Page 81 of Dead Fall

“Well, that was a total waste of wax,” said Harvath.

“Maybe not,” Hookah responded, placing his protractor back down and adjusting it.

As the man started drawing lines again, Harvath saw something—an actualpattern.

But to fully make sense of it, they were going to need one more piece of data. He hoped that Nicholas would be able to fill in the blank. Which brought him to the method of communication.

When operating inside, or very close to, enemy territory, the goal was to position yourself as a needle in a stack of needles. If everyone else was using a specific encrypted messaging app, that was the one you should be using. Standing out, being different, was not a good thing. It only attracted attention, usually undue attention.

The only problem with free, encrypted apps was that eventually they would be broken—usually by the Israelis, though the Chinese had been right on their heels lately. So had the Russians.

If Moscow could crack the popular messaging apps being used by the Ukrainians, it would be like the Allies breaking the Nazis’ Enigma machine—a complete and total game-changer.

Harvath’s transmissions were too sensitive to risk being intercepted. Pulling out his phone, he powered it up but placed it into airplane mode. He then opened the proprietary, encrypted app his organization used andwrote up an overdue situation report. There was a lot to fill Nicholas in on. There was also that missing piece of data he needed.

Once his SITREP was ready, he clicked out of airplane mode and tried to see if there was any cell service.

It took a few moments, but eventually he was able to lock onto a weak signal that bounced between one and two bars on his phone.

He hit send and waited for confirmation that his message had been received on the other end. When he saw the confirmation, he put his phone back into airplane mode and powered it down.

There was no sense in leaving it on. It would probably take Nicholas a while to get back to him. He wanted to grab a good chunk of uninterrupted sleep before it was his turn to take watch. He also knew that a live phone could be a beacon for the enemy, like striking a match at night and lighting a cigarette at the front lines. It was much better to be safe than sorry.

Tucking his phone in the pocket of his fatigues, Harvath bedded down for the night. It took a moment for the tension of the day to leave his body and for his brain to lower its alert level, but soon enough he had stepped off the edge of consciousness into a deep well of dreamless sleep.

Three villages over, a Russian Leer-4 electronic warfare system—capable of picking up more than two thousand cell phones within a ten-mile range—sat beneath a high-tech web of advance camouflage netting.

Inside the command truck, a signals specialist beckoned his commander over to look at his screen.

“What do you have?” the commander asked.

“A handful of cell phones. Each has been turned on and then back off. They seem to be exhibiting a level of operational security.”

“Where are they?”

The specialist overlaid a digital map. “They look to be somewhere on the grounds of the Mother of God Convent.”

“A convent? Why the hell would a bunch of nuns be concerned with operational security?” It was a rhetorical question. The commanderdidn’t expect an answer and pressed on, asking, “Were you able to intercept any of their communications?”

“Negative,” the specialist replied. “It’s encrypted. It appears that all but one of the phones are using the Telegram app.”

“Ukrainian soldiers?”

“That’d be my guess.”

“What about the phone that’s not using Telegram?”

“It’s using a type of encryption I’ve never seen before. From what I can see, it looks to be light-years ahead of Telegram. Whoever’s using it is probably high value. Maybe a military or intelligence officer.”

The commander thought about their options. “Do we have any reconnaissance teams in the area?”

The specialist consulted a list. “No, but we do have a four-man assault team. Spetsnaz soldiers. They can be on target within the hour.”

“If possible, I want the high-value target captured and brought back for interrogation. If not, take them all out. No survivors. Just make sure that the team brings back that phone. Moscow will be very interested in getting their hands on such new technology.”

CHAPTER 23

KYIV