Cold Vengeance - Lincoln Child [72]
“Follow me, sir.”
Pinning the ID to the breast pocket of his jacket, Pendergast followed the soldier to a bank of elevators, where they descended a number of levels. The doors opened into a bleak maze of cinder-block corridors that eventually brought them to a nondescript door marked only GEN. GALUSHA.
The guard knocked politely and a voice within said, “Enter.”
The guard opened the door and Pendergast went in, the guard closing the door after him, prepared to wait outside until the appointment was over.
Galusha was a neat, soldierly looking man in casual military fatigues, the single black star Velcroed to his chest patch the only evidence of rank. “Please sit down,” he said. His demeanor was cool.
Pendergast seated himself.
“I have to tell you up front, Agent Pendergast, that I can’t respond to your request until you and your FBI superiors go through the usual channels. And I don’t see how, exactly, I could be of help to you in any case.”
For a moment, Pendergast did not respond. Then he cleared his throat. “As one of the, ah, gatekeepers of M-LOGOS, you could be a great deal of help to me, General.”
Galusha went very still. “And just what do you know of M-LOGOS, Agent Pendergast… assuming such a thing exists?”
“I know quite a bit about it. For example, I know that it is the most powerful computer yet built by humankind—and that it is located in a hardened bunker beneath this building. I know that it is a massively parallel processing system, running a special AI known as Stutter-Logic, and that it has been designed for a single purpose: to data-mine information on potential threats to national security. The threats could be of any kind: terrorism, industrial espionage, domestic hate group activity, market manipulation, tax evasion, even the emergence of pandemics.”
He crossed one leg delicately over the other. “In pursuit of this objective, M-LOGOS maintains a database containing all kinds of information: from cell phone records and e-mails to the tracking of highway tolls, medical and legal records, social networking sites, and university research databases. The database is said to contain names and information on virtually one hundred percent of all individuals within U.S. borders, all cross-referenced and cross-linked. I don’t know what the percentage is for individuals outside America, but I think it’s safe to say that M-LOGOS possesses all the information that exists in digital form about most human beings in the industrialized world.”
Throughout this, the general had remained silent and motionless. Now he spoke. “That was quite a little speech, Agent Pendergast. And just how have you come by such information?”
Pendergast shrugged. “My work at the FBI has taken me into several—shall we say—exotic areas of investigation. But let me answer a question with a question: if Americans had any idea how thorough, comprehensive, and well organized the M-LOGOS database was—and how much information the government possessed on American citizens in good standing—what do you think the response would be?”
“But they won’t know, will they? Because such a revelation would be a treasonous act.”
Pendergast inclined his head. “I’m not interested in revelations. I’m interested in a single person.”
“I see. And I take it that you’d like us to find this individual in the M-LOGOS database.”
Pendergast crossed his legs and leveled his gaze at General Galusha. He said nothing.
“Since you know so much, you must also know that access to M-LOGOS is highly restricted. I just can’t open it up to any agent who walks in… even one as intrepid as you seem to be.”
Still Pendergast did not speak. His sudden silence, after such an extended soliloquy, seemed to irritate Galusha.
“I’m a busy man,” he said.
Pendergast recrossed his legs. “General, please confirm that you have the authorization to grant—or not grant—my request without involving others.”
“I do, but I’m not going to play games with you. There’s no way in hell I’m going to grant such a request.”
Again Pendergast let the silence build, until Galusha