The 22nd Secret Read online

  “Of course, Mr. Barrow, you’ll want to read the entire document before agreeing to Mitchell signing it. But basically the charge of conspiracy to commit treason will be dropped. Mitchell will plead guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief. There’ll be no jail time, just a five year probation, after which your record will be expunged of this incident.”

  Jim looked at Scott again for some kind of signal. Scott looked up from the document with his mouth hanging open.

  “This is good, isn’t it?” Jim asked.

  “Good? Hell, it’s a damn miracle. What else is in this agreement?”

  “Besides the standard clauses, you’ll be required to engage me with respect to this matter, at no cost, as your council for the five-year probation. If I’m not available, the United States Attorney General’s office will designate a substitute. This is important.” He paused until both men looked directly at him. He wanted to make sure this was understood. “Speaking to anyone about this matter, no matter how trivial, without my knowledge and consent will be a violation of this agreement, and you will be prosecuted for the treason charge. Sheriff Keller will be your probation officer. You’ll be required to check in with him twice a year and inform him and my office if you plan to travel outside the United States or Canada.”

  “What you’re saying is Jim keeps his mouth shut for five years and he gets off completely?” Scott asked.

  “That’s it in a nutshell.”

  “I’d like to read this first, but I’m sure Jim will sign it. Won’t you?” Scott looked at Jim and nodded.

  “Sure, if that’s what you recommend.”

  “I saw a coffee maker in the break room I’ll wait there while you read it over,” David said. “Let me know when he’s ready to sign.” David stood and left the room.

  David sat in the break room with Tom drinking coffee when Bill stuck his head in the open door beaming from ear to ear.

  “Jim just signed the plea bargain,” he said.

  The two men followed Bill back to the conference room. David picked up two of the signed copies of the plea bargain and checked the signatures. He placed them in his briefcase and turned to Jim.

  “Mr. Walker has some questions to ask you about what happened after the crash. I want you to answer him truthfully. If he asks you a question and I think is not in your best interests to answer, I’ll instruct you not to do so. If you object to anything, Council,” David gestured toward Scott. “I want you to do the same.”

  Jim sat listening to David’s instructions blankly. He wondered how he ended up in this situation. There was no way he could explain why he had tried to hide Paula when he didn’t even understand it himself. He had no idea what he was going to say. The 36 hours he spent with her were like a dream, like some kind of sexual fantasy. There were parts of his memory of Paula that were completely blank. Could he tell them that? Would Tom even understand?

  For his part, Tom knew Jim possessed no information that would be of any value when he got back to Washington to face the heat for allowing Patty Lawrence to slip out of his hands. But he was curious to know what had happened to his partner and friend during the time between the crash and when Henry delivered her to the Chinese.

  “Mr. Mitchell,” Tom said softly. “I’m truly sorry you got mixed up in all this. I know you probably have questions you’d like answered too. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to.”

  Jim stared into the floor and grimaced.

  “What happened when you first arrived at the crash?”

  Jim exhaled deeply. All eyes were on him as he began. “I approached the plane from the pilot’s side. When I saw him and the other fellow out there in the snow I figured I’d check the backseat from the other side of the plane. It was a pretty gruesome scene, as you know. Paula was there in the back seat. She started screaming hysterically when she saw me.”

  “Who?” Tom interrupted.

  “Paula. You know, the girl you were looking for.”

  “She told you her name was Paula?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She give you a last name?”

  Jim realized he had planned to spend the rest of his life with a woman whose last name he didn’t know. He felt naive and stupid.

  “No, I guess she didn’t,” he said sheepishly. “I helped her out of the plane and carried her to a flat boulder away from the crash. The storm was coming so I had to get us out of there in a hurry. I located some additional clothing in the suitcases that I helped her put on.”

  “So it was you who ransacked the luggage?”

  “That’s right. But I only took some clothing for her, nothing else.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t take anything away from the crash site other than clothing?”

  “Just one thing, she insisted on taking her cosmetics case with her. I didn’t think it was worth hauling out of there, but for some reason when she asked for it I went and got it.”

  “She take that cosmetics case to the cabin with her?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you took this girl you knew as Paula back to your lodge along with her cosmetics case. Then you radioed your friend Bill and lied about the whole thing. Why? Why’d you lie on the FAA report and what made you try to hide her at your little cabin?”

  Jim looked down and thought for a few moments.

  “I don’t know,” he said softly. “I truly don’t know.”

  “Oh come now, Mitchell,” Tom raised his voice. “You don’t know why you lied?”

  “Mr. Walker,” David interjected. “Let me remind you that Mr. Mitchell is voluntarily cooperating with you. He is telling you what happened. You will not badger him just because you don’t like his statements.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tom softened his tone. “But you must have some recollection of what happened during those few hours between when you arrived at your lodge and you radioed the sheriff. Some memories of what made you help this girl hide from the authorities.”

  Jim’s voice quavered as he began. It was clear to everyone that he was near tears.

  “It’s like a dream, like a fog. I can’t seem to break through it. I mean, I know there’s something, but I just can’t seem to remember what. You’re not going to believe this but–” Jim looked at his lifelong friend, Bill, knowing that he would know he was telling the truth, at least as he remembered it. “She told me she was just a girlfriend of one of the men killed in the crash. She knew they were trying to smuggle something to the Chinese and well…she thought if the mob didn’t kill her, the government would.” Tears began to form in Jim’s eyes. “She was so beautiful. Her eyes, there was something about her eyes. I…we…it seems so impossible now.” Jim exhaled rapidly to catch his breath. “But I wanted her to be with me forever. I guess… I…we, fell in love. She wanted me and I wanted her and the only thing in the way was the investigation of the plane crash.”

  Jim looked down and covered his face with his hands. He started sobbing uncontrollably and the entire room turned away. The air was prickly with the awkwardness of a grown man crying in front of other grown men. David said something about a recess before Jim continued.

  “I can’t explain it,” he sniffled. “I don’t know what could have possessed me to do this. I’m so embarrassed.” After staring into the ground and wiping his eyes for endless minutes, Jim looked up at Tom. “I loved her and she loved me. We just wanted to be left alone.” Jim covered his face again and broke down as the realization that Paula had used him and lied to him began sinking in. She never intended to return to him. None of what he remembered about Paula had been real. Everything she had done and said had been a lie. They were all lies meant to manipulate and use him to commit treason. So why could he not stop hearing her last words, reverberating in his head. No matter what happens, always, always, forever remember I love you.

  Tom stared at Mitchell with pity. He wanted to tell him he understood. He wanted to tell him he had experienced Pam’s powers. It was apparent to Tom that Pam had done one serious number on h
im. Tom knew exactly what possessed Jim to commit treason. Finally, the events of the last few days were clear to Tom. He stood awkwardly before relenting.

  “I think that’s probably all I’ll need, Mr. Mitchell. I appreciate your cooperation.”

  Jim looked up as Tom and David rose to leave the room.

  “Wait,” Jim said. “Was she really a scientist defecting to the Chinese with government secrets? Is that really who she was?”

  Tom knew the real truth was more than something Jim could handle.

  “I’m sorry, Jim.” He paused and thought. “I told you I wouldn’t be able to answer any of your questions.”

  Chapter Eight

  Beijing

  November 18th - Beijing, The People's Republic of China

  After giving herself so completely to Jim, Pam found maintaining the pretense of her relationship with Ben exceedingly difficult. For the first time in her life, she was unable to do to herself what she so easily did to others. As much as she tried to suppress it, the battle between what she had to do as Patty Lawrence and what she needed as Pam Koller raged out of control. Patty’s life in China was like living within a play on a stage, with the ever-present Chinese security as the audience. Every moment was carefully choreographed, not only to disguise Patty’s true purpose in China but also to maintain Ben’s romantic interest in her. Discovery that either was a deception would bring the curtain down on Pam’s performance.

  Worse yet, her intimacy with Ben was a complete farce. After being so close to Jim, she was unable to channel her predatory approach to sex. Making love with Ben made her feel like a slut. She was unfaithful and no longer worthy of Jim. There was no pleasure in having sex with Ben. It was mechanical and purposeful. Ben still found Patty irresistible and Patty was able to maintain the illusion she still was madly in love with him. The only thing that made it possible for Pam to carry on was the dedication she had to her task. Pam found that if she focused on the result of her efforts, she could negotiate through the intensity of the danger that permeated every moment of her life.

  Eventually, their life together in China settled into a routine. The Chinese government provided them a modest one-bedroom apartment within walking distance of the People’s Republic of China’s Institute of Science. Pam was surprised by the quality of the equipment available to them. She had nothing better at Los Alamos. Ben was surprised by Patty’s intellect, which quickly allowed her to gain a rudimentary command of Mandarin Chinese. It was well into January of the next year that their work together on the Level 21 technology began in earnest.

  By February, Ben was beginning to understand the complicated interfaces, developed by Patty over the last four years at Los Alamos that allowed access to the Level 21 technology. Theoretically, Level 21 was amazingly simple. All matter was made up of atoms and these atoms had electrons moving about their nuclei. The secret discovered by Dr. Woolum and his two associates was that during the development of the first computer microprocessors, a predictable pattern of these atomic particles was produced in all silicon-based processor chips, even up to today’s most advanced processors. If software could be developed that would use these predicable patterns as its code, an almost invisible, impossible to defeat, stealth technology could be developed. That technology could override the normal function of the processor with new instructions embedded in the molecules of the processor itself from manufacture. Until Patty’s work, the most advanced application of this technology was to send signals to the microprocessors of incoming missiles that would disrupt the normal guidance systems and, hopefully, cause a self-destruct order within the normal missile software.

  March saw Ben master the theories behind Level 21 and begin to learn how Patty had taken the technology one step beyond what anyone else had accomplished. She had developed the ability to not only harness these predictable patterns, but also, by using the patterns of one atom in parity with the patterns of two others, actually create code within the atoms of certain matter. Patty created the interface between these tryks, as she called them, and more conventional software allowing instructions to be sent and output received. The processing speed was instantaneous and the storage capacity almost limitless. Although crude by standards of just five years from ago, it was the first time Level 21 could actually be used in a predictable, useful environment. Starting with the basic interfaces Patty had brought with her, they worked together for the next four months on developing a Level 21 override. A program that once released would prevent access to the tryks used by this program or their underlying atoms used by the American anti missile systems. It was virtually a Level 21 virus shield. The time had come for Ben to demonstrate his accomplishments to the Chinese scientific and military establishment, to cleanse the Chinese missile program of the Level 21 infection, and take his place at the top of the Chinese scientific society.

  Days after Tom returned to Washington D.C. from Alaska, the rumors of the defection of a high level American nuclear missile scientist to China began leaking to the media. At first, no one linked the plane crash killing two mafia figures with the three dead men found near Otter Bay, or with the rumors of defection. But more leaks gradually surfaced. As one investigative reporter published a clue, another would find something else to link the seemingly unrelated events. The nation had languished in a void of scandal to feed the ever-growing news media.

  But seasoned national reporters could smell this one coming. It was going to be big, maybe as big as the Iran-Contra affair or even the Granddaddy of them all, Watergate. The media desperately needed a genuine government disaster to boost ratings. An attempted cover-up of a national crisis would create an explosion in media attention. Between the actual discoveries of fact, the usual parade of analysts and experts would fill the airwaves of news programs. All the elements of a truly spectacular media festival were in place by early summer, when Congress called for hearings into the disappearance of Patty Lawrence. The mafia would assist in the hearings under the premise of federal impunity. The fact the FBI, CIA, Los Alamos, and the President refused to cooperate or release any information signaled a constitutional battle with a background of espionage, treason and the China–Los Alamos connection.

  It soon became a foregone conclusion that Tom Walker would take the fall. A Korean Airlines stewardess who remembered the handsome young couple when she waited on them in first-class identified Patty’s photograph. The Chinese were protesting the boarding of their research vessel by an American warship in international waters. They knew nothing about the three dead Chinese men found near Otter Bay. None had any identification, and all wore American-made clothing. The two guns found at the scene not belonging to Henry Lo were American-made and stolen. Furthermore, the Chinese knew nothing about the stolen FBI snow cat or the snowmobile that had been stolen from a garage near Otter Bay two weeks earlier. Finally, they had no knowledge of the stolen oil company snow cat found at the end of the tracks that led away from the dead men, or for that matter, the late model Suburban’s tracks that led away from the cat and disappeared into the heavily trafficked Anchorage streets.

  National Security required that the first testimony be given behind closed doors, without the presence of the media. They were forced to wait just outside the chamber doors to catch the witnesses and congressmen as they left the hearings. The witnesses would say nothing or not comment on the advice of their councils. The politicians welcomed the media exposure and voiced their growing frustration at the refusal of the witnesses to actually provide any information. They all promised the American people they would once and for all stop the Chinese–Los Alamos pipeline of missile technology.

  Except for a few minor witnesses, the list of witness was a who’s who of the 22nd Secret. Dr. Woolum said he had recruited Patty as an intern and she had worked with him on some of Los Alamos’s most sensitive technologies. But really, she had little knowledge that would be useful to the Chinese. She had taken a leave of absence to return to school. He knew nothing of her relationship wi
th Ben. That would have been Henry Lo’s department and Lo died under mysterious circumstances in Alaska. Cosa Nostra boss Franco Gianelli, on the advice of his counsel, told the congressmen behind closed doors exactly where they could put their questions. Billy Worth was more than willing to tell Congress everything he knew, until he exercised his Fifth Amendment rights on the advice of his counsel, David Hensel. Congressman Paul Jones of Vermont chaired the hearings and pressured the Justice Department to repeal the plea bargain signed by retired Judge James Anderson, and prosecute Jim Mitchell for the treason charges. However, the Attorney General, acting under direct orders from the President, refused.

  That left Bob Bradley, the Berkeley shadow, and Tom Walker. They would become the witnesses who would be paraded in front of the media in televised open hearings. Bradley was called first, and related the chance meeting between Chen Wen Bin and Patty Lawrence, and the subsequent romance that developed between them. He testified that Henry Lo had known about this and even seemed to expect it. Lo also knew of Chen’s involvement with the Chinese missile programs. Henry Lo, who was his immediate superior, repeatedly told him this was okay and to not interfere. When Chen and Lawrence suddenly disappeared and he was not able to contact Lo, his growing suspicions led him to contact Tom Walker’s office, which triggered the investigation. Politicians from both parties and the media were in love. At last, they had a truly great disaster on their hands. It had everything, treason, espionage, romance; even the President's personal orders not to pursue the prosecution of Jim Mitchell hinted of White House cover up.

  It was Tom Walker’s testimony that put a damper on the public’s bloodlust. He had done many things wrong. He was publicly chastised for his decision not to alert the airports, and his loyalty to the government was in question after choosing not to board the Chinese research vessel before it left United States territorial waters. However, he had not committed a crime, and he would not be prosecuted. It became apparent that the Congressional hearings were going to reveal nothing but a Los Alamos mid-level security agent selling out to a well-known mafia figure, and a valueless research intern, and her Chinese lover. No one involved thought to link Tom Walker directly to Henry Lo and Patty, except for one over stimulated analyst appearing on CNN. He was asked to appear along with several of the best-known analysts as the media’s approach to Pattygate descended from investigative journalism to sideshow farce. He was laughed at for his paranoid theory that a small group of individuals, led by Patty Lawrence, had walked away with America’s secret invisible Star Wars technology. He was quickly discredited by the other so-called experts and a sneering Larry King. What began as a promising national crisis expired with a whimper within two months. Politicians fled from Pattygate as fast as they could.