Free The Canton Connection by Fritz Galt Page B

at the portals, so that we don’t really know the real origin of a piece of information.”
    “So their hackers could be anywhere in the world.”
    “…and probably are,” Stickler said. “Furthermore, we don’t know if their hackers are working for the army, their intelligence service, some company, or criminal enterprises. Probably all of the above.”
    “That should make my job easy,” Jake said with an ironic smile.
    “Sorry we can’t be of more help.”
    Jake appreciated that the NSA couldn’t look very far into China, but they could still review the historical record of hacks. “As we discussed, send me any information you can find on past A root server attacks. I’ll press Stacy Stefansson on what she knows.”
    “Press?”
    “I won’t go as far as torture, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Jake said with a smile. “But if there’s more to learn, I’ll learn it.”
    Michael Epstein was ultimately responsible for investigating Stacy, but if Jake were in that position, he’d threaten to revoke her security clearance and find out what she knew about Chu.
    At any rate, it was up to Jake to take action on the national security front. This roomful of brainiacs might have lots of information at their fingertips, but they had as much initiative as a lump of clay.
    He thanked the NSA folks, and walked out of the building knowing he had to continue the investigation. So much information flowed around the world, yet China managed to hide behind its Great Firewall.
    The U.S. military couldn’t attack it. The NSA couldn’t spy through it.
    Jake had never been to China, but it couldn’t be such a mystery. After all, the FBI had a legal attaché in Beijing.
    As Epstein had told him that morning, many of the programmers at Quantum were Chinese citizens. Assuming that the Chinese government was behind the intrusion, why would they be trying to break into the A root server? What, exactly, did they have against America, or the rest of the world anyway? China’s economy relied on open and prosperous markets for their goods.
    The more he thought about Chu’s connection to the A root server, the more he began to wonder if it wasn’t a case of coincidence after all. Jake didn’t have to connect all the dots if the dots weren’t related. Just because two dots were close to each other at the moment a crime was committed didn’t infer a relationship.
    He passed through the reception area and stepped outside.
    “Your cell phone, sir,” Corporal Jones said, catching up with him.
    Jake thanked him and took it. It felt cold and heavy. He had owned it for years, but suddenly it felt alien to him.
    Maybe that was the impression all NSA employees felt when leaving their world of numbers and entering the world where they were the ones being monitored.
     

Chapter 15
     
    Jake returned to his car and followed Corporal Jones off the base. He returned his badge and the two said good-bye.
    “Hope you find out who committed the murder,” Jones said.
    Jake was struck by the simplicity of the remark. Here Jake was looking for motives and international plots and coming up empty.
    Maybe the FBI should return the murder case to the Arlington County police.
    Before pulling out of Fort Meade, Jake drew to the curb to check his phone for messages.
    There was a call from Bob Snow in Arlington. Jake called back immediately.
    Bob was brief and to the point. “The FBI lab came back with fingerprint results.”
    “From the crime scene?”
    “From one of the weapons. The baseball bat.”
    Jake remembered that the Arlington County police had sent all evidence to the FBI lab for analysis. At last they had a breakthrough. “Did the prints match files of any known criminal?”
    “No. But get this. The fingerprints on the baseball bat and partial prints on the hunting knife matched the prints we have on file for an employee at the Department of Justice.”
    Several cars whizzed past before Jake could reply. “The fingerprints were