
looked uncertain. “I don’t know how to respond to that,” he said. “I suppose
what you say is true. All I can tell you is that this couldn’t be more
important. Your chance to save the world, and change it forever. Your chance to
perfect your dream technology. You’d be taking a risk, but think of the
reward
.”

Rachel
shook her head. “I understand every action you and your government have taken
now, Eyal. To be honest, I’m not sure I would have done anything differently if
I were in your shoes. I do think you’re one of the good guys, as is your
government
—
in general,” she hastened
to add. “But I can’t come with you.”

“Because
of fear of coercion?” said Regev.

“No.
Because you admitted yourself you aren’t sure who you can trust back in Israel.
Your country spawned this technology and a rogue Kovonov. You’ve admitted he
has comprehensive knowledge of your agency and that it could be riddled with
moles. And you can’t even trust those who oppose him. Who’s to say he hasn’t
tampered with their minds? Who’s to say he hasn’t created more unwilling human weapons
like he did with Kevin? Traps ready to spring now or at some unknown time in
the future? Kovonov will learn I’m working with you and determine my location.
Are you really sure you can stop him from killing me if he unleashes his full
bag of tricks?”

Regev
wore a pained expression, and his lack of an answer spoke volumes.

“I
didn’t think so,” said Rachel. “I haven’t ruled out undergoing your Matrix
Learning procedure. I have to weigh this further. But for now, my answer has to
be no. I won’t go with you. Not because I don’t appreciate the mess you’re in,
or want to help. But because I want to be alive, and feel safe, if I ever do
decide to take you up on your offer.”

Regev
smiled weakly. “You make some valid points,” he said. “You do. But Kovonov will
still be coming after you. We would get a team of handpicked men from outside
the Mossad to protect you. I still think you’d be safer with us than on your
own, despite the risks you’ve mentioned.”

“I
know I’m still being hunted,” said Rachel. “That I have to abandon my old life,
at least for a while. So I will dedicate myself to finding countermeasures
against Kovonov’s neurotech. But not in conjunction with the Mossad.”

“And
will you keep what I’ve told you confidential?”

Rachel
and Quinn exchanged glances. They had promised not to share what he told them
as long as it didn’t conflict with the interests of the US. So how dangerous
was it for their country if they kept this to themselves? The US government was
aware that minds could be tampered with, and that a man named Kovonov possessed
dangerous technology and had to be stopped. Were the details of Matrix Learning
and the impending psychosis of the entire upper echelon of an ally critical at
this moment?

“To
be honest, Eyal, I don’t know,” answered Quinn finally. “I have to give it a
lot more thought.”

Rachel
nodded her agreement.

“I
appreciate your honesty,” said Regev softly.

The
Israeli tilted his head in thought for several seconds, sighed, and then faced
the woman he would have given his life to recruit. “Okay, Rachel. Do it your
way. I won’t try to stop you. I’ll even agree to actively help you evade my
agency. But I do have one condition. Of Kevin.”

Quinn
raised his eyebrows as the Israeli turned toward him.

“I
want your word that you’ll stick to her like glue,” said Regev. “Until this is
over. Help her. Protect her with the skill and tenacity of the Secret Service
agent that you are.”

Quinn
didn’t need to think about this for even an instant. “You have my word,” he
said.

“
Thank you
,” said Regev in relief. “Kevin,
I honestly believe you’re one of the most impressive operatives in your
country.” He smiled. “If you were just a bit more impressive, you might even
rate being an operative in mine. You know, at a low level,” he added, his grin
widening.

Quinn
laughed. “Wow, what an honor,” he said dryly. “But I have a request of you,
also.”

“Go
on,” said Regev.

“I’d
like for my people to think we’re working with you as planned.”

“Interesting.
Do you have reason not to even trust your own people?”

“Not
a specific one, no. But the fewer people who know where Rachel is, the better.
Regardless of how much I might trust them. I’m sure you would agree.”

Regev
nodded. “Absolutely.
 
I couldn’t have
said it better. You’re like the less-talented, lighter-skinned Christian
brother I never had.”

“I
take it then that you’ll do it.”

“I
will,” said the Israeli. “But I’ll have to trust
someone
at Mossad to make this work. My every instinct says that
Avi Wortzman is a good man. Not a saint, by any means, but incorruptible.”

“Unless
he’s been manipulated,” said Quinn.

Regev
sighed. “True. But my gut says he’s a man I can trust. And if we want to throw
off your people into thinking you’re working with us, we’ll need him. He’ll be
able to come up with something that will keep you off the radars of both
sides.”

“That
would be appreciated,” said Quinn. “And worst case, if you’re wrong about him,
at least he won’t know where we are.”

“That’s
true also,” said Regev. “You’ll be on your own. But if the two of you ever need
us, or want us, I’ll give you a means to contact us that will be manned 24/7.
If you and the Lord Almighty call at the same instant, we’ll put
you
through first. And, of course, Rachel,
if you succeed with countermeasures or decide to undergo Matrix Learning and
lead our efforts, we’ll see to your transportation immediately.”

“Thanks,
Eyal,” said Rachel. “But there is one more thing you can do.”

Regev
studied her with great interest.

“Give
me the passwords to get into wherever in your agency’s databanks you keep the
specs and experimental data on your Matrix Learning system. I’d like to start
understanding the advances you made the old-fashioned way. It may not be flash-fried
into my head, but I’d like to think of myself as a quick study.”

Regev
thought about this for an extended period, and Quinn couldn’t blame him. The
granting of high-level passwords into the Mossad’s inner sanctum wasn’t
something done lightly.

Finally,
Regev nodded. “I’ll do that,” he said. “And if you let me use my phone, I’ll
buy you time in case others don’t agree that I’ve done the right thing. I’ll
tell my people that we’ve been delayed and will begin our flight to Israel tomorrow.
Then Kevin can shoot me with a tranq gun I saw in his borrowed rucksack and you
can be on your way.”

He
smiled. “Not that I want to be shot, but just to give you absolute peace of
mind that I won’t try to follow, or tell Wortzman about this too early.”

Rachel
caught Quinn’s eye. “Do you trust him enough to let him talk to his people?”

Quinn
thought it through. Regev must realize that Rachel was trying to help, just not
in the way he had hoped. But also that there was a great chance she was right,
and that she
was
safer on her own. If
Quinn were the Israeli, he would genuinely try to help them at this point.

“I
do trust him,” replied the Secret Service agent evenly. “Let’s cut this man loose
and get him a phone.”

PART 3

Belief

“Do I contradict
myself?

Very well then I
contradict myself,

(I am large, I
contain multitudes.)”

—Walt Whitman,
Song of Myself

“What is ‘real’? How do you define ‘real’?
If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can taste, what you can
smell and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals being interpreted by
your brain.”

—Morpheus,
The Matrix

“The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other in silence for
some time; at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and
addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

‘Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar.

Alice replied rather shyly, ‘I
—
I hardly know, sir, just at present
—
at least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think
I must have been changed several times since then.’”

—Lewis Carroll,
Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland

45

Dmitri Kovonov had a cab drop him at the Cockaponset Lodge and
hiked two miles through the woods to the GPS coordinates he had been given. He
could have had his underlings pick him up but he wanted some time for
reflection, and picking his way through trees and undergrowth in a section of
the forest without a preset hiking path focused his mind and got his heart
pumping.

It was three hours before sunset and the forest was cool and dry,
and the higher oxygen levels provided by the foliage invigorating.

After almost an hour of being immersed in the beauty and serenity
of nature, he came to a small clearing and saw his associates’ rented Land
Rover, his preferred vehicle, which had certainly been earning its off-road
stripes on this operation. He joined the two men inside, Daniel Eisen and Yosef
Mizrahi, and the three shared greetings in Hebrew.

“I trust you both enjoyed your stay in Chicago,” said Kovonov
wryly. “All two hours of it.”

“It’s an interesting city,” said Mizrahi, playing along, “but it’s
no
Cockaponset State Forest.”

Eisen smiled. “Exactly. Chicago is popular with gangs. Not so much with
bible study groups.”

“Good thing we’re here, then,” said Kovonov. He turned to his
right-hand man. “Before you begin your situation report, Daniel, have you had
the chance to search for the terrorist I’m looking for?”

“I have. Once we set things up here we had plenty of downtime. I
ran an AI program through all US
intelligence
computers I could access.”

“You could have just said
all
US intelligence computers
—
period,”
said Kovonov with a superior smile. “Same thing.”

Over the years the Mossad’s fly drones had managed to spy on endless
passwords being entered by American intelligence personnel. This, along with
advanced hack-ware developed by flash-educated geniuses had allowed the Mossad
to breach the computers of the entire US intelligence apparatus.

“Unfortunately, no success yet,” reported Eisen. “But there are a few
leads I’m exploring. Detention of terrorists in the mainland is still very
touchy here, so they hide detainees even from themselves.”

“Then searching through the data generated by our flies on the walls
might be the better option,” said Kovonov.

“About that,” said Eisen, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m afraid I
have some bad news. It looks like the failure of our White House flies wasn’t a
random glitch.” Eisen swallowed hard. “We’ve lost a number of our best drones.”

“What do you mean,
lost
?”

 
“They’ve been discovered and
disabled. Not all, but enough to matter. Which means that
Kish and Wortzman must have decided to tell
the Americans about these drones and how to find them.”

Kovonov’s expression darkened. “Shit!” he bellowed. “Shit, shit,
shit. I didn’t see that coming.”

He choked down his anger and forced himself to think analytically.
“It’s the smart thing for them to do, I suppose. But I really didn’t think they
had the balls,” he added, although the Hebrew word he used for balls,
baytseem
, translated literally into
eggs
. “What are the chances they told
the Americans about
me
?”

Eisen gritted his teeth. “A hundred percent. They’re ramping up a
massive operation to find you. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s among their
highest priorities. The good news is that we still have a large number of
drones operational, and I’ve changed them up to make them harder to detect. We
also maintain our backdoor computer access. Their net will have holes plenty big
enough for you to waltz through without breaking a sweat. No way they find you.”

Kovonov nodded. “I agree,” he said.

What his underlings didn’t know
—
yet
—
was
that if they did their job right, the Americans would have much more to worry
about than just him. Soon, with any luck, he wouldn’t even be an
afterthought
.

But he would have plenty of time to ponder the implications of
these new developments later. For now, he needed to focus on the task at hand. “So
where do we stand with our church group?” he asked.

“The twenty members of the Danbury
Evangelical Fellowship are staying three or four miles north of here,”
replied Eisen. “Twelve women and eight men. Most between the ages of twenty and
thirty-five, but a few older. They’re lodging at a campground owned by the Holy
Church of Christ, also, not coincidentally, out of Danbury, Connecticut.”

“Weapons?” said Kovonov.

Eisen shook his head. “Not unless they plan to chuck their bibles at us.
They all arrived in a church minibus, which we’ve disabled. The retreat
consists of ten cabins
—
each capable
of sleeping eight, and each with adjoining bathrooms and showers
—
a storage shack, and a mess hall that looks
like it can hold almost a hundred. They disperse to take advantage of various
recreational options, individually and in groups, but they all return to the
mess hall at seven for dinner, followed by bible readings and discussion. If
tonight follows the pattern, this will take place outside, around a fire, and will
last until about ten.”

Kovonov shuddered. “Can I assume this includes prayers and the singing of
inspirational songs?”

“Yes,” said Mizrahi with a grimace. “And we listened to it all.”

“It was torture,” said Eisen, and then breaking into a grin added, “In
fact, I think we deserve hazard pay.”

He went on to describe the area surrounding the campground and the surveillance
they had established, and gave his assurances that the likelihood of
interruption was very low.

“And you used standard cameras?” said Kovonov. He had been clear he
wanted the fly drones reserved for the most challenging uses, even before the
recent unfortunate losses, and just about any use would be more challenging
than spying on a church group.

“Of course,” replied his second-in-command.

Kovonov gestured in the direction of the campground. “
So I assume we strike when they’re all
together in the mess hall,” he said.

Eisen nodded. “That’s right. I have an electronic eye watching the one door
into this building. After I’ve counted twenty bodies entering, we can make our
presence known.”

“Good. I’m eager to learn the exact . . . greeting, you have planned.”

“Let’s just say there won’t be a lot of singing tonight,” said Eisen.

“I’m sure the woodland creatures around here will be forever in our
debt,” said Kovonov dryly.