The 22nd Secret Page 22

  “But, I don’t know.”

  Tom picked up the two files and returned them to his attaché case. “Let me tell you one thing, Jim. You let Pam fly away from here today and you’ll be making the biggest mistake of your life. I’ve known Pam a long time. I helped start that file on her when she was seven years old. I’ve worked closely with her for the past five years. She is the greatest human being I have ever met. If she wanted me, I wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever it took to be with her.” Tom stood up and started to put on his coat.

  “What if I say okay? What if I say I’ll do whatever it takes to get a chance to see her, to talk with her.”

  “I’ll go tell her that if you want. I know her well enough to know she’ll come right in here and tell you she loves you, and she wants to spend the rest of her life with you. But if I were you, I’d want to know what that means. What spending the rest of your life with Pamela Koller will be like.”

  Tom set his coat down and sat down again. “What I’m about to tell you is like the 21st century version of the tree of knowledge. Once you know this there will be no turning back. Once you know who and what Pam is, her life will be in your hands. Most governments would consider the knowledge you will have after our conversation worth killing you for. Jim, this is the point of no return. I either walk out of here and leave with Pam, or your life will never be the same again. Secrecy and new identities will be your best protection. Pam’s too. What I’m about to tell you about the woman you knew as Paula is only known by Dr. Woolum, the head of computer research at Los Alamos, the President of the United States, myself, and two other people.” Tom held out his hand for Jim to shake. “Give me your word, regardless of whatever happens, that you will never tell another sole about Pam. It could prove to be deadly for both of you.”

  “I swear I would never do anything to hurt Paula. I mean…Pam.” They shook hands. Tom finished his beer and set it down.

  “You know, it’s funny how the actions people took in the past when seen from the perspective of the present sometimes lead to unexpected results. Hitler for example, would you have believed that not only did he kill millions of people but 55 years later his actions would bring about the end of the threat of nuclear annihilation. One of the important Nazi programs was an attempt to improve the Aryan race through selective breeding. Individuals were selected for certain qualities they believed would eventually lead to a superior race of people. They were mated and had children. After the war, some of those children were brought here to the United States and a number of them ended up in small communities. One of those communities was in Idaho. Pamela Koller is the child of Roland and Hilda Koller, both of whom came out of that Nazi program.”

  Tom paused until Jim looked him straight in the eyes. “By the time she was five she could do calculus and speak three languages. Pam’s IQ has never been measured. There’s never been a test designed for someone like her. She went to college at age fourteen, even though her parents tried to hold her back. When she was seventeen, the academic world had nothing else to offer her. She had grown beyond any known human comprehension. Dr. Woolum recruited her to work with him on an ultra-secret Star Wars technology known as Level 21.”

  “That file you had on me and the one on Pam said that, said Level 21 Technologies.

  Would you like another beer?”

  “No thanks. I’m not going to hurt myself by trying to explain how Level 21 works. If you want to know, ask Pam. She’s an expert, but it’s like an undetectable computer virus that we embedded in the Chinese missile technology that we allowed them to steal from us.”

  “We allowed them to steal?” Jim asked in disbelief.

  “That’s right. This program was so secret that only a handful of people knew about it. Officially, the government has classified it as does not exist. Besides the three scientists who originally discovered the theory, the only other people to know about this were the President and the Directors of the CIA and FBI. In an official capacity, I didn’t even know. Secrecy was the key to success for this technology. Martin Weiker, one of the scientists, was a boyhood friend of mine. At the time, I was working security at Los Alamos. Before the government officially made Level 21 a top secret project, me, Martin, Howard and Allan all ran together. None of us thought anything really important would come from their work, so in the beginning there was no reason to make it that secret. I secretly kept in touch with them even after I was promoted and transferred to Washington. There was always the fear that politicians or the security at Los Alamos would mess things up, so Howard asked me to quietly keep an eye on things in Washington. I recruited a young man that was already in security at Los Alamos to stay close to Dr. Woolum. That was Henry Lo.”

  “There were a lot of really bad things said and implied about Henry Lo during the Congressional Hearings,” Jim said. “I guess some of that wasn’t true?”

  “Certainly some of it wasn’t true, but some was. Jim, this is a reality you’re going to have to face the rest of your life. There were leaks at all levels, mostly at Los Alamos. Some were very close to the President. You recall a suicide by a top official close to President Clinton?

  Henry was better at this sort of thing than I am, well was. I guess I’m about to retire now that you’re getting involved. Anyway, Henry just had a knack for making people disappear.”

  “Hold everything. I had no idea becoming a murderer was one of these sacrifices you were talking about.”

  “Times are changing, Jim. That was our time, Henry’s and mine. Yours will be different. More subtle, stealthy more technologically driven than violent. But you do need to understand that Pam’s life will be in your hands. That means the most important military weapon known to man will be totally dependent on you for protection. You’ll need to carry a gun and be willing to use it, especially if you’re ever in public with her. She won’t like it, but I’m going to insist you understand what may be necessary. You have a hand gun, Jim?”

  “Yeah, I got a Luger. My Dad got it off a captured German officer. I keep in it perfect condition. It’s locked up over there in the gun cabinet. I don’t know what happened to the .38 I gave Paula.”

  “You might want to shop around for something a little newer and easier to carry. You’ll find places where you could keep it in a room like this, where you can get to it quickly. Locked in the gun cabinet isn’t one of them. At least for the next month or two it won’t be as much of a problem, the Army’s watching you and Pam pretty closely. Keep it in mind if you go out in public, and remember Pam’s going to really be against it. But trust me, you need to do this.”

  “I understand and agree. I need to do this regardless of what Pam thinks.”

  “I think if forced into the situation, you would instinctively protect her. Really that’s all that Henry and I ever did. We reacted to the situation and did what we had to do. We kept Level 21 secret until Henry told the Chinese through the mafia about it.”

  “Why? Why after doing so much to keep it a secret, why did you do that?”

  “It was Pam’s idea. I told you we had secretly embedded programming in the Chinese missile systems that would prevent them from targeting civilian populations. They could test fire their missiles as much as they wanted, but if they targeted a civilian population with a nuclear warhead, the missile would self-destruct. At least that was the theory. We really didn’t know if it would work. There wasn’t any way to actually test it. The only way would have been for the Chinese to launch a nuclear attack. Hell, we didn’t even know if the Level 21 Technology was present in their systems. Maybe they knew about Level 21 or something like it and had infected our systems. Besides, Pam had developed an upgrade of the original Level 21 programming.” Tom closed Pam’s file and stared at it. “You know, I think I’ll take that beer now.”

  Jim got up and grabbed two more beers from the bar. He opened both and sat one in front of Tom.

  “Well, what do you think so far?”

  "You got any questions?”

/>   “I think you and your friends got some kind of balls. I still don’t understand why Pam had to go to China and what did the mafia have to do with any of this?”

  “I told you, we had to have someone check out their systems to make sure we had actually been successful in imbedding Level 21. That person had to know how it worked and what to look for. There were only four people in the world who could do this, and Pam was one of them. Remember, this was Pam’s idea. The real reason it had to be her was this upgrade she had developed. It took Pam’s genius to develop it, and to this day, she is really the only person alive that can really work it. At least that’s what everyone thinks. It grows, I’m not sure I can explain this. Shit, I don’t understand it myself. Once it’s started, it spreads quickly, infecting system after system and eventually infecting every missile system on the planet. Including older systems like those used by Iraq. Eventually, it will even reach the United States and render our nuclear weapons useless. It had to be initiated in China, so as it spread, it would take out everyone else’s systems before ours.”

  “Can’t we stop it? Override it in our systems.”

  “No, it's impossible to stop or override. That’s the official version. That’s what the President has been told. He’s the only person outside of Pam, Dr. Woolum, you and a few others that know who Pam is and what really happened in China. Everyone else, the directors of the CIA and FBI, believe that Patty Lawrence gave away the secret of Level 21. They’re no longer in the loop. Every time an Administration changed, a new President and new CIA and FBI directors had to be briefed on Level 21. Now there’s that many less who know the official version of things.”

  “You keep saying the official version. What do you mean by that?”

  Tom swigged his beer and paused to make sure Jim was paying attention. “This is one of those little bits of information I told you would be worth killing for. Besides Dr. Woolum, Pam and myself, no one knows this. Not even the President. Now you’re going to know this. Pam knows how to stop it. She knows how to control it. She can make that program do whatever she wants. Think about that, Jim. Think about what that would mean to China, Iraq, or Iran. Think about what that would mean to our own military. It’s one thing to say this thing is impossible to control, and nobody’s going to have the ability to use nuclear weapons. It’s something entirely different to say Pamela Koller has the keys and can unlock anyone’s nuclear program within minutes.”

  Jim swigged his beer and spoke quietly, staring into his Coors bottle.

  “I can’t imagine the burden that must be on her. No wonder you wanted to make sure I understood what I was getting into.” He looked at Tom. “I understand what you mean now by sacrifice. You can count on me. Pam can count on me. I guess I should be honored she chose me.”

  “There’s more, Jim, a lot more. You asked about the mafia. Again, this whole thing was Pam’s idea very clever. Well, hell. I suppose it was genius. We couldn’t just call up the Chinese and ask them if they knew about Level 21, and by the way if they didn’t, would they mind if we sent someone over to install the latest upgrade, at no charge. Henry facilitated the cover with the Chinese that he was willing to help them disable the Level 21 technology in return for financial gain in partnership with the mob. He had Tino make contact with a young Chinese nuclear scientist named Chen Wen Bin. Tino was highly connected in China.”

  “I remember him. He was Patty Lawrence’s lover.” Jim said as he took a sip of his beer realizing what that meant to his relationship with Pam.

  Tom sipped his beer. “Jim, you’re not going to like this. There was a time in her life that Pam enjoyed this kind of thing, but that changed when she met you. She seduced Chen in order to create a plausible reason for him to take her to China, and for her to teach him how Level 21 worked and how to disable it. The Chinese government, the American Mafia, and Henry Lo threatened the lives of the two young lovers and their families if Pam didn’t cooperate. That’s what the Chinese thought, anyway.”

  Tom could tell this part of the story was hard for Jim to hear. Jim stared into the table and shook his head.

  “If it’s any comfort to you, she didn’t love him. It was what she had to do to make the Chinese believe she was helping them to protect her family and their own lives.”

  “You said she showed Chen how to disable Level 21. I thought she needed to go to China to install the upgrade?”

  “The fact the Chinese went to such efforts to get her proved they knew nothing about the presence of Level 21 or had any similar technology. Since they knew nothing about Level 21, except what Pam showed them, it was easy to convince them the upgrade was actually the program that disabled the Americans’ control over their systems. Pam actually gave them more disinformation than anything they could practically use. Pam says with what she showed them it will take them years just to figure out they’re completely wrong on the theoretical level. Dr. Woolum believes we’ll be ahead of the rest of the world on this technology for at least the next twenty years.”

  “Wait just a fucking minute,” Jim said, recalling the time Tom had threatened Bill and him about Paula’s whereabouts. “If you knew about all of this, I mean China, Pam and all, what the fuck were you doing running around up here trying to find her? Digging out that plane and all that crap with the Chinese ship?”

  “Well, we had three bits of luck after the crash, besides the fact Pam survived, of course. Obviously, the crash was not supposed to happen. The Chinese devised the plan for Pam’s defection. Tino was to fly her to Otter Bay, to the research vessel. The Chinese figured that way, anyone who knew what was happening would assume she would be on that ship. Henry and I had a worm in the Chinese espionage organization that kept us up to date on their plans. Those plans included the murder of Tino and his pilot and the use of the research vessel as a decoy while Pam and Chen flew out of Anchorage under diplomatic covers.”

  “You said you had some good luck?”

  “I said, besides Pam’s surviving the crash we had three bits of luck. First, the plane crashed near here and you were out there riding around and saw it. Otherwise, she probably would have frozen to death before anyone found her. Remember, the plane was miles off its flight path. The second was that I was assigned by the Director of the CIA to head the investigation and locate her. If I found her alive, I was to kill her.”

  “And they didn’t have a clue you even knew Patty Lawrence. Hell they still don’t know.” Jim laughed to himself. “You sat there and took all that heat from Congress for fucking up and letting Patty Lawrence defect and you actually made it happen.”

  “Henry gave his life to make it happen. He knew what the Chinese had planed for Tino and his pilot. He knew they wanted no witnesses at Otter Bay. When I investigated the scene, I figured he missed walking away from there by a tenth of a second.”

  Both men remained silent thinking about what Henry had done. The courage he must have had, the dedication to Pam and what she was trying to do for humanity.

  “I remember thinking there was no way one man could have gotten both those guys right in the forehead. They were standing ten yards apart from each other, with their guns pulled ten yards from Lo.”

  “I think he got one just as he went for his gun and the other the same instant he got shot in the chest.”

  “Still, pretty damned amazing.”

  “Henry was very good at his job. He protected Howard, Marty, Allan and eventually Pam for almost fifteen years. Now that the Chinese think they got the Level 21 Technology, no one’s going to have much interest in anyone, except Pam. You need to keep the example Henry set in mind when you’re with her.”

  “Thanks, I will. But why Pam? If no one’s going to have any interest in anyone and even the President thinks what Pam has done is irreversible, why her?”

  “The third bit of good luck was your bridge.”

  “My bridge?”

  “It delayed me getting here for four hours. Otherwise, I would have had a hell of a time stalling
until Pam and Chen’s plane took off. I remember thinking during those couple of days that timing was everything. Keep in mind, even today people think I just screwed up. Except for you, the President and a couple of other people, nobody knows what Henry, Pam and I actually did.”

  “It still doesn’t explain why Pam is in so much more danger than the rest of you?”

  Tom drank the last of his second beer and looked at the empty bottle. “You know, Coors is a really good beer.”

  “You want another?” Jim asked.

  “You?”

  “No, but I’ll get you one if you want.”

  “No thanks, Jim.” Tom set the empty bottle down and looked Jim straight in the eyes. His tone grew serious. “There are a couple of things I haven’t told you yet. Remember, I told you the President knew the official version of things. What I’m about to explain to you is the real version. This is what’s going to require you and Pam to disappear. You’ll have to find someplace you can live where people will know you as someone other than Jim Mitchell and Pam Koller. Your faces are not all that recognizable. Pam and your pictures were not exposed all that much on TV and, well, people just don’t remember things like that much. Oh, around here they’ll remember you, and if you start showing up with Pam in public people will put two and two together and realize that’s Patty Lawrence. Your friend, Bill, he already thinks that’s who’s sitting out there in that plane with him.”

  “Okay, so what really happened?”

  Tom looked up at the Indian rugs on the ceiling, like he was looking into the past.

  “It was Pam’s 22nd birthday. We were already planning her trip to China when she first told Howard and me about it. She called it her little 22nd birthday secret. After a while we just started calling it the 22nd Secret. You know that Pam’s upgrade to Level 21 spreads by itself, and will in a few years even affect our systems. What not even the President or you know is that in about a year starting in China, where she first started her program, it’ll start infecting other things, infecting things other than nuclear missiles. The Chinese may never know the truth about their missiles. They’d have to launch an attack on somebody in order to realize they didn’t work. But it’s very possible someone will try and use, say a surface-to-air missile, or an air-to-air rocket, and when they don’t work. Well, the cat will be out of the bag. Military people, entire governments are going to be real pissed off. It may take them a while to figure it out, but somebody someday is going to point the finger at Patty Lawrence.” Tom looked down from the ceiling and straight into Jim’s eyes. “Jim, even though Pam would be more than willing, she can’t stop the insanity of war. But she can, and has, stopped them from using computers to make the job of killing more efficient.”