Chapter 17: Head Fake

“OK, gentlemen, our agent is in place,” Agent Friday said to the men and women in the conference room.

“By making Jim Olsen focus on his wife, we’ve been able to distract him from the real threat, in this case, Cheri Langston. That’s called a ‘head fake.’”

“We get it, Joe. What’s next?”

“We wait. By now, Cheri should have put the file we gave her on the target’s home computer, or if she hasn’t, she will have by tomorrow. Then, if he hires her as his assistant, we’ll be able to infect his work computers as well and then we’ll have him right where we want him.”

“Why not just go in and arrest the bastard?”

“A frontal attack like that will have consequences. He’s a very powerful intellect and we suspect that he has given himself some pretty special powers, including mental abilities that we’ve never seen before. You’ll note that one of the first things he did after getting the program was to give himself a much higher I.Q. than he had before, and it was already pretty high.”

“So we just wait then?”

“Yes. Jim’s weakness is his arrogance. He thinks we’re a bunch of idiots – which is what we want him to think right up until we drop on him like a ton of bricks. If we’re patient, Cheri will get us what we need, which is a way to neutralize Jim Olsen. We’re not looking to prosecute a case here people. This is a national security threat, and we’re going to take it all the way out.”

“Whoa – we’re not talking about killing him, are we?”

“No. Of course not. This IS America. No, we’re just going to make sure he can’t do any more harm to anyone, that’s all. Let’s keep in mind that this guy is a serial rapist with a god complex and the computer software to turn his dreams into other people’s nightmares.”

“So we wait, right?”

“Yes. We wait and we monitor. Simpson, are all the sensors in place and functioning?”

“Yes, sir. We’ve got him monitored wherever he goes and we can tell whatever he’s doing if he’s anywhere near a working computer that’s connected to the internet.”

“That’s not good enough, Simpson. Olsen’s too smart for us. We believe he only runs the program from a computer that’s not connected to the net. He’s running it right from a CDROM disc so it’s not installed on his computer.”

“I’m on it, sir. We’re working on getting bugs placed in his home, office, and car. We should have audio and video feeds very soon.”

“All right people. We’ve all got jobs to do. Let’s be patient and let Jim Olsen hang himself for us. I’ll be getting regular reports from our agent, and I’ll pass along any information we get that way.”

“Should we make another run at his wife just to reinforce the fake?”

“No. Absolutely not. That would be too much and he’d get suspicious. Any other questions? OK, let’s get to work.”