Sample - page 2

Thorpe smiled, seeing the stares directed at him by immaculately dressed men and women who looked at the old car and the shabbily clothed red haired man in distaste. Thorpe's car occupied the parking space of a section chief from another division. The shouting would be something to look forward to.

The two huge NSA buildings were covered with opaque black glass and housed thousands of people who operated the complex computer systems of the agency as well as the huge agency bureaucracy. Thorpe headed towards a small, nondescript building at the foot of the huge buildings. It had the NSA emblem and a small sign, 'M62 Special Operations Division.'

There was another checkpoint at the entrance where a guard took his bag and another took his badge. Thorpe watched the guard as he looked over the contents of his backpack.

"Now, if only I could remember where I put my ultra powerful mouse trap," Thorpe mused out loud. The guard ignored him.

"Did you bring any recording instrument, camera, cell phone with a camera or any other similar appliance?" the guard sitting behind her desk asked. Thorpe silently shook his head.

"Do you have upon your person a diskette, a memory card, or any other electronic or optical means of storing information?" she asked, and he shook his head again.

"Do you have any kind of weapon on your person?" the guard asked and Thorpe shook his head for the third time. It seemed almost as though Thorpe was afraid to make eye contact with her.

"Step forward, please." Thorpe walked through a magnetic metal detector, picked up his backpack on the other side and walked on.

Thorpe walked through several brightly lit corridors, opening doors by passing his ID card through electronic readers and placing his finger on a biometric reader. Soon, only high classification green ID cards, like his, were hanging from people's suits. Thorpe passed sparkling clean rooms with huge computers, people dressed in three piece black suits sitting in front of their terminals, some using earphones.

Thorpe finally reached his small cubicle, at the end of a long row of cubicles. In contrast to the stark nakedness of the other cubicles, his had small plastic dinosaurs strewn about on his cluttered desk, covering every horizontal surface in his cubicle. A large calendar hung on the cubicle's low wall, all the holidays and agency vacations circled with a bold red marker. A small pyramid of empty diet coke cans stood on the floor near his seat. There was a small plastic plaque on the wall, 'Robert Thorpe'. Underneath was another plaque, 'Photo Analyst.' Underneath it was yet another plaque, 'Echelon Analyst'. A fourth plaque was hanging askew, 'Signal Analyst.' Somewhere on the floor was a fifth plaque, 'Computer Special Services.'

Thorpe carefully placed his smartphone on his desk and then threw down his backpack. He frowned at the sound it made, sighed and rummaged inside, pulling out two diet coke cans. He walked back the entire row of cubicles to reach the department's small kitchen and put the cans inside the refrigerator, taking care to hide them in the back. He walked back to his seat and sat down.

(Continued here ...)

Dragon Book - Chapter 1 - Page 2