“A new master of smart thrills,” says People magazine.  “…fast-paced, plausible…,” says Publishers Weekly.  “…the best and most realistic techno-thriller to reach the market in years,” says The Midwest Book Review.  Dan Brown definitely knows how to write some impressive books.  This one, entitled Digital Fortress, occurs in several different arenas all around the world.  From the U.S. to Spain to Japan, Dan Brown presents a believable tale complete with eye-opening ideas, revelations galore, and plenty of history.

One of the key elements that shaped the plot of the novel was Ensei Tankado’s golden ring.  Its existence was revealed early, but its whereabouts remained elusive for most of the story. David Becker, sent by the deputy director of the NSA to Spain, was given one job to complete: to retrieve all of the belongings of one dead man, Ensei Tankado.  He fulfilled the task, stuffing the clothing and other items into a box at the morgue, all except for one thing.  David Becker noticed that Tankado only had three fingers on each hand, but he looked closer.  Then he saw it: on the smallest finger of his left hand, Ensei Tankado’s skin showed a narrow band of flesh which was left unscathed by the Andalusian sun.  This thin stripe of whiteness meant that not all of Tankado’s items had been collected.  The missing ring was now Becker’s one and only aim.

The officer watching the dead body first told Becker of an old Canadian tourist who called in the death.  He also spoke of a ring that the Japanese man gave him, an engraved ring with many random letters.  The officer also told Becker where he might find this mysterious ring – at a public clinic (the old man broke his wrist when he fell off of the officer’s motorcycle in an attempt to return to his hotel).  Here, Pierre Cloucharde tells Becker that a fat German took the ring, and he refused.  At the last second before falling asleep, the Canadian reveals that the name of the prostitute accompanying the German was Dewdrop, and that she had red hair.

Using this information, David Becker called each of the three “escort services” in Seville and asked about redheads.  Luckily, only one of the “services” had redheads.  It was called Escortes Belén, and through some sly use of linguistics, Becker (conveniently a language specialist) learns the location of the German’s date.  In this sequence of events (calling up all of these numbers), Dan Brown’s method of delivery is excellent.  He lets the reader know that not just English is being spoken.  For example, one quotation would contain both Spanish and English translations to make the line clear, such as “Espére! Wait!”  Also, several one-liners fill the novel, usually making points or describing location.  “Silence” was a common line, but others such as “Strike one”, “Strike two”, and “Nothing” all made the novel enjoyable.  After following the trail, David Becker met up with Rocío and Hans Huber in a room of the Alfonso XIII hotel.  Apparently, their “romantic evening” hadn’t begun yet.  Rocío told Becker that she had given away the ring to a young girl with red, white, and blue spiked hair. She believed taking a dead man’s ring was bad luck.  Later, upon (taking a drink and) leaving the hotel, Becker saw a bus stop in which a few kids stood.  One was a girl with red, white, and blue hair!  He stormed for the bus and jumped through the back.  At this point the reader is thinking Yeah right!  But as Becker eyed the bus, the “girl” who he saw entering the bus was actually a boy and in fact all of the riders had the crazy hair color.  The bus was heading for a punk rock hangout, though, so Becker had a start.  Remember, this whole quest is an attempt to find one missing ring, a ring which was suspected to contain a pass-code for the program Digital Fortress.

At “Club Warlock”, Becker eventually met a friend of the girl who identified her as Megan, and told him that she was heading home to Connecticut that night, that her flight was leaving in about 30 minutes.  Becker rushed over to the airport but was too late. The flight had left.  But one girl remained, a girl that lost her ticket.  Dressed in a scholarly way, this girl could not have been Megan, save for one thing.  Smeared in permanent ink on her forearm was an obscenity that Becker took as anger when the German said it to him.  He was actually giving Becker more information about the girl.  Either way this was Megan.  She had the ring.  Eventually, after being pepper sprayed because of a slight misunderstanding, Becker bought the ring from Megan.

In a side plot, the man that we come to know as Hulohot has been following David throughout his entire mission.  Disturbingly, however, every person that knew and spoke to Becker about the ring was subsequently killed by Hulohot.  It was Hulohot’s assignment to get the ring in whatever way possible – now it was David Becker who needed to be killed.  Ironically, both men were sent by the NSA.  In a thrilling series of events, Becker ends up killing Hulohot by tripping him down a flight of stairs.

Afterwards, Becker is picked up by some government agents, and he reveals to the rest of the characters over a video feed that the ring is in reality not random at all.  It read, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” which translates to “Who will guard the guards”, a reference to the unstoppable power of the NSA.  In effect it was no password at all but rather Ensei Tankado’s favorite quote.  The ring was useless.  The whole subplot of finding the missing ring was a ploy of Dan Brown’s to divert the reader’s attention and to establish some of the main character’s traits.  For example, the act of sending Becker to Spain along with Hulohot was Strathmore’s way of getting rid of the fiancé and getting closer to Susan (Susan Fletcher – head cryptographer at the NSA, engaged to David Becker).  Also, the constant longing of Susan to see David and David to see Susan emphasized their great love for each other.

In the end, the notorious missing gold ring of Ensei Tankado’s and the subsequent search for it could have been left out of the novel save the two arguments given above.  Everything else could have occurred without it, for it were the “orphan” bits of text in Tankado’s program which really provided NSA with the kill-code.  To conclude, this was an extraordinary book by Dan Brown, and I urge all sophisticated readers to try it.  The chapters are short and sweet, and there are twists around every corner.  It is a great thriller that will make the reader’s wonder.  One reviewer – MacDonnell Ulsch, managing director of the National Security Institute (no, not the NSA) – writes: “More intelligence secrets than Tom Clancy…Digital Fortress is closer to the truth than any of us dare imagine.”