Metafire

"We don't know, John. Jill?"

Jill responded. "There is no way to tell. There are no indications of any bombs or threats on their part. The analysts reported no indications. But, Major, Churchill said that didn't mean anything. He said the Metafire people could still be hiding another hundred bombs spread all over the globe, ready to go off. They could trigger on just a failure to communicate with Metafire. He said those people are perfectly capable of that degree of competence and secrecy. We might not know until it's too late."

Ferguson then said, "We have to have a means of assurance from Metafire. I know it's Saturday, but get a team together, Jill. I want to know if we can be sure they aren't leaving a little present for us!"

"They already did that, John. You didn't read their report did you?"

"No. A thousand pages is pretty stiff for an operations guy like me. What did they say?"

"They said, basically, there is no assurance. Any one of the Metafire people could have a device. Any one could, for example, have a device that periodically radios a bomb. The bomb could count off the radio counts and if the count stops, it could go off. If the count continues, it could go off. Only that person would know when he has to reset the radio controller. Only that person would know where the controller is. With Internet, it could be anywhere on Earth, and the bomb could be anywhere else. With the possibility of only one Metafire person knowing, we could have George Davis' assurance but still have no assurance at all. There is no assurance, no assurance is possible."