One Rough Man - Brad Taylor [138]
While Bakr was happy with the option to remotely fire the weapon from up to two hundred meters away, he knew the detonator’s true benefits lay in its channel-hopping capability and the fact that it used a separate signal for both arming and detonating.
Having played the IED game extensively in Iraq, Bakr understood that these features would defeat the average countermeasure employed against radio-controlled improvised explosive devices. Known as a “jammer,” the countermeasure basically broadcast a louder signal than the IED transmitter, preventing the receiver from getting the command to detonate, thus “jamming” it. A simple concept, it was analogous to a person listening to a radio station in the middle of nowhere. One second, the channel’s putting out country music, the next Gothic rock, as the radio itself relayed whichever signal was strongest. The IED jammer worked the same way. It blasted out huge amounts of white noise on the transmitter’s frequency, preventing the receiver from hearing the command to detonate.
The channel-hopping feature on Juka’s device meant that the transmitter and receiver, synchronized together, frenetically hopped frequencies from the moment it was turned on, never transmitting on the same frequency for more than a millisecond. This ensured that the average jammer wouldn’t be able to defeat it, as it wouldn’t be able to sufficiently track which frequency the detonator was using, and thus couldn’t override the signal. The second feature, the separate signals used for arming and detonation, meant that the weapon wouldn’t be inadvertently set off by someone opening his garage or playing with a remote-controlled airplane. In order for the device to explode, it would take one signal, linked to a security code, to arm the bomb, and another, also linked to a code, to detonate it.
Juka had placed the detonator reverently in Bakr’s hands, beginning to fidget once he realized that he had given it away. He made Bakr promise that he would save it for use on a special target, using all of the other mundane detonators he would find in the Sarajevo safe house for everyday terrorist attacks.
Opening the door to his hotel room, Bakr grinned at the memory. Yes, he would save this detonator for a special occasion. The perfect occasion. Placing the detonator on the nightstand, he went to the Internet café to check on the meeting with Walid.
Opening the latest message, it appeared that Sayyidd had done everything he had asked, and more, giving him a little guilt over his previous thoughts about his partner. He was a little concerned by the lack of e-mail contact in the next twenty-four hours, but seeing that this e-mail had arrived within the last hour, he was sure Sayyidd would check his account one more time before leaving, and reply. He typed a quick response, describing his successful meeting with Juka. He hit send, finally beginning to accept that everything was working out.
83
Jennifer asked again, “Where is he?”
I ran to the window, the broken glass crackling under my feet like popcorn.
“He jumped out the fucking window.”
“He jumped? Are you sure he—”
“No, I didn’t throw him out. As much as I would have liked to, I’d have to be the Incredible Hulk to chuck his ass out the window from across the room.”
I saw a crowd gathering around the broken body, most looking down, but some looking up at my location, the drapes swinging gently in the breeze providing an instant point of reference. I snapped my head back before they saw me.
“We have about one minute before we’ll be asked a lot of questions. Start packing up his stuff. We’ll look at it back in the hotel.”
“What about the other guy? What are we going to do about him?”
“I think he’s here alone. There’s no evidence of