Falls Church, Virginia, Tuesday…

At that moment, a message flashed onto his computer screen. It had a three-line cover:

Top Secret / Blue Hammer

Handle via Special Access Channels Only

For Your Eyes Only

He typed in his user name and password and looked into the retina scanner. All three were needed to open the document and turn the scrambled text inside to English. An angry expression washed over his face.

"The detective was out at Sweeney's house. And that Metropolis woman called Stanford to inquire about Richter."

"So, what could they find? Nothing. Mrs. Sweeney's staff doesn't know anything. And we cleaned up the Stanford connection."

"I'm always worried about loose ends. I worked for Stephanie, remember. Perhaps you're right. The safest thing is to get rid of these people. I'll propose it next Thursday. There's too much at stake."

The report Hank Johnson had just read also appeared on a computer in a Pentagon office. Frank Sweeney stopped his analysis of a package of presentation slides on a new weapons system long enough to read it. He smiled as he did so, because no one knew about his hack into the DHS network. It only depended on the classified intranet link between the Pentagon, NSA and the DHS. The techie that had set it up for him had died overseas - he had seen to that.

After finishing the reading of the report, he didn't return immediately to the new weapons system. Instead, he debated the pros and the cons that went into what would be a tough decision. At some future moment he might have to cut his losses by eliminating everyone and everything having to do with the Center. Stephanie's idea had been a good one twenty odd years ago, yet he wasn't going to hang for her.