He took out two stapled pages. The first one had the FBI shield printed at the upper left corner.
Andrei read over the pages.
‘Let me go over the main points for you,’ said Dimmer. ‘This is serious, so it’s important you understand them. You are legally required to provide this information. You do have the right to challenge this request in court, but I can assure you that this letter meets the requirements of the relevant federal legislation and executive order and you will not win. Note carefully the information you are required to provide. We are not asking for content, only the transactional information on these account holders – activity logs, header information, etcetera. Note also, and this is particularly important, that you may not disclose the contents of this letter or even its existence to any person other than if required to provide the data requested or to obtain legal advice, and anyone to whom you do disclose it is bound by the same requirement. If you do disclose it to any other person for purposes of fulfilling the request, I may require you to give me their names. It is also your duty to inform them of this non-disclosure requirement. Do you understand this, Mr Koss?’
Andrei nodded.
‘The penalties for breaching the non-disclosure requirement are severe and you would be prosecuted.’
‘How long do we have to give you this stuff?’ asked Andrei.
‘Like it says right there on the second page. Fourteen days.’
Andrei hadn’t taken that in. He hadn’t taken quite a lot in. His mind was still trying to process the fact that he was embroiled with the FBI over an issue of national intelligence.
‘Do you have any other questions?’
‘I can consult an attorney about this, right?’
‘Yes. Like it says on the second page, your attorney will be bound by the same duty of non-disclosure. He’ll understand that when he sees the letter. Something else I want to make sure you understand – when you send the data we’ve requested, you need to hand it personally to me or use a secure delivery service. It’s in the letter but I want to make sure you’ve got this. Do not use the routine mail. Do not use email and attach it. If you have any questions for me, you can call me, but do not mention this letter on the phone. Calls are not secure. You can say that you want to discuss something and that will be enough – we’ll arrange a meeting. All this stuff is in the letter, but I’m saying it in case you don’t think it’s serious. It is serious. If the substance of this request is disclosed to subjects of the investigation as a result of a telephone call that is intercepted, the lives of a number of people may be at risk. You will also be subject to prosecution. Do you understand, Mr Koss?’
‘Yes.’
Dimmer gazed at him for a moment. ‘OK. Unless you want to do this stuff yourself from now on, you need to nominate an officer to receive these things. You’re going to be getting more of them.’
Dimmer left. Andrei sat on his bed. He felt as if someone had just punched him hard in the stomach. The wind of reality that he had felt blowing in his face a few days earlier when Mike Sweetman had made him his offer had just got a whole lot colder.
He read the letter again, this time trying to take in each of the points. Then he sat back and closed his eyes.
Eventually he got up and went out into the common room. Kevin and Ben watched him. Wordlessly, he put the letter down on the desk. ‘Read it,’ he said. As they did, he got on the phone to their lawyer.
The lawyer Andrei rang was the one who had drawn up the agreement between the three founders. He knew nothing about National Security Letters and sounded as if he didn’t want to, but he said he could find them someone who did. The following day, Andrei and Ben went to see the attorney he had suggested. On reading the letter, Kevin had let out a blast about Fishbowll becoming an agent of the government, and Andrei didn’t think it was going to be productive to have him in the room.
The attorney looked at the letter and explained that, as the FBI agent had said, it was a lawful demand that could be made by the government without need for a court order. He