Tangential Planes 7/9

Chapter Seven:

Friday Afternoon

"Agent Eppes! Please come in."

"Deputy Director Carter. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"Not a problem Agent. The government owes a great deal to the Eppes family. I'd hardly turn down such a fervent request, especially given the current circumstances."

"That's what I wanted to see you about, sir. I know my brother's work with the NSA is classified..."

Carter put up a hand to stop him. "And you've come to ask the NSA for clearance so you can find out about the project that landed your brother in the hospital. I understand, Agent, and I was ready for you. Actually, your brother was the one who was ready for you."

"Sir?" Don asked, confused.

"Four years ago when your brother's clearance levels were raised to those higher than your own he filed a request to have yours raised as well."

Don was even more confused now. "My brother, who is a civilian, filed a request to have a federal agent's clearance level raised? How could he do that?"

Carter smiled slightly. "By holding us hostage, apparently. He refused to do any further work unless we acceded to his demands. We managed to broker a compromise though. We reminded him that it took almost four years for his clearance to be raised to that level, what with background checks and such, and that we simply couldn't raise yours overnight even if you were already a government employee. So the agreement was made that we would make the attempt to expedite your approval if he would continue consulting for the NSA."

"So what changed? Why haven't I been given clearance yet?"

"Well there was a bit of a fine print in the agreement that even if you were given the clearance the information was still on a need to know basis. That meant the only way your clearance would be activated was if there was a compelling reason for you to know about Dr. Eppes' work with us."

"So is there a compelling reason now?"

"Yes," Carter explained. "It's your brother's life. I can't tell you how unnerved the upper brass were to learn of Dr. Eppes' hospitalization. Your brother is an asset to the country, Agent, and to the world. To risk losing him over a single project... Let's just say we never realized how precarious a position his consulting work put him in. We don't want to risk this sort of thing happening again. Therefore, I've gotten approval to activate your new clearance level. Your role in these projects, Agent Eppes, is to help insure the stability and health of our precious asset, a sentiment I think we both share. I've even arranged with the FBI to, shall we say, borrow you from time to time. If your brother is working on a critical project and is in danger of repeating himself..."

"You need me to step in and make sure he makes it through. That he can do the project for you without killing himself."

Carter sighed. "I was hoping to find a way to put it more delicately than that, but yes. We need him, so we need you to be there for him. As a man with a brother myself, I can think of no one better to entrust with this role."

Don nodded. "So you can tell me what this project is then? The one that's got him all in knots?"

"I can do better than tell you. Read for yourself." Carter handed Don a slim folder with an NSA seal on the cover. Don opened it and found only two pieces of paper inside: one a summary of the project and its outcome, and the second a map. He read the first paragraph and blanched.

"That explains why Charlie wouldn't drink any water," he muttered under his breath. He finished reading the summary and looked at the map. The page showed locations and rankings of fresh water sources in the contiguous United States.

"So you suspected terrorists were going to hit the country's fresh water supply."

"No, Agent Eppes. We knew. We had hard evidence prior to approaching Dr. Eppes. We knew what group was planning it; we had a good idea of their time frame and how they planned to introduce the toxins into the water sources. What we weren't able to get any intel on was which water sources they would target. With thousands and thousands of local water sources..."

"There'd be no way to protect them all sufficiently. You needed Charlie to rank them for you, to tell you which ones they would target and why."

Carter nodded. "We thought we had enough time for him to check his findings but intel came in that told us the timetable was moved up. We received his findings the night before his collapse but he had given us the results with the caveat that he hadn't finished checking them. We had one of our own mathematicians check his work and confirm its accuracy so we focused our resources on the top ranked targets. The top fifteen were given full coverage, which was the most manpower we could put on the scene without scaring the terrorists away. The top fifty were given strong coverage and the top five hundred were covered by local law enforcement."

"So he wasn't too late. He was worried that his work wasn't finished enough for you."

"Agent Eppes, not only was it finished enough, it was right on the money. Our field teams apprehended terrorists at twelve of the top fifteen sites last night. Each one of them had large amounts of toxic materials ready to contaminate the water supplies."

"A dozen sites?" Don could only imagine how many thousands of people in major metropolitan areas could be affected.

"On your map they are denoted by a small red dot. We haven't reprinted new maps yet to reflect the outcome of the operation but yes, twelve of the top fifteen locations marked on your map could have been affected if your brother hadn't assisted us."

Don looked back down at the map. The dots were all near major metropolitan areas: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., even Los Angeles.

"So now you know, Agent Eppes. You are now allowed to discuss any aspect of this case with your brother and any aspect of any future cases."

Don closed the folder and handed it back. "Thank you."

"As I said before," Carter smiled. "Thank your brother. If he hadn't made the request four years ago there's no way I'd be able to let you see this today."

"Still... Thank you."

Don stood and the two men shook hands.

"You won't regret this decision."

"No, Agent, I don't think we will."