Titan Six by Christopher Forrest Read Free Book Online Page A

had looked at the metadata that underlies every email correspondence by using a simple right-click of her mouse.  McManus had been in St. Louis and Denver, not Hawaii.
    None of my business, she thought.  The less I think about him, the better.
    But something else was nagging Gwen: McManus had called her home the week before, when Gwen was out shopping.  He’d grilled Ben for over ten minutes as to whether she had discussed her possible relocation to the Midwest.  Ben had been very hurt that Gwen hadn’t brought up the subject until she reassured him that that no one at the Company had approached her about reassignment.
    As far as Gwen was concerned, the CIA could keep all the secrets it wanted.  It was, after all, a clandestine organization.  But McManus was holding something close to the vest that affected her and her family, and her maternal instinct dictated that she do some snooping.
    She left her office and found a cubicle with a computer terminal, one of many that employees could use if their own PCs were offline for any reason.  The Company, for example, scanned all computers at least once a month to look for security breaches.
    She called up the main directory and typed in the following name: McManus, Grady Charles.  But his password — it could be anything.  She tried “senex,” but the password was declined.
    She had two more tries before the system locked her out.
    McManus was divorced, and she didn’t know the names of his children.  Well, there was one obvious name to try, although she doubted that she would be so lucky as to hack the files of an admiral at the CIA by using such a simple password.  She typed in “Nimitz,” the name of his Golden Retriever.
    PASSWORD DECLINED
     
    But the dog wasn’t named Nimitz for nothing.  The Navy legend was obviously of some importance to McManus.  Gwen typed in the deceased admiral’s full name, leaving no spaces: chesternimitz.
    The screen changed quickly.
    WELCOME, ADMIRAL MCMANUS
     
    She was in.
    Gwen then typed “senex” in the search field.
    Another password prompt appeard.
    “Damn,” Gwen muttered under her breath.
    She typed “C.”
    PASSWORD MUST BE AT LEAST TEN CHARACTERS LONG.
     
    Gwen typed “CCCCCCCCCC.”
    The following appeared.
    SENEX FILE 14-612
     
    TOP SECRET – EYES ONLY
     
    The Senex file consisted of a list of five names on the first page, nothing more.
    General Thomas Burmaster, United States Army
     
    Colonel Alexander Frost, United States Marines
     
    Admiral Randall Seton, United States Navy
     
    Allan Marshall, Assistant Secretary of Defense
     
    Dr. Hans Beemler
     
    Gwen hit “page 2,” but the screen didn’t respond.
    TO CONTINUE, PROVIDE YOUR CLEEK
     
    Gwen had no idea what McManus’ clearance number might be.  All CIA personnel had numerous passwords, code names, and cleek numbers, “cleek” being a nickname for the phrase “clearance code.”  For now she’d gone as far as she could.
    Using both Google and CIA data bases, Gwen searched for the names she’d found: Burmaster, Frost, Seton, Marshall, and Beemler.
    NO MATCHES FOUND
     
    Something was definitely amiss, and Gwen knew exactly what she would do.  If anyone could attach significance to the names, it was her old boss, Catherine Caine.  She’d send Caine an email from her personal PC at home.
     

Titan Six
The Cube beneath Mount Elbert
     
    “Good God!” Hawkeye cried.  “There are Sents in some of the hexagons!  They appear inactive.”
    “This must be where they make them,” Tank suggested.
    “And who is ‘they’?” asked Shooter.
    “That’s the big question,” Caine said.  “We lost you for a moment, Mr. Hawke, but have regained our COM status.”
    “Excuse me,” said Aiko, “but has anybody noticed that the wall opposite the honeycomb is moving toward us?”
    “Shit!” Hawkeye exclaimed.  “We’ve got about thirty seconds, Ops.  The only way to prevent being crushed is to climb into the hexagons that are