Ani’s Job Was To Monitor The Activities Of Key United Nations Personnel. She Did This By Using Bugs Developed By The Cia’s Research And Sciences Group And Being Field-Tested In The Un For The First Time-“To Work The Bugs Out,” As Battat Had Put It. The Bugs Were Literally Mechanical Bugs The Size Of A Large Beetle. Made Of Titanium And Extremely Lightweight Piezoelectric Ceramics-Materials That Caused Very Little Drain On The Batteries, Allowing Them To Run For Years Without Being Recalled-The Bugs Are Electronically Attuned To The Voice Of A Subject.
After Being Set Loose Inside A Building, They Required No Further Maintenance. The Fleet, Six-Legged Devices Could Reach Any Point In The Building Within Twenty Minutes And Followed Their Individual Targets By Moving Behind Walls And Through Air Ducts; Hooklike Feet Allowed Them To Travel Vertically Along Most Surfaces. The Voices Were Transmitted From The Bugs To The Receiver Attachment To Ani’s Computer, Which Was Nicknamed “The Hive.” Ani Typically Listened To The Broadcast With Headphones To Keep Out Extraneous Office And Street Noises.
Seven Mobile Bugs Inside The United Nations Complex Enabled The Cia To Eavesdrop On Influential Ambassadors As Well As On The Secretary-General. Because All The Bugs Operated On The Same Very Narrow Audio Frequency, And Could Only Access One At A Time. She Was Able To Shuttle Between Them Using The Computer. The Bugs Also Contained Sound Generators That Emitted An Ultrasonic Ping Once Every Few Seconds. The Pulse Was Designed To Frighten Potential Predators. At Two, Million Dollars Apiece, The Cia Did Not Want The Bugs To Be Eaten By Hungry Bats Or Other Insect Eaters.
Though Ani Deeply Resented The Transfer And The Grant Work She Was Doing, There Were Three Bright Spots.
First, Though The Work Tended To Be Uneventful, She Was Spying As Clandestinely As Possible. The Voyeur In Her Enjoyed That. Second, Her Superior Spent Most Of His Time In Washington Or At The Cia Office At The American Embassy In Moscow-Which Was Where He Was Now-So She Effectively Ran This Small Office. And Finally, Being Held Back By The “Chauvinists Institute Of America” Had Reminded Her That Whether You’re Selling Women’s Clothes Or Selling Information, You Have To Find Ways Of Making Yourself Happy. Since Coming To New York, She Had Developed An Appreciation For Art And Music, For Fine Restaurants And Elegant Clothes, For Good Living And Pampering Herself.
For The First Time In Her Life, She Had Been Setting Goals That Had Nothing To Do With Her Career Or Making Someone Proud. It Felt Good. Very Good.
Ani Listened Closely To The Meeting.
Disappointments Aside, This Situation Required Very Close Monitoring. And Though The Bugged Conversation Was Being Recorded, Her Superior Would Want A Concise But Comprehensive Summary Of What Was Being Said. It Was Interesting To Know People Only From Their Voices. Ani Had Come To Listen For Inflection, Pauses, Speed Much More Than She Did In Face-To-Face Conversation. Finding Out About The Different People Had Been Fun, Especially Mala Chatterjee, Who Was One Of Only Two Women On Ani’s Roster. More Than Half Of Ani’s Time Was Spent With The Secretary-General. The New Delhi Native Was The Forty-Three-Year- Old Daughter Of Sujit Chatterjee, One Of The Most Successful Motion Picture Producers In India. An Attorney Who Had Achieved Dazzling Victories In The Cause Of Human Rights;, Mala Chatterjee Had Worked As A Consultant With The Centre For International Peacebuilding In London Before Accepting A Post As Deputy Special Representative Of The Secretary-General On Human Rights In Geneva. She Moved To New York In 1997 To Serve As Undersecretary-General For Humanitarian Affairs. Her Appointment As Secretary-General Was Motivated As Much By Politics And A Tv’-Friendly Appearance As By Her Credentials. It Came At A Time When Nuclear Tensions Between India And Pakistan Were Rising. The Indians Were So Proud Of The Appointment That Even When The Freshly Appointed Ms. Chatterjee Went To Islamabad And Made Overtures To Pakistan Regarding Disarmament, Indians Supported Her. This, Despite A Front-Page Editorial In Pakistan’s English-Language Newspaper, Dawn, Which Chided New Delhi For “Blinking Cravenly In The Face Of Annihilation.” Secretary-General Chatterjee’s Brief Uaited Nations Career Had Been One Of Confronting Problems Personally, Head-On, Relying On Her Intelligence And Charismatic Personality To Defuse Situations. That Was What Made This Moment So Exciting.
Ani Was Not Unaware Of The Lives At Stake Or Unmoved By Their Plight. But Over The Past Few Months, She’d Gotten To Feel As Though Chatterjee Was A Close Friend And Respected Colleague. Ani Was Extremely Curious To See How The Secretary-General Was Going To Handle This. As Soon As The Cia Had Been Alerted To The Hostage Situation, Ani Ascertained That None Of The Delegates With Bugs Had Been Present In The Security Council Chambers.
Chatterjee Was Meeting With Deputy Secretary-General Takahara Of Japan, Two Undersecretary-Generals, And Her Security Chief In The Large Conference Room Off Her Private Office. The Deputy Secretary-General Of Administration And Head Of Personnel Was Also Present. He And His Staff Were On The Phones, Updating Governments Whose Delegates Were Among The Hostages. Chatterjee’s Aide, Enzo Donati, Was There As Well.
There Had Been Very Little Talk About Actually Paying The Ransom. Even If The Sum Could Be Collected, Which Was Doubtful, The Secretary-General Would Be Powerless To Deliver It. In 1973, The United Nations Had Established A Policy For Dealing With Ransom Demands If Un Personnel Were Kidnapped. The Security Council Had Proposed, And The General Assembly Had Agreed By The Requisite Two-Thirds Vote, That In The Event Of An Abduction, The Affected Nation Or Nations Would Be Responsible For Pursuing Their Own National Policy. The United Nations Would Become Involved Only As Negotiators.
So Far, Only One Of The Nations Involved, France, Had Agreed To Contribute To The Ransom Demand. The Other Countries Either Couldn’t Commit Without Formal Authorization Or Had A Policy Of Not Negotiating With Terrorists. The United States, Whose Delegate, Flora Meriwether, Was Among The Hostages, Refused To Pay The Ransom But Agreed To Participate If A Dialogue Were Opened With The Terrorists.
Chatterjee And Her Staff Agreed To Check In Again With The Affected Nations When The Deadline Had Passed. The Immediate Problem That Needed A Quick Resolution Was Who Would Be Responsible For Making Decisions In The Crisis. If Only Tourists Were Being Held, Then The Military Staff Committee Of Colonel Rick Mott Would Have Had Sole Jurisdiction. But That Wasn’t The Case. According To The Charter, Decisions Affecting The Security Council Could Only Be Made By The Security Council Or The General Assembly. Since Security Council President Stanislaw Zintel Of Poland Was Among The Hostages, And Since The General Assembly Could Not Be Convened, Chatterjee Decided That As The Leader Of The General Assembly, The Secretary-General Should Decide What Moves And Initiatives Should Be Taken. Ani Suspected That Was The First Time In The History Of The United Nations That An Action Had Not Been Decided By Vote. And It Had Taken A Woman To Do It, Of Course.
That Decided, Mott Advised The Officials That Most Of The Un Police Had Been Pulled From The Perimeter And Gathered Around The Security Council Chamber. He Briefed Them About The Possibility Of Staging An Assault By Un Forces Or With The Nypd’s Emergency Service Unit, Which Had Volunteered Personnel.
“We Can’t Work Out Any Kind Of Military Response Plan Until We Have A Better Idea About What’s Going On In There,” Mott Said. “I’ve Got Two Officers Listening In Through The Double Doors In The Trusteeship Council Chambers. Unfortunately, The Terrorists Set Up Motion Detectors In The Corridors That Access The Media, So We Can’t Go Up There. They’ve Also Disabled The Security Cameras In The Council Chambers. Efforts Are Being Made To Look Into The Chambers Using Wire-Thin Fiber-Optic Lenses.
We’re Going To Use Manual Drills To Punch Two Small Holes Through The Floor In Closets Beneath The Room. Unfortunately, We Won’t Have Visuals Until Well Past The Ninety-Minute Deadline. We’ve Used An Uplink To Send Copies Of The Surveillance Camera Videos Of The Killers To Interpol Offices In London, Paris, Madrid, And Bonn, As Well As To Law-Enforcement Agencies In Japan, Moscow, And Mexico City. We’re Hoping That Something About The Attack May Be Similar To What Agents There May Have Seen Before.” “The Question Is, Will They Really Execute One Of The Hostages?” Asked Secretary-General Chatterjee.
“I Believe They Will,” Mott Said.
“Based On What Intelligence?” Someone Asked.
Ani Didn’t Recognize His Voice Or His Accent.
“My Own Intelligence,” Mott Replied.
Based On The Way He Said “Intelligence,” Ani Could Picture Him Pointing To His Own Head In Frustration. “The Terrorists Have Nothing To Lose By Killing Again.” “Then What Are Our Options Prior To The Deadline?” The Secretary-General Asked.
“Militarily?” Mott Asked. “My People Are Willing To Go In Without Visuals, If They Have To.” “Is Your Team Ready For An Operation Like That?” The Secretary-General Asked.
Ani Could Have Answered That Question. The Military Staff Strike Force Was Not Ready For Action. They’d Never Been Field-Tested And They Were Understaffed. If One Or Two Key People Went Down, There Were No Reserves.