The War Planners Read Online Free PDF

us?  About China having a ton of spies in the US, and about the invasion?”
    “My boss was working with Tom and some others in the CIA.  But at the NSA, it was just my boss and me.  We compartmentalize information like crazy.  Thank goodness we do.  If there really are sleepers in the NSA, we wouldn’t want this to get out. We wouldn’t want them to know that we know.  With any luck, we still might be able to get out ahead of this thing.”
    Brooke and David talked for another hour. She was a local Maryland girl, had gone to UMBC, and excelled in mathematics and computer science.  She had interned at the NSA while in college and worked there for the past 15 years. 
    Eventually, David politely hinted that he needed a nap.  He got the impression that she would talk the entire flight if he let her.  But they ended their conversation and David found himself alone looking out the oval window into the vast evening sky.
    David kept thinking about his family.  He was worried about the short-term and how his wife would react to his being missing.  And he was worried about the long term—about how their lives might change if America really was thrust into a war of this scale.
    Could this really be true?  He kept asking himself that question.  It was all just too hard to believe.  What was the saying?  The simplest explanation was usually correct.  The problem in this situation was that there didn’t appear to be any simple explanations. 
    The answer to the truth question had a significant implication.  He had a choice here.  David could go or stay.  Tom didn’t say that he had a choice, but David could try to escape when they landed if he really felt this wasn’t safe or legitimate.   
    He decided he would go.  David would get on the next plane.  He committed.  Cautiously, but firmly.  For now, David chose to believe that Tom was being truthful.  After all, no one in the CIA ever told a lie .  Talking to Brooke helped.  After the first five minutes of speaking to her, David instantly liked and trusted her.  And she was smart.  If he had learned anything from his days at the Naval Academy, it was to follow smart people.  It almost never failed.  Almost.
    David leaned against the hard plastic of the plane window.  One thought led to another.  If China truly was planning an invasion, then David felt a patriotic obligation to help.  If this so-called Red Cell was what help looked like, he would work hard to contribute.
    He saw a pen and paper on the table and decided to write his wife a note.  He wrote what he thought he could say.  Mostly he just wanted to let her know that he was okay.  He put in a few details to let her know that it was really him.  Then he leaned back into the window and shut his eyes.  Sleep was not quick to come.  The cold window pressed up against his forehead, and his mind began to drift to thoughts of what a war with China would really be like, and what kind of world his daughters might grow up in.
     
    *****
     
    David awoke to a firm shake of his shoulder.  It was the big guy in tactical gear. 
    “We’re here.  Time to go. ”
    He looked up, dazed and still sleepy.  “Okay.  Where is here?”
    “Let’s go.” replied Big Guy.
    The plane was shut down.  David hadn’t intended on sleeping but eventually the fatigue got to him.  He had slept through the landing.  The note.  He grabbed it off the table, got up and walked out the open door of the plane. 
    An empty twilight sky cast grey and purple hues over a silent runway.  There were two identical planes parked next to each other.  Other than that, the airport seemed deserted.  The faint runway lights were the only man-made illumination. 
    Tom walked around the nose of the plane and handed David a large black duffel bag.  “Here.  It’s clothes and toiletries.  Not your own, but they should fit.  You’ll get your phone and wallet back when you return.  Sorry about the