a lot of questions. “Ms. Nilani can handle that for you,” he said with barely concealed ire. He wondered if Borelli were playing some kind of game, for his own amusement, or for more serious purposes.
“Very good, then,” Borelli said. “I’ll bring it by the office on Monday.” He offered his hand once more. “I won’t take up any more of your time, Mr. Vengai. Thank you.”
Vengai nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Borelli. Drive safely tonight.”
Recognizing the vague threat, Borelli grinned once more. “And when you return home, you do the same. Travel safely, that is.” Then he turned and walked into the crowd.
Ms. Nilani, who’d been silent the entire time, shook her head. “That was strange,” she said. “I’m not sure I understand what he was doing here.”
“Neither do I, Ms. Nilani, but I expect that you could find out. Why don’t you make a phone call and see what you can learn about Mr. Borelli?”
“Right now?” she asked. “In the middle of the fundraiser?”
At that moment Vengai saw his contact come into the room and linger near the kitchen doors. “No, but make no mistake, people like him come to events like this for two reasons—one, he wants to upgrade his contacts and has something he wants to sell, or two, he’s here to tell us that he’s watching. I have a feeling that it was the latter,” he said, waving her off. “But I want that information by Monday at the latest.”
“Of course,” she said, then turned and resumed her role in working the room. Briefly, he watched her go. She was good at her job, but not a very observant person. On the other hand, a person who did what he or she was told without asking too many questions was perfect for his uses.
Before he could be engaged again in a lengthy conversation, he moved quickly across the room to where his contact, a computer programmer named Tim Wright, was waiting for him. Wright’s appearance matched his profession: dark hair, cut short in a functional style, a short-sleeved, polyester dress shirt, khaki pants and loafers. He stood almost six feet in height, but wasn’t in great physical condition. The spare tire around his midsection suggested a life spent sitting, and not on the ab-cruncher machine at his local gym.
Vengai offered his hand in greeting when he got close enough. “Mr. Wright? It’s good to meet you in person.”
Nervous, Wright nodded. “Yes, I’m…it’s good to meet you, too.” He held up his attaché case. “Should we go somewhere to talk?”
“Yes, let’s get out of sight before you disappear into a puddle of sweat.”
The nervous man pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his brow as they ducked out of sight. Like most conference hotels there were any number of places that seemed to be in view of everything and yet completely secluded at the same time. Vengai led him to an unoccupied conference room that was set up for the next day. The dark room was illuminated only with light spilling in from a small break in the air wall that separated the one larger room into two.
“You are not used to this kind of…work, are you, Mr. Wright?”
“No, I’m usually as loyal and patriotic as they come, but I need the money.”
“Your words do not reassure me. How do I know that we won’t complete our business, and then I’ll step outside to find myself surrounded by federal agents?”
“Mr. Vengai, they may set up elaborate schemes in movies, but if I were caught trying to steal this software from the office, I wouldn’t be here. They don’t set up stings, just deal with what’s in front of them. I just want to get this done, get my money and get out of here.”
Vengai watched as Wright shifted his weight back and forth, carefully holding the case in front of him as if it were an explosive. He grabbed the handkerchief and mopped his brow once more but then immediately readjusted the case so it was away from his body.
“Show me,” Vengai said.
“There’s nothing to show, really. Your guys know how to upload satellite data, I presume?”
“Yes, of course.”
Wright popped open the case and pulled out a small box. He opened the box and displayed a portable hard drive.
“This contains the software to get me into military satellites?”
“Yes. This is a new program that I wrote. The software on here will give you access to virtually every military satellite in the world.”
“How is this possible?”
“The hardware components for military satellites are the same in almost every industrialized nation. Private industry tries to keep things proprietary, but the militaries are so concerned about what one has and one doesn’t that things are pretty similar. There are minor variations in the coding, but they are easily decoded by the algorithm included in the software. You must, however, be careful when you tap into an actively running program. The satellites can be fed and controlled with this software, but if there’s an active command running, and you try to piggyback on top of it, the analysts will see the deviation.”
Vengai grunted in disgust. “This seems worthless. How can I make use of satellites that aren’t running?”
“No, Mr. Vengai. You don’t understand. Unless there is current monitoring, you won’t be detected, and even if you are you can override and take over completely, but then they will trace it out eventually. Most constant monitoring happens on satellites that are tasked for research from universities. Most military-use satellites are simply tasked with a single event. When the program provides it, they move on with their mission, ignoring the satellite until they need it again.”
“Ah,” he said. “I see, but looking at what others do is not all I wanted. You promised more.”
“This software is not just passive observation of data,” Wright continued, warming to his subject. “You can send commands to the satellite, giving it a specific task, such as scanning satellite phone signals, surveillance operations and even bouncing remote detonation signals for embedded weapons. So long as the satellite isn’t being tasked with something else, your commands won’t be detected at all! With this software in place, you could peek inside a bedroom of the White House and no one would even know. The military would see it as simply their satellite passing by. If your guys are smart and things are well planned, you could use a Russian satellite to remote command a U.S. bomb and the Russians would be blamed, not you.”
“Yes,” Vengai said. “And if we simply want to watch what commands are being given to a satellite…?”
Wright nodded enthusiastically. “You can do that and be totally unobserved. It’s everything you asked for.”
“Good,” he said.
“And now…what about what I asked for?” Wright said. “I’m not providing this to you for free. I told you the debts I have to pay. The guys who want their money are serious, but I have a feeling that my luck is about to change.”
Vengai looked at the nervous programmer who talked so fast he had a hard time keeping up, but he’d heard the most important things he needed to know. He could spy on anyone and his satellite expert would have no problems using the device. “I have your payment,”
