Full Black - Brad Thor [89]
“Exactly. We know Aazim had been in Chicago and that he wanted Chase to handle an attack in New York while he went to oversee one in L.A. We think these represented the first wave.”
“First out of how many?”
Nicholas looked at Carlton, who nodded. “See for yourself,” said the little man as he pressed another button on his keyboard.
Instantly a dot appeared in Dallas, followed by Houston and Miami. Then Philadelphia had a dot and then Newark and San Francisco. Next came Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, and Denver. The dots were multiplying so fast, Harvath couldn’t keep track. Some cities had more than one dot.
In addition to major American cities, there were smaller ones, ones not immediately thought of when considering potential terrorist targets. There were dots next to Madison, Wisconsin; Casper, Wyoming; and Wichita, Kansas. Bloomington, Indiana; Hartford, Connecticut; Johnson City, Tennessee; Springfield, Missouri; and Billings, Montana, had also been marked.
“My God,” Harvath said. “How many are there?”
“Over two hundred,” replied Nicholas.
“Cells?”
“That’s what we think. The scope is amazing. But now watch this.”
Nicholas pressed another button and Harvath watched as all of the dots changed color.
“Why are they doing that?”
“We think the colors represent the style of attack,” said the little man. “You can see Chicago is lit up red, blue, orange, silver, and brown.”
“You mean there may have been five different kinds of attacks planned for Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“And we only disrupted two?”
“Unfortunately.”
Harvath studied the map, looking at the different colors. “Chase was inside the Chicago cell and he only uncovered the suicide bomb and active shooter plots. You think they kept things that compartmentalized? Aazim Aleem had three other types of attack planned for Chicago that Chase never learned about?”
“It’s very possible,” replied Carlton. “Especially if the actors were working alone and didn’t need the support of the overall network. It’s the way I’d do it.”
Five different attacks was a large number to throw at one city like Chicago, but there were plenty of cities on the map that appeared to have been targeted for multiple attacks. Harvath was looking for some sort of pattern. “Orange dots seem to be pretty randomly dispersed. Any idea what those represent?”
Nicholas leaned back in his chair, took a sip from his cup, and studied the map. “No idea.”
“Not even a guess?”
“Guesses are something I’ve got plenty of. Honestly, orange could be anything. There are orange dots in New York City, San Jose, Dallas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and a bunch of other locations. Silver and gold seem to be just as random.”
“What about purple? I’m only seeing those in a few places. All of them port cities. New York again, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle.”
“We noticed that, too,” replied Nicholas, “but those are also major urban centers with large populations, and there might be another factor they have in common that we’re not seeing. That’s the problem. There’s just so much we don’t know.”
Harvath looked back at the Old Man. “Any other thoughts, if you were behind this?”
Carlton was studying the monitors. “I’ve been looking at this map until my eyes bleed. Without some additional piece of information, it’s nearly impossible to unlock.”
“What kind of warning are you giving the cities that do have the dots?”
Carlton shrugged. “The FBI will quietly inform local and state law enforcement of a nonspecific terrorism threat to their jurisdictions and they’ll raise their internal alert levels accordingly.”
“No mention of this to the public, then?” asked Harvath.
“Not right now. We don’t want to tip our hand. If we go public with this, it could speed the attacks up. Whoever is pulling the strings could give the cells the green light.”
The Old Man was right, but they couldn’t just sit and do nothing. “If this map is accurate,” said Harvath, “at least we know the cities where they’re planning to strike. How do we filter it down even more?”
Nicholas waved at all of his computer equipment. “I’m doing