Page 5

She resumed looking over the brochure. “There’s not much information here.” She passed it back to me. “But since Slash is involved, I feel better about it. He really nominated you for this academy?”

It was still hard for me to believe—like somehow I’d hit the jackpot. “He did. Me, Wally, and Frankie. He thinks we have what it takes to succeed there.”

“Does this mean your mind is made up?”

I considered. Weird, but I’d already made my decision by the time Slash handed me the manila envelope. “Yes. I want to give it a shot.”

She still looked doubtful. “You won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work out?”

“Of course I’ll be disappointed. But I’m not going to fail. If Slash thinks I can do this, I can.”

I tried not to feel insulted that she looked so doubtful. “Okay, let’s just hope Mom feels the same way.”

Chapter Four

CANDACE KIM

Director of the NSA National Security Operations Center (NSOC)

NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, Maryland

Crypto-Secure Phone

From: Director of The National Security Operations Center (NSOC), National Security Agency (NSA)

To: Deputy Director of the Operations Division (DDIR), NSA

Classification: Top Secret, No Foreign

0248 GMT

Message Follows:

Please advise as to the status of the negotiations with the Hidden Avenger. Do we know his endgame or have any proof of the authenticity of his claims? This has director-level attention.

End of Message

Candace Kim, director of the National Security Operations Center (NSOC) at the NSA, pressed the send button on her phone and leaned back in her desk chair as the text shot into encrypted cyberspace. She would have preferred to call the deputy director of the Operations Division, Jim Avers, from her office phone, but the day had slipped away because of too many meetings and a couple of unexpected fires she’d been compelled to put out. Now she was forced to use an encrypted cell to contact him, as he was no longer in the office. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but she didn’t want to wait a minute longer for an update.

No other recent issue had triggered her curiosity as much as the avatar called Hidden Avenger. Over the years he had thwarted the NSA’s back door into the RSA encryption but advised companies and agencies about dozens of unknown security holes. Was he a good guy or bad?

Fourteen years ago, when she’d been a midlevel agent at the NSA, the agency had been able to spy on just about anyone in the world outside the US territory, where they were legally allowed to operate. Using a hidden back door built into the RSA encryption program—the program used by most of the world to transmit secure data—the NSA could open whatever encrypted messages they wanted fromanyone, anywhere. Then along came a secretive self-proclaimed do-gooder calling himself the Hidden Avenger, who, without warning, had slammed the door shut with a patch he called ShadowCrypt. The NSA and FBI had spent fourteen years and employed dozens of their best hackers, researchers, and cybersecurity experts trying to track him down and had gotten exactly nowhere.

Now he’d resurfaced, and Candace wasn’t sure if he was a potential asset for the agency or someone playing them for fools. Either way, his furtive communications had landed on her desk, and sorting out the differences had become her problem.

At this point, the Hidden Avenger was offering them critical information to prevent a major terrorist attack, and access to the new back door he’d created in ShadowCrypt. Since nearly all the criminal and terrorist groups worldwide used that encryption, the ability to monitor their communications could return the NSA to its glory days before the patch. If she handled this right and brought him in with his new back door, she’d get a lot of credit right at the time when the political leadership would be looking for outstanding candidates to replace the director when he retired.

It was hard to tell if the timing on all of this was chance or purposeful. Was it coincidence the Avenger had abruptly surfaced just as the director of the NSA had internally announced to a small group of high-ranking staff he was retiring next year? She hated the active positioning of some of her peers that had followed, while they tried to establish themselves as his logical replacement. She wouldn’t stoop that low. But if her job performance merited the recognition,andif the country were safer because she’d help bring down a terrorist group, well, then she wasn’t above becoming the first woman director.

Her phone suddenly dinged, and she picked it up. Pressing her finger to the button, she typed in her password, scanning Jim’s reply.

Crypto-Secure Phone

From: Deputy Director of the Operations Division (DDIR), NSA

To: Director of the National Security Operations Center (NSOC)

Classification: Top Secret, No Foreign