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of the procedures for Desk Three. Telach had led a clandestine mission into North Korea, sabotaging a nuclear research
     facility during the Clinton years. She had then come back to the NSA and helped work out the bugs in Predator 2.1 and Predator
     3.0, two programs that Rockman could unleash with hot keys from his station. (The differences in the versions had to do not
     with the basic coding but with the ways the programs disguised themselves. Depending on the configuration, both programs could
     either act as sniffers, gathering data, or simply destroy the targeted computer.)
    Rockman and the other runners could speak directly to agents such as Lia through a secure satellite communications system.
     An ear-set chip was embedded in Lia’s inner ear; the chip was just small enough to escape detection by a metal detector. But
     the most critical part of the system was contained in her jacket, whose studs and zippers were actually an antenna and the
     miniaturized radio gear. Unfortunately, the communications system itself was not perfect; the need to not only keep transmissions
     secure but also limit them so they couldn’t be used to direct others to an agent meant that there were generally only small
     geographic and time windows when it could be used. The direct-link satellite had to be almost directly overhead; this wasn’t
     always possible. The field agents often fell back on small, secure satellite phones and a wireless transmitter built into
     handheld computers they used for a variety of tasks.
    Rubens had two teams working on upgrading the implant com system; it was just a matter of time, they predicted, before they
     could implant his thoughts in his agents’ heads on the go.
    He believed they were joking, though that wasn’t necessarily a given.
    Besides Rockman and Telach, there were three other men on duty. All top-shelf geeks chosen from other NSA areas, they handled
     and coordinated the various intercepts funneling in from the NSA’s vast outer reaches. The team was still small because the
     mission was just getting under way; by the time Lia got Dean into Russia at least a dozen people would be on duty. Literally
     hundreds more, toiling at their various jobs in the Puzzle Palace and associated military agencies, could be called on to
     lend expertise and backup in an emergency.
    Rubens took a quick tour around the room, then told Telach to page him if he was needed. He gave Rockman and the others a
     wave, then entered the decompression chamber.
    The chamber had nothing to do with atmospheric pressure, though the process of clearing its scans seemed to take nearly as
     long. The original designers had wanted to make the Art Room a full-blown “clean room,” meaning that anyone entering would
     have to wear a special suit inside, doffing it on leaving. Rubens had personally nixed the idea, but as he stood waiting for
     the various sensors to do their work, he wondered if the showers and bio suits wouldn’t have been more expedient. Finally
     satisfied that he harbored nothing he hadn’t come in with—and it did remember what he came in with—the automated security computer cleared Rubens into the vestibule, where he was met by two men
     in black from the Security Division, who’d picked this moment at random to do a PASS check. He submitted; there was no choice,
     not even for the director himself. He was directed to sit on a metal folding chair while one of the men took what looked like
     a small Palm Pilot from his pocket, along with a set of wires. The handheld computers were made by a company formed solely
     to work on NSA gear; a wide variety were used for an array of functions by NSA employees and field agents. In this case, the
     small computer was optimized as a lie detector, running a miniature version of the updated PASS, or the Polygraph Assisted
     Scoring System, that was the primary lie detector software used at the agency. The wires were taped to his palm and temples.
     Rubens was