Collateral Damage Read Free Page A

Langley, Virginia, for Architect.”
    “Architect is presently unavailable,” the man said. “I’ll say you called.” He hung up without further ado.
    Well, that was short, Holly thought. She might as well go back to the meeting. Then her phone rang. “Holly Barker.”
    “It’s Felicity. I’m sorry my assistant was short with you. As you can imagine, we’re in the middle of a flap here.”
    “The director asked me to call and give you an idea that arose at our daily briefing this morning.”
    “I’d be grateful for any suggestion, of course.”
    “It occurred to us that this act might be revenge for the deaths of Ari Shazaz, aka Hamish McCallister, and his brother, Mohammad.”
    Felicity was briefly silent. “Well, that’s a stretch, but . . .”
    “Are you aware that the Shazazes have a sister who was complicit in the bomb making?”
    “One moment.” Felicity covered the phone and could be heard to speak authoritatively to someone in the room. “No, we are not aware of that. Do you have details?”
    “Her name is Jasmine, she is the youngest of the three siblings, and she may have shared Hamish’s London residence, in Cheyne Walk. I’m afraid that’s all we have, but we would certainly be grateful for anything you learn.”
    “Of course,” Felicity said, “and I thank you for the call, Holly. Please give my very best to Kate and thank her for thinking of us. Now, if you’ll excuse me . . .”
    “Of course.” But Felicity had already hung up. Holly was about to return to the briefing when her phone rang again. “Holly Barker.”
    “Holly, this is Tim Coleman. Is the director available?” Coleman was the president’s chief of staff.
    “Good morning, Tim. She’s in the daily intelligence briefing at the moment, but if it’s urgent I can interrupt.”
    “No, don’t do that. You’re in the loop on this, so I’ll tell you, and you can tell her.”
    “All right.”
    “The Oak Ridge nuclear plant has run some tests on the fissionable material found in the California device. It’s a match for a smaller sample that turned up a few months ago that is suspected to have originated in Iran.”
    The hairs on Holly’s arm stood up. “That hasn’t been confirmed?”
    “No, but we have samples of the enriched uranium from the stores of all the other nuclear-capable countries, and it doesn’t match any of them, so it has to be from either Iran or North Korea.”
    “I see,” Holly said. “Is anything else known about the California material?”
    “No, but the fact that the late Dr. Kharl supplied the material is another connection to one of those two countries.”
    Dr. Kharl, who had assembled the California device, was recently deceased, an order that Holly had transmitted from the director, after presidential approval. He had been instrumental in the Pakistani nuclear weapons program, as well as the North Korean program, and had been thought to be available to just about anyone with the cash.
    “I agree,” Holly said. “Anything else, before I drop this bombshell on the director?”
    “Just don’t expand the loop. See you later.” Coleman hung up.
    Holly hung up, too. That meant she couldn’t bring it up at the briefing. She went back into the room and waited, trying to hide her impatience, while Lance concluded his report. He was talking of the penetration of an Iranian army unit connected with that country’s nuclear program.
    The director glanced at her. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said when Lance had finished, “unless there’s something else of level one importance, you’ll have to hold any other information until tomorrow’s briefing. Thank you all.” She stood up, signaling that everyone should leave, and with a motion of her head indicated that Holly should follow her.
    Holly left the room and followed the director to her office, where she took the indicated seat.
    “You’ve learned something new,” Kate said.
    “First, Felicity and her people were not