Nano Surveillance (Dave Henson Series Book 1) (15 page)

Chapter 44 (March 19, Tuesday 2:00pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

General Russell Jarod was escorted up to Dave’s office waiting room area by Jane Nanders. General Jarod was a large muscular looking man. He stood nearly 6’ 4” tall and weighed at least 250 pounds, but still possessed a well cut ramrod straight figure. At West Point he had played football as a tight end. The same fierce energy and competitive skills he had used on the gridiron, he had used throughout his career on and off the battlefield. During his illustrious military career he had spent a large extent of it overseas, both in Eastern Europe and Asia. He had also completed three tours of duty in the Mideast deserts of Afghanistan.

For much of his career he had worked as a field intelligence officer conducting covert intelligence and surveillance operations. As a result, he was considered an expert in the field of surveillance technology, including the latest in drone technology. He was also well connected and respected with the current administration due in part to his political leanings, but mainly because of his ambitions. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had been in his career sights for a number of years now.

Though open political involvement was discouraged in the military, at least for lower ranking personnel, General Russell Jarod, like all high ranking military officers, frequented the political circles in Washington. Due to his Joint Chief of Staff ambitions, as well as simply good old fashion timing, General Jarod had ingratiated himself with the administration over the years. 

It was because of his close relationship with the administration, and the fact that he could play the heavy when necessary, that Ken Hardy had personally contacted him. Hardy had asked him, on behalf of the President, to visit NSurv and see what he could find out about them, and in particular Dave Henson. Hardy explained that besides doing a favor for the administration, the General might also find some value in meeting with Dave Henson for military applications. From what Hardy had told him, NSurv was believed to have some of the most state of the art surveillance technologies, including nanoscopic sensors.

General Jarod had already done his homework on Dave Henson and NSurv and was quite impressed with both. Dave Henson had a flawless career in the high tech space and had a large number of patents in the field of surveillance and nanotechnology. What limited public information he was able to uncover on NSurv was also just as impressive. All of NSurv’s top management and staff had similar illustrious credentials and careers. Moreover, the few NSurv surveillance products that were of public knowledge were state of the art. If for any other reason, meeting with Mr. Henson would prove to be interesting from a pure professional level. However, he understood why Ken Hardy had called him. The administration had credible evidence that suggested NSurv was using its surveillance assets for monitoring the administration. The Vice President’s debacle that was transmitted over national television the other night was believed to have been at the hands of NSurv. Hardy wanted him to ascertain what NSurv had for operational assets that could have been used against the Vice President. Moreover, he was to assess if they needed to either be brought to criminal justice, or quietly disposed of. In either case, NSurv’s technology was somehow to be acquired by the government, either through contractual or forcible act.

Jane Nanders knocked lightly on Dave’s open door and proceeded to walk into his office with General Jarod in tow. Dave stood up from his desk and welcomed the general with a firm handshake. He then thanked Jane for bringing the general up as she walked out of his office and closed the door.

“Thank you for taking some time out of your busy schedule to meet with me,” said General Jarod.

“No problem,” Dave responded in a feigned eager and interested tone. “I’m always interested in talking with prospective customers about NSurv’s business and products.”

“Well that is exactly why I am here today,” replied the general. “As you can imagine the Pentagon is always looking for new surveillance technology that can help keep our country a safer place. From what I’ve been hearing in the industry, you folks here at NSurv are involved in some pretty sophisticated new and shadowy surveillance products. I’ve read a little bit on some of your aerial mini-drone products, but I hear rumor that you may have some even newer and more sophisticated birds out there. I’d really like to learn a little bit more about them.”

“Yes, you are correct,” responded Dave. “We introduced on the market a year ago a family of drone products. For the most part we’ve been selling them for a variety of commercial applications, including to ranchers for monitoring their cattle and to oil companies for inspecting their pipelines.”

“You’ve not been selling them to any international governments for military purposes?” asked the general in a pointed tone.

“No. So far we’ve only sold them nationally for commercial applications. As you know, we’d need to file an application with the federal government if we had an interest in selling the drones to international entities.”

The general continued to press Dave for information on the current drone products that they were selling. He asked questions on their specific physical size, their range and duration of flight, and how they were powered and controlled. Dave answered most of his questions directly since he knew that he could find the information out for himself by contacting some of NSurv’s current customers who were using the products. He also figured the general already knew the answers to most of his questions. Dave’s assessment of the general from reviewing his dossier was that he was one thorough and sharp cookie. And based upon the line of questions General Jarod had fired at him for thirty minutes straight, it was obvious he had done his homework on him and NSurv.

“Dave, I also understand you, as well as several other NSurv employees, have done a great deal of research in the nanotechnology field throughout your educational and professional careers. As a matter of fact, I’ve read that you and several of your NSurv colleagues have a couple dozen filed patents and pending patent applications on nanotechnology.”

“Yes, I, as well as many of my colleagues here at NSurv, have done a considerable amount of research in the field of nanotechnology.”

“So can you tell me what you and your team of engineers and scientists at NSurv are working on in the field of nano surveillance sensors?” asked the general in a more serious and accusing tone.

Attempting to be coy and vague about this particular subject matter, Dave simply indicated that most of NSurv’s work in the nanotechnology field had so far been limited to research, and that they were still years away from having commercially viable nano surveillance products.

“Currently our nanotechnology work has been limited to drawing boards and the laboratory,” responded Dave. “At this point and time I’d have to say we are still years away from having any nano based surveillance products to offer customers.”

“Well, can you at least share with me what particular areas in nanotechnology that you are doing research in?” asked the general.

Dave again attempted to be vague with his response to the general.

“As you can imagine, like many other companies doing research in the field of nanotechnology, we are conducting material research studies for creating such things as cloaking fabrics, RFID barcodes, and trace chemical sensors.”

“You’re not doing anything in the area of nano-drones or nano-cameras and audio sensors?” pressed the general.

Looking the general straight in the eye with a perfect poker face Dave responded simply with, “no sir”.

The general paused with his questioning and stared intently at Dave for what seemed an eternity, but in reality was only a few seconds. The general could sense he was being lied to, but Dave had played his hand exceptionally well and kept his cards close to his vest. It was obvious that any additional questioning was going to be fruitless.

“Well I won’t take any more of your time Mr. Henson,” said the general as he stood up to leave.

“Would you like me to give you a quick tour of NSurv before you leave?” asked Dave, knowing that he’d limit the tour to just the commercial product manufacturing wing of the building.

“Sure, I’d love to see a bit more of NSurv.”

“Okay, I’ll give you a brief tour of our facilities before walking you out,” said Dave as he got up from his chair.

Dave and General Jarod left his office and headed off in a direction opposite NSurv’s research offices and labs, and instead to the manufacturing area where they built standard commercial products. It was obvious during the tour that the general was less than impressed with what he saw. Dave could also see the general was somewhat aggravated for being duped and stiff armed during the entire meeting and tour, by observing the veins bulging out on his thick neck.

As Dave and General Jarod were standing in the company lobby and saying their goodbyes the general had one final comment for Dave.

“Mr. Henson, thank you for spending time with me today and showing me around NSurv. Clearly the crack team you’ve assembled here is doing much more development in the field of nanotechnology than what you were comfortable sharing with me. I understand your reasons for being tight lipped, however, I want you to understand something.”

“Yes?” responded Dave coolly.

“Throughout the history of this country, when the nation needed its citizens’ help, the government asked them for it, such as in the numerous wars our country has fought in over the centuries.”

The general paused for effect.

“And in the situations where an insufficient amount of the country’s citizens did not respond to the nation’s needs, the government conscripted their help and services.”

“I’m not sure I follow where you are going in your story,” responded Dave icily.

“Simply stated, sometimes our country, or its government, may need to require compulsory support of its citizens and their businesses for the good of the nation. I will leave you with that thought.”

The general smartly shook Dave’s hand and then walked out of the lobby towards his car. Dave just stood there silently and watched him get into his car and drive away. General Russell Jarod’s report back to Washington would surely not be kind to NSurv. 

Chapter 45 (March 20, Wednesday 7:00pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

It was the first night of Men’s NCAA March Madness college basketball and the President was relaxing in the first family’s living area of the White House watching basketball. Duke was playing Lehigh and it was two minutes before half time. The network was estimating four million viewers were tuned in watching the game. On another television network five million people were estimated watching a reality show on a teenager pregnancy pack in New Jersey. And on the third major network, three million viewers were watching a singing competition featuring twenty-five year old boys and girls. Similarly, on the cable networks an estimated ten million viewers combined, were watching television programs that ran the gambit from tattoo artist shows to advocacy political party news shows.

In McCall, Idaho, Dave, Dana and a handful of other NSurv employees were preparing another television broadcast interruption. They had also added tonight a number of top websites to their list of interrupted services. Websites that in particular, had large daily viewership and promoted political agendas.

Tonight’s interruption to the world was going to be a cameo performance featuring billionaire Dimitris Barbas and Secretary of Commerce Nancy Devins at the San Francisco business leaders meeting a couple of weeks ago. Dave had scheduled the interruption to occur at the start of halftime between the Duke and Lehigh basketball game.

The buzzer sounded as the second quarter ended in the game. As the Duke and Lehigh basketball players ran to their respective locker rooms for halftime, a television sports announcer began to excitedly talk about the action in the first half of play. He was only ten seconds into his recap of the game when the television image switched over to a still image of the faces of Dimitris Barbas and Nancy Devins. Similarly, the same image was displayed on the other broadcasting and cable television networks, as well as on several popular websites.

Again a synthesized version of Dana’s voice began to speak and describe who the two people were on their television screens, where they were standing, and the topic and purpose of their discussion. As before, over twenty million people who had been watching their particular television show that evening were now listening to the same voice that had spoken to them a week ago regarding the Vice President’s action. Actions that had already caused the Vice President to announce his resignation earlier in the week. This time, however, the viewers watching and listening to the voice were not so surprised and confused about the purpose of the interruption. As a matter of fact, most were less concerned about their shows being interrupted and more interested in learning what was about to be told and showed to them.

After the narrator completed her initial remarks the video of Barbas and Secretary of Commerce Nancy Devins began to play out in front of the American public.

“Dimitris, thank you so much for coming today,” said Secretary Devins. “The President is so thankful for your support and help over the years. I hope today we didn’t take you fully by surprise and that you will again support us in getting the TMA approved.”

As the viewers and website visitors around the country listened and watched intently to the video recording, occasionally the film would be paused and the narrator would provide additional context on the background of the two individuals they were watching and the purpose of their discussion. 

“I believe the President has really got a winner here for the country and the planet,” responded Barbas in a fawning tone. “I just hope that Barbas Holdings, Inc. will have the opportunity to participate in some of the new business ventures that spawn out of the administration’s new plans.”

The video briefly paused with the completion of Barbas’s last statement so that the narrator could reiterate that Mr. Barbas was referring to the President’s “Transportation Movement Act” that he had outlined to the nation a couple of weeks ago. The video continued with the Secretary of Commerce responding to Mr. Barbas.

“Oh absolutely,” replied the Secretary in a whispered tone, as she reached out and held one of Barbas’s hands with both of hers. “The administration views you and your company as one of the family, and we take good care of our family members.”

When the video ended, the narrator summarized what the viewers had just witnessed. She explained that what the viewers has just watched was yet another example of the machinations and corruption inside the President’s administration, and how it worked in conjunction with its friends and special interest groups to achieve each other’s goals. Dana ended by asking the viewers a final question. “What did you see in this video that convinces you that the “Transportation Movement Act” is going to really help you?”

After a five second additional pause normal television broadcasts were restored and the websites returned to their previously displayed content.

“Well that should stir up the pot a little bit more in the White House,” Dana said.

“Yes, I’m sure they’re coming unglued at this minute,” responded Dave. “The Vice President incident was a misfortunate and tangential situation for them that they had to deal with. However, forcing the Vice President to resign was a pretty easy solution for them, and quite frankly a blessing for the President. He had been wishing to get rid of him for years.”

“We just gave him a good excuse,” commented Dana.

“True, but tonight’s video hit much closer to home. The President isn’t going to scrap his “Transportation Movement Act” without a fight, and he really can’t ask for the Secretary of Commerce’s resignation. He needs her too much, and as we again watched unfold on the tape tonight, the President needs Barbas too.”

“And Barbas seems to have a special interest in Secretary Devins as well,” interjected Dana.

“They’ll surely try to argue that this was a fake tape too,” said Dave. “But with the effective admission of the Vice President’s guilt with the other tape, it will be hard for that argument to stick.”

“They’ll obviously come harder now at NSurv,” commented Dana in a concerned voice. “The general’s visit yesterday and the incident with my attempted kidnapping were only the first two salvos in their plans to shut down NSurv.”

“Yes, I am sure we will be under additional scrutiny,” said Dave. “General Jarod walked away from here fuming and frustrated. Though he held his cool, I am sure he will report back to the administration that we are hiding information.”

“Oh, it will be more than scrutiny that we have to contend with Dave,” said Dana. “They will be coming after us by hook or by crook. You can count on it.”

“Yes, you’re right, but again we’ll just make sure to stay one step ahead of them, just like we’ve been doing so far. Ron and Dan should be arriving about now into Washington D.C. I’ll give Ron a call later on tonight to update him on tonight’s progress.”

With that said Dave got up from his chair and suggested they call it a night. Joe Stevens was starting the next day and each had some last minute preparations to do before departing on their trip to the Caribbean. Dave took Dana back to her hotel before heading off to his home.