Fighting Terrorism - Finding Love

There are no explicit descriptions of sex in this story. The computer devices and technology described are purely a product of my imagination. Although, to paraphrase what someone once said . . . . . "Yesterday's science fiction is today's reality". So who can really say that they don't already exist . . . somewhere.

'The Agency' is fictional but perhaps it isn't. Who really knows what goes on hidden away from the eyes of the American public.

Hopefully, the gremlins that attacked my last submission have found something else better to do this time.

Chapter One - The Beginning

Just what in the Hell am I doing getting shot in a bank lobby in Berlin, Germany? I'm just a computer geek sent to Germany because no one else has the ability or expertise to carry out this particular mission. Maybe I should go back to the very beginning so you will have some understanding of my present predicament.

A long, long time ago God created a man and a woman . . . . . Wait a minute I don't need to go back quite that far.

When I was born my mom and dad named me after a great-great-grandfather, Frederick Karl Wilhelm. Now that's quite a mouthful so I preferred that folks call me by my nickname, Rick. Dad operated his own business in our small town. He ran a home center type store. It was the only one around for miles so he did quite a good business.

One afternoon, when I was about twelve years old, I was playing in the front of our driveway when I saw our neighbor hauling some computer equipment out to the curb.

"Hey Mr. Williams what are you doing?" I called out to him.

"Oh. Hi Ricky. I'm putting this old computer out for the recyclers to haul off. It stopped working so I bought myself a new one."

I've always been a curious about how things work so I asked him if I could have it. He said sure but I had to ask my mom first. I went inside and asked her. She came out and told Mr. Williams it was okay with her.

I hauled all three pieces (monitor, keyboard and the actual computer or CPU as it is called) into the garage where dad had a small workshop. I didn't have any of the techie type equipment like meters and such but I did have a magnifying glass. Taking that sucker apart I was amazed by all the little tiny pieces of electronic stuff that made it work.

After forty-five minutes or so I noticed a faint smudge of something on one of the circuit boards. I went inside the house and got a cotton swab and some denatured alcohol. Cleaning the the mark off I saw what appeared to be a faint crack in the solder. Getting my dad's soldering iron and a strip of wire solder I filled in the crack. Examining the other circuit boards I found two more hairline cracks and repaired those as well.

Two hours later I replaced the case on the CPU and hooked up the monitor and keyboard. I plugged it into the electrical outlet and pressed the start-up button.

With some buzzing and clicking it came to life. I turned the monitor on and it worked, too. I was so surprised that I immediately shut it all down and tried it again. The same thing happened. It worked.

Going back next door I rang the bell and when Mr. Williams answered I told him I fixed it and for him to come look. We walked back to the garage and he hit the start-up button and the computer sprang to life.

"Do you want it back now that it is working?" I asked him.

"No, Ricky, you can keep it. You fixed it, you can have it. Let's go back to my house and I'll find the manuals for you."

Wonderful. Now that I had a computer I needed to learn how to use it. I read everything I could lay my hands on about computers and programming. Over the next few years I discovered I had a real flair for writing code.

As I said before, my father had a very successful business. Each evening after supper he would go into his little home office and work on reconciling his daily sales with his inventory. He would spend hours in there with his daily receipts tapping away on his adding machine and then writing it all down in his ledger.

One day I had an idea. Maybe I could write a program that would enable him to reconcile his receipts with his inventory. Without going into a lot of detail I did exactly that. When certain parameters were reached for each item in his store the program would automatically produce an order form to replace it in his inventory.

When I showed him how it worked the two of us spent a whole week each night doing his paper work. He did his old-fashioned way and I entered the numbers in my computer program. What took him two to three hours I was able to accomplish in less than thirty minutes. He was impressed to say the least.

Then I had another idea. If I could link up the electronic cash registers at the check-out counter with the computer server in his store all the sales and inventory reconciliation would be automatically completed on a real time basis. If it worked it would mean no more paperwork for him to do at home. After a few trial and errors I got it to work.

Like all proud fathers he told all of his friends at the Chamber of Commerce what a smart son he had. One of his friends approached him asking if I could develop a similar program for him. Building on the one I did for dad I was able to complete one for him in short order.

I gave him a computer disk with the program on it along with a written set of instructions on how to install and implement it. The next day he showed up my house after supper and gave me a check for five hundred dollars. He told my dad it was worth every penny for all the time and headaches it saved him.

The next thing I knew I had businessmen from all over town and neighboring communities wanting me to do the same for them. By the time I was seventeen I had a bank account balance of over twenty thousand dollars. The only money I ever spent was to up grade my own computer equipment.

I then started fooling around with building my own computer. Securing an old Apple MacBook I tore it apart and essentially rebuilt it entirely making it not only faster but more powerful. The only problem I had was with battery life. The increased capabilities drained them pretty quickly.

Then I came up with an idea about how to eliminate the battery altogether. Building on the eco-drive concept, Citizen watches use, I was able to construct a device that ran on light. It made no difference, sunlight or artificial light my device functioned flawlessly. Dad made sure that I got a lawyer and he patented it for me and then went about marketing it to the leading computer manufacturers.

By now I was taking advanced computer science classes at the local university. My professors were amazed with my ideas and innovative creations. While working in the lab one day I discovered an attempt to 'hack' into one of the lab's servers. The attempt made it through the first firewall but was stopped by the second. After some investigation I managed to learn the identity of the computer responsible for the attack. It was part of a computer network located in China that was tasked with committing industrial, as well as political, espionage.

This pissed me off that someone would try and steal our technological research. I decided to develop a program that would deliver a nasty surprise to that particular computer if they ever tried again. I wrote and installed it, along with an anti-hacking program, into all our university's servers and then forgot about it as I was busy finishing my Ph.D. dissertation.

One afternoon at the end of one of my classes my professor Dr. Phillips asked me to stay. He had some people that wanted to meet with me.

They were from the U.S. Government. Now it gets a little hairy because the organization they represented doesn't exist, at least not on paper. This particular organization is far more secret than the National Security Agency that you have read about in the news recently. I cannot divulge its name or even the initials of this group other than to refer to it as 'The Agency'.

I was asked if I knew anything about what had caused widespread computer crashes that were affecting the entire Chinese networks. Seems that there had been another attempt on my university's servers and my little surprise not only took out the offending Chinese computer but also the entire network with which it was linked. Then the crashes cascaded throughout the entire nation's computer systems.

I was told that the Chinese economy was on the verge of total collapse because of this. It was so widespread that even air traffic in and out of China was restricted to one flight in and one flight out a day and only by using VFR (visual flight rules). It would take decades for them to repair the damages.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked.

Their reply was an emphatic, "NO"! In fact, I was told, the Chinese government had come hat-in-hand to the United States asking for help in restoring their entire computer network. Our country now had a huge political and economic advantage in any negotiations between the two countries.

How did you find me was my next question. They explained to me that it was extremely hard but wouldn't divulge any details. Other than to say that they just got lucky.

Then they recruited me to work for them. After looking at what they offered I accepted. It wasn't just the salary, although the money and benefits were substantial, it was the challenges the job presented. I was to be involved in 'hacking' into the computers of terrorist organizations for information our government could use combatting them. It was fun and I had a great time doing it.

In my spare time I began to work on developing a computer that was completely impervious to being 'hacked' and totally secure from anyone, other than me from using. I wrote a program that allowed my little computer to intercept and clone or 'capture' the signals of someone else's computer or smart phone enabling me to read any information being received, sent or stored its memory.

To protect my computer from anyone, other than myself, using it, I came up with a revolutionary idea. Without going into a long drawn out technical explanation, which would just put you to sleep, let's just say it was built around the concept that every living organism produces their own minute electronic signals.

Like fingerprints or the iris of your eye, no two individuals have the same pattern. Unlike fingerprints or even the iris of the eye, which can be duplicated, the electronic impulses cannot be replicated.

When I booted up my computer's cloning/hacking programs it recognized my electrical impulse. Anyone else's and it would immediately shut down and display some innocuous computer applications like Facebook.

It took me over two and half years to perfect my creation before I was ready to share the capabilities of it with the head of 'The Agency'. Realizing the significance of my invention he authorized me to conduct field trials. My little computer passed them all with flying colors.

When I reported the results back to him he sat me down to discuss building more for each of our field agents. I explained that it would take months to construct each new device and then adapt it to each individual agent. He gave the okay to start.

Before I was even half way through with the construction of the first one I was summoned to his office. We had a big problem. Our intelligence community discovered a plot to build and detonate a dirty nuclear device in an American city. However, I am not at liberty to tell you just how this plot was uncovered.

All I will say is that a known Iranian terrorist was going to Europe to secure the technical instructions necessary to build the device and return to begin the implementation of the plot.

"Can you adapt your computer for another agent to use for an operation to thwart their plan? He inquired of me.

"No sir. It would take almost as long to do that as it would take to build one from scratch."

"Well then," he replied, "I guess I have no choice but to assign you to this operation."

Looks like I was going to Europe.

Chapter Two - The German Agent is introduced

Perhaps I should take this opportunity tell you a little about myself. My name is Erika Marie von Sturm and I'm twenty-six years of age. I was born in a small village on the Rhine River some twenty kilometers south of Mannheim. My vater (father) was a high level administrator with the Deutshe Staat Polizei (German State Police). My mutter (mother), Marie, was a typical hausfrau (housewife). Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be like my father and work for the Staat Polizei.

When I was ten years old I had a bicycle accident. Even though I was wearing a helmet I was knocked unconscious. I spent some time in hospital in a medically induced coma. When I was brought out of the medically induced coma and regained consciousness the first thing I saw was my mother.

Seeing they look on her face I said to her, "Mutter, don't worry I'm not going to die."

Looking back at me she asked. "Mein schatz, (my sweetheart) how did you know what I was thinking just now?"

It was at that time that I began to realize that I had a unique gift to discern what people were thinking by their facial expressions and body language. It was overwhelming until I figured out how to turn it on and off at will. This gift would serve me well in my career.

At age twenty-two, after finishing university, I applied and was accepted by the Staat Polizei. Since I could not work in the same division as my father I was assigned to a newly formed counter-terrorism unit. By my twenty-sixth birthday, after having completed several successful operations, I was given command of my own team.

Early one morning I was summoned to the office of the Direktor of the counter-terrorism unit of the Deutsche Staat Polizei.

He invited me to have a seat before continuing with his instructions.

"Fraulein von Sturm, I have a new assignment for you. Our organization will be working hand-in-hand with our American counter-parts on a special operation. Your team will have access to unlimited resources and manpower to be certain that this task will be completed successfully."

For the rest of the day and most of the next I was briefed on the role I was to play in this collaboration between the two countries.

After my two days of briefing I was handed a dossier of the agent with which I would be collaborating. Upon reading it I discovered he was some sort of a computer technical genius. But I was dismayed to learn he had absolutely no field experience. Great! Not only would I have to babysit him for the duration of the operation I probably wouldn't understand a word he would be saying.

A second dossier was provided to me of the terrorist we would dealing with. His name was Ashkan Haji-Resa. The dossier contained his photograph and all the information American intelligence had discovered.

A week later my colleagues and I found ourselves waiting in the arrival hall of Stuttgart International Airport for Delta Flight 116 from Atlanta, Georgia.

Chapter Three - Rick's trip to Germany

Things moved quickly for me after the head of 'The Agency' ordered me to undertake an operation to shadow the terrorist Haji-Resa. I was to 'capture' his computer with mine and transmit any data collected back to our office for analysis. I would be working closely with the German Counter-Terrorism Organization.

My boss told me I would be contacted by one of their agents when I arrived. He wasn't able to provide me with any information about the agent but he had been told by the Germans that it was one of their very best.

We had Haji-Resa's travel plans, from intelligence, so I was booked on the very same flight to Stuttgart, Germany. My seat, in first class, was two rows behind his. 'The Agency' made sure the seats around me were vacant to insure my complete privacy.

Sitting in the departure lounge, awaiting to board my flight, I observed my target sitting by himself on the other side of the lounge. He was talking on his cell phone and I took the opportunity to 'capture' it. He never turned his laptop on while we were waiting to begin boarding.

Once we boarded I put my carry-on in the overhead compartment and slid my laptop, in its case, under my seat for take-off. Retrieving my computer, once we were in the air, I waited. Two hours later, after dinner was finished and the cabin darkened, Haji-Resa turned his computer on for several minutes and I was able to 'capture' it. The rest of the flight was uneventful and I was even able to catch a short nap in the comfortable first class seat.

Upon arriving I was inadvertently forced to wait in line right behind Haji-Resa at passport control. He looked at me with a somewhat worried and concerned look on his face but did not attempt to talk with me. After clearing passport control I made my way to the arrival hall following my target. He glanced over his shoulder several times at me with a look I couldn't quite decipher.

Suddenly he turned back toward me and it appeared a confrontation would take place. Just then a woman, with blond hair, pushed past him and leaped into my arms. I was so startled and reacting instinctively I grabbed her. She gave me a soul-searing kiss on my lips even forcing her tongue inside my mouth before whispering in my ear.

"Do not look at that man again. Focus all your attention on me. My colleagues will take over the surveillance of him. They are very good at what they do and he will never be aware of them."

Chapter Four - Erika's spin on their first meeting.

I had my team placed throughout the arrival hall. Each had detailed instructions and responsibilities pertaining to the terrorist Haji-Resa. I was to make contact with the American and escort him away from the proximity of the terrorist.

I spotted both of them at the same time. Haji-Resa was walking ahead of the American, but kept turning back looking at the American, who was following several meters behind. Suddenly his face gave away his intentions. He was poised to confront the American agent. This I could not allow.

Pushing passed him I leaped at the American agent shouting, "mein schatz, mein schatz." (my sweetheart, my sweetheart) He was totally surprised by my actions but his reflexes allowed him to catch me as I wrapped my arms and legs around him. After kissing him once I whispered to him to ignore Haji-Resa and focus on me alone. Kissing him a second time I managed to lead him away from any possible confrontation.

Glancing back only once I was happy to see that the terrorist's facial expression and body language had relaxed and returned to normal. After witnessing my display he must have concluded that his initial thoughts regarding the American were in error.

Walking out, with my arm around the American, I said. "Hello. My name is Erika von Sturm. I'm with the unit you were told to expect to welcome you."

He replied, with a twinkle in his eye. "Wow! I knew some one would be here. Although I didn't expect quite such a warm welcome."

Looking at him once more I thought to myself that his photograph did not do him justice. I guessed he was somewhere around one point eight meters in height (six feet) and no more than eighty-six kilograms in weight. (one-hundred and ninety pounds) He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion.

I thought to myself, Erika, this might just prove to be an interesting assignment in more ways than one.

Chapter Five

Erika led me to where she had parked her car, a Porsche 911. After placing my carry-on bag behind the passenger seat I got in and buckled my seat belt. As we exited the parking garage she explained that her team would follow Haji-Resa and report his movements. If he rented a car they would follow him. If he elected to take the U-Bahn (subway) into the city he would be shadowed on it as well. He elected to use the U-Bahn. Some forty minutes later Erika was notified that our target had arrived at Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) and had purchased a ticket to Ulm, a city located on the Danube River, some fifty miles southeast of Stuttgart.