Page 113 of Minutes to Die
“Agreed,” Eisenhower said. “Only excuse they gave was that it happened on Saturday when staffing levels were down.”
Kiley shook her head and hoped someone would be disciplined for this breach. “That was days ago. Why are we just hearing about the theft now?”
“You know how the military likes to keep things under wraps and work out their own problems.”
Kiley looked again at Evan. His forehead was furrowed, and he fidgeted with his hands. He was clearly as worried as she was.
“I don’t yet have any information on who stole the RDX,” Eisenhower continued. “But as soon as I have more, I’ll get back to you.”
“Any idea on how long that will take?” she asked, mindful of the little bit of time she had remaining to find the threat and neutralize it.
“No, but I have agents babysitting them to give me information as it becomes available.” He reached for an iPad to slide down the screen. “I’m also calling about the Idaho National Laboratory’s new Cybercore Integration Center. They’re charged with helping to protect our critical infrastructure. I’ve made contact with a Sam Olsen there, and we’ve been looking for a target-rich environment where a terrorist might launch a cyber attack.”
Kiley didn’t know where he was going with this and was half afraid to find out. “And have you found something actionable?”
He frowned. “Unfortunately, the U.S. is rushing to catch up to threats by hackers on all infrastructure, and Olsen’s team is concerned we’re already behind the game. Like many businesses, these old infrastructure systems have already been infiltrated by malicious entities waiting for the opportune time to strike.”
“Specifically what kind of things are we talking about here?” Evan asked.
“Systems operating energy pipelines, hydroelectric projects, drinking water systems, nuclear power plants. All across the country. As you can imagine, this gives us an unbelievably large list of target-rich environments that we should be considering. So I asked Olsen to narrow it down to an attack that would endanger millions of people. He suggested we focus on dams.”
With the Waleeds so close to a major dam, Kiley didn’t like the sound of that. “Did he name a particular dam that would top the threat list?”
“He did. The Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.”
Arizona.A niggle of worry formed in Kiley’s gut. Her mother and grandparents had moved there for her grandfather’s sake, who suffered with arthritis. They could be in harm’s way. She might be at odds with her mother, but she couldn’t fathom losing her. Particularly when they were on the outs. Kiley needed a chance to talk to her. Make things right. And she couldn’t lose her grandparents either.
She swallowed hard so she could get out her next question. “And is this dam vulnerable?”
“Extremely so.” His dire expression left Kiley wanting to hop a plane to talk to her mother before it was too late. “It doesn’t have the infrastructure to survive a malicious attack that would quickly release excessive amounts of water.”
“How’s that?” Evan asked, looking as horrified as she felt.
Eisenhower made strong eye contact. “It’s not the tallest dam in our country, yet it holds back the largest body of water and was built on totally unsuitable sandstone.”
“Meaning?” Evan asked.
“It’s deeply fissured and constantly leaks water. Large pieces of canyon wall abutting the dam routinely break away. Increasingly longer rock bolts are installed in hopes of stabilizing the dam, but this looks to be a losing battle. If a terrorist took control of the dam, everyone near the Colorado River would be at risk.”
“Which means what exactly?” she asked, but as she thought about her family in harm’s way, she really didn’t want to know.
Eisenhower took a long breath and glanced at his iPad. “If it failed, it could set off a series of catastrophic events with enormous human and economic impacts extending from Utah to Mexico. Downstream communities and perhaps every dam along the Colorado River as well as lowlands would be flooded or irreparably damaged. The Hoover Dam is the only one that might survive, but it would overflow, causing destruction too. The possible domino effect could destroy water systems for more than twenty-five million people in the lower Colorado River Basin.”
Worry for all of these people and for her own family made Kiley sick to her stomach. She desperately wanted to warn them. But she couldn’t. Not without violating her security clearance.
So what should she do?
The only thing she could do. Remain positive that she and her team would stop any such attack before someone died, much less her family. But how they were going to do that was totally beyond her right now, and panic was threatening to take her down.
Eisenhower hung up, but Evan couldn’t stop staring at the screen as the news of the stolen RDX mixed in his brain with thoughts of destroying a monstrous dam. Could the terrorists they were hunting really be thinking this big? From what Deb at Counterterrorism said of Nabi and Shah, Evan thought it a very good possibility.
“My mom and grandparents...” The words whispered out of Kiley’s mouth before she clamped her hand over it, her terrified gaze flitting around the room.
He swiveled to face her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“No. It’s not nothing. You’re spooked.”
