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report of the North Korean bio weapons facility. The report covered a period of several days before the raid and ended two days later. The computer had compiled a sequence of video shots taken from a hundred and twenty miles up by the NROL-67, the latest in a string of sophisticated spy satellites that formed the U.S. Space and National Reconnaissance Surveillance program.
    The videos were astonishing, clear and sharp in every detail. The satellite provided a bird's eye view of everything. Most of the Korean complex was invisible, hidden inside a mountain. A paved road led up to the facility from a broad valley at the foot of the mountain. Anti-aircraft missile batteries were mounted in strategic positions around the complex. The computer identified the missiles as Chinese copies of the Russian V-750, using the obsolete S-75 Dvina launching system. It was the same system that had caused trouble for U.S. pilots over Vietnam. It was an old design but still deadly.
    A high fence barred entry to the complex. A guardhouse and gate fronted a wide courtyard and vehicle park. The satellite was programmed to note activity at the compound and capture details of individuals and their movements. Rank designations on sleeves, collars and shoulder boards could be identified. Documents presented for inspection could be read, if the angle was right. Facial features were clear and could be matched by an analyst against a known database of personnel, Korean and otherwise.
    Stephanie began watching the videos. She didn't expect to find much before the raid itself but she liked to be thorough. She was looking for anything unusual. Civilian workers left at the end of each day and returned early on the following morning. She noted routine guard changes and the regular arrival on alternate days of a white van. The van would come to the gate, pause for inspection, then be permitted to enter the compound. Two men in white utility uniforms and white caps would get out, unload boxes of produce from the back of the van, and cart them into the unseen tunnel leading into the mountain. Twenty or thirty minutes later they'd reappear with trash, load that into the van and drive off.
    Nothing ever seemed to happen at the base except for the civilian traffic, the van delivery and the changing of the guards. She came to the day of the raid. The van pulled up at the usual time. A guard emerged from the hut for the inspection, as he always did. Then everything changed.
    It was like watching a movie on television with no sound. A hand holding a pistol came out of the window of the van and fired. The guard stumbled backward and fell. Men in black balaclavas piled out of the van and began shooting at whoever was inside the guard shack. Stephanie saw the windows shatter. One of the men in black was larger than the others. He gestured and the others followed him into the complex.
    The dead guard lay sprawled on the courtyard pavement. The van idled in the chill air, wisps of exhaust smoke visible on the video. An Asian looking man in a white uniform stepped out of the cab and lit a cigarette. He had a pistol in one hand.
    Exactly twelve minutes and forty-three seconds later, the raiders came out of the compound into the daylight. One of the men carried an aluminum case.
    The plague samples , Stephanie thought. The large man she believed to be the leader reached up as if something bothered him under the ski mask and pulled it off to scratch. For a few seconds his face was visible.
    Got you , Stephanie thought. She froze the video for a moment and entered commands on her keyboard. The computer began searching the database for a facial recognition match.
    He was a white man, not Korean or Chinese or Asian. She restarted the video. The leader got into the back of the van with the others. The driver was already behind the wheel. The truck pulled out through the open gates, past the dead guard, and started down the road. A minute later a thick cloud of smoke and debris