Illumini

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

In suburban Virginia, just off Interstate 95, in an innocuous looking office park, were several buildings the government had classified to keep secret.

Located behind a hefty security gate the lights burned ominously in the large complex of buildings, constantly vigilant, at all hours of the day and night, they cast a sinister glow across the suburban landscape.  No corporate logo or name hung outside the mysterious edifice, they hid in plain sight, just another anonymous beige office building.

Except this was no ordinary office building.  It was part of the immense Threat Detection Readiness Agency (or TDRA), just one of the literally thousands of such buildings that had sprung up since the second wave of terror attacks, containing a vast number of sprawling federal security departments, bureaus, agencies, and task forces all geared toward domestic surveillance.

In a top floor office, an agent had already received a call.

A security guard at the Atlas lab, where the breach occurred, slipped into a side room and pulled out the encrypted cell phone that the agent had provided for him.  He called a man he knew only as Pandarus, a TDRA agent, immediately following the breach.

The Threat Detection Readiness Agency's primarily responsible was to deter, reduce, and counter domestic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction; including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives.  They were an intelligence agency whose primary domestic functions included threat reduction, threat control, criminal investigation, and surveillance activities.

Within minutes of the theft, the agency had names, addresses, and a list of all files stolen from the Atlas lab.  Pandarus worked quickly to identify the suspect.  He entered the name into a federal database and got an immediate hit - Nicholas Carey, 25 years old, 18 Laurel St, Cambridge, MA.

There was trove of personal information available on the suspect; including his vehicle, cell phone number, family and personal information, search engine queries, his purchases, and much, much more, including emails, a large number of which went to a Katherine Murphy.  He quickly searched her name in the database.

Next, Pandarus called the Domestic Protection Preparedness Agency (DPPA) command center, or bunker as the agents so fondly called it.  The DPPA was a domestic investigative agency charged with protecting and safeguarding the country.  This critical mission oversaw and sometimes engaged in tactical and covert activities with the goal of providing national security intelligence assessments.

A DPPA agent, in another anonymous and hidden office, somewhere in suburban DC, agreed to track the suspects without hesitation, or legal requirement.  Pandarus gave her the two cell phone numbers.

"Set it up for 525-642-7315 and 655-398-4266.  They're leaving Massachusetts heading south.  Configure it along I95 and I90 corridors."

"How big a net do you want?" the woman asked in a calm bureaucratic manner.

"It's only been twenty minutes, for I95 set it up through Connecticut, as far as Bridgeport, for I90 through Springfield."

"That's pretty big, how much time do you have?"

"Not much," Pandarus insisted.  "Do it now working south and west.  The carrier is listed as AT&T.  We may get a hit early"

"Okay, I'll get it up now.  It will take about fifteen minutes for all locations."

"Excellent, get back to me when it's done," Pandarus commanded with the hardened discipline of a military man.  "Also, a sat search on a Chrysler Jeep pin number 1J9G240ZL948733 and an Infinity JNK-A-Y0-1-C-8-Z-M-498281."

"No problem.  I'm configuring a search of the satellite database feed now.  Finding something might take a little longer, at least to locate an exact location."

"All right, contact me as soon as you have something."

He closed the video conference connection and immediately opened another, this one to a secret and far more sinister office within the DPPA.

"I am going to need feet on the street."

"What are we looking at?"

"Two suspects, a male and female, in flight, believed to be unarmed, theft of classified data."

"I will inform the FPPA, they will have field agents ready.  Let me know when you locate a target."

The Federal Protection Police Agency (or FPPA) was the domestic law enforcement arm of the DPPA.  They were serious, operating with the discipline and ruthlessness of a professional military organization.

Soldiers are different, trained to hunt and kill the enemy, a distinction that no longer meant from outside the country, they were a frightening presence on the civilian landscape.  The enemy was anywhere now, in your backyard, across town, or across the world.  Killing people and destroying things were their primary reason for existence; they broke down doors first and asked questions later.

The police, at least in theory, had a different perspective.  Trained to serve and protect, they were not supposed be at war with the citizens they live amongst.

The DPPA command center bunker responded almost immediately.

"We have a hit on both numbers 525-642-7315 and 655-398-4266.  They are currently located at Massachusetts Ave and Pleasant Street."

"Okay.  What are the closest units?

"Teams 182, 215, and 322.  I will send the alert."

The agent at the command center bunker sent the alert to the teams.  As she did so, Pandarus opened the satellite image.  "Where are they located, on the street?"

"No, in a vehicle behind the building, in the parking lot," she said.  "The teams are on their way."

"Do you have an ETA?"

"Unit 215 is the closest, they are six minutes out."

"Excellent."

This vast secret machinery moved in the shadows of our world, lurking unseen, a dark and sinister presence that gently watched our every move.  Covert agencies, that we knew very little about, scrutinized everything that we did, keeping us safe.  Constantly observed through this oppressive lens we slowly noticed how much our lives began to change.  At first, it calmed our fears, but then inevitably, this pervasive surveillance began to add to our paranoia.  That uneasy discomfort of someone always watching over us disturbed how we interacted with one another, what we said, and what we wrote.  Before we knew it the real terror in our lives wasn't from some foreign or radical group, it was from some opaque agency within our own government.