Enemy In the Room (14 page)

Knox smiled. “David, as you’ve just seen,
the people at XXXtra Cinema are a group unto themselves. Other than
the kind of planning you’re doing with them right now, they stand
alone. If most of them weren’t doing that stuff with us, they’d be
doing it with someone else. That’s the kind of people they are.”
Knox smiled, but Sawyer did not respond.

“And as for our money, what else has both
the current returns we’re seeing there and the opportunity for
almost unlimited growth? What those folks do is a
very
common language.” He and Burke chuckled, and David nodded. “So
what’s the problem?”

David was silent as he stood and finally
shrugged a bit. “I don’t know. You and I are both from traditional
Muslim backgrounds, and while I understand our legal rights, I’m
just not sure that pornographic movies are the image that’s best
for USNet.”

“David, this is America. Americans want
these movies, and making money is a
great
image for USNet.
And most people don’t link us to our movie subsidiary. Anyway,
American law says that they’re not pornography. They’re
adult
movies
. They’re art. Protected by the Constitution. Surely you
haven’t been listening to the lies that our esteemed President
makes up about our industry. Trust me, David, these movies are
great for America.”

Picking up his papers, David retreated. “OK.
I just thought I’d ask. Have a good trip to Brazil, and I’ll email
you about Porter later this afternoon.”

After his meeting with their attorneys on
the Porter situation, David was still playing catch-up from his
trip to L.A. Somehow he had to get it all done,
and
prepare
for Moscow. Meanwhile, it would be another “dinner is in the oven”
evening for him, and dark when he got home. He had left a voicemail
for Elizabeth, letting her know that he would be home late.
Callie and Rob
had been jumping into his mind all afternoon,
and he pushed deeper into his work in order to block out thoughts
of them.

As he finished a review of the space they
were about to lease in London, his phone rang. Kristen’s cell
phone.

“David. Hi. I’m meeting a cabinet installer
at my apartment this afternoon. Any word on Porter?”

“I’m about to write an email to Knox and
Burke, whom I briefed earlier, and I’ll copy you. Other than having
Terrell call and generally threaten Porter with legal action, there
doesn’t appear to be much we can do.”

“Not what we hoped. Well, OK. I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

“Have a good evening.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tampa, FL (USNet). April 19. In a stunning
upset, Hassan Farrahi won Tuesday’s special election and becomes
the first practicing Muslim to win a seat on Tampa’s City Council
as the new representative for District 8.

“This election proves that the American
Dream is alive and well for everyone,” Farrahi said tonight in his
acceptance speech. “We must all come together as Americans,
whatever our backgrounds or faiths. I will serve my district, but I
will also serve all of the people of this great city, and of this
great country.”

Farrahi, born in Iran, has lived in Tampa
since childhood and was an honors graduate of the University of
Central Florida. For the past ten years Farrahi has been a
community organizer in the growing, predominantly Muslim sections
of Tampa. Known for his work to improve the school system, Farrahi
narrowly defeated Frazier Morris, a businessman who campaigned
primarily for fiscal responsibility.

Farrahi will be sworn in at next week’s city
council meeting.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20TH

David received an email that morning from an
unknown sender. It simply read, “Call your cousin.”

So just before leaving his office for lunch,
he picked up his cell phone and dialed a new number in Estonia, and
a moment later he heard Omid’s phone ringing in Tehran.

“Omid, hey. It’s David.”

“Hello, Cousin!” came the joyful reply. “How
are you?’

“We’re fine, thanks. How’s the family?”

“Goli and I are well. We just got back to
our apartment after work. A lot of new orders for translations, I’m
glad to say.”

“Good. How about our business?”

“That’s why I wanted you to call, so I can
thank you. The new sites are working well, and they seem to be
secure. We can tell that my uncle has been pinging, trying to hack
in and close us down. But Abigail has given us some strong
defenses.”

“Great. How about the gifts we sent?”

“Excellent. Can you send us more cards to go
in them?”

“Of course. How many?”

“We can use as many as you can send, to stay
ahead. My other cousin will be in the same place again in a month,
if you can send them there.”

“I’ll do it this week.”

“Thanks.”

“OK. How’s everything else?”

“There seems to be a group of mullahs—and
now not just young ones—who also want to try different recipes. We
have an Iraqi friend talking with them and encouraging them to look
into a new menu. They say that they want to change.”

“That would be great. But isn’t that what
others said, until they owned the restaurant?”

“Yes. But now they’ve seen the result of the
wrong manager.”

“I hope you’re right. Keep talking, but
please be careful.”

“I will, Cousin, I promise.”

David put down his cell phone and picked up
his USNet landline phone, then dialed an intercom number.

“Abigail? Hi. It’s David. Can you get me
twenty more SIM cards, please?”

Claudia Coleman of
Journal
magazine
was at her desk later that morning, hoping for a call-back from
Congresswoman Janet Sullivan, or someone on her staff, to discuss
the information released by Truth in Politics. Instead of a call,
she received an email with an advance copy of a press release that
would go out that afternoon.

Washington, D.C. April 20. Congresswomen
Janet Sullivan has the following three point response to
yesterday’s “revelation” by Truth in Politics.

1. For the past several weeks my husband,
Richard--and by extension myself and Kristen Holloway—have been
threatened by unnamed people who thought that they could blackmail
him into convincing me not to vote for President Harper’s media
bill. This threat was explicitly stated, and the consequence for
his failure to cooperate was to be the release of this information.
So yesterday’s news was not the spontaneous act of a curious
individual, but in fact a precisely timed political move to
discredit me, and by inference, President Harper.

2. The reason they released it is because
they could not blackmail my husband. He and Ms. Holloway disclosed
this situation to me years ago. They asked for my forgiveness.
Because I knew that their remorse was real, and that God had
changed them—and me—on the inside, I freely forgave them. So there
is no story here about anger, mistrust, or revenge. Instead, the
story is one of thanksgiving, trust and joy. Richard is a wonderful
husband and father, not to mention attorney and partner. I trust
him completely. People can be changed. We three are all living
proof of that.

3. Whoever was behind the blackmail must be
worried, because I remind you that President Harper’s media bill
only asks for three things:

First, that
all
transmissions into
our homes— TV, cable, satellite, internet— be “G” rated by default,
unless the owner of the account specifically asks for something
different. We’re not trying to censor anyone or anything, just put
the burden to receive it on those who want it, not on the rest of
us who constantly have to check, monitor, worry and guard our
children against it.

Second, that for anyone to view anything
other than PG on the internet, he or she must have proof of being
twenty-one, or consent from a parent. There are new tools in
advanced development which will allow for positive identification
of the person actually logged on, like a cyber driver’s
license.

Third, that everyone associated with the
‘adult’ movie industry, meaning crews, actors, distributors, sales
people, etc., must also be at least twenty-one. We do not let our
children drive cars at fourteen or drink at eighteen. Some parts of
the internet and certainly pornography are just as dangerous and
powerful as drinking or driving, and we want to be sure that
children are not involved.

Those changes, all of which only protect
children and families, are the reasons that unknown people are
trying to blackmail me and other members of Congress. We suspect
that those who oppose us are not concerned about free speech so
much as about money— being able to hook young, unsuspecting people
at an early age— like tobacco successfully did.

The Congresswoman will be available to
answer any additional questions at her regularly scheduled press
briefing on Thursday afternoon at 1: 30.

Claudia read the information twice, then
called her assistant. “Please find a number for Kristen Holloway at
USNet. I think she works in their real estate department.”

Victor Mustafin was by himself at his
computer, several printed phone transcripts arranged on his office
desk beside him. He was piecing together the information in the
calls which they had intercepted before and after Pavel Sivyakov’s
offer of the cruise missiles in Arzamas-23. And they then broadened
the search to include calls to others made by each party to that
fist call. None of the callers used encryption, or seemed the least
bit concerned about interception.

It was clear that young Sivyakov and his
four friends had concocted quite a plan to steal three GoFor
missiles from the factory where they worked. And, a month after the
paperwork on the destruction was submitted, they seemed to have
pulled it off. The missles’ launcher on paper was on a trip to the
factory in the Ural Mountains for refurbishment, while in reality
it was hidden several kilometers out of the city in a small
warehouse which they had rented to do work on their autos. But
their late night metalwork was really disguising the launcher as a
common lorry.

The missiles had been smuggled out in key
pieces and then reassembled by the five experts, and reunited with
the launcher.

Mustafin was impressed with their ingenuity.
And he understood that phone encryption would not have made sense
to their group. But he could not understand the laziness of those
trying to buy the missiles, because they were clearly the Russian
national police, either working on a sting operation, or hoping to
grab the product and then sell it themselves.

Claudia Coleman was lucky. Late that
afternoon, Kristen answered her own phone at USNet.

After Claudia introduced herself, Kristen
said, “Well, I saw it was a 202 area code and thought that it might
be Janet Sullivan. I don’t think I have anything to add to the
press release that she put out earlier today.”

“I understand. I just wanted to confirm that
you agree with everything in that release.”

“Yes, Janet let me proof it before it went
out.”

“So you are on a first name basis?”

Kristen paused, then explained and
reinforced that she had asked for and received the Congresswoman’s
forgiveness, and the three of them had moved on. Kristen had
changed cities and begun working for USNet.

“That brings up an interesting irony here,”
injected Ms. Coleman. “Trevor Knox, the CEO of USNet, is certainly
an outspoken critic of the President’s proposed legislation. This
episode has had a potentially negative impact on both the
President’s legislation and on an employee of USNet. Do you share
Mr. Knox’s views on the issues Mrs. Sullivan has enumerated?”

Kristen paused then said, “I work in USNet’s
Real Estate Group, Ms. Coleman, not in corporate policy. I think
I’m reasonably good at what I do, but, no, personally I don’t share
Mr. Knox’s views on these subjects. If he asked me, which he
hasn’t, I would take USNet out of adult movies all together. I’m
sort of embarrassed that we own those studios. What good can they
possibly do anyone? And to the extent that they encourage
promiscuity, surely they hurt our society on many levels. But,
again, Mr. Knox is his own man, and he has certainly been
successful at everything he has done. I just wish we didn’t do
adult movies.”

“Thank you. And my last question. Do you
think there could be a ‘conspiracy’ to blackmail members of
Congress on this bill? Isn’t that a bit farfetched?”

“All I can tell you is that it happened to
us. It’s not easy to live with. I guess you should check with
others.”

The next morning Knox was again airborne, on
the way back from Brazil. He had concluded a secret agreement to
control more than seventy percent of that nation’s
telecommunications assets through various interlocking companies,
allowing him to begin raising prices.

As his Falcon jet sped north, he logged on
to Real Time Intercepts through his console and was soon face to
face with Victor Mustafin. “Victor, I have a potential Special
Operations mission. There’s a real estate man who is trying to
steal fifty million dollars from us, and he needs to be persuaded
that this would be unhealthy business for him to pursue.” Knox gave
him the details for the mission. “I’ll follow up with an email
tomorrow once I’ve gathered all the facts from David Sawyer.”

“Yes, sir. I understand. There’s more news,
not good. We intercepted an uplink of an article that will be in
tomorrow’s edition of
Journal
magazine. A reporter called
the Holloway woman in USNet’s Real Estate Group. I think you ought
to see it. But you won’t like it. I’m sending it now.”

When he finished reading it, Knox sat with
arms crossed in his expensive swivel seat, glaring at Mustafin.