The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [53]
"Pablo, how exactly will you communicate with this fellow?"
"Via computer. He has several e-mail addresses, all with European service providers."
"Very well. Tell him, yes, it is approved by the council." Not too many people knew that Ernesto was the council.
"Muybien, jefe." And Pablo went to his laptop. His message went out in less than a minute. Pablo knew his computers. Most international criminals and terrorists did.
It was in the third line of the e-mail: "And, Juan, Maria is pregnant. She's having twins." Both Mohammed and Pablo had the best encryption programs commercially available-programs which, the vendors said, could not be cracked by anyone. But Mohammed believed in that as much as he believed in Santa Claus. All those companies lived in the West, and owed allegiance to their own homelands and to no other. Moreover, using programs like this only highlighted his e-mails for whichever watcher programs were being used by the National Security Agency, British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and French Director General Security Exterior (DGSE). Not to mention whatever additional unknown agencies might be tapping into international communications, legally or not, none of whom had any love for him and his colleagues. The Israeli Mossad would certainly pay a lot to have his head atop a pike, even though they didn't-couldn't-know of his role in the elimination of David Greengold.
He and Pablo had arranged a code, innocent phrases that could mean anything, which could be couriered around the world to cutouts who would then deliver them. Their electronic accounts were paid by anonymous credit cards, and the accounts themselves were in large and completely reputable Europe-based Internet Service Providers. In its way, the Internet was as effective as Swiss banking laws in terms of anonymity. And too many e-mail messages transited the ether every day for anyone to screen them all, even with computer assistance. As long as he didn't use any easily predicted buzzwords, his messages should be secure, Mohammed judged.
So, the Colombians would cooperate-Maria was pregnant. And she was having twins-the operation could begin at once. He would tell his guest this evening over dinner, and the process would begin immediately. The news was even worth a glass of wine or two, in anticipation of the merciful forgiveness of Allah.
The problem with the morning run was that it was more boring than the society page of an Arkansas newspaper-but it had to be done, and each of the brothers used the time to think mainly about how boring it was. It only took half an hour. Dominic was thinking about getting a small portable radio, but he'd never do it. He never managed to think about such things when he was in a shopping mall. And his brother probably enjoyed this crap. Being in the Marines had to be bad for you.
Then came breakfast.
"So, boys, are we all awake?" said Pete Alexander.
"How come you don't break a sweat in the morning?" Brian asked. The Marines had many inside stories about the Special Forces, none of them complimentary and few of them accurate.
"There are some advantages to getting old," the training officer replied. "One of them is taking it easy on the knees."
"Fine. What's today's lesson plan?" You lazy bastard, the captain didn't add. "When are we getting those computers?"
"Pretty soon."
"You said the encryption security is pretty good," Dominic said. "How good is 'pretty good'?"
"NSA can crack it, if